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diff --git a/12313-0.txt b/12313-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a0625c --- /dev/null +++ b/12313-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4471 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12313 *** + +PICTURES OF SWEDEN + + +By + +HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN + +Author of +"The Improvisatore," &c. + + +LONDON: + +RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. + +1851. + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +INTRODUCTION + +TROLLHÄTTA + +THE BIRD PHOENIX + +KINNAKULLA + +GRANDMOTHER + +THE PRISON-CELLS + +BEGGAR-BOYS + +VADSTENE + +THE PUPPET-SHOWMAN + +THE "SKJÄRGAARDS" + +STOCKHOLM + +DIURGAERDEN + +A STORY + +UPSALA + +SALA + +THE MUTE BOOK + +THE ZÄTHER DALE + +THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL IN LACKSAND + +FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE + +IN THE FOREST + +FAHLUN + +WHAT THE STRAWS SAID + +THE POET'S SYMBOL + +THE DAL-ELV + +DANEMORA + +THE SWINE + +POETRY'S CALIFORNIA + + * * * * * + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +We Travel. + + * * * * * + +It is a delightful spring: the birds warble, but you do not understand +their song? Well, hear it in a free translation. + +"Get on my back," says the stork, our green island's sacred bird, "and +I will carry thee over the Sound. Sweden also has fresh and fragrant +beech woods, green meadows and corn-fields. In Scania, with the +flowering apple-trees behind the peasant's house, you will think that +you are still in Denmark." + +"Fly with me," says the swallow; "I fly over Holland's mountain ridge, +where the beech-trees cease to grow; I fly further towards the north +than the stork. You shall see the vegetable mould pass over into rocky +ground; see snug, neat towns, old churches and mansions, where all is +good and comfortable, where the family stand in a circle around the +table and say grace at meals, where the least of the children says a +prayer, and, morning and evening, sings a psalm. I have heard it, I +have seen it, when little, from my nest under the eaves." + +"Come with me! come with me!" screams the restless sea-gull, and flies +in an expecting circle. "Come with me to the Skjärgaards, where rocky +isles by thousands, with fir and pine, lie like flower-beds along the +coast; where the fishermen draw the well-filled nets!" + +"Rest thee between our extended wings," sing the wild swans. "Let us +bear thee up to the great lakes, the perpetually roaring elvs +(rivers), that rush on with arrowy swiftness; where the oak forest has +long ceased, and the birch-tree becomes stunted. Rest thee between our +extended wings: we fly up to Sulitelma, the island's eye, as the +mountain is called; we fly from the vernal green valley, up over the +snow-drifts, to the mountain's top, whence thou canst see the North +Sea, on yonder side of Norway. + +"We fly to Jemteland, where the rocky mountains are high and blue; +where the Foss roars and rushes; where the torches are lighted as +_budstikke_[A] to announce that the ferryman is expected. Up to the +deep, cold-running waters, where the midsummer sun does not set; where +the rosy hue of eve is that of morn." + +[Footnote A: A chip of wood in the form of a halberd, circulated for +the purpose of convening the inhabitants of a district in Sweden and +Norway.] + +That is the birds' song. Shall we lay it to heart? Shall we accompany +them?--at least a part of the way. We will not sit upon the stork's +back, or between the swans' wings. We will go forward with steam, and +with horses--yes, also on our own legs, and glance now and then from +reality, over the fence into the region of thought, which is always +our near neighbour-land; pluck a flower or a leaf, to be placed in the +note-book--for it sprung out during our journey's flight: we fly and +we sing. Sweden, thou glorious land! Sweden, where, in ancient times, +the sacred gods came from Asia's mountains! land that still retains +rays of their lustre, which streams from the flowers in the name of +"Linnaeus;" which beams for thy chivalrous men from Charles the +Twelfth's banner; which sounds from the obelisk on the field of +Lutzen! Sweden, thou land of deep feeling, of heart-felt songs! home +of the limpid elvs, where the wild swans sing in the gleam of the +Northern Lights! Thou land, on whose deep, still lakes Scandinavia's +fairy builds her colonnades, and leads her battling, shadowy host over +the icy mirror! Glorious Sweden! with thy fragrant Linnaeus, with +Jenny's soul-enlivening songs! To thee will we fly with the stork and +the swallow, with the restless sea-gull and the wild swans. Thy +birch-woods exhale refreshing fragrance under their sober, bending +branches; on the tree's white stem the harp shall hang: the North's +summer wind shall whistle therein! + + + + +TROLLHÄTTA. + + * * * * * + +Who did we meet at Trollhätta? It is a strange story, and we will +relate it. + +We landed at the first sluice, and stood as it were in a garden laid +out in the English style. The broad walks are covered with gravel, and +rise in short terraces between the sunlit greensward: it is charming, +delightful here, but by no means imposing. If one desires to be +excited in this manner, one must go a little higher up to the older +sluices, which deep and narrow have burst through the hard rock. It +looks magnificent, and the water in its dark bed far below is lashed +into foam. Up here one overlooks both elv and valley; the bank of the +river on the other side, rises in green undulating hills, grouped with +leafy trees and red-painted wooden houses, which are bounded by rocks +and pine forests. Steam-boats and sailing vessels ascend through the +sluices; the water itself is the attendant spirit that must bear them +up above the rock, and from the forest itself it buzzes, roars and +rattles. The din of Trollhätta Falls mingles with the noise from the +saw-mills and smithies. + +"In three hours we shall be through the sluices," said the Captain: +"in that time you will see the Falls. We shall meet again at the inn +up here." + +We went from the path through the forest: a whole flock of bare-headed +boys surrounded us. They would all be our guides; the one screamed +longer than the other, and every one gave his contradictory +explanation, how high the water stood, and how high it did not stand, +or could stand. There was also a great difference of opinion amongst +the learned. + +We soon stopped on a ling-covered rock, a dizzying terrace. Before us, +but far below, was the roaring water, the Hell Fall, and over this +again, fall after fall, the rich, rapid, rushing elv--the outlet of +the largest lake in Sweden. What a sight! what a foaming and roaring, +above--below! It is like the waves of the sea, but of effervescing +champagne--of boiling milk. The water rushes round two rocky islands +at the top so that the spray rises like meadow dew. Below, the water +is more compressed, then hurries down again, shoots forward and +returns in circles like smooth water, and then rolls darting its long +sea-like fall into the Hell Fall. What a tempest rages in the +deep--what a sight! Words cannot express it! + +Nor could our screaming little guides. They stood mute; and when they +again began with their explanations and stories, they did not come +far, for an old gentleman whom none of us had noticed (but he was now +amongst us), made himself heard above the noise, with his singularly +sounding voice. He knew all the particulars about the place, and about +former days, as if they had been of yesterday. + +"Here, on the rocky holms," said he, "it was that the warriors in the +heathen times, as they are called, decided their disputes. The warrior +Stärkodder dwelt in this district, and liked the pretty girl Ogn right +well; but she was fonder of Hergrimmer, and therefore he was +challenged by Stärkodder to combat here by the falls, and met his +death; but Ogn sprung towards them, took her bridegroom's bloody +sword, and thrust it into her own heart. Thus Stärkodder did not gain +her. Then there passed a hundred years, and again a hundred years: the +forests were then thick and closely grown; wolves and bears prowled +here summer and winter; the place was infested with malignant robbers, +whose hiding-place no one could find. It was yonder, by the fall +before Top Island, on the Norwegian side--there was their cave: now it +has fallen in! The cliff there overhangs it!" + +"Yes, the Tailor's Cliff!" shouted all the boys. "It fell in the year +1755!" + +"Fell!" said the old man, as if in astonishment that any one but +himself could know it. "Everything will fall once, and the tailor +directly." The robbers had placed him upon the cliff and demanded that +if he would be liberated from them, his ransom should be that he +should sew a suit of clothes up there; and he tried it; but at the +first stitch, as he drew the thread out, he became giddy and fell down +into the gushing water, and thus the rock got the name of 'The +Tailor's Cliff.' One day the robbers caught a young girl, and she +betrayed them, for she kindled a fire in the cavern. The smoke was +seen, the caverns discovered, and the robbers imprisoned and executed. +That outside there is called 'The Thieves' Fall,' and down there under +the water is another cave, the elv rushes in there and returns +boiling; one can see it well up here, one hears it too, but it can be +heard better under the bergman's loft. + +And we went on and on, along the Fall, towards Top Island, +continuously on smooth paths covered with saw-dust, to Polham's +Sluice. A cleft had been made in the rock for the first intended +sluice-work, which was not finished, but whereby art has created the +most imposing of all Trollhätta's Falls; the hurrying water falling +here perpendicularly into the black deep. The side of the rock is here +placed in connection with Top Island by means of a light iron bridge, +which appears as if thrown over the abyss. We venture on to the +rocking bridge over the streaming, whirling water, and then stand on +the little cliff island, between firs and pines, that shoot forth from +the crevices. Before us darts a sea of waves, which are broken by the +rebound against the stone block where we stand, bathing us with the +fine spray. The torrent flows on each side, as if shot out from a +gigantic cannon, fall after fall: we look out over them all, and are +filled with the harmonic sound, which since time began, has ever been +the same. + +"No one can ever get to the island there," said one of our party, +pointing to the large island above the topmost fall. + +"I however know one!" said the old man, and nodded with a peculiar +smile. + +"Yes, my grandfather could!" said one of the boys, "scarcely any one +besides has crossed during a hundred years. The cross that is set up +over there was placed there by my grandfather. It had been a severe +winter, the whole of Lake Venern was frozen; the ice dammed up the +outlet, and for many hours there was a dry bottom. Grandfather has +told about it: he went over with two others, placed the cross up, and +returned. But then there was such a thundering and cracking noise, +just as if it were cannons. The ice broke up and the elv came over the +fields and forest. It is true, every word I say!" + +One of the travellers cited Tegner: + + "Vildt Göta stortade från Fjallen, + Hemsk Trollet från sat Toppfall röt! + Men Snillet kom och sprängt stod Hallen, + Med Skeppen i sitt sköt!" + +"Poor mountain sprite," he continued, "thy power and glory recede! Man +flies over thee--thou mayst go and learn of him." + +The garrulous old man made a grimace, and muttered something to +himself--but we were just by the bridge before the inn. The steam-boat +glided through the opened way, every one hastened to get on board, and +it directly shot away above the Fall, just as if no Fall existed. + +"And that can be done!" said the old man. He knew nothing at all about +steam-boats, had never before that day seen such a thing, and +accordingly he was sometimes up and sometimes down, and stood by the +machinery and stared at the whole construction, as if he were counting +all the pins and screws. The course of the canal appeared to him to be +something quite new; the plan of it and the guide-books were quite +foreign objects to him: he turned them and turned them--for read I do +not think he could. But he knew all the particulars about the +country--that is to say, from olden times. + +I heard that he did not sleep at all the whole night. He studied the +passage of the steam-boat; and when we in the morning ascended the +sluice terraces from Lake Venern, higher and higher from lake to lake, +away over the high-plain--higher, continually higher--he was in such +activity that it appeared as if it could not be greater--and then we +reached Motala. + +The Swedish author Tjörnerös relates of himself, that when a child he +once asked what it was that ticked in the clock, and they answered him +that it was one named "_Bloodless_." What brought the child's pulse to +beat with feverish throbs and the hair on his head to rise, also +exercised its power in Motala, over the old man from Trollhätta. + +We now went through the great manufactory in Motala. What ticks in the +clock, beats here with strong strokes of the hammer. It is +_Bloodless_, who drank life from human thought and thereby got limbs +of metals, stone and wood; it is _Bloodless_, who by human thought +gained strength, which man himself does not physically possess. +_Bloodless_ reigns in Motala, and through the large foundries and +factories he extends his hard limbs, whose joints and parts consist of +wheel within wheel, chains, bars, and thick iron wires. Enter, and see +how the glowing iron masses are formed into long bars. _Bloodless_ +spins the glowing bar! see how the shears cut into the heavy metal +plates; they cut as quietly and as softly as if the plates were paper. +Here where he hammers, the sparks fly from the anvil. See how he +breaks the thick iron bars; he breaks them into lengths; it is as if +it were a stick of sealing-wax that is broken. The long iron bars +rattle before your feet; iron plates are planed into shavings; before +you rolls the large wheel, and above your head runs living wire--long +heavy wire! There is a hammering and buzzing, and if you look around +in the large open yard, amongst great up-turned copper boilers, for +steam-boats and locomotives, _Bloodless_ also here stretches out one +of his fathom-long fingers, and hauls away. Everything is living; man +alone stands and is silenced by--_stop!_ + +The perspiration oozes out of one's fingers'-ends: one turns and +turns, bows, and knows not one's self, from pure respect for the human +thought which here has iron limbs. And yet the large iron hammer goes +on continually with its heavy strokes: it is as if it said: "Banco, +Banco! many thousand dollars; Banco, pure gain! Banco! Banco!"--Hear +it, as I heard it; see, as I saw! + +The old gentleman from Trollhätta walked up and down in full +contemplation; bent and swung himself about; crept on his knees, and +stuck his head into corners and between the machines, for he would +know everything so exactly; he would see the screw in the propelling +vessels, understand their mechanism and effect under water--and the +water itself poured like hail-drops down his forehead. He fell +unconscious, backwards into my arms, or else he would have been drawn +into the machinery, and been crushed: he looked at me, and pressed my +hand. + +"And all this goes on naturally," said he; "simply and comprehensibly. +Ships go against the wind, and against the stream, sail higher than +forests and mountains. The water must raise, steam must drive them!" + +"Yes," said I. + +"Yes," said he, and again _yes_, with a sigh which I did not then +understand; but, months after, I understood it, and I will at once +make a spring to that time, and we are again at Trollhätta. + +I came here in the autumn, on my return home; stayed some days in this +mighty piece of nature, where busy human life forces its way more and +more in, and, by degrees, transforms the picturesque to the useful +manufactory. Trollhätta must do her work; saw beams, drive mills, +hammer and break to pieces: one building grows up by the side of the +other, and in half a century hence here will be a city. But that was +not the story. + +I came, as I have said, here again in the autumn. I found the same +rushing and roaring, the same din, the same rising and sinking in the +sluices, the same chattering boys who conducted fresh travellers to +the Hell Fall, to the iron-bridge island, and to the inn. I sat here, +and turned over the leaves of books, collected here through a series +of years, in which travellers have inscribed their names, feelings and +thoughts at Trollhätta--almost always the same astonishment, expressed +in different languages, though generally in Latin: _veni, vidi, +obstupui_. + +One has written: "I have seen nature's master-piece pervade that of +art;" another cannot say what he saw, and what he saw he cannot say. A +mine owner and manufacturer, full of the doctrine of utility, has +written: "Seen with the greatest pleasure this useful work for us in +Värmeland, Trollhätta." The wife of a dean from Scania expresses +herself thus. She has kept to the family, and only signed in the +remembrance book, as to the effect of her feelings at Trollhätta. "God +grant my brother-in-law fortune, for he has understanding!" Some few +have added witticisms to the others' feelings; yet as a pearl on this +heap of writing shines Tegner's poem, written by himself in the book +on the 28th of June, 1804: + + "Gotha kom i dans från Seves fjallar, &c." + +I looked up from the book and who should stand before me, just about +to depart again, but the old man from Trollhätta! Whilst I had +wandered about, right up to the shores of Siljan, he had continually +made voyages on the canal; seen the sluices and manufactories, studied +steam in all its possible powers of service, and spoke about a +projected railway in Sweden, between the Hjalmar and Venern. He had, +however, never yet seen a railway, and I described to him these +extended roads, which sometimes rise like ramparts, sometimes like +towering bridges, and at times like halls of miles in length, cut +through rocks. I also spoke of America and England. + +"One takes breakfast in London, and the same day one drinks tea in +Edinburgh." + +"That I can do!" said the man, and in as cool a tone as if no one but +himself could do it, "I can also," said I; "and I have done it." + +"And who are you, then?" he asked. + +"A common traveller," I replied; "a traveller who pays for his +conveyance. And who are you?" + +The man sighed. + +"You do not know me: my time is past; my power is nothing! _Bloodless_ +is stronger than I!" and he was gone. + +I then understood who he was. Well, in what humour must a poor +mountain sprite be, who only comes up every hundred years to see how +things go forward here on the earth! + +It was the mountain sprite and no other, for in our time every +intelligent person is considerably wiser; and I looked with a sort of +proud feeling on the present generation, on the gushing, rushing, +whirling wheel, the heavy blows of the hammer, the shears that cut so +softly through the metal plates, the thick iron bars that were broken +like sticks of sealing-wax, and the music to which the heart's +pulsations vibrate: "Banco, Banco, a hundred thousand Banco!" and all +by steam--by mind and spirit. + +It was evening. I stood on the heights of Trollhätta's old sluices, +and saw the ships with outspread sails glide away through the meadows +like spectres, large and white. The sluice gates were opened with a +ponderous and crashing sound, like that related of the copper gates of +the secret council in Germany. The evening was so still that +Trollhätta's Fall was as audible in the deep stillness, as if it were +a chorus from a hundred water-mills--ever one and the same tone. In +one, however, there sounded a mightier crash that seemed to pass sheer +through the earth; and yet with all this the endless silence of nature +was felt. Suddenly a large bird flew out from the trees, far in the +forest, down towards the Falls. Was it the mountain sprite?--We will +imagine so, for it is the most interesting fancy. + + + + +THE BIRD PHOENIX. + + * * * * * + +In the garden of Paradise, under the tree of knowledge, stood a hedge +of roses. In the first rose a bird was hatched; its flight was like +that of light, its colours beautiful, its song magnificent. + +But when Eve plucked the fruit of knowledge, when she and Adam were +driven from the garden of Paradise, a spark from the avenging angel's +flaming sword fell into the bird's nest and kindled it. The bird died +in the flames, but from the red egg there flew a new one--the only +one--the ever only bird Phoenix. The legend states that it takes up +its abode in Arabia; that every hundred years it burns itself up in +its nest, and that a new Phoenix, the only one in the world, flies out +from the red egg. + +The bird hovers around us, rapid as the light, beautiful in colour, +glorious in song. When the mother sits by the child's cradle, it is by +the pillow, and with its wings flutters a glory around the child's +head. It flies through the chamber of contentment, and there is the +sun's radiance within:--the poor chest of drawers is odoriferous with +violets. + +But the bird Phoenix is not alone Arabia's bird: it flutters in the +rays of the Northern Lights on Lapland's icy plains; it hops amongst +the yellow flowers in Greenland's short summer. Under Fahlun's copper +rocks, in England's coal mines, it flies like a powdered moth over the +hymn-book in the pious workman's hands. It sails on the lotus-leaf +down the sacred waters of the Ganges, and the eyes of the Hindoo girl +glisten on seeing it. + +The bird Phoenix! Dost thou not know it? The bird of Paradise, song's +sacred swan! It sat on the car of Thespis, like a croaking raven, and +flapped its black, dregs-besmeared wings; over Iceland's minstrel-harp +glided the swan's red, sounding bill. It sat on Shakspeare's shoulder +like Odin's raven, and whispered in his ear: "Immortality!" It flew at +the minstrel competition, through Wartzburg's knightly halls. + +The bird Phoenix! Dost thou not know it? It sang the Marseillaise for +thee, and thou didst kiss the plume that fell from its wing: it came +in the lustre of Paradise, and thou perhaps didst turn thyself away to +some poor sparrow that sat with merest tinsel on its wings. + +The bird of Paradise! regenerated every century, bred in flames, dead +in flames; thy image set in gold hangs in the saloons of the rich, +even though thou fliest often astray and alone. "The bird Phoenix in +Arabia"--is but a legend. + +In the garden of Paradise, when thou wast bred under the tree of +knowledge, in the first rose, our Lord kissed thee and gave thee thy +proper name--Poetry. + + + + +KINNAKULLA. + + * * * * * + +Kinnakulla, Sweden's hanging gardens! Thee will we visit. We stand by +the lowest terrace in a plenitude of flowers and verdure; the ancient +village church leans its grey pointed wooden tower, as if it would +fall; it produces an effect in the landscape: we would not even be +without that large flock of birds, which just now chance to fly away +over the mountain forest. + +The high road leads up the mountain with short palings on either side, +between which we see extensive plains with hops, wild roses, +corn-fields, and delightful beech woods, such as are not to be found +in any other place in Sweden. The ivy winds itself around old trees +and stones--even to the withered trunk green leaves are lent. We look +out over the flat, extended woody plain, to the sunlit church-tower of +Maristad, which shines like a white sail on the dark green sea: we +look out over the Venern Lake, but cannot see its further shore. +Skjärgaardens' wood-crowned rocks lie like a wreath down in the lake; +the steam-boat comes--see! down by the cliff under the red-roofed +mansions, where the beech and walnut trees grow in the garden. + +The travellers land; they wander under shady trees away over that +pretty light green meadow, which is enwreathed by gardens and woods: +no English park has a finer verdure than the meadows near Hellekis. +They go up to "the grottos," as they call the projecting masses of red +stone higher up, which, being thoroughly kneaded with petrifactions, +project from the declivity of the earth, and remind one of the +mouldering colossal tombs in the Campagna of Rome. Some are smooth and +rounded off by the streaming of the water, others bear the moss of +ages, grass and flowers, nay, even tall trees. + +The travellers go from the forest road up to the top of Kinnakulla, +where a stone is raised as the goal of their wanderings. The traveller +reads in his guide-book about the rocky strata of Kinnakulla: "At the +bottom is found sandstone, then alum-stone, then limestone, and above +this red-stone, higher still slate, and lastly, trap." And, now that +he has seen this, he descends again, and goes on board. He has seen +Kinnakulla:--yes, the stony rock here, amidst the swelling verdure, +showed him one heavy, thick stone finger, and most of the travellers +think that they are like the devil, if they lay hold upon one finger, +they have the body--but it is not always so. The least visited side of +Kinnakulla is just the most characteristic, and thither will we go. + +The road still leads us a long way on this side of the mountain, step +by step downwards, in long terraces of rich fields: further down, the +slate-stone peers forth in flat layers, a green moss upon it, and it +looks like threadbare patches in the green velvet carpet. The high +road leads over an extent of ground where the slate-stone lies like a +firm floor. In the Campagna of Rome, one would say it is a piece of +_via appia_, or antique road; but it is Kinnakulla's naked skin and +bones that we pass over. The peasant's house is composed of large +slate-stones, and the roof is covered with them; one sees nothing of +wood except that of the door, and above it, of the large painted +shield, which states to what regiment the soldier belongs who got this +house and plot of ground in lieu of pay. + +We cast another glance over Venern, to Lockö's old palace, to the town +of Lendkjobing, and are again near verdant fields and noble trees, +that cast their shadows over Blomberg, where, in the garden, the poet +Geier's spirit seeks the flower of Kinnakulla in his grand-daughter, +little Anna. + +The plain expands here behind Kinnakulla; it extends for miles around, +towards the horizon. A shower stands in the heavens; the wind has +increased: see how the rain falls to the ground like a darkening veil. +The branches of the trees lash one another like penitential dryades. +Old Husaby church lies near us, yonder; though the shower lashes the +high walls, which alone stand, of the old Catholic Bishop's palace. +Crows and ravens fly through the long glass-less windows, which time +has made larger; the rain pours down the crevices in the old grey +walls, as if they were now to be loosened stone from stone: but the +church stands--old Husaby church--so grey and venerable, with its +thick walls, its small windows, and its three spires stuck against +each other, and standing, like nuts, in a cluster. + +The old trees in the churchyard cast their shade over ancient graves. +Where is the district's "Old Mortality," who weeds the grass, and +explains the ancient memorials? Large granite stones are laid here in +the form of coffins, ornamented with rude carvings from the times of +Catholicism. The old church-door creaks in the hinges. We stand within +its walls, where the vaulted roof was filled for centuries with the +fragrance of incense, with monks, and with the song of the choristers. +Now it is still and mute here: the old men in their monastic dresses +have passed into their graves; the blooming boys that swung the censer +are in their graves; the congregation--many generations--all in their +graves; but the church still stands the same. The moth-eaten, dusty +cowls, and the bishops' mantle, from the days of the cloister, hang in +the old oak presses; and old manuscripts, half eaten up by the rats, +lie strewed about on the shelves in the sacristy. + +In the left aisle of the church there still stands, and has stood time +out of mind, a carved image of wood, painted in various colours which +are still strong: it is the Virgin Mary with the child Jesus. Fresh +flower wreaths are hung around hers and the child's head; fragrant +garlands are twined around the pedestal, as festive as on Madonna's +birthday feast in the times of Popery. The young folks who have been +confirmed, have this day, on receiving the sacrament for the first +time, ornamented this old image--nay, even set the priest's name in +flowers upon the altar; and he has, to our astonishment, let it remain +there. + +The image of Madonna seems to have become young by the fresh wreaths: +the fragrant flowers here have a power like that of poetry--they bring +back the days of past centuries to our own times. It is as if the +extinguished glory around the head shone again; the flowers exhale +perfume: it is as if incense again streamed through the aisles of the +church--it shines around the altar as if the consecrated tapers were +lighted--it is a sunbeam through the window. + +The sky without has become clear: we drive again in under Cleven, the +barren side of Kinnakulla: it is a rocky wall, different from almost +all the others. The red stone blocks lie, strata on strata, forming +fortifications with embrasures, projecting wings and round towers; but +shaken, split and fallen in ruins--it is an architectural fantastic +freak of nature. A brook falls gushing down from one of the highest +points of the Cleven, and drives a little mill. It looks like a +plaything which the mountain sprite had placed there and forgotten. + +Large masses of fallen stone blocks lie dispersed round about; nature +has spread them in the forms of carved cornices. The most significant +way of describing Kinnakulla's rocky wall is to call it the ruins of a +mile-long Hindostanee temple: these rocks might be easily transformed +by the hammer into sacred places like the Ghaut mountains at Ellara. +If a Brahmin were to come to Kinnakulla's rocky wall, he would +recognise the temple of Cailasa, and find in the clefts and crevices +whole representations from Ramagena and Mahabharata. If one should +then speak to him in a sort of gibberish--no matter what, only that, +by the help of Brockhaus's "Conversation-Lexicon" one might mingle +therein the names of some of the Indian spectacles:--Sakantala, +Vikramerivati, Uttaram Ramatscheritram, &c.