Norwegian literature is literature composed in Norway or by Norwegian people. The history of Norwegian literature starts with the pagan Eddaic poems and skaldic verse of the 9th and 10th centuries with poets such as Bragi Boddason and Eyvindr Skáldaspillir. The arrival of Christianity around the year 1000 brought Norway into contact with European medieval learning, hagiography and history writing. Merged with native oral tradition and Icelandic influence, this was to flower into an active period of literature production in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Major works of that period include Historia Norwegie, Thidreks saga and Konungs skuggsjá.
The period from the 14th century to the 19th is considered a Dark Age in the nation's literature though Norwegian-born writers such as Peder Claussøn Friis, Dorothe Engelbretsdatter and Ludvig Holberg contributed to the common literature of Denmark–Norway. With the advent of nationalism and the struggle for independence in the early 19th century, a new period of national literature emerged. In a flood of nationalistic romanticism, the great four emerged: Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Alexander Kielland, and Jonas Lie. The dramatist Henrik Wergeland was the most-influential author of the period while the later works of Henrik Ibsen were to earn Norway a key place in Western European literature.
Modernist literature was introduced to Norway through the literature of Knut Hamsun and Sigbjørn Obstfelder in the 1890s. In the 1930s Emil Boyson, Gunnar Larsen, Haakon Bugge Mahrt, Rolf Stenersen and Edith Øberg were among the Norwegian authors who experimented with prose modernism. The literature in the first years after the Second World War was characterized by a long series of documentary reports from people who had been in German custody, or who had participated in the resistance efforts during the occupation. In the 20th century notable Norwegian writers include the two Nobel Prize-winning authors, Knut Hamsun and Sigrid Undset. The period after 1965 represented a sharp expansion of market for Norwegian fiction and the 1970s produced both politicization and empowerment of Norwegian authors. The 1980s has been labeled the "fantasy decade" in Norwegian literature.
Medieval poetry
The earliest preserved examples of Old Norse literature are the Eddic poems, the oldest of which may have been composed in early 9th century Norway drawing on the common Germanic tradition of alliterative verse. In the 9th century the first instances of skaldic poetry also appear with the skalds Bragi Boddason, Þjóðólfr of Hvinir and the court poets of Harald Fairhair. This tradition continued through the 10th century with the major Norwegian poet being Eyvindr skáldaspillir. By the late 10th century the tradition of skaldic verse had increasingly moved to Iceland and Norwegian rulers such as Eiríkr Hákonarson and St. Olaf employed mostly Icelandic poets.
Medieval prose
In pagan times the runic alphabet was the only one used in Norway. The preserved inscriptions from that time are mostly short memorial dedications or magical formulas. One of the longest inscriptions is that on the 8th century Eggjum stone, containing cryptic religious or magical allusions. Around the years 1000 to 1030, Christianity became established in Norway, bringing with it the Latin alphabet. The oldest preserved Norwegian prose works are from the mid-12th century, the earliest are Latin hagiographical and historical texts such as Passio Olavi, Acta sanctorum in Selio, Historia Norwegie and Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium. At the end of the 12th century, historical writing expanded to the vernacular with Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum followed by the Legendary Saga of St. Olaf and Fagrskinna.
Medieval Norwegian literature is closely tied with medieval Icelandic literature, and together, they are considered Old Norse literature. The greatest Norse author of the 13th century was the Icelander Snorri Sturluson. He recorded Norse mythology in the form of the Prose Edda, a book of poetic language providing an important understanding of Norse culture prior to Christianity. He was also the author of the Heimskringla, a detailed history of the Norwegian kings that begins in the legendary Ynglinga saga and continues to document much of early Norwegian history.
The period of common Old Norse literature continued up through the 13th century with Norwegian contributions such as Thidreks saga and Konungs skuggsjá but by the 14th century saga writing was no longer cultivated in Norway and Icelandic literature became increasingly isolated.
"Four Hundred Years of Darkness"
Norwegian literature was virtually nonexistent during the period of the Scandinavian Union and the subsequent Dano-Norwegian union (1387–1814). Ibsen characterized this period as "Four Hundred Years of Darkness". During the period of union with Denmark, Danish replaced Norwegian. The university and cultural center of Denmark–Norway was Copenhagen, where young men went to study.Blankner 1938.
The reformation was imposed on Norway in 1537 and the Dano-Norwegian rulers used it to also impose Danish culture; this was effected through the pulpit as well as through written records, as pastors were trained in Copenhagen. Thus, written Norwegian became closely related to Danish, causing the literature to become essentially Danish. Geble Pedersson (1490–1557) was the first Lutheran Bishop of Bergen and a man of broad humanistic views; his adopted son, Absalon Pederssøn Beyer (1528–1575), followed in his footsteps as a humanist and a nationalist, writing an important historical work, Concerning the Kingdom of Norway (1567). Peder Claussøn Friis (1545–1615) was also a humanist who both revived the Heimskringla by translating it into the language of the period and wrote the first natural history of Norway as well as an important topographic study of Norway.
