HENRIK

ARNOLD

See also:

• HENRIK ARNOLD WERGELAND (18o8—1845)

WERGELAND (18o8—1845)  , Norwegian poet and prose writer, was born at Christiansand on the 17th of June 18o8 . He was the eldest son of Professor Nikolai Wergeland (1780-1848), who had been a member of the constitutional assembly which proclaimed the independence of Norway in 1814 at Eidsvold . Nikolai was himself pastor of Eidsvold, and the poet was thus brought up in the very holy of holies of Norwegian patriotism . He entered the university of Christiania in 1825 to study for the church, and was soon the leader of a band of enthusiastic young men who desired to revive in Norway the spirit and independence of the old vikings . His earliest efforts in literature were wild and formless . He was full of imagination, but without taste or knowledge . He published poetical farces under the pseudonym of " Siful Sifadda "; these were followed in 1828 by an unsuccessful tragedy; and in 1829 by a volume of lyrical and patriotic poems, Digte, forste Ring, which attracted the liveliest attention to his name . At the age of twenty-one he became a power in literature, and his enthusiastic preaching of the doctrines of the revolution of July made him a force in politics also . Meanwhile he was tireless in his efforts to advance the national cause . He established popular libraries, and tried to alleviate the widespread poverty of the Norwegian peasantry . He preached the simple life, denounced foreign luxuries, and set an example by wearing Norwegian homespun . But his numerous and varied writings were coldly received by the critics, and a monster epic, Skabelsen, Mennesket og Messias (Creation, Man and Messiah), 183o, showed no improvement in style .

It was remodelled in 1845 as Mennesket . From 1831 to 1835 Wergeland was submitted to severe satirical attacks from J . S. le

Welhaven and others, and his style improved in every respect . His nationalist political propaganda lacked knowledge and system . His partisans were alienated by his inconsistent admiration for King Carl Johan, by his unpopular advocacy of the Jewish cause, and by the extravagance of his methods generally . His popularity waned as his poetry improved, and in 184o he found himself a really great lyric poet, but an exile from political influence . In that year he became keeper of the royal archives . He died on the 12th of July 1845 . In 1908 a statue was erected to his memory by his compatriots at Fargo, North Dakota . His Jan van Huysums Blomsterstykke (184o), Svalen (1841), Joden (1842), Jodinden (1844) and Den Engelske Lods (1844), form a series of narrative poems in short lyrical metres which remain the most interesting and important of their kind in Norwegian literature . He was less successful in other branches of letters; in the drama neither his Campbellerne (1837), Venetianerne (1843), nor Sokadetterne (1848), achieved any lasting success; while his elaborate contribution to political history, Norges Konstitutions Historie (1841—1843), is forgotten . The poems of his later years include many lyrics of great beauty, which are among the permanent treasures of Norwegian poetry .

Wergeland's Samlede Skrifter (9 vols., Christiania, 1852–1857) were edited by H .

Lassen, the author of Henrik Wergeland og hans Samtid (1866), and the editor of his Breve (1867) . See also H . Schwanenflugel, Henrik Wergeland (Copenhagen, 1877); and J . G . Kraft, Norsk Forfatter-Lexikon (Christiania, 1857), for a detailed bibliography .