--the Brahmin would be +completely mystified, and write in his note-book: "Kinnakulla is the +remains of a temple, like those we have in Ellara; and the inhabitants +themselves know the most considerable works in our oldest Sanscrit +literature, and speak in an extremely spiritual manner about them." +But no Brahmin comes to the high rocky walls--not to speak of the +company from the steam-boat, who are already far over the lake Venern. +They have seen wood-crowned Kinnakulla, Sweden's hanging gardens--and +we also have now seen them. + + + + +GRANDMOTHER. + + * * * * * + +Grandmother is so old, she has so many wrinkles, and her hair is quite +white; but her eyes! they shine like two stars, nay, they are much +finer--they are so mild, so blissful to look into. And then she knows +the most amusing stories, and she has a gown with large, large flowers +on it, and it is of such thick silk that it actually rustles. +Grandmother knows so much, for she has lived long before father and +mother--that is quite sure. + +Grandmother has a psalm-book with thick silver clasps, and in that +book she often reads. In the middle of it lies a rose, which is quite +flat and dry; but it is not so pretty as the roses she has in the +glass, yet she smiles the kindliest to it, nay, even tears come into +her eyes! + +Why does Grandmother look thus on the withered flower in the old book? +Do you know why? + +Every time that Grandmother's tears fall on the withered flower the +colours become fresher; the rose then swells and the whole room is +filled with fragrance; the walls sink as if they were but mists; and +round about, it is the green, the delightful grove, where the sun +shines between the leaves. And Grandmother--yes, she is quite young; +she is a beautiful girl, with yellow hair, with round red cheeks, +pretty and charming--no rose is fresher. Yet the eyes, the mild, +blissful eyes,--yes, they are still Grandmother's! By her side sits a +man, young and strong: he presents the rose to her and she smiles. Yet +grandmother does not smile so,--yes; the smile comes,--he is +gone.--Many thoughts and many forms go past! That handsome man is +gone; the rose lies in the psalm-book, and grandmother,--yes, she +again sits like an old woman, and looks on the withered rose that lies +in the book. + +Now grandmother is dead! + +She sat in the arm-chair, and told a long, long, sweet story. "And now +it is ended!" said she, "and I am quite tired: let me now sleep a +little!" And so she laid her head back to rest. She drew her breath, +she slept, but it became more and more still; and her face was so full +of peace and happiness--it was as if the sun's rays passed over it. +She smiled, and then they said that she was dead. + +She was laid in the black coffin; she lay swathed in the white linen: +she was so pretty, and yet the eyes were closed--but all the wrinkles +were gone. She lay with a smile around her mouth: her hair was so +silvery white, so venerable, one was not at all afraid to look on the +dead, for it was the sweet, benign grandmother. And the psalm-book was +laid in the coffin under her head (she herself had requested it), and +the rose lay in the old book--and then they buried grandmother. + +On the grave, close under the church-wall, they planted a rose-tree, +and it became full of roses, and the nightingale sang over it, and the +organ in the church played the finest psalms that were in the book +under the dead one's head. And the moon shone straight down on the +grave--but the dead was not there: every child could go quietly in the +night-time and pluck a rose there by the churchyard-wall. The dead +know more than all we living know--the dead know the awe we should +feel at something so strange as their coming to us. The dead are +better than us all, and therefore they do not come. + +There is earth over the coffin, there is earth within it; the +psalm-book with its leaves is dust the rose with all its recollections +has gone to dust. But above it bloom new roses, above is sings the +nightingale, and the organ plays:--we think of the old grandmother +with the mild, eternally young eyes. Eyes can never die! Ours shall +once again see her young, and beautiful, as when she for the first +time kissed the fresh red rose which is now dust in the grave. + + + + +THE PRISON-CELLS. + + * * * * * + +By separation from other men, by solitary confinement, in continual +silence, the criminal is to be punished and amended; therefore were +prison-cells contrived. In Sweden there were several, and new ones +have been built. I visited one for the first time in Mariestad. This +building lies close outside the town, by a running water, and in a +beautiful landscape. It resembles a large white-washed summer +residence, window above window. + +But we soon discover that the stillness of the grave rests over it. It +is as if no one dwelt here, or like a deserted mansion in the time of +the plague. The gates in the walls are locked: one of them is opened +for us: the gaoler stands with his bunch of keys: the yard is empty, +but clean--even the grass weeded away between the stone paving. We +enter the waiting-room, where the prisoner is received: we are shown +the bathing-room, into which he is first led. We now ascend a flight +of stairs, and are in a large hall, extending the whole length and +breadth of the building. Galleries run along the floors, and between +these the priest has his pulpit, where he preaches on Sundays to an +invisible congregation. All the doors facing the gallery are half +opened: the prisoners hear the priest, but cannot see him, nor he +them. The whole is a well-built machine--a nightmare for the spirit. +In the door of every cell there is fixed a glass, about the size of +the eye: a slide covers it, and the gaoler can, unobserved by the +prisoner, see everything he does; but he must come gently, +noiselessly, for the prisoner's ear is wonderfully quickened by +solitude. I turned the slide quite softly, and looked into the closed +space, when the prisoner's eye immediately met mine. It is airy, +clean, and light within the cell, but the window is placed so high +that it is impossible to look out of it. A high stool, made fast to a +sort of table, and a hammock, which can be hung upon hooks under the +ceiling, and covered with a quilt, compose the whole furniture. + +Several cells were opened for us. In one of these was a young, and +extremely pretty girl. She had lain down in her hammock, but sprang +out directly the door was opened, and her first employment was to lift +her hammock down, and roll it together. On the little table stood a +pitcher with water, and by it lay the remains of some oatmeal cakes, +besides the Bible and some psalms. + +In the cell close by sat a child's murderess. I saw her only through +the little glass in the door. She had had heard our footsteps; heard +us speak; but she sat still, squeezed up into the corner by the door, +as if she would hide herself as much as possible: her back was bent, +her head almost on a level with her lap, and her hands folded over it. +They said this unfortunate creature was very young. Two brothers sat +here in two different cells: they were punished for horse stealing; +the one was still quite a boy. + +In one cell was a poor servant girl. They said: "She has no place of +resort, and without a situation, and therefore she is placed here." I +thought I had not heard rightly, and repeated my question, "why she +was here," but got the same answer. Still I would rather believe that +I had misunderstood what was said--it would otherwise be abominable. + +Outside, in the free sunshine, it is the busy day; in here it is +always midnight's stillness. The spider that weaves its web down the +wall, the swallow which perhaps flies a single time close under the +panes there high up in the wall--even the stranger's footstep in the +gallery, as he passes the cell-doors, is an event in that mute, +solitary life, where the prisoners' thoughts are wrapped up in +themselves. One must read of the martyr-filled prisons of the +Inquisition, of the crowds chained together in the Bagnes, of the hot, +lead chambers of Venice, and the black, wet gulf of the wells--be +thoroughly shaken by these pictures of misery, that we may with a +quieter pulsation of the heart wander through the gallery of the +prison-cells. Here is light, here is air;--here it is more humane. +Where the sunbeam shines mildly in on the prisoner, there also will +the radiance of God shine into the heart. + + + + +BEGGAR-BOYS. + + * * * * * + +The painter Callot--who does not know the name, at least from +Hoffmann's "in Callot's manner?"--has given a few excellent pictures +of Italian beggars. One of these is a fellow, on whom the one rag +lashes the other: he carries his huge bundle and a large flag with the +inscription, "Capitano de Baroni." One does not think that there can +in reality be found such a wandering rag-shop, and we confess that in +Italy itself we have not seen any such; for the beggar-boy there, +whose whole clothing often consists only of a waistcoat, has in it not +sufficient costume for such rags. + +But we see it in the North. By the canal road between the Venern and +Vigen, on the bare, dry rocky plain there stood, like beauty's +thistles in that poor landscape, a couple of beggar-boys, so ragged, +so tattered, so picturesquely dirty, that we thought we had Callot's +originals before us, or that it was an arrangement of some industrious +parents, who would awaken the traveller's attention and benevolence. +Nature does not form such things: there was something so bold in the +hanging on of the rags, that each boy instantly became a Capitano de +Baroni. + +The younger of the two had something round him that had certainly once +been the jacket of a very corpulent man, for it reached almost to the +boy's ancles; the whole hung fast by a piece of the sleeve and a +single brace, made from the seam of what was now the rest of the +lining. It was very difficult to see the transition from jacket to +trowsers, the rags glided so into one another. The whole clothing was +arranged so as to give him an air-bath: there were draught holes on +all sides and ends; a yellow linen clout fastened to the nethermost +regions seemed as if it were to signify a shirt. A very large straw +hat, that had certainly been driven over several times, was stuck +sideways on his head, and allowed the boy's wiry, flaxen hair to grow +freely through the opening where the crown should have been: the naked +brown shoulder and upper part of the arm, which was just as brown, +were the prettiest of the whole. + +The other boy had only a pair of trowsers on. They were also ragged, +but the rags were bound fast into the pockets with packthread; one +string round the ancles, one under the knee, and another round about +the waist. He, however, kept together what he had, and that is always +respectable. + +"Be off!" shouted the Captain, from the vessel; and the boy with the +tied-up rags turned round, and we--yes, we saw nothing but packthread, +in bows, genteel bows. The front part of the boy only was covered: he +had only the foreparts of trowsers--the rest was packthread, the bare, +naked packthread. + + + + +VADSTENE. + + * * * * * + +In Sweden, it is not only in the country, but even in several of the +provincial towns, that one sees whole houses of grass turf or with +roofs of grass turf; and some are so low that one might easily spring +up to the roof, and sit on the fresh greensward. In the early spring, +whilst the fields are still covered with snow, but which is melted on +the roof, the latter affords the first announcement of spring, with +the young sprouting grass where the sparrow twitters: "Spring comes!" + +Between Motala and Vadstene, close by the high road, stands a +grass-turf house--one of the most picturesque. It has but one window, +broader than it is high, and a wild rose branch forms the curtain +outside. + +We see it in the spring. The roof is so delightfully fresh with grass, +it has quite the tint of velvet; and close to it is the chimney, nay, +even a cherry-tree grows out of its side, now full of flowers: the +wind shakes the leaves down on a little lamb that is tethered to the +chimney. It is the only lamb of the family. The old dame who lives +here, lifts it up to its place herself in the morning and lifts it +down again in the evening, to give it a place in the room. The roof +can just bear the little lamb, but not more--this is an experience and +a certainty. Last autumn--and at that time the grass turf roofs are +covered with flowers, mostly blue and yellow, the Swedish +colours--there grew here a flower of a rare kind. It shone in the eyes +of the old Professor, who on his botanical tour came past here. The +Professor was quickly up on the roof, and just as quick was one of his +booted legs through it, and so was the other leg, and then half of the +Professor himself--that part where the head does not sit; and as the +house had no ceiling, his legs hovered right over the old dame's head, +and that in very close contact. But now the roof is again whole; the +fresh grass grows where learning sank; the little lamb bleats up +there, and the old dame stands beneath, in the low doorway, with +folded hands, with a smile on her mouth, rich in remembrances, legends +and songs, rich in her only lamb on which the cherry-tree strews its +flower-blossoms in the warm spring sun. + +As a background to this picture lies the Vettern--the bottomless lake +as the commonalty believe--with its transparent water, its sea-like +waves, and in calm, with "Hegring," or fata morgana on its steel-like +surface. We see Vadstene palace and town, "the city of the dead," as a +Swedish author has called it--Sweden's Herculaneum, reminiscence's +city. The grass-turf house must be our box, whence we see the rich +mementos pass before us--memorials from the chronicle of saints, the +chronicle of kings and the love songs that still live with the old +dame, who stands in her low house there, where the lamb crops the +grass on the roof. We hear her, and we see with her eyes; we go from +the grass-turf house up to the town, to the other grass-turf houses, +where poor women sit and make lace, once the celebrated work of the +rich nuns here in the cloister's wealthy time. + +How still, solitary and grass-grown are these streets! We stop by an +old wall, mouldy-green for centuries already. Within it stood the +cloister; now there is but one of its wings remaining. There, within +that now poor garden still bloom Saint Bridget's leek, and once ran +flowers. King John and the Abbess, Ana Gylte, wandered one evening +there, and the King cunningly asked: "If the maidens in the cloister +were never tempted by love?" and the Abbess answered, as she pointed +to a bird that just then flew over them: "It may happen! One cannot +prevent the bird from flying over the garden; but one may surely +prevent it from building its nest there!" + +Thus thought the pious Abbess, and there have been sisters who thought +and acted like her. But it is quite as sure that in the same garden +there stood a pear-tree, called the tree of death; and the legend says +of it, that whoever approached and plucked its fruit would soon die. +Red and yellow pears weighed down its branches to the ground. The +trunk was unusually large; the grass grew high around it, and many a +morning hour was it seen trodden down. Who had been here during the +night? + +A storm arose one evening from the lake, and the next morning the +large tree was found thrown down; the trunk was broken, and out from +it there rolled infants' bones--the white bones of murdered children +lay shining in the grass. + +The pious but love-sick sister Ingrid, this Vadstene's Heloise, writes +to her heart's beloved, Axel Nilsun--for the chronicles have preserved +it for us:-- + +"Broderne og Systarne leka paa Spil, drikke Vin och dansa med +hvarandra i Tradgården!" + +(The brothers and sisters amuse themselves in play, drink wine and +dance with one another in the garden). + +These words may explain to us the history of the pear-tree: one is led +to think of the orgies of the nun-phantoms in "Robert le Diable," the +daughters of sin on consecrated ground. But "judge not, lest ye be +judged," said the purest and best of men that was born of woman. We +will read Sister Ingrid's letter, sent secretly to him she truly +loved. In it lies the history of many, clear and human to us:-- + +"Jag djerfues for ingen utan for dig allena bekänna, att jag formår +ilia ånda mit Ave Maria eller läsa mit Paternoster, utan du kommer mig +ichågen. Ja i sjelfa messen kommer mig fore dit täckleliga Ansigte och +vart kårliga omgange. Jag tycker jag kan icke skifta mig for n genann +an Menniska, jungfru Maria, St. Birgitta och himmelens Härskaror +skalla kanske straffe mig hårfar? Men du vet det val, hjertans käraste +att jag med fri vilja och uppsät aldrig dissa reglar samtykt. Mine +foräldrer hafva väl min kropp i dette fangelset insatt, men hjertät +kan intet så snart från verlden ater kalles!" + +(I dare not confess to any other than to thee, that I am not able to +repeat my Ave Maria or read my Paternoster, without calling thee to +mind. Nay, even in the mass itself thy comely face appears, and our +affectionate intercourse recurs to me. It seems to me that I cannot +confess to any other human being--the Virgin Mary, St. Bridget, and +the whole host of heaven will perhaps punish me for it. But thou +knowest well, my heart's beloved, that I have never consented with my +free-will to these rules. My parents, it is true, have placed my body +in this prison, but the heart cannot so soon be weaned from the +world). + +How touching is the distress of young hearts! It offers itself to us +from the mouldy parchment, it resounds in old songs. Beg the +grey-haired old dame in the grass turf-house to sing to thee of the +young, heavy sorrow, of the saving angel--and the angel came in many +shapes. You will hear the song of the cloister robbery; of Herr Carl +who was sick to death; when the young nun entered the corpse chamber, +sat down by his feet and whispered how sincerely she had loved him, +and the knight rose from his bier and bore her away to marriage and +pleasure in Copenhagen. And all the nuns of the cloister sang: "Christ +grant that such an angel were to come, and take both me and thee!" + +The old dame will also sing for thee of the beautiful Ogda and Oluf +Tyste; and at once the cloister is revived in its splendour, the bells +ring, stone houses arise--they even rise from the waters of the +Vettern: the little town becomes churches and towers. The streets are +crowded with great, with sober, well-dressed persons. Down the stairs +of the town hall descends with a sword by his side and in fur-lined +cloak, the most wealthy citizen of Vadstene, the merchant Michael. By +his side is his young, beautiful daughter Agda, richly-dressed and +happy; youth in beauty, youth in mind. All eyes are turned on the rich +man--and yet forget him for her, the beautiful. Life's best blessings +await her; her thoughts soar upwards, her mind aspires; her future is +happiness! These were the thoughts of the many--and amongst the many +there was one who saw her as Romeo saw Juliet, as Adam saw Eve in the +garden of Paradise. That one was Oluf, the handsomest young man, but +poor as Agda was rich. And he must conceal his love; but as only he +lived in it, only he knew of it; so he became mute and still, and +after months had passed away, the town's folk called him Oluf Tyste +(Oluf the silent). + +Nights and days he combated his love; nights and days he suffered +inexpressible torment; but at last--one dew-drop or one sunbeam alone +is necessary for the ripe rose to open its leaves--he must tell it to +Agda. And she listened to his words, was terrified, and sprang away; +but the thought remained with him, and the heart went after the +thought and stayed there; she returned his love strongly and truly, +but in modesty and honour; and therefore poor Oluf came to the rich +merchant and sought his daughter's hand. But Michael shut the bolts of +his door and his heart too. He would neither listen to tears nor +supplications, but only to his own will; and as little Agda also kept +firm to her will, her father placed her in Vadstene cloister. And Oluf +was obliged to submit, as it is recorded in the old song, that they +cast + + "----den svarta Muld + Alt öfver skön Agdas arm."[B] + +[Footnote B: The black mould over the beautiful Agda's arm.] + +She was dead to him and the world. But one night, in tempestuous +weather, whilst the rain streamed down, Oluf Tyste came to the +cloister wall, threw his rope-ladder over it, and however high the +Vettern lifted its waves, Oluf and little Agda flew away over its +fathomless depths that autumn night. + +Early in the morning the nuns missed little Agda. What a screaming and +shouting--the cloister is disgraced! The Abbess and Michael the +merchant swore that vengeance and death should reach the fugitives. +Lindkjöping's severe bishop, Hans Brask, fulminated his ban over them, +but they were already across the waters of the Vettern; they had +reached the shores of the Venern, they were on Kinnakulla, with one of +Oluf's friends, who owned the delightful Hellekis. + +Here their marriage was to be celebrated. The guests were invited, and +a monk from the neighbouring cloister of Husaby, was fetched to marry +them. Then came the messenger with the bishop's excommunication, and +this--but not the marriage ceremony--was read to them. + +All turned away from them terrified. The owner of the house, the +friend of Oluf's youth, pointed to the open door and bade them depart +instantly. Oluf only requested a car and horse wherewith to convey +away his exhausted Agda; but they threw sticks and stones after them, +and Oluf was obliged to bear his poor bride in his arms far into the +forest. + +Heavy and bitter was their wandering. At last, however, they found a +home: it was in Guldkroken, in West Gothland. An honest old couple +gave them shelter and a place by the hearth: they stayed there till +Christmas, and on that holy eve there was to be a real Christmas +festival. The guests were invited, the furmenty set forth; and now +came the clergyman of the parish to say prayers; but whilst he spoke +he recognised Oluf and Agda, and the prayer became a curse upon the +two. Anxiety and terror came over all; they drove the excommunicated +pair out of the house, out into the biting frost, where the wolves +went in flocks, and the bear was no stranger. And Oluf felled wood in +the forest, and kindled a fire to frighten away the noxious animals +and keep life in Agda--he thought that she must die. But just then she +was stronger of the two. + +"Our Lord is almighty and gracious; He will not leave us!" said she. +"He has one here on the earth, one who can save us, one, who has +proved like us, what it is to wander amongst enemies and wild animals. +It is the King--Gustavus Vasa! He has languished like us!