The seventeenth century was a period of meager literary activity in Norway, but there were significant contributions. Petter Dass (1647–1707) wrote Nordlands Trompet (The Trumpet of Nordland) which described in graphic verse the landscape, mode of life, conditions and character of the northern Norwegian people. Two other authors merit mention. Dorothe Engelbretsdotter (1634–1713), was Norway's first recognized woman author who wrote powerful religious poetry. Her first work, Siælens Sang-offer, was published in 1678. Taare-Offer was her second collected works and was published for the first time in 1685. Another gifted poet was Anders Arrebo who translated the Psalms into Norwegian and composed the creation poem, Hexaemeron.
Norway also contributed significantly to the joint literature of Denmark–Norway. One of the first names in Danish literature, Peder Claussøn Friis (1545–1614), was Norwegian-born. Other important Norwegian by birth 'Danish' authors of the period included Ludvig Holberg (Bergen, 1684–1754), Christian Tullin (Christiania, 1728–1765), and Johan Herman Wessel (1742–1785).
Rebirth Two major events precipitated a major resurgence in Norwegian literature. In 1811, a Norwegian university was established in Christiania (later renamed Oslo). Seized by the spirit of revolution following the American and French Revolutions, as well as bridling as a result of the forced separation from Denmark and subordination to Sweden subsequent to the Napoleonic wars, Norwegians signed their first constitution in 1814. Virtually immediately, the cultural backwater that was Norway brought forth a series of strong authors recognized first in Scandinavia, and then worldwide.
Henrik Wergeland is generally recognized as the father of a new Norwegian literature. The enthusiastic nationalism of Wergeland and his young following brought conflict with the establishment, which was unwilling to accept everything as good, simply because it was Norwegian.
This period also saw collection of Norwegian folk tales by Peter Asbjørnsen and Bishop Jørgen Moe. This collection, which paralleled those by the Brothers Grimm in Germany and Hans Christian Andersen in Denmark, captured an important overview of the folk culture of the mountains and fjords.
At least as important in the creation of a Norwegian literature was the effort to introduce a pure Norwegian language, based on the dialects spoken in the areas more isolated from capital. The genius of Ivar Aasen (1813–1898) was at the heart of this effort. Aasen, a self-taught linguistic scholar and philologist, documented a written grammar and dictionary for the spoken Norwegian folk language, which became Nynorsk (New Norwegian) – the "speech of the country" as opposed to the official language largely imported from Denmark. Nynorsk is one of the two official written norms of the Norwegian language to this day.
National Romantic Period By the late 19th century, in a flood of nationalistic romanticism, the great four emerged: Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Alexander Kielland, and Jonas Lie. A unity of purpose pervades the whole period, creation of a national culture based on the almost forgotten and certainly neglected past, as well as celebration of the bondekultur or Norwegian farm culture. The realism of Kielland (e.g., Skipper Worse) gave way to the romantic and nationalistic spirit which swept Europe and rekindled the Norwegian interest in their glorious Viking past (e.g., Ibsen's The Vikings at Helgeland), the struggles of the Middle Ages (e.g., Ibsen's Lady Inger of Østeraad), peasant stories (e.g., Bjørnson's A Happy Boy) and the wonders of myths and folks tales of the mountains (e.g., Ibsen's Peer Gynt) and the sea (e.g., Lie's The Visionary).
Transition to Realism Although a strong contributor to early Norwegian romanticism, Henrik Ibsen is perhaps best known as an influential Norwegian playwright who was largely responsible for the popularity of modern realistic drama in Europe, with plays like The Wild Duck and A Doll's House. In this, he built on a theme first evident in Norway with plays like Bjørnson's En fallit (A Bankruptcy).
Emigration Literature Although a side note to the mainstream of Norwegian literature, the literature which documents the experience of Norwegian emigrants to America is as important as the Norwegian immigrants became to the growing America of the 19th century. Three authors are recognized in this genre; Ole Rølvaag wrote about immigrants, while Johan Bojer and Ingeborg Refling Hagen wrote about emigrants. Ole E. Rølvaag, who immigrated to America, experienced life in the prairies, and rose to become professor of Norwegian at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, provided a strong record of the joys and pains of the immigrant in adapting to the harsh realities of and carving out a new life in a wild new country. Norwegian author Johan Bojer provided a mirror image, depicting the struggles and processes which led to the decisions to emigrate. Ingeborg Refling Hagen, having two brothers and a sister in the United States contemplated the emigrant's longing for home and their harsh struggle "over there" in a known collection of emigrant poems from 1935.
Modernism in Norway Modernist literature was introduced to Norway through the literature of Knut Hamsun and Sigbjørn Obstfelder in the 1890s. In the 1930s, Emil Boyson, Gunnar Larsen, Haakon Bugge Mahrt, Rolf Stenersen and Edith Øberg were among the Norwegian authors who experimented with prose modernism. The books of the 1930s did not receive the same recognition as modernist works after the war. In 1947, Tarjei Vesaas published a poetry collection, Leiken og lynet, that led to major debate about the shape and rhythm for Norwegian poetry. This evolved further in the 1950s. Rolf Jacobsen achieved recognition as a poet of modernistic style after the war. Kristofer Uppdal was also recognized for his work.
The Twentieth Century