--gone astray +in Dalecarlia in the deep snow! he has suffered, tried, knows it--he +can and he will help us!" + +The King was in Vadstene. He had called together the representatives +of the kingdom there. He dwelt in the cloister itself, even there +where little Agda, if the King did not grant her pardon, must suffer +what the angry Abbess dared to advise: penance and a painful death +awaited her. + +Through forests and by untrodden paths, in storm and snow, Oluf and +Agda came to Vadstene. They were seen: some showed fear, others +insulted and threatened them. The guard of the cloister made the sign +of the cross on seeing the two sinners, who dared to ask admission to +the King. + +"I will receive and hear all," was his royal message, and the two +lovers fell trembling at his feet. + +And the King looked mildly on them; and as he long had had the +intention to humiliate the proud Bishop of Lindkjöping, the moment was +not unfavourable to them; the King listened to the relation of their +lives and sufferings, and gave them his word, that the excommunication +should be annulled. He then placed their hands one in the other, and +said that the priest should also do the same soon; and he promised +them his royal protection and favour. + +And old Michael, the merchant, who feared the King's anger, with which +he was threatened, became so mild and gentle, that he, as the King +commanded, not only opened his house and his arms to Oluf and Agda, +but displayed all his riches on the wedding-day of the young couple. +The marriage ceremony took place in the cloister church, whither the +King himself led the bride, and where, by his command, all the nuns +were obliged to be present, in order to give still more ecclesiastical +pomp to the festival. And many a heart there silently recalled the old +song about the cloister robbery and looked at Oluf Tyste: + + "Krist gif en sadan Angel + Kom, tog båd mig och dig!"[C] + +[Footnote C: Christ grant that such an angel were to come, and take +both me and thee!] + +The sun now shines through the open cloister-gate. Let truth shine +into our hearts; let us likewise acknowledge the cloister's share of +God's influence. Every cell was not quite a prison, where the +imprisoned bird flew in despair against the window-pane; here +sometimes was sunshine from God in the heart and mind, from hence also +went out comfort and blessings. If the dead could rise from their +graves they would bear witness thereof: if we saw them in the +moonlight lift the tombstone and step forth towards the cloister, they +would say: "Blessed be these walls!" if we saw them in the sunlight +hovering in the rainbow's gleam, they would say: "Blessed be these +walls!" + +How changed the rich, mighty Vadstene cloister, where the first +daughters of the land were nuns, where the young nobles of the land +wore the monk's cowl. Hither they made pilgrimages from Italy, from +Spain: from far distant lands, in snow and cold, the pilgrim came +barefooted to the cloister door. Pious men and women bore the corpse +of St. Bridget hither in their hands from Rome, and all the +church-bells in all the lands and towns they passed through, tolled +when they came. + +We go towards the cloister--the remains of the old ruin. We enter St. +Bridget's cell--it still stands unchanged. It is low, small and +narrow: four diminutive frames form the whole window, but one can look +from it out over the whole garden, and far away over the Vettern. We +see the same beautiful landscape that the fair Saint saw as a frame +around her God, whilst she read her morning and evening prayers. In +the tile-stone of the floor there is engraved a rosary: before it, on +her bare knees, she said a pater-noster at every pearl there pointed +out. Here is no chimney--no hearth, no place for it. Cold and solitary +it is, and was, here where the world's most far-famed woman dwelt, she +who by her own sagacity, and by her contemporaries was raised to the +throne of female saints. + +From this poor cell we enter one still meaner, one still more narrow +and cold, where the faint light of day struggles in through a long +crevice in the wall. Glass there never was here: the wind blows in +here. Who was she who once dwelt in this cell? + +In our times they have arranged light, warm chambers close by: a whole +range opens into the broad passage. We hear merry songs; laughter we +hear, and weeping: strange figures nod to us from these chambers. Who +are these? The rich cloister of St. Bridget's, whence kings made +pilgrimages, is now Sweden's mad-house. And here the numerous +travellers write their names on the wall. We hasten from the hideous +scene into the splendid cloister church,--the blue church, as it is +called, from the blue stones of which the walls are built--and here, +where the large stones of the floor cover great men, abbesses and +queens, only one monument is noticeable, that of a knightly figure +carved in stone, which stands aloft before the altar. It is that of +the insane Duke Magnus. Is it not as if he stepped forth from amongst +the dead, and announced that such afflicted creatures were to be where +St. Bridget once ruled? + +Pace lightly over the floor! Thy foot treads on the graves of the +pious: the flat, modest stone here in the corner covers the dust of +the noble Queen Philippa. She, that mighty England's daughter, the +great-hearted, the immortal woman, who with wisdom and courage +defended her consort's throne, that consort who rudely and barbarously +cast her off! Vadstene's cloister gave her shelter--the grave here +gave her rest. + +We seek one grave. It is not known--it is forgotten, as she was in her +lifetime. Who was she? The cloistered sister Elizabeth, daughter of +the Holstein Count, and once the bride of King Hakon of Norway. Sweet +creature! she proudly--but not with unbecoming pride--advanced in her +bridal dress, and with her court ladies, up to her royal consort. Then +came King Valdemar, who by force and fraud stopped the voyage, and +induced Hakon to marry Margaret, then eleven years of age, who thereby +got the crown of Norway. Elizabeth was sent to Vadstene cloister, +where her will was not asked. Afterwards when Margaret--who justly +occupies a great place in the history of Scandinavia, but only +comparatively a small one in the hearts--sat on the throne, powerful +and respected, visited the then flourishing Vadstene, where the Abbess +of the cloister was St. Bridget's grand-daughter, her childhood's +friend, Margaret kissed every monk on the cheek. The legend is well +known about him, the handsomest, who thereupon blushed. She kissed +every nun on the hand, and also Elizabeth, her, whom she would only +see here. Whose heart throbbed loudest at that kiss? Poor Elizabeth, +thy grave is forgotten, but not the wrong thou didst suffer. + +We now enter the sacristy. Here, under a double coffin lid, rests an +age's holiest saint in the North, Vadstene cloister's diadem and +lustre--St. Bridget. + +On the night she was born, says the legend, there appeared a beaming +cloud in the heavens, and on it stood a majestic virgin, who said: "Of +Birger is born a daughter whose admirable voice shall be heard over +the whole world." This delicate and singular child grew up in the +castle of her father, Knight Brake. Visions and revelations appeared +to her, and these increased when she, only thirteen years of age, was +married to the rich Ulf Gudmundsen, and became the mother of many +children. "Thou shalt be my bride and my agent," she heard Christ say, +and every one of her actions was, as she averred, according to his +announcement. After this she went to Niddaros, to St. Oluf's holy +shrine: she then went to Germany, France, Spain and Rome. + +Sometimes honoured and sometimes mocked, she travelled, even to Cyprus +and Palestine. Conscious of approaching death, she again reached Rome, +where her last revelation was, that she should rest in Vadstene, and +that this cloister especially should be sanctified by God's love. The +splendour of the Northern lights does not extend so far around the +earth as the glory of this fair saint, who now is but a legend. We +bend with silent, serious thoughts before the mouldering remains in +the coffin here--those of St. Bridget and her daughter St. Catherine; +but even of these the remembrance will be extinguished. There is a +tradition amongst the people, that in the time of the Reformation the +real remains were carried off to a cloister in Poland, but this is not +certainly known. Vadstene, at least, is not the repository of St. +Bridget and her daughter's dust. + +Vadstene was once great and glorious. Great was the cloister's power, +as St. Bridget saw it in the prospect of death. Where is now the +cloister's might? It reposes under the tomb-stones--the graves alone +speak of it. Here, under our feet, only a few steps from the church +door, is a stone in which are carved fourteen rings: they announce +that fourteen farms were given to the cloister, in order that he who +moulders here might have this place, fourteen feet within the church +door. It was Boa Johnson Grip, a great sinner; but the cloister's +power was greater than that of all sinners: the stone on his grave +records it with no ordinary significance of language. + +Gustavus, the first Vasa, was the sun--the ruling power: the +brightness of the cloister star must needs pale before him. + +There yet stands a stone outline of Vadstene's rich palace which he +erected, with towers and spires, close by the cloister. At a far +distance on the Vettern, it looks as if it still stood in all its +splendour; near, in moonlight nights, it appears the same unchanged +edifice, for the fathom-thick walls yet remain; the carvings over the +windows and gates stand forth in light and shade, and the moat round +about, which is only separated from the Vettern by the narrow carriage +road, takes the reflection of the immense building as a mirrored +image. + +We now stand before it in daylight. Not a pane of glass is to be found +in it; planks and old doors are nailed fast to the window frames; the +balls alone still stand on the two towers, broad, heavy, and +resembling colossal toadstools. The iron spire of the one still towers +aloft in the air; the other spire is bent: like the hands on a +sun-dial it shows the time--the time that is gone. The other two balls +are half fallen down; lambs frisk about between the beams, and the +space below is used as a cow-stall. + +The arms over the gateway have neither spot nor blemish: they seem as +if carved yesterday; the walls are firm, and the stairs look like new. +In the palace yard, far above the gateway, the great folding door was +opened, whence once the minstrels stepped out and played a welcome +greeting from the balcony, but even this is broken down: we go through +the spacious kitchen, from whose white walls, a sketch of Vadstene +palace, ships, and flowering trees, in red chalk, still attract the +eye. + +Here where they cooked and roasted, is now a large empty space: even +the chimney is gone; and from the ceiling where thick, heavy beams of +timber have been placed close to one another, there hangs the +dust-covered cobweb, as if the whole were a mass of dark grey dropping +stones. + +We walk from hall to hall, and the wooden shutters are opened to admit +daylight. All is vast, lofty, spacious, and adorned with antique +chimney-pieces, and from every window there is a charming prospect +over the clear, deep Vettern. In one of the chambers in the ground +floor sat the insane Duke Magnus, (whose stone image we lately saw +conspicuous in the church) horrified at having signed his own +brother's death-warrant; dreamingly in love with the portrait of +Scotland's Queen, Mary Stuart; paying court to her and expecting to +see the ship, with her, glide over the sea towards Vadstene. And she +came--he thought she came--in the form of a mermaid, raising herself +aloft on the water: she nodded and called to him, and the unfortunate +Duke sprang out of the window down to her. We gazed out of this +window, and below it we saw the deep moat in which he sank. + +We enter the yeoman's hall, and the council hall, where, in the +recesses of the windows, on each side, are painted yeomen in strange +dresses, half Dalecarlians and half Roman warriors. + +In this once rich saloon, Svanta Steenson Sture knelt to Sweden's +Queen, Catherine Léjonhufved: she was Svanta Sture's love, before +Gustavus Vasa's will made her his Queen. The lovers met here: the +walls are silent as to what they said, when the door was opened and +the King entered, and saw the kneeling Sture, and asked what it meant. +Margaret answered craftily and hastily: "He demands my sister Martha's +hand in marriage!" and the King gave Svanta Sture the bride the Queen +had asked for him. + +We are now in the royal bridal chamber, whither King Gustavus led his +third consort. Catherine Steenbock, also another's bride, the bride of +the Knight Gustavus. It is a sad story. + +Gustavus of the three roses, was in his youth honoured by the King, +who sent him on a mission to the Emperor Charles the Fifth. He +returned adorned with the Emperor's costly golden chain--young, +handsome, joyous and richly clad, he returned home, and knew well how +to relate the magnificence and charms of foreign lands: young and old +listened to him with admiration, but young Catherine most of all. +Through him the world in her eyes became twice as large, rich, and +beautiful; they became dear to each other, and their parents blessed +their love. The love-pledge was to be drunk,--when there came a +message from the King, that the young Knight must, without delay, +again bear a letter and greeting to the Emperor Charles. The betrothed +pair separated with heavy hearts, but with a promise of mutual +inviolable troth. The King then invited Catherine's parents to come to +Vadstene palace. Catherine was obliged to accompany them; here King +Gustavus saw her for the first time, and the old man fell in love with +her. + +Christmas was kept with great hilarity; there were song and harp in +these halls, and the King himself played the lute. When the time came +for departure, the King said to Catherine's mother, that he would +marry the young girl. + +"But she is the bride of the Knight Gustavus!" stammered the mother. + +"Young hearts soon forget their sorrows," thought the King. The mother +thought so likewise, and as there chanced to come a letter the same +day and hour from the young Knight Gustavus, Fra Steenbock committed +it to the flames. All the letters that came afterwards and all the +letters that Catherine wrote, were burnt by her mother, and doubts and +evil reports were whispered to Catherine, that she was forgotten +abroad by her young lover. But Catherine was secure and firm in her +belief of him. In the spring her parents made known to her the King's +proposal, and praised her good fortune. She answered seriously and +determinedly, "No!" and when they repeated to her that it should and +must happen, she repeatedly screamed in the greatest anguish, "No no!" +and sank exhausted at her father and mother's feet, and humbly prayed +them not to force her. + +And the mother wrote to the King that all was going on well, but that +her child was bashful. The King now announced his visit to Torpe, +where her parents, the Steenbocks, dwelt. The King was received with +rejoicing and feasting, but Catherine had disappeared and the King +himself was the successful one who found her. She sat dissolved in +tears under the wild rose tree, where she had bidden farewell to her +heart's beloved. + +There was merry song and joyous life in the old mansion; Catherine +alone was sorrowful and silent. Her mother had brought her all her +jewels and ornaments, but she wore none of them: she had put on her +simplest dress, but in this she only fascinated the old King the more, +and he would have that their betrothal should take place before he +departed. Fra Steenbock wrested the Knight Gustavus's ring from +Catherine's finger, and whispered in her ear: "It will cost the friend +of thy youth his life and fortune; the King can do everything!" And +the parents led her to King Gustavus, showed him that the ring was +from the maiden's hand; and the King placed his own golden ring on her +finger in the other's stead. In the month of August the flag waved +from the mast of the royal yacht which bore the young Queen over the +Vettern. Princes and knights, in costly robes, stood by the shore, +music played, and the people shouted. Catherine made her entry into +Vadstene Palace. The nuptials were celebrated the following day, and +the walls were hung with silk and velvet, with cloth of gold and +silver! It was a festival and rejoicing. Poor Catherine! + +In November, the Knight Gustavus of the three roses, returned home. +His prudent, noble mother, Christina Gyldenstjerne, met him at the +frontiers of the kingdom, prepared him, consoled him, and soothed his +mind: she accompanied him by slow stages to Vadstene, where they were +both invited by the King to remain during the Christmas festival. They +accepted the invitation, but the Knight Gustavus was not to be moved +to come to the King's table or any other place where the Queen was to +be found. The Christmas approached. One Sunday evening, Gustavus was +disconsolate; the Knight was long sleepless, and at daybreak he went +into the church, to the tomb of his ancestress, St. Bridget. There he +saw, at a few paces from him, a female kneeling before Philippa's +tomb. It was the Queen he saw; their eyes met, and Gustavus hastened +away. She then mentioned his name, begged him to stay, and commanded +him to do so. + +"I command it, Gustavus!" said she; "the Queen commands it." + +And she spoke to him; they conversed together, and it became clear to +them both what had been done against them and with them; and she +showed him a withered rose which she kept in her bosom, and she bent +towards him and gave him a kiss, the last--their eternal +leave-taking--and then they separated. He died shortly afterwards, but +Catherine was stronger, yet not strong enough for her heart's deep +sorrow. Here, in the bed-chamber, in uneasy dreams, says the story, +she betrayed in sleep the constant thought of her heart, her youth's +love, to the King, saying: "Gustavus I love dearly; but the rose--I +shall never forget." + +From a secret door we walk out on to the open rampart, where the sheep +now graze; the cattle are driven into one of the ruined towers. We see +the palace-yard, and look from it up to a window. Come, thou +birch-wood's thrush, and warble thy lays; sing, whilst we recal the +bitterness of love in the rude--the chivalrous ages. + +Under that window there stood, one cold winter's night, wrapped in his +white cloak, the young Count John of East Friesland. His brother had +married Gustavus Vasa's eldest daughter, and departed with her to his +home: wherever they came on their journey, there was mirth and +feasting, but the most splendid was at Vadstene Palace. Cecilia, the +King's younger daughter, had accompanied her sister hither, and was +here, as everywhere, the first, the most beautiful in the chase as +well as at the tournament. The winter began directly on their arrival +at Vadstene; the cold was severe, and the Vettern frozen over. One +day, Cecilia rode out on the ice and it broke; her brother, Prince +Erik, came galloping to her aid. John, of East Friesland, was already +there, and begged Erik to dismount, as he would, being on horseback, +break the ice still more. Erik would not listen to him, and as John +saw that there was no time for dispute, he dragged Erik from the +horse, sprang into the water himself, and saved Cecilia. Prince Erik +was furious with wrath, and no one could appease him. Cecilia lay long +in a fever, and during its continuance, her love for him who had saved +her life increased. She recovered, and they understood each other, but +the day of separation approached. It was on the night previous that +John, in his white cloak, ascended from stone to stone, holding by his +silk ladder, until he at length entered the window; here they would +converse for hours in all modesty and honour, speak about his return +and their nuptials the following year; and whilst they sat there the +door was hewn down with axes. Prince Erik entered, and raised the +murderous weapon to slay the young Lord of East Friesland, when +Cecilia threw herself between them. But Erik commanded his menials to +seize the lover, whom they put in irons and cast into a low, dark +hole, that cold frosty night, and the next day, without even giving +him a morsel of bread or a drop of water, he was thrown on to a +peasant's sledge, and dragged before the King to receive judgment. +Erik himself cast his sister's fair name and fame into slander's +babbling pool, and high dames and citizens' wives washed unspotted +innocence in calumny's impure waters. + +It is only when the large wooden shutters of the saloons are opened, +that the sunbeams stray in here; the dust accumulates in their twisted +pillars, and is only just disturbed by the draught of air. In here is +a warehouse for corn. Great fat rats make their nests in these halls. +The spider spins mourning banners under the beams. This is Vadstene +Palace! + +We are filled with sad thoughts. We turn our eyes from this place +towards the lowly house with the grass-turf roof, where the little +lamb crops the grass under the cherry-tree, which strews its fragrant +leaves over it. Our thoughts descend from the rich cloister, from the +proud palace, to the grassy turf, and the sun fades away over the +grassy turf, and the old dame goes to sleep under the grassy turf, +below which lie the mighty memorials of Vadstene. + + + + +THE PUPPET-SHOWMAN. + + * * * * * + +There was an elderly man on the steam-boat, with such a contented face +that, if it did not lie, he must be the happiest man on earth. That he +indeed said he was: I heard it from his own mouth. He was a Dane, +consequently my countryman, and was a travelling theatrical manager. +He had the whole _corps dramatique_ with him; they lay in a large +chest--he was a puppet showman. His innate good-humour, said he, had +been tried by a polytechnic candidate,[D] and from this experiment on +his patience he had become completely happy. I did not understand him +at the moment, but he soon laid the whole case clearly before me; and +here it is. + +[Footnote D: One who has passed his examination at a polytechnic +school.] + +"It was in Slagelse," said he, "that I gave a representation at the +parsonage, and had a brilliant house and a brilliant company of +spectators, all young persons, unconfirmed, except a few old ladies. +Then there came a person dressed in black, having the appearance of a +student: he sat down amongst the others, laughed quite at the proper +time, and applauded quite correctly; that was an unusual spectator! + +"I was bent on ascertaining who he was, and then I heard that he was a +candidate from the polytechnic school, who had been sent out to +instruct people in the provinces. At eight o'clock my representation +was over; the children were to go early to bed, and one must think of +the convenience of the public. + +"At nine o'clock the candidate began his lectures and experiments, and +now _I_ was one of _his_ auditory. + +"It was remarkable to hear and look at! The chief part of it went over +my head and into the parson's, as one says. Can it be possible, +thought I, that we human beings can find out such things? in that +case, we must also be able to hold out longer, before we are put into +the earth. It was merely small miracles that he performed, and yet all +as easy as an old stocking--quite from nature. In the time of Moses +and the prophets, such a polytechnic candidate would have been one of +the wise men of the land, and in the Middle Ages he would have been +burnt. I could not sleep the whole night, and as I gave a +representation the next evening, and the candidate was there again, I +got into a real merry humour. + +"I have heard of an actor, who when playing the lovers' parts, only +thought of one of the spectators; he played for _her_ alone, and +forgot all the rest of the house; the polytechnic candidate was my +_her_, my only spectator, for whom I played. And when the performance +was over, all the puppets were called forward, and I was invited by +the polytechnic candidate to take a glass of wine with him; and he +spoke about my comedy, and I of his science; and I believe we each +derived equal pleasure from the other. But yet I had the advantage, +for there was so much in his performance that he could not account +for: as for instance, that a piece of iron which falls through a +spiral line, becomes magnetic,--well, how is that? The spirit comes +over it, but whence does it come from? it is just as with the human +beings of this world, I think; our Lord lets them fall through the +spiral line of time, and the spirit comes over them--and there stands +a Napoleon, a Luther, or a similar person. + +"'All nature is a series of miracles,' said the candidate, 'but we are +so accustomed to them that we call them things of every-day life.' And +he spoke and he explained, so that it seemed at last as if he lifted +my scull, and I honestly confessed, that if I were not an old fellow, +I would go directly to the polytechnic school, and learn to examine +the world in the summer, although I was one of the happiest of men. + +"'One of the happiest!' said he, and it was just as if he tasted it. +'Are you happy?' 'Yes!' said I, 'I am happy, and I am welcome in all +the towns I come to with my company! There is certainly one wish, that +comes now and then like a night-mare, which rides on my good-humour, +and that is to be a theatrical manager for a living company--a company +of real men and women.' + +"'You wish to have your puppets animated; you would have them become +real actors and actresses,' said he, 'and yourself be the manager? you +then think that you would be perfectly happy?' + +"Now he did not think so, but I thought so; and we talked for and +against; and we were just as near in our opinions as before. But we +clinked our glasses together, and the wine was very good; but there +was witchcraft in it, or else the short and the long of the story +would be--that I was intoxicated. + +"That I was not; my eyes were quite clear; it was as if there was +sunshine in the room, and it shone out of the face of the polytechnic +candidate, so that I began to think of the old gods in my youth, and +when they went about in the world. And I told him so, and then he +smiled, and I durst have sworn that he was a disguised god, or one of +the family!--And he was so--my first wish was to be fulfilled: the +puppets become living beings and I the manager of men and women. We +drank that it should be so! he put all my puppets in the wooden chest, +fastened it on my back, and then let me fall through a spiral line. I +can still hear how I came down, slap! I lay on the floor, that is +quite sure and certain, and the whole company sprang out of the chest. +The spirit had come over us all together; all the puppets had become +excellent artists--they said so themselves--and I was the manager. +Everything was in order for the first representation; the whole +company must speak with me, and the public also. The female dancer +said, that if she did not stand on one leg, the house would be in an +uproar: she was master of the whole and would be treated as such. + +"She who played the queen, would also be treated as a queen when off +the stage, or else she should get out of practice, and he who was +employed to come in with a letter made himself as important as the +first lover. 'For,' said he, 'the small are of just as much importance +as the great, in an artistic whole.' Then the hero demanded that the +whole of his part should only be retorts on making his exit, for these +the public applauded; the prima donna would only play in a red light, +for that suited her best--she would not be blue: they were all like +flies in a bottle, and I was also in the bottle--for I was the +manager. I lost my breath, my head was quite dizzy! I was as miserable +as a man can be; it was a new race of beings I had come amongst; I +wished that I had them altogether again in the chest, that I had never +been a manager: I told them that they were in fact only puppets, and +so they beat me to death. That was my feeling! + +"I lay on the bed in my chamber; but how I had come there from the +polytechnic candidate, he must know best--for I do not. The moon shone +in on the floor where the puppet-chest lay upset, and all the puppets +spread about--great and small, the whole lot. But I was not floored! I +sprang out of bed, and threw them all into the chest; some on their +heads, and some on their legs; I smacked the lid down and sat myself +upon it: it was worth painting, can't you conceive it? I can! 'Now you +shall be there!' said I, 'and I will never more wish that you may +become flesh and blood!' I was so glad; I was the happiest man +alive--the polytechnic candidate had tried me! I sat in perfect bliss, +and fell asleep on the chest; and in the morning--it was, properly +speaking, at noon, for I slept so very long that morning--I sat there +still, happy and edified--I saw that my previous and only wish had +been stupid. I inquired for the polytechnic candidate, but he was +gone, like the Greek and Roman gods. + +"And from that time I have been the happiest man alive. I am a +fortunate manager; my company does not argue with me, neither does the +public; they are amused to their heart's content, and I can myself put +all my pieces nicely together. I take the best parts out of all sorts +of comedies that I choose, and no one troubles himself about it. +Pieces that are now despised at the large theatres, but which thirty +years ago the public ran to see, and cried over--those pieces I now +make use of. I now present them before the young folks; and the young +folks--they cry just as their fathers and mothers used to do. I give +'Johanna Montfakon' and 'Dyveke,' but abbreviated; for the little +folks do not like long, twaddling love-stories. They must have it +unfortunate--but it must be brief. Now that I have travelled through +Denmark, both to the right and left, I know everybody and am known +again. Now I have come to Sweden, and if I am successful and gain much +money, I will be a Scandinavian, if the humour hold; and this I tell +you, as you are my countryman." + +And I, as his countryman, naturally tell it again--only for the sake +of telling it. + + + + +THE "SKJÄRGAARDS." + + * * * * * + +The canal voyage through Sweden goes at first constantly upwards, +through elvs and lakes, forests and rocky land. From the heights we +look down on vast extents of forest-land and large waters, and by +degrees the vessel sinks again down through mountain torrents. At Mem +we are again down by the salt fiord: a solitary tower raises its head +between the remains of low, thick walls--it is the ruins of Stegeberg. +The coast is covered to a great extent with dark, melancholy forests, +which enclose small grass-grown valleys. The screaming sea-gulls fly +around our vessel; we are by the Baltic; we feel the fresh sea-breeze: +it blows as in the times of the ancient heroes, when the sea-kings, +sons of high-born fathers, exercised their deeds here. The same sea's +surface then appeared to them as now to us, with its numberless isles, +which lie strewed about here in the water by thousands along the whole +coast. The depth of water between the rocky isles and the solid land +is that we call "The Skjärgaards:" their waters flow into each other +with varying splendour. We see it in the sunshine, and it is like a +large English landscape garden; but the greensward plain is here the +deep sea, the flower-beds in it are rocks and reefs, rich in firs and +pines, oaks and bushes. Mark how, when the wind blows from the east, +and the sea breaks over sunken rocks and is dashed back again in spray +from the cliffs, your limbs feel--even through the ship on which you +stand--the power of the sea: you are lifted as if by supernatural +hands. + +We rush on against wind and sea, as if it were the sea-god's snorting +horse that bore us; from Skjärgaard to Skjärgaard. The signal-gun is +fired, and the pilot comes from that solitary wooden house. Sometimes +we look upon the open sea, sometimes we glide again in between dark, +stony islands; they lie like gigantic monsters in the water: one has +the form of the tortoise's arched shell, another has the elephant's +back and rough grey colour. Mouldering, light grey rocks indicate that +the wind and weather past centuries has lashed over them. + +We now approach larger rocky islands, and the huge, grey, broken rocks +of the main land, where dwarfish pine woods grow in a continual combat +with the blast; the Skjärgaards sometimes become only a narrow canal, +sometimes an extensive lake strewed with small islets, all of stone, +and often only a mere block of stone, to which a single little +fir-tree clings fast: screaming sea-gulls flutter around the +land-marks that are set up; and now we see a single farm-house, whose +red-painted sides shine forth from the dark background. A group of +cows lies basking in the sun on the stony surface, near a little +smiling pasture, which appears to have been cultivated here or cut out +of a meadow in Scania. How solitary must it not be to live on that +little island! Ask the boy who sits there by the cattle, he will be +able to tell us. "It is lively and merry here," says he. "The day is +so long and light, the seal sits out there on the stone and barks in +the early morning hour, and all the steamers from the canal must pass +here. I know them all; and when the sun goes down in the evening, it +is a whole history to look into the clouds over the land: there stand +mountains with palaces, in silver and in gold, in red and in blue; +sailing dragons with golden crowns, or an old giant with a beard down +to his waist--altogether of clouds, and they are always changing. + +"The storms come on in the autumn, and then there is often much +anxiety when father is out to help ships in distress; but one becomes, +as it were, a new being. + +"In winter the ice is locked fast and firm, and we drive from island +to island and to the main land; and if the bear or the wolf pays us a +visit we take his skin for a winter covering: it is warm in the room +there, and they read and tell stories about old times!" + +Yes, old Time, how thou dost unfold thyself with remembrances of these +very Skjärgaards--old Time which belonged to the brave. These waters, +these rocky isles and strands, saw heroes more greatly active than +actively good: they swung the axe to give the mortal blow, or as they +called it, "the whining Jetteqvinde."[E] + +[Footnote E: Giantess.] + +Here came the Vikings with their ships: on the headland yonder they +levied provisions; the grazing cattle were slaughtered and borne away. +Ye mouldering cliffs, had ye but a tongue, ye might tell us about the +duels with the two-handed sword--about the deeds of the giants. Ye saw +the hero hew with the sword, and cast the javelin: his left hand was +as cunning as his right The sword moved so quickly in the air that +there seemed to be three. Ye saw him, when he in all his martial array +sprang forwards and backwards, higher than he himself was tall, and if +he sprang into the sea he swam like a whale. Ye saw the two +combatants: the one darted his javelin, the other caught it in the +air, and cast it back again, so that it pierced through shield and man +down into the earth. Ye saw warriors with sharp swords and angry +hearts; the sword was struck downwards so as to cut the knee, out the +combatant sprang into the air, and the sword whizzed under his feet. +Mighty Sagas from the olden times! Mouldering rocks, could ye but tell +us of these things! + +Ye, deep waters, bore the Vikings' ships, and when the strong in +battle lifted the iron anchor and cast it against the enemy's vessel, +so that the planks were rent asunder, ye poured your dark heavy seas +into the hold, so that the bark sank. The wild _Berserk_ who with +naked breast stood against his enemy's blows, mad as a dog, howling +like a bear, tearing his shield asunder, rushing to the bottom of the +sea here, and fetching up stones, which ordinary men could not +raise--history peoples these waters, these cliffs for us! A future +poet will conjure them to this Scandinavian Archipelago, chisel the +true forms out of the old Sagas, the bold, the rude, the greatness and +imperfections of the time, in their habits as they lived. + +They rise again for us on yonder island, where the wind is whistling +through the young fir wood. The house is of beams, roofed with bark; +the smoke from the fire on the broad stone in the hall, whirls through +the air-hole, near which stands the cask of mead; the cushions lie on +the bench before the closed bedsteads; deer-skins hang over the balk +walls, ornamented with shields, helmets, and armour. Effigies of gods, +carved, on wooden poles, stand before the high seat where the noble +Viking sits, a high-born father's youngest son, great in fame, but +still greater in deeds; the skjalds (bards) and foster-brothers sit +nearest to him. They defended the coasts of their countrymen, and the +pious women; they fetched wheat and honey from England, they went to +the White Sea for sables and furs--their adventures are related in +song. We see the old man ride in rich clothing, with gloves sewn with +golden thread, and with a hat brought from Garderige; we see the youth +with a golden fillet around his brow; we see him at the _Thing_; we +see him in battle and in play, where the best is he that can cut off +the other's eyebrows without scratching the skin, or causing a wink +with the eyes, on pain of losing his station. The woman sits in the +log-house at her loom, and in the late moonlight nights the spirits of +the fallen come and sit down around the fire, where they shake the +wet, dripping clothes; but the serf sleeps in the ashes, and on the +kitchen bench, and dreams that he dips his bread in the fat soup, and +licks his fingers. + +Thou future poet, thou wilt call forth the vanished forms from the +Sagas, thou wilt people these islands, and let us glide past these +reminiscences of the olden time with the mind full of them; clearly +and truly wilt thou let us glide, as we now with the power of steam +fly past that firmly standing scenery, the swelling sea, rocks and +reefs, the main land, and wood-grown islands. + +We are already past Braavigen, where numberless ships from the +northern kingdoms lay, when Upsala's King, Sigurd Ring, came, +challenged by Harald Hildetand, who, old and grey, feared to die on a +sick bed, and would fall in battle; and the mainland thundered like +the plains of Marathon beneath the tramp of horses' hoofs during the +battle:[F] bards and female warriors surrounded the Danish King. The +blind old man raised himself high in his chariot, gave his horse free +rein, and hewed his way. Odin himself had due reverence paid to +Hildetand's bones; and the pile was kindled, and the King laid on it, +and Sigurd conjured all to cast gold and weapons, the most valuable +they possessed, into the fire; and the bards sang to it, and the +female warriors struck the spears on the bright shields. Upsala's +Lord, Sigurd Ring, became King of Sweden and Denmark: so says the +Saga, which sounded over the land and water from these coasts. + +[Footnote F: The battle of Braavalla.] + +The memorials of olden times pass swiftly through our thoughts; we fly +past the scene of manly exercises and great deeds in the olden +times--the ship cleaves the mighty waters with its iron paddles, from +Skjärgaard to Skjärgaard. + + + + +STOCKHOLM. + + * * * * * + +We cast runes[G] here on the paper, and from the white ground the +picture of Birger Jarl's six hundred years old city rises before thee. + +[Footnote G: "To cast runes" was, in the olden time, to exercise +witchcraft. When the apple, with ciphers cut in it, rolled into the +maiden's lap, her heart and mind were infatuated.] + +The runes roll, you see! Wood-grown rocky isles appear in the light, +grey morning mist; numberless flocks of wild birds build their nests +in safety here, where the fresh waters of the Mälaren rush into the +salt sea. The Viking's ship comes; King Agna stands by the prow--he +brings as booty the King of Finland's daughter. The oak-tree spreads +its branches over their bridal chamber; at daybreak the oak-tree bears +King Agna, hanged in his long golden chain: that is the bride's work, +and the ship sails away again with her and the rescued Fins. + +The clouds drive past--the years too. + +Hunters and fishermen erect themselves huts;--it is again deserted +here, where the sea-birds alone have their homes. What is it that so +frightens these numberless flocks? the wild duck and sea-gull fly +screaming about, there is a hammering and driving of piles. Oluf +Skötkonge has large beams bored down into the ground, and strong iron +chains fastened across the stream: "Thou art caught, Oluf +Haraldson,[H] caught with the ships and crews, with which thou didst +devastate the royal city Sigtuna; thou canst not escape from the +closed Mälar lake!" + +[Footnote H: Afterwards called Saint Oluf.] + +It is but the work of one night; the same night when Oluf Hakonson, +with iron and with fire, burst his onward way through the stubborn +ground; before the day breaks the waters of the Mälar roll there; the +Norwegian prince, Oluf sailed through the royal channel he had cut in +the east. The stockades, where the iron chains hang, must bear the +defences; the citizens from the burnt-down Sigtuna erect themselves a +bulwark here, and build their new, little town on stock-holms.[I] + +[Footnote I: Stock, signifies bulks, or beams; holms, i.e. islets, +or river islands; hence Stockholm.] + +The clouds go, and the years go! Do you see how the gables grow? there +rise towers and forts. Birger Jarl makes the town of Stockholm a +fortress; the warders stand with bow and arrow on the walls, +reconnoitring over lake and fjord, over Brunkaberg sand-ridge. There +were the sand-ridge slopes upwards from Rörstrand's Lake they build +Clara cloister, and between it and the town a street springs up: +several more appear; they form an extensive city, which soon becomes +the place of contest for different partisans, where Ladelaas's sons +plant the banner, and where the German Albrecht's retainers burn the +Swedes alive within its walls. Stockholm is, however, the heart of the +kingdom: that the Danes know well; that the Swedes know too, and there +is strife and bloody combating. Blood flows by the executioner's hand, +Denmark's Christian the Second, Sweden's executioner, stands in the +market-place. + +Roll, ye runes! see over Brunkaberg sand-ridge, where the Swedish +people conquered the Danish host, there they raise the May-pole: it is +midsummer-eve--Gustavus Vasa makes his entry into Stockholm. + +Around the May-pole there grow fruit and kitchen-gardens, houses and +streets; they vanish in flames, they rise again; that gloomy fortress +towards the tower is transformed into a palace, and the city stands +magnificently with towers and draw-bridges. There grows a town by +itself on the sand-ridge, a third springs up on the rock towards the +south; the old walls fall at Gustavus Adolphus's command; the three +towns are one, large and extensive, picturesquely varied with old +stone houses, wooden shops, and grass-roofed huts; the sun shines on +the brass balls of the towers, and a forest of masts stands in that +secure harbour. + +Rays of beauty shoot forth into the world from Versailles' painted +divinity; they reach the Mälar's strand into Tessin's[J] palace, where +art and science are invited as guests with the King, Gustavus the +Third, whose effigy cast in bronze is raised on the strand before the +splendid palace--it is in our times. The acacia shades the palace's +high terrace on whose broad balustrades flowers send forth their +perfume from Saxon porcelain; variegated silk curtains hang half-way +down before the large glass windows; the floors are polished smooth as +a mirror, and under the arch yonder, where the roses grow by the wall, +the Endymion of Greece lives eternally in marble. As a guard of honour +here, stand Fogelberg's Odin, and Sergei's Amor and Psyche. + +[Footnote J: The architect Tessin.] + +We now descend the broad, royal staircase, and before it, where, in +by-gone times, Oluf Skötkonge stretched the iron chains across the +mouth of the Mälar Lake, there is now a splendid bridge with shops +above and the Streamparterre below: there we see the little steamer +'Nocken,'[K] steering its way, filled with passengers from Diurgarden +to the Streamparterre. And what is the Streamparterre? The Neapolitans +would tell us: It is in miniature--quite in miniature--the +Stockholmers' "Villa Reale." The Hamburgers would say: It is in +miniature--quite in miniature--the Stockholmers' "Jungfernstieg." + +[Footnote K: The water-sprite.] + +It is a very little semi-circular island, on which the arches of the +bridge rest; a garden full of flowers and trees, which we overlook +from the high parapet of the bridge. Ladies and gentlemen promenade +there; musicians play, families sit there in groups, and take +refreshments in the vaulted halls under the bridge, and look out +between the green trees over the open water, to the houses and +mansions, and also to the woods and rocks: we forget that we are in +the midst of the city. + +It is the bridge here that unites Stockholm with Nordmalen, where the +greatest part of the fashionable world live, in two long Berlin-like +streets; yet amongst all the great houses we will only visit one, and +that is the theatre. + +We will go on the stage itself--it has an historical signification. +Here, by the third side-scene from the stage-lights, to the right, as +we look down towards the audience, Gustavus the Third was assassinated +at a masquerade; and he was borne into that little chamber there, +close by the scene, whilst all the outlets were closed, and the motley +group of harlequins, polichinellos, wild men, gods and goddesses with +unmasked faces, pale and terrified crept together; the dancing +ballet-farce had become a real tragedy. + +This theatre is Jenny Lind's childhood's home. Here she has sung in +the choruses when a little girl; here she first made her appearance in +public, and was cheeringly encouraged when a child; here, poor and +sorrowful, she has shed tears, when her voice left her, and sent up +pious prayers to her Maker. From hence the world's nightingale flew +out over distant lands, and proclaimed the purity and holiness of art. + +How beautiful it is to look out from the window up here, to look over +the water and the Streamparterre to that great, magnificent palace, to +Ladegaards land, with the large barracks, to Skipholmen and the rocks +that rise straight up from the water, with Södermalm's gardens, +villas, streets, and church cupolas between the green trees: the ships +lie there together, so many and so close, with their waving flags. The +beautiful, that a poet's eye sees, the world may also see! Roll, ye +runes! + +There sketches the whole varied prospect; a rainbow extends its arch +like a frame around it. Only see! it is sunset, the sky becomes +cloudy over Södermalm, the grey sky becomes darker and darker--a +pitch-dark ground--and on it rests a double rainbow. The houses are +illumined by so strong a sunlight that the walls seem transparent; +the linden-trees in the gardens, which have lately put forth their +leaves, appear like fresh, young woods; the long, narrow windows in +the Gothic buildings on the island shine as if it were a festal +illumination, and between the dark firs there falls a lustre from the +panes behind them as of a thousand flames, as if the trees were +covered with flickering--Christmas lights; the colours of the rainbow +become stronger and stronger, the background darker and darker, and +the white sun-lit sea-gulls fly past. + +The rainbow has placed one foot high up on Södermalm's churchyard. +Where the rainbow touches the earth, there lie treasures buried, is a +popular belief here. The rainbow rests on a grave up there: Stagnalius +rests here, Sweden's most gifted singer, so young and so unhappy; and +in the same grave lies Nicander, he who sang about King Enzio, and of +"Lejonet i Oken;"[L] who sang with a bleeding heart: the fresh +vine-leaf cooled the wound and killed the singer. Peace be with his +dust--may his songs live for ever! We go to your grave where the +rainbow points. The view from here is splendid. The houses rise +terrace-like in the steep, paved streets; the foot-passengers can, +however, shorten the way by going through narrow lanes, and up steps +made of thick beams, and always with a prospect downwards of the +water, of the rocks and green trees! It is delightful to dwell here, +it is healthy to dwell here, but it is not genteel, as it is by +Brunkaberg's sand-ridge, yet it will become so: Stockholm's "Strada +Balbi" will one day arise on Södermalm's rocky ground. + +[Footnote L: "The Lion in the desert;" i.e. Napoleon.] + +We stand up here. What other city in the world has a better prospect +over the salt fjord, over the fresh lake, over towers, cupolas, +heaped-up houses, and a palace, which King Enzio himself might have +built, and round about the dark, gloomy forests with oaks, pines and +firs, so Scandinavian, dreaming in the declining sun? It is twilight; +the night comes on, the lamps are lighted in the city below, the stars +are kindled in the firmament above, and the tower of Redderholm's +church rises aloft towards the starry space. The stars shine through +there; it is as if cut in lace, but every thread is of cast-iron and +of the thickness of beams. + +We go down there, and in there, in the stilly eve.--A world of spirits +reigns within. See, in the vaulted isles, on carved wooden horses, +sits armour, that was once borne by Magnus Ladelaas, Christian the +Second, and Charles the Ninth. A thousand flags that once waved to the +peal of music and the clang of arms, to the darted javelin and the +cannon's roar, moulder away here: they hang in long rags from the +staff, and the staves lie cast aside, where the flag has long since +become dust. Almost all the Kings of Sweden slumber in silver and +copper coffins within these walls. From the altar aisle we look +through the open-grated door, in between piled-up drums and hanging +flags: here is preserved a bloody tunic, and in the coffin are the +remains of Gustavus Adolphus. Who is that dead opposite neighbour in +the chapel, across there in the other side-aisle of the church? There, +below a glass lid, lies a dress shot through, and on the floor stands +a pair of long, thick boots--they belonged to the hero-King, the +wanderer, Charles XII., whose realm is now this narrow coffin. + +How sacred it is here under this vaulted roof! The mightiest men of +centuries are gathered together here, perishable as these moth-eaten +flags--mute and yet so eloquent. And without there is life and +activity: the world goes on in its old course; generations change in +the old houses; the houses change--yet Stockholm is always the heart +of Sweden, Birger's city, whose features are continually renewed, +continually beautified. + + + + +DIURGAERDEN. + + * * * * * + +Diurgaerden is a large piece of land made into a garden by our Lord +himself. Come with us over there. We are still in the city, but before +the palace lie the broad hewn stone stairs, leading down to the water, +where the Dalkulls--i.e., the Dalecarlian women--stand and ring with +metal bells. On board! here are boats enough to choose amongst, all +with wheels, which the Dalkulls turn. In coarse white linen, red +stockings, with green heels, and singularly thick-soled shoes, with +the upper-leather right up the shin-bone, stands the Dalkull; she has +ornamented the boat, that now shoots away, with green branches. Houses +and streets rise and unfold themselves; churches and gardens start +forth; they stand on Södermalm high above the tops of the ships' +masts. The scenery reminds one of the Bhosphorus and Pera; the motley +dress of the Dalkulls is quite Oriental--and listen! the wind bears +melancholy Skalmeie tones out to us. Two poor Dalecarlians are playing +music on the quay; they are the same drawn-out, melancholy tones that +are played by the Bulgarian musicians in the streets of Pera. We stept +out, and are in the Diurgarden. + +What a crowd of equipages pass in rows through the broad avenue! and +what a throng of well-dressed pedestrians of all classes! One thinks +of the garden of the Villa Borghese, when, at the time of the wine +feast, the Roman people and strangers take the air there. We are in +the Borghese garden; we are by the Bosphorus, and yet far in the +North. The pine-tree rises large and free; the birch droops its +branches, as the weeping willow alone has power to do--and what +magnificently grand oaks! The pine-trees themselves are mighty trees, +beautiful to the painter's eye; splendid green grass plains lie +stretched before us, and the fiord rolls its green, deep waters close +past, as if it were a river. Large ships with swelling sails, the one +high above the other, steamers and boats, come and go in varied +numbers. + +Come! let us up to Byström's villa; it lies on the stony cliff up +there, where the large oak-trees stand in their stubborn grandeur: we +see from here the whole tripartite city, Södermalm, Nordmalm and the +island with that huge palace. It is delightful, the building here on +this rock, and the building stands, and that almost entirely of +marble, a "Casa santa d'Italia," as if borne through the air here in +the North. The walls within are painted in the Pompeian style, but +heavy: there is nothing genial. Round about stand large marble figures +by Byström, which have not, however, the soul of antiquity. Madonna is +encumbered by her heavy marble drapery, the girl with the +flower-garland is an ugly young thing, and on seeing Hero with the +weeping Cupid, one thinks of a _pose_ arranged by a ballet-master. + +Let us, however, see what is pretty. The little Cupid-seller is +pretty, and the stone is made as flexible as life in the waists of the +bathing-women. One of them, as she steps out, feels the water with her +feet, and we feel, with her, a sensation that the water is cold. The +coolness of the marble-hall realizes this feeling. Let us go out into +the sunshine, and up to the neighbouring cliff, which rises above the +mansions and houses. Here the wild roses shoot forth from the crevices +in the rock; the sunbeams fall prettily between the splendid pines and +the graceful birches, upon the high grass before the colossal bronze +bust of Bellmann. This place was the favourite one of that +Scandinavian improvisatore. Here he lay in the grass, composed and +sang his anacreontic songs, and here, in the summer-time, his annual +festival is held. We will raise his altar here in the red evening +sunlight. It is a flaming bowl, raised high on the jolly tun, and it +is wreathed with roses. Morits tries his hunting-horn, that which was +Oberon's horn in the inn-parlour, and everything danced, from Ulla to +"Mutter paa Toppen:"[M] they stamped with their feet and clapped their +hands, and clinked the pewter lid of the ale-tankard; "hej kara Sjæl! +fukta din aske!" (Hey! dear soul! moisten your clay). + +[Footnote M: The landlady of an alehouse.] + +A Teniers' picture became animated, and still lives in song. Morits +blows the horn on Bellmann's place around the flowing bowl, and whole +crowds dance in a circle, young and old; the carriages too, horses and +waggons, filled bottles and clattering tankards: the Bellmann +dithyrambic clangs melodiously; humour and low life, sadness--and +amongst others, about + + "----hur ögat gret + Ved de Cypresser, som ströddes."[N] + +[Footnote N: How the eyes wept by the cypresses that were strewn +around.] + +Painter, seize thy brush and palette and paint the Maenade--but not +her who treads the winebag, whilst her hair flutters in the wind, and +she sings ecstatic songs. No, but the Maenade that ascends from +Bellmann's steaming bowl is the Punch's Anadyomene--she, with the high +heels to the red shoes, with rosettes on her gown and with fluttering +veil and mantilla--fluttering, far too fluttering! She plucks the rose +of poetry from her breast and sets it in the ale-can's spout; clinks +with the lid, sings about the clang of the hunting horn, about +breeches and old shoes and all manner of stuff. Yet we are sensible +that he is a true poet; we see two human eyes shining, that announce +to us the human heart's sadness and hope. + + + + +A STORY. + + * * * * * + +All the apple-trees in the garden had sprung out. They had made haste +to get blossoms before they got green leaves; and all the ducklings +were out in the yard--and the cat too! He was, so to speak, permeated +by the sunshine; he licked it from his own paws; and if one looked +towards the fields, one saw the corn standing so charmingly green! And +there was such a twittering and chirping amongst all the small birds, +just as if it were a great feast. And that one might indeed say it +was, for it was Sunday. The bells rang, and people in their best +clothes went to church, and looked so pleased. Yes, there was +something so pleasant in everything: it was indeed so fine and warm a +day, that one might well say: "Our Lord is certainly unspeakably good +towards us poor mortals!" + +But the clergyman stood in the pulpit in the church, and spoke so loud +and so angrily! He said that mankind was so wicked, and that God would +punish them for it, and that when they died, the wicked went down into +hell, where they would burn for ever; and he said that their worm +would never die, and their fire never be extinguished, nor would they +ever get rest and peace! + +It was terrible to hear, and he said it so determinedly. He described +hell to them as a pestilential hole, where all the filthiness of the +world flowed together. There was no air except the hot, sulphurous +flames; there was no bottom; they sank and sank into everlasting +silence! It was terrible, only to hear about it; but the clergyman +said it right honestly out of his heart, and all the people in the +church were quite terrified. But all the little birds outside the +church sang so pleasantly, and so pleased, and the sun shone so +warm:--it was as if every little flower said: "God is so wondrous good +to us altogether!" Yes, outside it was not at all as the clergyman +preached. + +In the evening, when it was bed-time, the clergyman saw his wife sit +so still and thoughtful. + +"What ails you?" said he to her. + +"What ails me?" she replied; "what ails me is, that I cannot collect +my thoughts rightly--that I cannot rightly understand what you said; +that there were so many wicked, and that they should burn +eternally!--eternally, alas, how long! I am but a sinful being; but I +could not bear the thought in my heart to allow even the worst sinner +to burn for ever. And how then should our Lord permit it? he who is so +wondrously good, and who knows how evil comes both from without and +within. No, I cannot believe it, though you say it." + + * * * * * + +It was autumn. The leaves fell from the trees; the grave, severe +clergyman sat by the bedside of a dying person; a pious believer +closed her eyes--it was the clergyman's own wife. + +"If any one find peace in the grave, and grace from God, then it is +thou," said the clergyman, and he folded her hands, and read a psalm +over the dead body. + +And she was borne to the grave: two heavy tears trickled down that +stern man's cheeks; and it was still and vacant in the parsonage; the +sunshine within was extinguished:--she was gone. + +It was night. A cold wind blew over the clergyman's head; he opened +his eyes, and it was just as if the moon shone into his room. But the +moon did not shine. It was a figure which stood before his bed--he saw +the spirit of his deceased wife. She looked on him so singularly +afflicted; it seemed as though she would say something. + +The man raised himself half erect in bed, and stretched his arms out +towards her. + +"Not even to thee is granted everlasting peace. Thou dost suffer; +thou, the best, the most pious!" + +And the dead bent her head in confirmation of his words, and laid her +hand on her breast. + +"And can I procure you peace in the grave?" + +"Yes!" it sounded in his ear. + +"And how?" + +"Give me a hair, but a single hair of the head of that sinner, whose +fire will never be quenched; that sinner whom God will cast down into +hell, to everlasting torment." + +"Yes; so easily thou canst be liberated, thou pure, thou pious one!" +said he. + +"Then follow me," said the dead; "it is so granted us. Thou canst be +by my side, wheresoever thy thoughts will. Invisible to mankind, we +stand in their most secret places; but thou must point with a sure +hand to the one destined to eternal punishment, and ere the cock crow +he must be found." + +And swift, as if borne on the wings of thought, they were in the great +city, and the names of the dying sinners shone from the walls of the +houses in letters of fire: "Arrogance, Avarice, Drunkenness, +Voluptuousness;" in short, sin's whole seven-coloured arch. + +"Yes, in there, as I thought it, as I knew it," said the clergyman, +"are housed those condemned to eternal fire." + +And they stood before the splendidly-illumined portico, where the +broad stairs were covered with carpets and flowers, and the music of +the dance sounded through the festal saloons. The porter stood there +in silk and velvet, with a large silver-headed stick. + +"_Our_ ball can match with the King's," said he, and turned towards +the crowd in the street--his magnificent thoughts were visible in his +whole person. "Poor devils! who stare in at the portico, you are +altogether ragamuffins, compared to me!" + +"Arrogance," said the dead; "dost thou see him?" + +"Him!" repeated the clergyman; "he is a simpleton--a fool only, and +will not be condemned to eternal fire and torment." + +"A fool only," sounded through the whole house of Arrogance. + +And they flew into the four bare walls of Avarice, where skinny, +meagre, shivering with cold, hungry and thirsty, the old man clung +fast with all his thoughts to his gold. They saw how he, as in a +fever, sprang from his wretched pallet, and took a loose stone out of +the wall. There lay gold coins in a stocking-foot; he fumbled at his +ragged tunic, in which gold coins were sewed fast, and his moist +fingers trembled. + +"He is ill: it is insanity; encircled by fear and evil dreams." + +And they flew away in haste, and stood by the criminals' wooden couch, +where they slept side by side in long rows. One of them started up +from his sleep like a wild animal, and uttered a hideous scream: he +struck his companion with his sharp elbow, and the latter turned +sleepily round. + +"Hold your tongue, you beast, and sleep! this is your way every night! +Every night!" he repeated; "yes, you come every night, howling and +choking me! I have done one thing or another in a passion; I was born +with a passionate temper, and it has brought me in here a second time; +but if I have done wrong, so have I also got my punishment. But one +thing I have not confessed. When I last went out from here, and passed +by my master's farm, one thing and another boiled up in me, and I +directly stroked a lucifer against the wall: it came a little too near +the thatch, and everything was burnt--hot-headedness came over it, +just as it comes over me, I helped to save the cattle and furniture. +Nothing living was burnt, except a flock of pigeons: they flew into +the flames, and the yard dog. I had not thought of the dog. I could +hear it howl, and that howl I always hear yet, when I would sleep; and +if I do get to sleep, the dog comes also--so large and hairy! He lies +down on me, howls, and strangles me! Do but hear what I am telling +you. Snore--yes, that you can--snore the whole night through, and I +not even a quarter of an hour!" + +And the blood shone from the eyes of the fiery one; he fell on his +companion, and struck him in the face with his clenched fist. + +"Angry Mads has become mad again!" resounded on all sides, and the +other rascals seized hold of him, wrestled with him, and bent him +double, so that his head was forced between his legs, where they bound +it fast, so that the blood was nearly springing out of his eyes, and +all the pores. + +"You will kill him!" said the clergyman,--"poor unfortunate!" and as +he stretched his hands out over him, who had already suffered too +severely, in order to prevent further mischief, the scene changed. + +They flew through rich halls, and through poor chambers; +voluptuousness and envy, all mortal sins strode past them. A recording +angel read their sin and their defence; this was assuredly little for +God, for God reads the heart; He knows perfectly the evil that comes +within it and from without, He, grace, all-loving kindness. The hand +of the clergyman trembled: he did not venture to stretch it out, to +pluck a hair from the sinner's head. And the tears streamed down from +his eyes, like the waters of _grace_ and love, which quenched the +eternal fire of hell. + +The cock then crowed. + +"Merciful God! Thou wilt grant her that peace in the grave which I +have not been able to redeem." + +"That I now have!" said the dead; "it was thy hard words, thy dark, +human belief of God and his creatures, which drove me to thee! Learn +to know mankind; even in the bad there is a part of God--a part that +will conquer and quench the fire of hell." + +And a kiss was pressed on the clergyman's lips:--it shone around him. +God's clear, bright sun shone into the chamber, where his wife, +living, mild, and affectionate, awoke him from a dream, sent from God! + + + + +UPSALA. + + * * * * * + +It is commonly said, that Memory is a young girl with light blue eyes. +Most poets say so; but we cannot always agree with most poets. To us +memory comes in quite different forms, all according to that land, or +that town to which she belongs. Italy sends her as a charming Mignon, +with black eyes and a melancholy smile, singing Bellini's soft, +touching songs. From Scotland Memory's sprite appears as a powerful +lad with bare knees; the plaid hangs over his shoulder, the +thistle-flower is fixed on his cap; Burns's songs then fill the air +like the heath-lark's song, and Scotland's wild thistle flowers +beautifully fragrant as the fresh rose. But now for Memory's sprite +from Sweden, from Upsala. He comes thence in the form of a student--at +least, he wears the Upsala student's white cap with the black rim. To +us it points out its home, as the Phrygian cap denotes Ganymede. + +It was in the year 1843, that the Danish students travelled to Upsala. +Young hearts met together; eyes sparkled: they laughed, they sang. +Young hearts are the future--the conquering future--in the beautiful, +true and good; it is so good that brothers should know and love each +other. Friendship's meeting is still annually remembered in the +palace-yard of Upsala, before the monument of Gustavus Vasa--by the +hurra! for Denmark, in warm-hearted compliment to me. + +Two summers afterwards, the visit was returned. The Swedish students +came to Copenhagen, and that they might there be known amongst the +multitude, the Upsala students wore a white cap with a black rim: this +cap is accordingly a memorial,--the sign of friendship's bridge over +that river of blood which once flowed between kindred nations. When +one meets in heart and spirit, a blissful seed is then sown. Memory's +sprite, come to us! we know thee by the cap from Upsala: be thou our +guide, and from our more southern home, after years and days, we will +make the voyage over again, quicker than if we flew in Doctor Faustus' +magic cloak. We are in Stockholm: we stand on the Ridderholm where the +steamers lie alongside the bulwarks: one of them sends forth clouds of +thick smoke from its chimney; the deck is crowded with passengers, and +the white cap with the black rim is not wanting. + +We are off to Upsala; the paddles strike the waters of the Mälar, and +we shoot away from the picturesque city of Stockholm. The whole +voyage, direct to Upsala, is a kaleidescope on a large scale. It is +true, there is nothing of the magical in the scenery, but landscape +gives place to landscape, and clouds and sunshine refresh their +variegated beauty. The Mälar lake curves, is compressed, and widens +again: it is as if one passed from lake to lake through narrow canals +and broad rivers. Sometimes it appears as if the lake ended in small +rivulets between dark pines and rocks, when suddenly another large +lake, surrounded by corn fields and meadows, opens itself to view: the +light-green linden trees, which have just unfolded their leaves, shine +forth before the dark grey rocks. Again a new lake opens before us, +with islets, trees and red painted houses, and during the whole voyage +there is a lively arrival and departure of passengers, in flat +bottomed boats, which are nearly upset in the billowy wake of the +vessel. + +It appears most dangerous opposite to Sigtuna, Sweden's old royal +city: the lake is broad here; the waves rise as if they were the +waters of the ocean; the boats rock--it is fearful to look at! But +here there must be a calm; and Sigtuna, that little interesting town +where the old towers stand in ruins, like outposts along the rocks, +reflects itself in the water. + +We fly past! and now we are in Tyris rivulet! Part of a meadow is +flooded; a herd of horses become shy from the snorting of the +steamer's engine; they dash through the water in the meadow, and it +spurts up all over them. It glitters there between the trees on the +declivity: the Upsala students lie encamped there, and exercise +themselves in the use of arms. + +The rivulet forms a bay, and the high plain extends itself. We see old +Upsala's hills; we see Upsala's city with its church, which, like +Notre Dame, raises its stony arms towards heaven. The university rises +to the view, in appearance half palace and half barracks, and there +aloft, on the greensward-clothed bank, stands the old red-painted huge +palace with its towers. + +We stop at the bulwark near the arched bridge, and so go on shore. +Whither wilt thou conduct us first, thou our guide with the +white-and-black student's cap? Shall we go up to the palace, or to +Linnaeus's garden! or shall we go to the church-yard where the nettles +grow over Geier's and Törnro's graves? No, but to the young and the +living Upsala's life--the students. Thou tellest us about them; we +hear the heart's pulsations, and our hearts beat in sympathy! + +In the first year of the war between Denmark and the insurgents, many +a brave Upsala student left his quiet, comfortable home, and entered +the ranks with his Danish brothers. The Upsala students gave up their +most joyous festival--the May-day festival--and the money they at +other times used to contribute annually towards the celebration +thereof, they sent to the Danes, after the sum had been increased by +concerts which were given in Stockholm and Vesteraas. That +circumstance will not be forgotten in Denmark. + +Upsala student, thou art dear to us by thy disposition! thou art dear +to us from thy lively jests! We will mention a trait thereof. In +Upsala, it had become the fashion to be Hegelianers--that is to say, +always to interweave Hegel's philosophical terms in conversation. In +order to put down this practice, a few clever fellows took upon +themselves the task of hammering some of the most difficult technical +words into the memory of a humorous and commonly drunken country +innkeeper, at whose house many a _Sexa_ was often held; and the man +spoke Hegelianic in his mellow hours, and the effect was so absurd, +that the employment of philosophical scraps in his speech was +ridiculed, understood, and the nuisance abandoned. + +Beautiful songs resound as we approach: we hear Swedish, Norwegian and +Danish. The melody's varied beacon makes known to us where Upsala's +students are assembled. The song proceeds from the assembly-room--from +the tavern saloon, and like serenades in the silent evening, when a +young friend departs, or a dear guest is honoured. Glorious melodies! +ye enthral, so that we forget that the sun goes down, and the moon +rises. + + "Herre min Gud hvad din Månen lyser + Se, hvilken Glands ut ofver Land och Stad!" + +is now sung, and we see: + + "Högt opp i Slottet hvarenda ruta + Blixtrar some vore den en ädelsten."[O] + +[Footnote O: Lord, my God, how Thy moon shines! See what lustre over +land and city! High up in the palace every pane glistens as if it +were a gem.] + +Up thither then is our way! lead us, memory's sprite, into the palace, +the courteous governor of Upland's dwelling; mild glances greet us; we +see dear beings in a happy circle, and all the leading characters of +Upsala. We again see him whose cunning quickened our perceptions as to +the mysteries of vegetable life, so that even the toad-stool is +unveiled to us as a building more artfully constructed than the +labyrinths of the olden time. We see "The Flowers'" singer, he who led +us to "The Island of Bliss;" we meet with him whose popular lays are +borne on melodies into the world; his wife by his side. That quiet, +gentle woman with those faithful eyes is the daughter of Frithiof's +bard; we see noble men and women, ladies of the high nobility, with +sounding and significant family names with _silver_ and +_lilies_,--_stars_ and _swords_. + +Hark! listen to that lively song. Gunnar Wennerberg, Gluntarra's poet +and composer, sings his songs with Boronees,[P] and they acquire a +dramatic life and reality. + +[Footnote P: Gluntarra duets, by Gunnar Wennerberg.] + +How spiritual and enjoyable! one becomes happy here, one feels proud +of the age one lives in, happy in being distant from the horrible +tragedies that history speaks of within these walls. + +We can hear about them when the song is silent, when those friendly +forms disappear, and the festal lights are extinguished: from the +pages of history that tale resounds with a clang of horror. It was in +those times, which the many still call poetic--the romantic middle +ages--that bards sang of its most brilliant periods, and covered with +the radiance of their genius the sanguinary gulf of brutality and +superstition. Terror seizes us in Upsala's palace: we stand in the +vaulted hall, the wax tapers burn from the walls, and King Erik the +Fourteenth sits with Saul's dark despondency, with Cain's wild looks. +Niels Sture occupies his thoughts, the recollection of injustice +exercised against him lashes his conscience with scourges and +scorpions, as deadly terrible as they are revealed to us in the page +of history. + +King Erik the Fourteenth, whose gloomy distrust often amounted to +insanity, thought that the nobility aimed at his life. His favourite, +Goran Persson, found it to his advantage to strengthen him in this +belief. He hated most the popularly favoured race of the Stures, and +of them, the light-haired Niels Sture in particular; for Erik thought +that he had read in the stars that a man with light hair should hurl +him from the throne; and as the Swedish General after the lost battle +of Svarteaa, laid the blame on Niels Sture, Erik directly believed it, +yet dared not to act as he desired, but even gave Niels Sture royal +presents. Yet because he was again accused by one single person of +having checked the advance of the Swedish army at Bähüs, Erik invited +him to his palace at Svartsjö, gave him an honourable place at his +royal table, and let him depart in apparent good faith for Stockholm, +where, on his arrival, the heralds were ordered to proclaim in the +streets: "Niels Sture is a traitor to his country!" + +There Goran Persson and the German retainers seized him, and sat him +by force on the executioner's most miserable hack; struck him in the +face so that the blood streamed down, placed a tarred straw crown on +his head, and fastened a paper with derisive words, on the saddle +before him. They then let a row of hired beggar-boys and old +fish-wives go in couples before, and to the tail of the horse they +bound two fir-trees, the roots of which dragged on the ground and +swept the street after the traitor. Niels Sture exclaimed that he had +not deserved this treatment from his King and he begged the groom, who +went by his side, and had served him in the field of battle, to attest +the truth like an honest man; when they all shouted aloud, that he +suffered innocently, and had acted like a true Swede. But the +procession was driven forward through the streets without stopping, +and at night Niels Sture was conducted to prison. + +King Erik sits in his royal palace: he orders the torches and candles +to be lighted, but they are of no avail--his thoughts' scorpions sting +his soul. + +"I have again liberated Niels Sture," he mutters; "I have had placards +put up at every street-corner, and let the heralds proclaim that no +one shall dare to speak otherwise than well of Niels Sture! I have +sent him on an honourable mission to a foreign court, in order to sue +for me in marriage! He has had reparation enough made to him; but +never will he, nor his mighty race, forget the derision and shame I +have made him suffer. They will all betray me--kill me!" + +And King Erik commands that all Sture's kindred shall be made +prisoners. + +King Erik sits in his royal palace: the sun shines, but not into the +King's heart. Niels Sture enters the chamber with an answer of consent +from the royal bride, and the King shakes him by the hand, making fair +promises--and the following evening Niels Sture is a prisoner in +Upsala Palace. + +King Erik's gloomy mind is disturbed; he has no rest; he has no peace, +between fear and distrust. He hurries away to Upsala Palace; he will +make all straight and just again by marrying Niels Sture's sister. +Kneeling, he begs her imprisoned father's consent, and obtains it; but +in the very moment, the spirit of distrust is again upon him, and he +cries in his insanity: + +"But you will not forgive me the shame I brought on Niels!" + +At the same time, Goran Persson announced that King Erik's brother, +John, had escaped from his prison, and that a revolt was breaking out. +And Erik ran, with a sharp dagger into Niels Sture's prison. + +"Art thou there, traitor to thy country!" he shouted, and thrust the +dagger into Shire's arm; and Sture drew it out again, wiped off the +blood, kissed the hilt, and returned the weapon to the King, saying: + +"Be lenient with me, Sire; I have not deserved your disfavour." + +Erik laughed aloud. + +"Ho! ho! do but hear the villain! how he can pray for himself!" + +And the King's halberdier stuck his lance through Niels Sture's eye, +and thus gave him his death. Sture's blood cleaves to Upsala +Palace--to King Erik always and everlastingly. No church masses can +absolve his soul from that base crime. + +Let us now go to the church. + +A little flight of stairs in the side aisle leads us up to a vaulted +chamber, where kings' crowns and sceptres, taken from the coffins of +the dead, are deposited in wooden closets. Here, in the corner, hangs +Niels Sture's blood-covered clothes and knight's hat, on the outside +of which a small silk glove is fastened. It was his betrothed one's +dainty glove--that which he, knight-like, always bore. + +O, barbarous era! highly vaunted as you are in song, retreat, like the +storm-cloud, and be poetically beautiful to all who do not see thee in +thy true light. + +We descend from the little chamber, from the gold and silver of the +dead, and wander in the church's aisles. The cold marble tombs, with +shields of arms and names, awaken other, milder thoughts. + +The walls shine brightly, and with varied hues, in the great chapel +behind the high altar. The fresco paintings present to us the most +eventful circumstances of Gustavus Vasa's life. Here his clay +moulders, with that of his three consorts. Yonder, a work in marble, +by Sargel, solicits our attention: it adorns the burial-chapel of the +De Geers; and here, in the centre aisle, under that flat stone, rests +Linnaeus. In the side chapel, is his monument, erected by _amici_ and +_discipuli_: a sufficient sum was quickly raised for its erection, and +the King, Gustavus the Third, himself brought his royal gift. The +projector of the subscription then explained to him, that the purposed +inscription was, that the monument was erected only by friends and +disciples, and King Gustavus answered: "And am not I also one of +Linnaeus's disciples?" + +The monument was raised, and a hall built in the botanical garden, +under splendid trees. There stands his bust; but the remembrance of +himself, his home, his own little garden--where is it most vivid? Lead +us thither. + +On yonder side of Fyri's rivulet, where the street forms a declivity, +where red-painted, wooden houses boast their living grass roofs, as +fresh as if they were planted terraces, lies Linnaeus's garden. We +stand within it. How solitary! how overgrown! Tall nettles shoot up +between the old, untrimmed, rank hedges. No water-plants appear more +in that little, dried-up basin; the hedges that were formerly clipped, +put forth fresh leaves without being checked by the gardener's shears. + +It was between these hedges that Linnaeus at times saw his own +double--that optical illusion which presents the express image of a +second self--from the hat to the boots. + +Where a great man has lived and worked, the place itself becomes, as +it were, a part and parcel of him: the whole, as well as a part, has +mirrored itself in his eye; it has entered into his soul, and become +linked with it and the whole world. + +We enter the orangeries: they are now transformed into assembly-rooms; +the blooming winter-garden has disappeared; but the walls yet show a +sort of herbarium. They are hung round with the portraits of learned +Swedes--herbarium from the garden of science and knowledge. Unknown +faces--and, to the stranger, the greatest part are unknown names--meet +us here. + +One portrait amongst the many attracts our attention: it looks +singular; it is the half-length figure of an old man in a shirt, lying +in his bed. It is that of the learned theologian, Oedmann, who after +he had been compelled to keep his bed by a fever, found himself so +comfortable in it, that he continued to lie there during the remainder +of his long life, and was not to be induced to get up. Even when the +next house was burning, they were obliged to carry him out in his bed +into the street. Death and cold were his two bugbears. The cold would +kill him, was his opinion; and so, when the students came with their +essays and treatises, the manuscripts were warmed at the stove before +he read them. The windows of his room were never opened, so that there +was a suffocating and impure air in his dwelling. He had a +writing-desk on the bed; books and manuscripts lay in confusion round +about; dishes, plates, and pots stood here or there, as the +convenience of the moment dictated, and his only companion was a deaf +and dumb laughter. + +She sat still in a corner by the window, wrapped up in herself, and +staring before her, as if she were a figure that had flown out of the +frame around the dark, mouldy canvas, which had once shown a picture +on the wall. + +Here, in the room, in this impure atmosphere, the old man lived +happily, and reached his seventieth year, occupied with the +translation of travels in Africa. This tainted atmosphere, in which he +lay, became, to his conceit, the dromedary's high back, which lifted +him aloft in the burning sun; the long, hanging-down cobwebs were the +palm-trees' waving banners, and the caravan went over rivers to the +wild bushmen. Old Oedmann was with the hunters, chasing the elephants +in the midst of the thick reeds; the agile tiger-cat sprang past, and +the serpents shone like garlands around the boughs of the trees: there +was excitement, there was danger--and yet he lay so comfortably in his +good and beloved bed in Upsala. + +One winter's day, it happened that a Dalecarlian peasant mistook the +house, and came into Oedmann's chamber in his snow-covered skin cloak, +and with his beard full of ice. Oedmann shouted to him to go his way, +but the peasant was deaf, and therefore stepped quite close up to the +bed. He was the personification of Winter himself, and Oedmann fell +ill from this visit: it was his only sickness during the many years he +lay here as a polypus, grown fast, and where he was painted, as we see +his portrait in the assembly-room. + +From the hall of learning we will go to its burial-place--that is to +say, its open burial-place--the great library. We wander from hall to +hall, up stairs and down stairs. Along the shelves, behind them and +round about, stand books, those petrifactions of the mind, which might +again be vivified by spirit. Here lives a kind-hearted and mild old +man, the librarian, Professor Schröder. He smiles and nods as he hears +how memory's sprite takes his place here as guide, and tells of and +shows, as we see, Tegner's copy and translation of Ochlenschloeger's +"Hakon Jarl and Palnatoke." We see Vadstene cloister's library, in +thick hog's leather bindings, and think of the fair hands of the nuns +that have borne them, the pious, mild eyes that conjured the spirit +out of the dead letters. Here is the celebrated Codex Argentius, the +translation of the "Four Evangelists."[Q] Gold and silver letters +glisten from the red parchment leaves. We see ancient Icelandic +manuscripts, from de la Gardie's refined French saloon, and Thauberg's +Japanese manuscripts. By merely looking at these books, their bindings +and names, one at last becomes, as it were, quite worm-eaten in +spirit, and longs to be out in the free air--and we are there; by +Upsala's ancient hills. Thither do thou lead us, remembrance's elf, +out of the city, out on the far extended plain, where Denmark's church +stands--the church that was erected from the booty which the Swedes +gained in the war against the Danes. We follow the broad high road: it +leads us close past Upsala's old hills--Odin's, Thor's and Freia's +graves, as they are called. + +[Footnote Q: A Gothic translation of the Four Evangelists, and +ascribed to the Moesogothic Archbishop Ulphilas.] + +There once stood ancient Upsala, here now are but a few peasants' +farms. The low church, built of granite blocks, dates from a very +remote age; it stands on the remains of the heathen temple. Each of +the hills is a little mountain, yet each was raised by human hands. +Letters an ell long, and whole names, are cut deep in the thin +greensward, which the new sprouting grass gradually fills up. The old +housewife, from the peasant's cot close by the hill, brings the +silver-bound horn, a gift of Charles John XIV., filled with mead. The +wanderer empties the horn to the memory of the olden time, for Sweden, +and for the heart's constant thoughts--young love! + +Yes, thy toast is drunk here, and many a beauteous rose has been +remembered here with a heartfelt hurra! and years after, when the same +wanderer again stood here, she, the blooming rose, had been laid in +the earth; the spring roses had strown their leaves over her coffined +clay; the sweet music of her lips sounded but in memory; the smile in +her eyes and around her mouth, was gone like the sunbeams, which then +shone on Upsala's hills. Her name in the greensward is grown over; she +herself is in the earth, and it is closed above her; but the hill +here, closed for a thousand years, is open. + +Through the passage which is dug deep into the hills, we come to the +funereal urns which contain the bones of youthful kindred; the dust of +kings, the gods of the earth. + +The old housewife, from the peasant's cot, has lighted half a hundred +wax candles and placed them in rows in the otherwise pitchy-dark, +stone-paved passage. It shines so festally in here over the bones of +the olden time's mighty ones, bones that are now charred and burnt to +ashes. And whose were they? Thou world's power and glory, thou world's +posthumous fame--dust, dust like beauty's rose, laid in the dark +earth, where no light shines; thy memorials are but a name, the name +but a sound. Away hence, and up on the hill where the wind blows, the +sun shines, and the eye looks over the green plain, to the sunlit, +dear Upsala, the student's city. + + + + +SALA. + + * * * * * + +Sweden's great King, Germany's preserver, Gustavus Adolphus, founded +Sala. The little wood, close by, still preserves legends of the heroic +King's youthful love--of his meeting here with Ebba Brahe. + +Sala's silver mines are the largest, the deepest, and oldest in +Sweden: they reach to the depth of one hundred and seventy fathoms, +consequently they are almost as deep as the Baltic. This of itself is +enough to awaken an interest for a little town; but what is its +appearance? "Sala," says the guide-book, "lies in a valley, in a flat, +and not very pleasant district." And so truly it is: it was not very +attractive approaching it our way, and the high road led directly into +the town, which is without any distinctive character. It consists of a +long street with what we may term a nucleus and a few fibres. The +nucleus is the market-place, and the fibres are the few lanes +diverging from it. The long street--that is to say, long in a little +town--is quite without passengers; no one comes out from the doors, no +one is to be seen at the windows. + +It was therefore with pleased surprise that I at length descried a +human being: it was at an ironmonger's, where there hung a paper of +pins, a handkerchief and two tea-pots in the window. There I saw a +solitary shop-boy, standing quite still, but leaning over the counter +and looking out of the open door. He certainly wrote in his journal, +if he had one, in the evening: "To-day a traveller drove through the +town; who he was, God knows, for I don't!"--yes, that was what the +shop-boy's face said, and an honest face it was. + +In the inn at which I arrived, there was the same grave-like stillness +as in the street. The gate was certainly closed, but all the inner +doors were wide open; the farm-yard cock stood uplifted in the middle +of the traveller's room and crowed, in order to show that there was +somebody at home. The house, however, was quite picturesque: it had an +open balcony, from which one might look out upon the yard, for it +would have been far too lively had it been facing the street. There +hung the old sign and creaked in the wind, as if to show that it at +least was alive. I saw it from my window; I saw also how the grass in +the street had got the mastery over the pavement. The sun shone +brightly, but shone as into the bachelor's solitary room, and on the +old maid's balsams in the flower-pots. It was as still as a Scotch +Sunday--and yet it was a Tuesday. One was disposed for Young's "Night +Thoughts." + +I looked out from the balcony into the neighbouring yard: there was +not a soul to be seen, but children had been playing there. There was +a little garden made of dry sticks: they were stuck down in the soft +soil and had been watered; a broken pan, which had certainly served by +way of watering-pot, lay there still. The sticks signified roses and +geraniums. + +It had been a delightful garden--alas, yes! We great, grown-up men--we +play just so: we make ourselves a garden with what we call love's +roses and friendship's geraniums; we water them with our tears and +with our heart's blood; and yet they are, and remain, dry sticks +without root. It was a gloomy thought; I felt it, and in order to get +the dry sticks in my thoughts to blossom, I went out. I wandered in +the fibres and in the long threads--that is to say, in the small +lanes--and in the great street; and here was more life than I dared to +expect. I met a herd of cattle returning or going--which I know +not--for they were without a herdsman. The shop-boy still stood behind +the counter, leaned over it and greeted me; the stranger took his hat +off again--that was my day's employment in Sala. + +Pardon me, thou silent town, which Gustavus Adolphus built, where his +young heart felt the first emotions of love, and where the silver lies +in the deep shafts--that is to say, outside the town, "in a flat, and +not very pleasant district." + +I knew no one in the town; I had no one to be my guide, so I +accompanied the cows, and came to the churchyard. The cows went past, +but I stepped over the stile, and stood amongst the graves, where the +grass grew high, and almost all the tombstones lay with worn-out +inscriptions. On a few only the date of the year was legible. +"Anno"--yes, what then? And who rested here? Everything on the stone +was erased--blotted out like the earthly life of those mortals that +here were earth in earth. What life's dream have ye dead played here +in silent Sala? + +The setting sun shone over the graves; not a leaf moved on the trees; +all was still--still as death--in the city of the silver-mines, of +which this traveller's reminiscence is but a frame around the shop-boy +who leaned over the counter. + + + + +THE MUTE BOOK. + + * * * * * + +By the high road into the forest there stood a solitary farm-house. +Our way lay right through the farm-yard; the sun shone; all the +windows were open; there was life and bustle within, but in the yard, +in an arbour of flowering lilacs, there stood an open coffin. The +corpse had been placed out here, and it was to be buried that +forenoon. No one stood by and wept over that dead man; no one hung +sorrowfully over him; his face was covered with a white cloth, and +under his head there lay a large, thick book, every leaf of which was +a whole sheet of grey paper, and between each lay withered flowers, +deposited and forgotten--a whole herbarium, gathered in different +places. He himself had requested that it should be laid in the grave +with him. A chapter of his life was blended with every flower. + +"Who is that dead man?" we asked, and the answer was: "The old student +from Upsala. They say he was once very clever; he knew the learned +languages, could sing and write verses too; but then there was +something that went wrong, and so he gave both his thoughts and +himself up to drinking spirits, and as his health suffered by it, he +came out here into the country, where they paid for his board and +lodging. + +"He was as gentle as a child, when the dark humour did not come over +him, for then he was strong, and ran about in the forest like a hunted +deer; but when we got him home, we persuaded him to look into the book +with the dry plants. Then he would sit the whole day and look at one +plant, and then at another, and many a time the tears ran down his +cheeks. God knows what he then thought! But he begged that he might +have the book with him in his coffin; and now it lies there, and the +lid will soon be fastened down, and then he will take his peaceful +rest in the grave!" + +They raised the winding-sheet. There was peace in the face of the +dead: a sunbeam fell on it; a swallow in its arrowy flight, darted +into the new-made arbour, and in its flight circled twittering over +the dead man's head. + +How strange it is!--we all assuredly know it--to take out old letters +from the days of our youth and read them: a whole life, as it were, +then rises up with all its hopes, and all its troubles. How many of +those with whom we, in their time, lived so devotedly, are now even as +the dead to us, and yet they still live! But we have not thought of +them for many years--them whom we once thought we should always cling +to, and share our mutual joys and sorrows with. + +The withered oak-leaf in the book here, is a memorial of the +friend--the friend of his school-days--the friend for life. He fixed +this leaf on the student's cap in the green wood, when the vow of +friendship was concluded for the whole of life. Where does he now +live? The leaf is preserved; friendship forgotten. Here is a foreign +conservatory-plant, too fine for the gardens of the North--it looks as +if there still were fragrance in these leaves!--_she_ gave it to +him--she, the young lady of that noble garden. + +Here is the marsh-lotus which he himself has plucked and watered with +salt tears--the marsh-lotus from the fresh waters. And here is a +nettle: what does its leaf say? What did he think on plucking it--on +preserving it? Here are lilies of the valley from the woodland +solitudes; here are honeysuckle leaves from the village ale-house +flower-pot; and here the bare, sharp blade of grass. + +The flowering lilac bends its fresh, fragrant clusters over the dead +man's head; the swallow again flies past; "quivit! quivit!" Now the +men come with nails and hammer; the lid is placed over the corpse, +whose head rests on the Mute-Book--preserved--forgotten! + + + + +THE ZÄTHER DALE. + + * * * * * + +Everything was in order, the carriage examined, even a whip with a +good lash was not forgotten. "Two whips would be best," said the +ironmonger, who sold it, and the ironmonger was a man of experience, +which travellers often are not. A whole bag full of "slanter"--that +is, copper coins of small value--stood before us for bridge-money, for +beggars, for shepherd's boys, or whoever might open the many +field-gates for us that obstructed our progress. But we had to do this +ourselves, for the rain pattered down and lashed the ground; no one +had any desire to come out in such weather. The rushes in the marsh +bent and waved; it was a real rain feast for them, and it whistled +from the tops of the rushes: "We drink with our feet, we drink with +our heads, we drink with the whole body, and yet we stand on one leg, +hurra! We drink with the bending willow, with the dripping flowers on +the bank; their cups run over--the marsh marigold, that fine lady, can +bear it better! Hurra! it is a feast! it pours, it pours; we whistle +and we sing; it is our own song. Tomorrow the frogs will croak the +same after us and say, 'it is quite new!'" + +And the rushes waved, and the rain pattered down with a splashing +noise--it was fine weather to travel in to Zäther Dale, and to see its +far-famed beauties. The whip-lash now came off the whip; it was +fastened on again, and again, and every time it was shorter, so that +at last there was not a lash, nor was there any handle, for the handle +went after the lash--or sailed after it--as the road was quite +navigable, and gave one a vivid idea of the beginning of the deluge. + +One poor jade now drew too much, the other drew too little, and one of +the splinter bars broke; well, by all that is vexatious, that was a +fine drive! The leather apron in front had a deep pond in its folds +with an outlet into one's lap. Now one of the linch-pins came out; now +the twisting of the rope harness became loose, and the cross-strap was +tired of holding any longer. Glorious inn in Zäther, how I now long +more for thee than thy far-famed dale. And the horses went slower, and +the rain fell faster, and so--yes, so we were not yet in Zäther. + +Patience, thou lank spider, that in the ante-chamber quietly dost spin +thy web over the expectant's foot, spin my eyelids close in a sleep as +still as the horse's pace! Patience? no, she was not with us in the +carriage to Zäther. But to the inn, by the road side, close to the +far-famed valley, I got at length, towards evening. + +And everything was flowing in the yard, chaotically mingled; manure +and farming implements, staves and straw. The poultry sat there washed +to shadows, or at least like stuck-up hens' skins with feathers on, +and even the ducks crept close up to the wet wall, sated with the wet. +The stable-man was cross, the girl still more so; it was difficult to +get them to bestir themselves: the steps were crooked, the floor +sloping and but just washed, sand strewn thickly on it, and the air +was damp and cold. But without, scarcely twenty paces from the inn, on +the other side of the road, lay the celebrated valley, a garden made +by nature herself, and whose charm consists of trees and bushes, wells +and purling brooks. + +It was a long hollow; I saw the tops of the trees looming up, and the +rain drew its thick veil over it. The whole of that long evening did I +sit and look upon it during that shower of showers. It was as if the +Venern, the Vettern and a few more lakes ran through an immense sieve +from the clouds. I had ordered something to eat and drink, but I got +nothing. They ran up and they ran down; there was a hissing sound of +roasting by the hearth; the girls chattered, the men drank "sup,"[R] +strangers came, were shown into their rooms, and got both roast and +boiled. Several hours had passed, when I made a forcible appeal to the +girl, and she answered phlegmatically: "Why, Sir, you sit there and +write without stopping, so you cannot have time to eat." + +[Footnote R: Swedish, _sup_. Danish, _snaps_. German, _schnaps_. +English, _drams_.] + +It was a long evening, "but the evening passed!" It had become quite +still in the inn; all the travellers, except myself, had again +departed, certainly in order to find better quarters for the night at +Hedemore or Brunbeck. I had seen, through the half-open door into the +dirty tap-room, a couple of fellows playing with greasy cards; a huge +dog lay under the table and glared with its large red eyes; the +kitchen was deserted; the rooms too; the floor was wet, the storm +rattled, the rain beat against the windows--"and now to bed! said I." + + + +I slept an hour, perhaps two, and was awakened by a loud bawling from +the high road. I started up: it was twilight, the night at that period +is not darker--it was about one o'clock. I heard the door shaken +roughly; a deep manly voice shouted aloud, and there was a hammering +with a cudgel against the planks of the yard-gate. Was it an +intoxicated or a mad man that was to be let in? The gate was now +opened, but many words were not exchanged. I heard a woman scream at +the top of her voice from terror. There was now a great bustling +about; they ran across the yard in wooden shoes; the bellowing of +cattle and the rough voices of men were mingled together. I sat on the +edge of the bed. Out or in! what was to be done? I looked from the +window; in the road there was nothing to be seen, and it still rained. +All at once some one came up stairs with heavy footsteps: he opened +the door of the room adjoining mine--now he stood still! I listened--a +large iron bolt fastened my door. The stranger now walked across the +floor, now he shook my door, and then kicked against it with a heavy +foot, and whilst all this was passing, the rain beat against the +windows, and the blast made them rattle. + +"Are there any travellers here?" shouted a voice; "the house is on +fire!" + +I now dressed myself and hastened out of the room and down the stairs. +There was no smoke to be seen, but when I reached the yard, I saw that +the whole building--a long and extensive one of wood--was enveloped in +flames and clouds of smoke. The fire had originated in the baking +oven, which no one had looked to; a traveller, who accidently came +past, saw it, called out and hammered at the door: and the women +screamed, and the cattle bellowed, when the fire stuck its red tongue +into them. + +Now came the fire-engine and the flames were extinguished. By this +time it was morning. I stood in the road, scarcely a hundred steps +from the far-famed dale. "One may as well spring into it as walk into +it!" and I sprang into it; and the rain poured down, and the water +flowed--the whole dale was a well. + +The trees turned their leaves the wrong side out, purely because of +the pouring rain, and they said, as the rushes did the day before: "We +drink with our heads, we drink with our feet, and we drink with the +whole body, and yet stand on our legs, hurra! it rains, and it pours; +we whistle and we sing; it is our own song--and it is quite new!" + +Yes, that the rushes also sang yesterday--but it was the same, ever +the same. I looked and looked, and all I know of the beauty of Zäther +Dale is, that she had washed herself! + + + + +THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL IN LACKSAND. + + * * * * * + +Lacksand lay on the other side of the dal-elv which the road now led +us over for the third or fourth time. The picturesque bell-tower of +red painted beams, erected at a distance from the church, rose above +the tall trees on the clayey declivity: old willows hung gracefully +over the rapid stream. The floating bridge rocked under us--nay, it +even sank a little, so that the water splashed under the horse's +hoofs; but these bridges have such qualities! The iron chains that +held it rattled, the planks creaked, the boards splashed, the water +rose, and murmured and roared, and so we got over where the road +slants upwards towards the town. Close opposite here the last year's +May-pole still stood with withered flowers. How many hands that bound +these flowers are now withered in the grave? + +It is far prettier to go up on the sloping bank along the elv, than to +follow the straight high-road into the town. The path conducts us, +between pasture fields and leaf trees, up to the parsonage, where we +passed the evening with the friendly family. The clergyman himself was +but lately dead, and his relatives were all in mourning. There was +something about the young daughter--I knew not myself what it was--but +I was led to think of the delicate flax flower, too delicate for the +short northern summer. + +They spoke about the Midsummer festival the next day, and of the +winter season here, when the swans, often more than thirty at a time, +sit (motionless themselves) on the elv, and utter strange, mournful +tones. They always come in pairs, they said, two and two, and thus +they also fly away again. If one of them dies, its partner always +remains a long time after all the others are gone; lingers, laments, +and then flies away alone and solitary. + +When I left the parsonage in the evening, the moon, in its first +quarter, was up. The May-pole was raised; the little steamer, 'Prince +Augustus,' with several small vessels in tow, came over the Siljan +lake and into the elv; a musician sprang on shore, and began to play +dances under the tall wreathed May-pole. And there was soon a merry +circle around it--all so happy, as if the whole of life were but a +delightful summer night. + +Next morning was the Midsummer Festival. It was Sunday, the 24th of +June, and a beautiful sunshiny day it was. The most picturesque sight +at the festival is to see the people from the different parishes +coming in crowds, in large boats over Siljan's lake, and landing on +its shores. We drove out to the landing-place, Barkedale, and before +we got out of the town, we met whole troops coming from there, as well +as from the mountains. + +Close by the town of Lacksand, there is a row of low wooden shops on +both sides of the way, which only get their interior light through the +doorway. They form a whole street, and serve as stables for the +parishioners, but also--and it was particularly the case that +morning--to go into and arrange their finery. Almost all the shops or +sheds were filled with peasant women, who were anxiously busy about +their dresses, careful to get them into the right folds, and in the +mean time peeped continually out of the door to see who came past. The +number of arriving church-goers increased; men, women, and children, +old and young, even infants; for at the Midsummer festival no one +stays at home to take care of them, and so of course they must come +too--all must go to church. + +What a dazzling army of colours! Fiery red and grass green aprons meet +our gaze. The dress of the women is a black skirt, red bodice, and +white sleeves: all of them had a psalm-book wrapped in the folded silk +pocket-handkerchief. The little girls were entirely in yellow, and +with red aprons; the very least were in Turkish-yellow clothes. The +men were dressed in black coats, like our paletôts, embroidered with +red woollen cord; a red band with a tassel hung down from the large +black hat; with dark knee breeches, and blue stockings, with red +leather gaiters--in short, there was a dazzling richness of colour, +and that, too, on a bright sunny morning in the forest road. + +This road led down a steep to the lake, which was smooth and blue. +Twelve or fourteen long boats, in form like gondolas, were already +drawn up on the flat strand, which here is covered with large stones. +These stones served the persons who landed, as bridges; the boats were +laid alongside them, and the people clambered up, and went and bore +each other on land. There certainly were at least a thousand persons +on the strand; and far out on the lake, one could see ten or twelve +boats more coming, some with sixteen oars, others with twenty, nay, +even with four-and-twenty, rowed by men and women, and every boat +decked out with green branches. These, and the varied clothes, gave to +the whole an appearance of something so festal, so fantastically rich, +as one would hardly think the north possessed. The boats came nearer, +all crammed full of living freight; but they came silently, without +noise or talking, and rowed up to the declivity of the forest. + +The boats were drawn up on the sand: it was a fine subject for a +painter, particularly one point--the way up the slope, where the whole +mass moved on between the trees and bushes. The most prominent figures +there, were two ragged urchins, clothed entirely in bright yellow, +each with a skin bundle on his shoulders. They were from Gagne, the +poorest parish in Dalecarlia. There was also a lame man with his blind +wife: I thought of the fable of my childhood, of the lame and the +blind man: the lame man lent his eyes, and the blind his legs, and so +they reached the town. + +And we also reached the town and the church, and thither they all +thronged: they said there were above five thousand persons assembled +there. The church-service began at five o'clock. The pulpit and organ +were ornamented with flowering lilacs; children sat with lilac-flowers +and branches of birch; the little ones had each a piece of oat-cake, +which they enjoyed. There was the sacrament for the young persons who +had been confirmed; there was organ-playing and psalm-singing; but +there was a terrible screaming of children, and the sound of heavy +footsteps; the clumsy, iron-shod Dal shoes tramped loudly upon the +stone floor. All the church pews, the gallery pews, and the centre +aisle were quite filled with people. In the side aisle one saw various +groups--playing children, and pious old folks: by the sacristy there +sat a young mother giving suck to her child--she was a living image of +the Madonna herself. + +The first impression of the whole was striking, but only the +first--there was too much that disturbed. The screaming of children, +and the noise of persons walking were heard above the singing, and +besides that, there was an insupportable smell of garlic: almost all +the congregation had small bunches of garlic with them, of which they +ate as they sat. I could not bear it, and went out into the +churchyard: here--as it always is in nature--it was affecting, it was +holy. The church door stood open; the tones of the organ, and the +voices of the psalm-singers were wafted out here in the bright +sunlight, by the open lake: the many who could not find a place in the +church, stood outside, and sang with the congregation from the +psalm-book: round about on the monuments, which are almost all of +cast-iron, there sat mothers suckling their infants--the fountain of +life flowed over death and the grave. A young peasant stood and read +the inscription on a grave: + + "Ach hur södt al hafve lefvet, + Ach hur skjöut al kunne döe!"[S] + +[Footnote S: "How sweet to live--how beautiful to die!"] + +Beautiful Christian, scriptural language, verses certainly taken from +the psalm-book, were read on the graves; they were all read, for the +service lasted several hours. This, however, can never be good for +devotion. + +The crowd at length streamed from the church; the fiery-red and +grass-green aprons glittered; but the mass of human beings became +thicker, and closer, and pressed forward. The white head-dresses, the +white band over the forehead, and the white sleeves, were the +prevailing colours--it looked like a long procession in Catholic +countries. There was again life and motion on the road; the +over-filled boats again rowed away; one waggon drove off after the +other; but yet there were people left behind. Married and unmarried +men stood in groups in the broad street of Lacksand, from the church +up to the inn. I was staying there, and I must acknowledge that my +Danish tongue sounded quite foreign to them all. I then tried the +Swedish, and the girl at the inn assured me that she understood me +better than she had understood the Frenchman, who the year before had +spoken French to her. + +As I sit in my room, my hostess's grand-daughter, a nice little child, +comes in, and is pleased to see my parti-coloured carpet-bag, my +Scotch plaid, and the red leather lining of the portmanteau. I +directly cut out for her, from a sheet of white paper, a Turkish +mosque, with minarets and open windows, and away she runs with it--so +happy, so happy! + +Shortly after, I heard much loud talking in the yard, and I had a +presentiment that it was concerning what I had cut out; I therefore +stepped softly out into the balcony, and saw the grandmother standing +below, and with beaming face, holding my clipped-out paper at arm's +length. A whole crowd of Dalecarlians, men and women, stood around, +all in artistic ecstacy over my work; but the little girl--the sweet +little child--screamed, and stretched out her hands after her lawful +property, which she was not permitted to keep, as it was too fine. + +I sneaked in again, yet, of course, highly flattered and cheered; but +a moment after there was a knocking at my door: it was the +grandmother, my hostess, who came with a whole plate full of +spice-nuts. + +"I bake the best in all Dalecarlia," said she; "but they are of the +old fashion, from my grandmother's time. You cut out so well, Sir, +should you not be able to cut me out some new fashions?" + +And I sat the whole of Midsummer night, and clipped fashions for +spice-nuts. Nutcrackers with knights' boots, windmills which were both +mill and miller--but in slippers, and with the door in the +stomach--and ballet-dancers that pointed with one leg towards the +seven stars. Grandmother got them, but she turned the ballet-dancers +up and down; the legs went too high for her; she thought that they had +one leg and three arms. + +"They will be new fashions," said she; "but they are difficult." + + + + +FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. + + * * * * * + +Truth can never be at variance with truth, science can never militate +against faith: we naturally speak of them both in their purity: they +respond to and they strengthen man's most glorious thought: +_immortality_. And yet you may say, "I was more peaceful, I was safer +when, as a child, I closed my eyes on my mother's breast and slept +without thought or care, wrapping myself up simply in faith." This +prescience, this compound of understanding in everything, this +entering of the one link into the other from eternity to eternity, +tears away from me a support--my confidence in prayer; that which is, +as it were, the wings wherewith to fly to my God! If it be loosened, +then I fall powerless in the dust, without consolation or hope. + +I bend my energies, it is true, towards attaining the great and +glorious light of knowledge, but it appears to me that therein is +human arrogance: it is, as one should say, "I will be as wise as God." +"That you shall be!" said the serpent to our first parents when it +would seduce them to eat of the tree of knowledge. Through my +understanding I must acknowledge the truth of what the astronomer +teaches and proves. I see the wonderful, eternal omniscience of God in +the whole creation of the world--in the great and in the small, where +the one attaches itself to the other, is joined with the other, in an +endless harmonious entireness; and I tremble in my greatest need and +sorrow. What can my prayer change, where everything is law, from +eternity to eternity? + +You tremble as you see the Almighty, who reveals Himself in all +loving-kindness--that Creator, according to man's expression, whose +understanding and heart are one--you tremble when you know that he has +elected you to immortality. + +I know it in the faith, in the holy, eternal words of the Bible. +Knowledge lays itself like a stone over my grave, but my faith is that +which breaks it. + +Now, thus it is! The smallest flower preaches from its green stalk, in +the name of knowledge--_immortality_. Hear it! the beautiful also +bears proofs of immortality, and with the conviction of faith and +knowledge, the immortal will not tremble in his greatest need; the +wings of prayer will not droop: you will believe in the eternal laws +of love, as you believe in the laws of sense. + +When the child gathers flowers in the fields and brings us the whole +handful, where one is erect and the other hangs the head, thrown as it +were among one another, then it is that we see the beauty in every one +by itself--that harmony in colour and in form, which pleases our eye +so well. We arrange them instinctively, and every single beauty is +blended together in one entire beauteous group. We do not look at the +flower, but on the whole bouquet. The beauty of harmony is an instinct +in us; it lies in our eyes and in our ears, those bridges between our +soul and the creation around us--in all our senses there is such a +divine, such an entire and perfect stream in our whole being, a +striving after the harmonious, as it shows itself in all created +things, even in the pulsations of the air, made visible in Chladni's +figures. + +In the Bible we find the expression: "God in spirit and in +truth,"--and hence we most significantly find an expression for the +admission of what we call a feeling of the beautiful; for what else is +this revelation of God but spirit and truth? And just as our own soul +shines out of the eye and the fine movement around the mouth, so does +the created image shine forth from God in spirit and truth. There is +harmonious beauty from the smallest leaf and flower to the large, +swelling bouquet, from our earth itself to the numberless globes in +the firmamental space--as far as the eye sees, as far as science +ventures, all, small and great, is beauty and harmony. + +But if we turn to mankind, for whom we have the highest, the holiest +expression; "created in God's image," man, who is able to comprehend +and admit in himself all God's creation, the harmony in the harmony +then seems to be defective, for at our birth we are all equal! as +creatures we have equally "no right to demand;" yet how differently +God has granted us abilities! some few so immensely great, others so +mean! At our birth God places us in our homes and positions; and to +how many of us are allotted the hardest struggles! We are placed +_there_, introduced _there_--how many may not say justly: "It were +better for me that I had never been born!" + +Human life, consequently--the highest here on the earth--does not come +under the laws of harmonious beauty: it is inconceivable, it is an +injustice, and thus cannot take place. + +The defect of harmony in life lies in this:--that we only see a small +part thereof, namely, existence here on the earth: there must be a +life to come--an immortality. + +That, the smallest flower preaches to us, as does all that is created +in beauty and harmony. + +If our existence ceased with death here, then the most perfect work of +God was not perfect; God was not justice and love, as everything in +nature and revelation affirms; and if we be referred to the whole of +mankind, as that wherein harmony will reveal itself, then our whole +actions and endeavours are but as the labours of the coral-insect: +mankind becomes but a monument of greatness to the Creator: he would +then only have raised His _glory_, not shown His greatest _love_. +Loving-kindness is not self-love. + +We are immortal! In this rich consciousness we are raised towards God, +fundamentally sure, that whatever happens to us, is for our good. Our +earthly eye is only able to reach to a certain boundary in space; our +soul's eye also has but a limited scope; but beyond _that,_ the same +laws of loving-kindness must reign, as here. The prescience of eternal +omniscience cannot alarm us; we human beings can apprehend the notion +thereof in ourselves. We know perfectly what development must take +place in the different seasons of the year; the time for flowers and +for fruits; what kinds will come forth and thrive; the time of +maturity, when the storms must prevail, and when it is the rainy +season. Thus must God, in an infinitely greater degree, have the same +knowledge of the whole created globes of His universe, as of our earth +and the human race here. He must know when that development, that +flowering in the human race ordained by Himself, shall come to pass; +when the powers of intellect, of full development, are to reign; and +under these characters, come to a maturity of development, men will +become mighty, driving wheels--every one be the eternal God's likeness +indeed. + +History shows us these things: joint enters into joint, in the world +of spirits, as well as in the materially created world; the eye of +wisdom--the all-seeing eye--encompasses the whole! And should we then +not be able, in our heart's distress, to pray to this Father with +confidence--to pray as the Saviour prayed: "If it be possible, let +this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." + +These last words we do not forget! and our prayer will be granted, if +it be for our good; or if it be not, then let us, as the child here, +that in its trouble comes to its earthly Father, and does not get its +wish fulfilled, but is refreshed by mild words, and the affectionate +language of reason, so that the eye weeps, which thereby mitigates +sorrow, and the child's pain is soothed. This, will prayer also grant +us: the eye will be filled with tears, but the heart will be full of +consolation! And who has penetrated so deeply into the ways of the +soul, that he dare deny that prayer is the wings that bear thee to +that sphere of inspiration whence God will extend to thee the +olive-branch of help and grace? + +By walking with open eyes in the path of knowledge, we see the glory +of the Annunciation. The wisdom of generations is but a span on the +high pillar of revelation, above which sits the Almighty; but this +short span will grow through eternity, in faith and with faith. +Knowledge is like a chemical test that pronounces the gold pure! + + + + +IN THE FOREST + + * * * * * + +We are a long way over the elv. We have left the corn-fields behind, +and have just come into the forest, where we halt at that small inn, +which is ornamented over the doors and windows with green branches for +the Midsummer festival. The whole kitchen is hung round with branches +of birch and the berries of the mountain-ash: the oat-cakes hang on +long poles under the ceiling; the berries are suspended above the head +of the old woman who is just scouring her brass kettle bright. + +The tap-room, where the peasant sits and carouse, is just as finely +hung round with green. Midsummer raises its leafy arbour everywhere, +yet it is most flush in the forest--it extends for miles around. Our +road goes for miles through that forest, without seeing a house, or +the possibility of meeting travellers, driving, riding or walking. +Come! The ostler puts fresh horses to the carriage; come with us into +the large woody desert: we have a regular trodden way to travel, the +air is clear, here is summer's warmth and the fragrance of birch and +lime. It is an up and down hill road, always bending, and so, ever +changing, but yet always forest scenery--the close, thick forest. We +pass small lakes, which lie so still and deep, as if they concealed +night and sleep under their dark, glassy surfaces. + +We are now on a forest plain, where only charred stumps of trees are +to be seen: this long tract is black, burnt, and deserted--not a bird +flies over it. Tall, hanging birches now greet us again; a squirrel +springs playfully across the road, and up into the tree; we cast our +eye searchingly over the wood-grown mountain-side, which slopes so +far, far forward; but not a trace of a house is to be seen: nowhere +does that blueish smoke-cloud rise, that shows us, here are +fellow-men. + +The sun shines warm; the flies dance around the horses, settle on +them, fly off again, and dance, as though it were to qualify +themselves for resting and being still. They perhaps think: "Nothing +is going on without us: there is no life while we are doing nothing." +They think, as many persons think, and do not remember that Time's +horses always fly onward with us! + +How solitary it is here!--so delightfully solitary! one is so entirely +alone with God and one's self. As the sunlight streams forth over the +earth, and over the extensive solitary forests, so does God's spirit +stream over and into mankind; ideas and thoughts unfold +themselves--endless, inexhaustible, as he is--as the magnet which +apportions its powers to the steel, and itself loses nothing thereby. +As our journey through the forest-scenery here along the extended +solitary road, so, travelling on the great high-road of thought, ideas +pass through our head. Strange, rich caravans pass by from the works +of poets, from the home of memory, strange and novel--for capricious +fancy gives birth to them at the moment. There comes a procession of +pious children with waving flags and joyous songs; there come dancing +Moenades, the blood's wild Bacchantes. The sun pours down hot in the +open forest: it is as if the Southern summer had laid itself up here +to rest in Scandinavian forest-solitude, and sought itself out a glade +where it might lie in the sun's hot beams and sleep: hence this +stillness, as if it were night. Not a bird is heard to twitter, not a +pine-tree moves: of what does the Southern summer dream here in the +North, amongst pines and fragrant birches? + +In the writings of the olden time, from the classic soil of the South, +are _sagas_ of mighty fairies who, in the skins of swans, flew towards +the North, to the Hyperborean's land, to the east of the north wind; +up there, in the deep, still lakes, they bathed themselves, and +acquired a renewed form. We are in the forest by these deep lakes; we +see swans in flocks fly over us, and swim upon the rapid elv and on +the still waters. The forests, we perceive, continue to extend further +towards the west and the north, and are more dense as we proceed: the +carriage-roads cease, and one can only pursue one's way along the +outskirts by the solitary path, and on horseback. + +The saga, from the time of the plague (A.D., 1350), here impresses +itself on the mind, when the pestilence passed through the land, and +transformed cultivated fields and towns--nay, whole parishes, into +barren fields and wild forests. Deserted and forgotten, overgrown with +moss, grass, and bushes, churches stood for years far in the forest; +no one knew of their existence, until, in a later century, a huntsman +lost himself here: his arrow rebounded from the green wall, the moss +of which he loosened, and the church was found. The wood-cutter felled +the trees for fuel; his axe struck against the overgrown wall, and it +gave way to the blow; the fir-planks fell, and the church, from the +time of the pestilence, was discovered; the sun again shone bright +through the openings of the doors and windows, on the brass candelabra +and the altar, where the communion-cup still stood. The cuckoo came, +sat there, and sang: "Many, many years shalt thou live!" + +Woodland solitude! what images dost thou not present to our thoughts! +Woodland solitude! through thy vaulted halls people now pass in the +summer-time with cattle and domestic utensils; children and old men go +to the solitary pasture where echo dwells, where the national song +springs forth with the wild mountain flower! Dost thou see the +procession?--paint it if thou canst! The broad wooden cart laden high +with chests and barrels, with jars and with crockery. The bright +copper kettle and the tin dish shine in the sun. The old grandmother +sits at the top of the load and holds her spinning-wheel, which +completes the pyramid. The father drives the horse, the mother carries +the youngest child on her back, sewed up in a skin, and the procession +moves on step by step. The cattle are driven by the half-grown +children: they have stuck a birch branch between one of the cows' +horns, but she does not appear to be proud of her finery, she goes the +same quiet pace as the others and lashes the saucy flies with her +tail. If the night becomes cold on this solitary pasture, there is +fuel enough here--the tree falls of itself from old age and lies and +rots. + +But take especial care of the fire fear the fire-spirit in the forest +desert! He comes from the unextinguishable pile--he comes from the +thunder-cloud, riding on the blue lightning's flame, which kindles the +thick, dry moss of the earth: trees and bushes are kindled, the flames +run from tree to tree--it is like a snow-storm of fire! the flame +leaps to the tops of the trees--what a crackling and roaring, as if it +were the ocean in its course! The birds fly upward in flocks, and fall +down suffocated by the smoke; the animals flee, or, encircled by the +fire, are consumed in it! Hear their cries and roars of agony! The +howling of the wolf and the bear, dos't thou know it? A calm, +rainy-day, and the forest-plains themselves, alone are able to confine +the fiery sea, and the burnt forest stands charred, with black trunks +and black stumps of trees, as we saw them here in the forest by the +broad high-road. On this road we continue to travel, but it becomes +worse and worse; it is, properly speaking, no road at all, but it is +about to become one. Large stones lie half dug up, and we drive past +them; large trees are cast down, and obstruct our way, and therefore +we must descend from the carriage. The horses are taken out, and the +peasants help to lift and push the carriage forward over ditches and +opened paths. + +The sun now ceases to shine; some few rain-drops fall, and now it is a +steady rain. But how it causes the birch to shed its fragrance! At a +distance there are huts erected, of loose trunks of trees and fresh +green boughs, and in each there is a large fire burning. See where the +blue smoke curls through the green leafy roof; peasants are within at +work, hammering and forging; here they have their meals. They are now +laying a mine in order to blast a rock, and the rain falls faster and +faster, and the pine and birch emit a finer fragrance. It is +delightful in the forest. + + + + +FAHLUN. + + * * * * * + +We made our way at length out of the forest, and saw a town before us +enveloped in thick smoke, having a similar appearance to most of the +English manufacturing towns, save that the smoke was greenish--it was +the town Fahlun. + +The road now went downwards between large banks, formed by the dross +deposited here from the smelting furnaces, and which looks like +burnt-out hardened lava. No sprout or shrub was to be seen, not a +blade of grass peeped forth by the way-side, not a bird flew past, but +a strong sulphurous smell, as from among the craters in Solfatara, +filled the air. The copper roof of the church shone with corrosive +green. + +Long straight streets now appeared in view. It was as deathly still +here as if sickness and disease had lain within these dark wooden +houses, and frightened the inhabitants from coming abroad; yet +sickness and disease come but to few here, for when the plague raged +in Sweden, the rich and powerful of the land hastened to Fahlun, whose +sulphureous air was the most healthy. An ochre-yellow water runs +through the brook, between the houses; the smoke from the mines and +smelting furnaces has imparted its tinge to them; it has even +penetrated into the church, whose slender pillars are dark from the +fumes of the copper. There chanced to come on a thunder-storm when we +arrived, but its roaring and the lightning's flashes harmonized well +with this town, which appears as if it were built on the edge of a +crater. + +We went to see the copper mine which gives the whole district the name +of "Stora Kopparberget," (the great copper mountain). According to the +legend, its riches were discovered by two goats which were +fighting--they struck the ground with their horns and some copper ore +adhered to them. + +From the solitary red-ochre street we wandered over the great heaps of +burnt-out dross and fragments of stone, accumulated to whole ramparts +and hills. The fire shone from the smelting furnaces with green, +yellow and red tongues of flame under a blue-green smoke; half-naked, +black-smeared fellows threw out large glowing masses of fire, so that +the sparks flew around and about:--one was reminded of Schiller's +"Fridolin." + +The thick sulphureous smoke poured forth from the heaps of cleansed +ore, under which the fire was in full activity, and the wind drove it +across the road which we must pass. In smoke, and impregnated with +smoke, stood building after building: three buildings had been +strangely thrown, as it were, by one another: earth and stone-heaps, +as if they were unfinished works of defence, extended around. +Scaffolding, and long wooden bridges, had been erected there; large +wheels turned round; long and heavy iron chains were in continual +motion. + +We stood before an immense gulf, called "Stora Stöten," (the great +mine). It had formerly three entrances, but they fell in and now there +is but one. This immense sunken gulf now appears like a vast valley: +the many openings below, to the shafts of the mine, look, from above, +like the sand-martin's dark nest-holes in the declivities of the +shore: there were a few wooden huts down there. Some strangers in +miners' dresses, with their guide, each carrying a lighted fir-torch, +appeared at the bottom, and disappeared again in one of the dark +holes. From within the dark wooden houses, in which great water-wheels +turned, issued some of the workmen. They came from the dizzying +gulf--from narrow, deep wells: they stood in their wooden shoes two +and two, on the edge of the tun which, attached to heavy chains, is +hoisted up, singing and swinging the tun on all sides: they came up +merry enough. Habit makes one daring. + +They told us that, during the passage upwards, it often happened that +one or another, from pure wantonness, stepped quite out of the tun, +and sat himself between the loose stones on the projecting piece of +rock, whilst they fired and blasted the rock below so that it shook +again, and the stones about him thundered down. Should one expostulate +with him on his fool-hardiness, he would answer with the usual +witticism here: "I have never before killed myself." + +One descends into some of the shafts by a sort of machinery, which +looks as if they had placed two iron ladders against each other, each +having a rocking movement, so that by treading on the ascending-step +on the one side and then on the other, which goes upwards, one +gradually ascends, and by going on the downward sinking-step one gets +by degrees to the bottom. They said it was very easy, only one must +step boldly, so that the foot should not come between and get crushed; +and then one must remember that there is no railing or balustrade +here, and directly outside these stairs there is the deep abyss into +which one may fall headlong. The deepest shaft has a perpendicular +depth of more than a hundred and ninety fathoms, but for this there is +no danger, they say, only one must not be dizzy, nor get alarmed. One +of the workmen, who had come up, descended with a lighted pine-branch +as a torch: the flame illumined the dark rocky wall, and by degrees +became only a faint streak of light which soon vanished. + +We were told that a few days before, five or six schoolboys had +unobserved stolen in here, and amused themselves by going from step to +step on these machine-like rocking stairs, in pitchy darkness, but at +last they knew not rightly which way to go, up or down, and had then +begun to shout and scream lustily. They escaped luckily that bout. + +By one of the large openings, called "Fat Mads," there are rich copper +mines, but which have not yet been worked. A building stands above it: +it was at the bottom of this that they found, in the year 1719, the +corpse of a young miner. It appeared as if he had fallen down that +very day, so unchanged did the body seem--but no one knew him. An old +woman then stepped forward and burst into tears: the deceased was her +bridegroom, who had disappeared forty nine years ago. She stood there +old and wrinkled; he was young as when they had met for the last time +nearly half a century before.[T] + +[Footnote T: In another mine they found, in the year 1635, a corpse +perfectly fresh, and almost with the appearance of one asleep; but +his clothes, and the ancient copper coins found on him, bore witness +that it was two hundred years since he had perished there.] + +We went to "The Plant House," as it is called, where the vitriolated +liquid is crystallized to sulphate of copper. It grew up long sticks +placed upright in the boiling water, resembling long pieces of +grass-green sugar. The steam was pungent, and the air in here +penetrated our tongues--it was just as if one had a corroded spoon in +one's mouth. It was really a luxury to come out again, even into the +rarefied copper smoke, under the open sky. + +Steaming, burnt-out, and herbless as the district is on this side of +the town, it is just as refreshing, green, and fertile on the opposite +side of Fahlun. Tall leafy trees grow close to the farthest houses. +One is directly in the fresh pine and birch forests, thence to the +lake and to the distant blueish mountain sides near Zäther. + +The people here can tell you and show you memorials of Engelbrekt and +his Dalecarlians' deeds, and of Gustavus Vasa's adventurous +wanderings. But we will remain here in this smoke-enveloped town, with +the silent street's dark houses. It was almost midnight when we went +out and came to the market-place. There was a wedding in one of the +houses, and a great crowd of persons stood outside, the women nearest +the house, the men a little further back. According to an old Swedish +custom, they called for the bride and bridegroom to come forward, and +they did so--they durst not do otherwise. Peasant girls, with candles +in their hands, stood on each side; it was a perfect tableau: the +bride with downcast eyes, the bridegroom smiling, and the young +bridesmaids each with a laughing face. And the people shouted: "Now +turn yourselves a little! now the back! now the face! the bridegroom +quite round, the bride a little nearer!" And the bridal pair turned +and turned--nor was criticism wanting. In this instance, however, it +was to their praise and honour, but that is not always the case. It +may be a painful and terrible hour for a newly-wedded pair: if they do +not please the public, or if they have something to say against the +match, or the persons themselves, they are then soon made to know what +is thought of them. There is perhaps also heard some rude jest or +another, accompanied by the laughter of the crowd. We were told, that +even in Stockholm the same custom was observed among the lower classes +until a few years ago, so that a bridal pair, who, in order to avoid +this exposure, wanted to drive off, were stopped by the crowd, the +carriage-door was opened on each side, and the whole public marched +through the carriage. They would see the bride and bridegroom--that +was their right. + +Here, in Fahlun, the exhibition was friendly; the bridal pair smiled, +the bridesmaids also, and the assembled crowd laughed and shouted, +hurra! In the rest of the market-place and the streets around, there +was dead silence and solitude. + +The roseate hue of eve still shone: it passed, changed into that of +morn--it was the Midsummer time. + + + + +WHAT THE STRAWS SAID. + + * * * * * + +On the lake there glided a boat, and the party within it sang Swedish +and Danish songs; but by the shore, under that tall, hanging birch, +sat four young girls--so pretty--so sylph-like! and they each plucked +up from the grass four long straws, and bound these straws two and two +together, at the top and the bottom. + +"We shall now see if they will come together in a square," said the +girls: "if it be so, then that which I think of will be fulfilled," +and they bound them, and they thought. + +No one got to know the secret thought, the heart's silent wish of the +others. But yet a little bird sings about it. + +The thoughts of one flew over sea and land, over the high mountains, +where the mule finds its way in the mists, down to Mignon's beautiful +land, where the old gods live in marble and painting. "Thither, +thither! shall I ever get there?" That was the wish, that was the +thought, and she opened her hand, looked at the bound straws, and they +appeared only two and two bound together. + +And where were the second one's thoughts? also in foreign lands, in +the gunpowder's smoke, amongst the glitter of arms and cannons, with +him, the friend of her childhood, fighting for imperial power, against +the Hungarian people. Will he return joyful and unharmed--return to +Sweden's peaceful, well-constituted, happy land? The straws showed no +square: a tear dwelt in the girl's eye. + +The third smiled: there was a sort of mischief in the smile. Will our +aged bachelor and that old maiden-lady yonder, who now wander along so +young, smile so young, and speak so youthfully to each other, not be a +married couple before the cuckoo sings again next year? See--that is +what I should like to know! and the smile played around the thinker's +mouth, but she did not speak her thoughts. The straws were +separated--consequently the bachelor and the old maid also. "It may, +however, happen nevertheless," she certainly thought: it was apparent +in the smile; it was obvious in the manner in which she threw the +straws away. + +"There is nothing I would know--nothing that I am curious to know!" +said the fourth; but yet she bound the straws together; for within her +also there was a wish alive; but no bird has sung about it; no one +guesses it. + +Rock thyself securely in the heart's lotus flower, thou shining +humming-bird, thy' name shall not be pronounced: and besides the +straws said as before--"without hope!" + +"Now you! now you!" cried the young girls to a stranger, far from the +neighbouring land, from the green isle, that Gylfe ploughed from +Sweden. "What dear thing do you wish shall happen, or not +happen!--tell us the wish!"--"If the oracle speaks well for me," said +he, "then I will tell you the silent wish and prayer, with which I +bind these knots on the grass straw; but if I have no better success +than you have had, I will then be silent!" and he bound straw to +straw, and as he bound, he repeated: "it signifies nothing!" He now +opened his hand, his eyes shone brighter, his heart beat faster. The +straws formed a square! "It will happen, it will happen!" cried the +young girls. "What did you wish for?" "That Denmark may soon gain an +honourable peace!" + +"It will happen! it will happen!" said the young girls; "and when it +happens, we will remember that the straws have told it before-hand." + +"I will keep these four straws, bound in a prophetic wreath for +victory and peace!" said the stranger; "and if the oracle speaks +truth, then I will draw the whole picture for you, as we sit here +under the hanging birch by the lake, and look on Zäther's blue +mountains, each of us binding straw to straw." + +A red mark was made in the almanack; it was the 6th of July, 1849. The +same day a red page was written in Denmark's history. The Danish +soldier made a red, victorious mark with his blood, at the battle of +Fredericia. + + + + +THE POET'S SYMBOL. + + * * * * * + +If a man would seek for the symbol of the poet, he need not look +farther than "The Arabian Nights' Tales." Scherezade who interprets +the stories for the Sultan--Scherezade is the poet, and the Sultan is +the public who is to be agreeably entertained, or else he will +decapitate Scherezade. + +Powerful Sultan! Poor Scherezade! + +The Sultan-public sits in more than a thousand and one forms, and +listens. Let us regard a few of these forms. + +There sits a sallow, peevish, scholar; the tree of his life bears +leaves impressed with long and learned words: diligence and +perseverance crawl like snails on the hog's leather bark: the moths +have got into the inside--and that is bad, very bad! Pardon the rich +fulness of the song, the inconsiderate enthusiasm, the fresh young, +intellect. Do not behead Scherezade! But he beheads her out of hand, +_sans_ remorse. + +There sits a dress-maker, a sempstress who has had some experience of +the world. She comes from strange families, from a solitary chamber +where she sat and gained a knowledge of mankind--she knows and loves +the romantic. Pardon, Miss, if the story has not excitement enough for +you, who have sat over the needle and the muslin, and having had so +much of life's prose, gasp after romance. + +"Behead her!" says the dress-maker. + +There sits a figure in a dressing gown--this oriental dress of the +North, for the lordly minion, the petty prince, the rich brewer's son, +&c., &c., &c. It is not to be learned from the dressing gown, nor from +that lordly look and the fine smile around the mouth, to what stem he +belongs: his demands on Scherezade are just the same as the +dress-maker's: he must be excited, he must be brought to shudder all +down the vertebrae, through the very spine: he must be crammed with +mysteries, such as those which Spriez knew how to connect and thicken. + +Scherezade is beheaded! + +Wise, enlightened Sultan! Thou comest in the form of a schoolboy; thou +bearest the Romans and Greeks together in a satchel on thy back, as +Atlas sustained the world. Do not cast an evil eye upon poor +Scherezade; do not judge her before thou hast learned thy lesson, and +art a child again,--do not behead Scherezade! + +Young, full-dressed diplomatist, on whose breast we can count, by the +badges of honour, how many courts thou hast visited with thy princely +master, speak mildly of Scherezade's name! speak of her in French, +that she may be ennobled above her mother tongue! translate but one +strophe of her song, as badly as thou canst, but carry it into the +brilliant saloon, and her sentence of death is annulled in the sweet, +absolving _charmant_! + +Mighty annihilator and elevator!--the newspapers' Zeus--thou weekly, +monthly, and daily journals' Jupiter, shake not thy locks in anger! +Cast not thy lightnings forth, if Scherezade sing otherwise than thou +art accustomed to in thy family, or if she go without a _suite_ of +thine own clique. Do not behead her! + +We will see one figure more--the most dangerous of them all; he with +the praise on his lips, like that of the stormy river's swell--the +blind enthusiast. The water in which Scherezade dipped her fingers, is +for him a fountain of Castalia; the throne he erects to her apotheosis +becomes her scaffold. + +This is the poet's symbol--paint it: + + "THE SULTAN AND SCHEREZADE." + +But why none of the worthier figures--the candid, the honest, and the +beautiful? They come also, and on them Scherezade fixes her eye. +Encouraged by them, she boldly raises her proud head aloft towards the +stars, and sings of the harmony there above, and here beneath, in +man's heart. + +_That_ will not clearly show the symbol: + + "THE SULTAN AND SCHEREZADE." + +The sword of death hangs over her head whilst she relates--and the +Sultan-figure bids us expect that it will fall. Scherezade is the +victor: the poet is, like her, also a victor. He is rich, +victorious--even in his poor chamber, in his most solitary hours. +There, in that chamber, rose after rose shoots forth; bubble after +bubble sparkles on the magic stream. The heavens shine with shooting +stars, as if a new firmament were created, and the old rolled away. +The world does not know it, for it is the poet's own creation, richer +than the king's costly illuminations. He is happy, as Scherezade is; +he is victorious, he is mighty. _Imagination_ adorns his walls with +tapestry, such as no land's ruler owns; _feeling_ makes the beauteous +chords sound to him from the human breast; _understanding_ raises him, +through the magnificence of creation, up to God, without his +forgetting that he stands fast on the firm earth. He is mighty, he is +happy, as few are. We will not place him in the stocks of +misconstruction, for pity and lamentation; we merely paint his symbol, +dip into the colours on the world's least attractive side, and obtain +it most comprehensibly from + + "THE SULTAN AND SCHEREZADE." + +See--that is it! Do not behead Scherezade! + + + + +THE DAL-ELV. + + * * * * * + +Before Homer sang there were heroes; but they are not known; no poet +celebrated their fame. It is just so with the beauties of nature, they +must be brought into notice by words and delineations, be brought +before the eyes of the multitude; get a sort of world's patent for +what they are, and then they may be said first to exist. The elvs of +the north have rushed and whirled along for thousands of years in +unknown beauty. The world's great highroad does take this direction; +no steam-packet conveys the traveller comfortably along the streams of +the Dal-elvs; fall on fall makes sluices indispensable and invaluable. +Schubert is as yet the only stranger who has written about the wild +magnificence and southern beauty of Dalecarlia, and spoken of its +greatness. + +Clear as the waves of the sea does the mighty elv stream in endless +windings through forest deserts and varying plains, sometimes +extending its deep bed, sometimes confining it, reflecting the bending +trees and the red painted block houses of solitary towns, and +sometimes rushing like a cataract over immense blocks of rock. + +Miles apart from one another, out of the ridge of mountains between +Sweden and Norway, come the east and west Dal-elvs, which first become +confluent and have one bed above Bålstad. They have taken up rivers +and lakes in their waters. Do but visit this place! here are pictorial +riches to be found; the most picturesque landscapes, dizzyingly grand, +smilingly pastoral--idyllic: one is drawn onward up to the very source +of the elv, the bubbling well above Finman's hut: one feels a desire +to follow every branch of the stream that the river takes in. + +The first mighty fall, Njupeskoers cataract, is seen by the Norwegian +frontier in Sernasog. The mountain stream rushes perpendicularly from +the rock to a depth of seventy fathoms. + +We pause in the dark forest, where the elv seems to collect within +itself nature's whole deep gravity. The stream rolls its clear waters +over a porphyry soil where the mill-wheel is driven, and the gigantic +porphyry bowls and sarcophagi are polished. + +We follow the stream through Siljan's lake, where superstition sees +the water-sprite swim, like the sea-horse with a mane of green +sea-weed, and where the aërial images present visions of witchcraft in +the warm summer days. + +We sail on the stream from Siljan's lake, under the weeping willows of +the parsonage, where the swans assemble in flocks; we glide along +slowly with horses and carriages on the great ferry-boat, away over +the rapid current under Bålstad's picturesque shore. Here the elv +widens and rolls its billows majestically in a woodland landscape, as +large and extended as if it were in North America. + +We see the rushing, rapid stream under Avista's yellow clay +declivities: the yellow water falls like fluid amber in picturesque +cataracts before the copper-works, where rainbow-coloured tongues of +fire shoot themselves upwards, and the hammer's blows on the copper +plates resound to the monotonous, roaring rumble of the elv-fall. + +And now, as a concluding passage of splendour in the life of the +Dal-elvs, before they lose themselves in the waters of the Baltic, is +the view of Elvkarleby Fall. Schubert compares it with the fall of +Schafhausen; but we must remember, that the Rhine there has not such a +mass of water as that which rushes down Elvkarleby. + +Two and a half Swedish miles from Gefle, where the high road to Upsala +goes over the Dal-elv, we see from the walled bridge, which we pass +over, the whole of that immense fall. Close up to the bridge, there is +a house where the bridge toll is paid. There the stranger can pass the +night, and from his little window look over the falling waters, see +them in the clear moonlight, when darkness has laid itself to rest +within the thicket of oaks and firs, and all the effect of light is in +those foaming, flowing waters, and see them when the morning sun +stretches his rainbow in the trembling spray, like an airy bridge of +colours, from the shore to the wood-grown rock in the centre of the +cataract. + +We came hither from Gefle, and saw at a great distance on the way, the +blue clouds from the broken, rising spray, ascend above the dark-green +tops of the trees. The carriage stopped near the bridge; we stepped +out, and close before us fell the whole redundant elv. + +The painter cannot give us the true, living image of a waterfall on +canvas--the movement is wanting; how can one describe it in words, +delineate this majestic grandeur, brilliancy of colour, and arrowy +flight? One cannot do it; one may however attempt it; get together, by +little and little, with words, an outline of that mirrored image which +our eye gave us, and which even the strongest remembrance can only +retain--if not vaguely, dubiously. + +The Dal-elv divides itself into three branches above the fall: the two +enclose a wood-grown rocky island, and rush down round its smooth-worn +stony wall. The one to the right of these two falls is the finer; the +third branch makes a circuit, and comes again to the main stream, +close outside the united fall; here it dashes out as if to meet or +stop the others, and is now hurried along in boiling eddies with the +arrowy stream, which rushes on foaming against the walled pillars that +bear the bridge, as if it would tear them away along with it. + +The landscape to the left was enlivened by a herd of goats, that were +browsing amongst the hazel bushes. They ventured quite out to the very +edge of the declivity, as they were bred here and accustomed to the +hollow, thundering rumble of the water. To the right, a flock of +screaming birds flew over the magnificent oaks. Cars, each with one +horse, and with the driver standing upright in it, the reins in his +hand, came on the broad forest road from Oens Brück. + +Thither we will go in order to take leave of the Dal-elv at one of the +most delightful of places, which vividly removes the stranger, as it +were, into a far more southern land, into a far richer nature, than he +supposed was to be found here. The road is so pretty--the oak grows +here so strong and vigorously with mighty crowns of rich foliage. + +Oens Brück lies in a delightfully pastoral situation. We came thither; +here was life and bustle indeed! The mill-wheels went round; large +beams were sawn through; the iron forged on the anvil, and all by +water-power. The houses of the workmen form a whole town: it is a long +street with red-painted wooden houses, under picturesque oaks, and +birch trees. The greensward was as soft as velvet to look at, and up +at the manor-house, which rises in front of the garden like a little +palace, there was, in the rooms and saloon, everything that the +English call comfort. + +We did not find the host at home; but hospitality is always the +house-fairy here. We had everything good and homely. Fish and wild +fowl were placed before us, steaming and fragrant, and almost as +quickly as in beautiful enchanted palaces. The garden itself was a +piece of enchantment. Here stood three transplanted beech-trees, and +they throve well. The sharp north wind had rounded off the tops of the +wild chesnut-trees of the avenue in a singular manner: they looked as +if they had been under the gardener's shears. Golden-yellow oranges +hung in the conservatory; the splendid southern exotics had to-day got +the windows half open, so that the artificial warmth met the fresh, +warm, sunny air of the northern summer. + +That branch of the Dal-elv which goes round the garden is strewn with +small islands, where beautiful hanging birches and fir-trees grow in +Scandinavian splendour. There are small islands with green, silent +groves; there are small islands with rich grass, tall brackens, +variegated bell-flowers, and cowslips--no Turkey carpet has fresher +colours. The stream between these islands and holms is sometimes +rapid, deep, and clear; sometimes like a broad rivulet with +silky-green rushes, water-lilies, and brown-feathered reeds; sometimes +it is a brook with a stony ground, and now it spreads itself out in a +large, still mill-dam. + +Here is a landscape in Midsummer for the games of the river-sprites, +and the dancers of the elves and fairies! Here, in the lustre of the +full moon, the dryads can tell their tales, the water-sprite seize the +golden harp, and believe that one can be blessed, at least for one +single night like this. + +On the other side of Oens Brück is the main stream--the full Dal-elv. +Do you hear the monotonous rumble? it is not from Elvkarleby Fall that +it reaches hither; it is close by; it is from Laa-Foss, in which lies +Ash Island: the elv streams and rushes over the leaping salmon. + +Let us sit here, between the fragments of rock by the shore, in the +red evening sunlight, which sheds a golden lustre on the waters of the +Dal-elv. + +Glorious river! But a few seconds' work hast thou to do in the mills +yonder, and thou rushest foaming on over Elvkarleby's rocks, down into +the deep bed of the river, which leads thee to the Baltic--thy +eternity. + + + + +DANEMORA. + + * * * * * + +Reader, do you know what giddiness is? Pray that she may not seize +you, this mighty "Loreley" of the heights, this evil-genius from the +land of the sylphides; she whizzes around her prey, and whirls it into +the abyss. She sits on the narrow rocky path, close by the steep +declivity, where no tree, no branch is found, where the wanderer must +creep close to the side of the rock, and look steadily forward. She +sits on the church spire and nods to the plumber who works on his +swaying scaffold; she glides into the illumined saloon, and up to the +nervous, solitary one, in the middle of the bright polished floor, and +it sways under him--the walls vanish from him. + +Her fingers touch one of the hairs of our head, and we feel as if the +air had left us, and we were in a vacuum. + +We met with her at Danemora's immense gulf, whither we came on broad, +smooth, excellent high-roads, through the fresh forest. She sat on the +extreme edge of the rocky wall, above the abyss, and kicked at the tun +with her thin, awl-like legs, as it hung in iron chains on large +beams, from the tower-high corner of the bridge by the precipice. + +The traveller raised his foot over the abyss, and set it on the tun, +into which one of the workmen received him, and held him; and the +chains rattled; the pulleys turned; the tun sank slowly, hovering +through the air. But he felt the descent; he felt it through his bones +and marrow; through all the nerves. Her icy breath blew in his neck, +and down the spine, and the air itself became colder and colder. It +seemed to him as if the rocks grew over his head, always higher and +higher: the tun made a slight swinging, but he felt it, like a fall--a +fall in sleep, that shock in the blood. Did it go quicker downwards, +or was it going up again? He could not distinguish by the sensation. + +The tun touched the ground, or rather the snow--the dirty trodden, +eternal snow, down to which no sunbeam reaches, which no summer warmth +from above ever melts. A hollow sound was heard from within the dark, +yawning cavern, and a thick vapour rolled out into the cold air. The +stranger entered the dark halls; there seemed to be a crashing above +him: the fire burned; the furnaces roared; the beating of hammers +sounded; the watery damps dripped down--and he again entered the tun, +which was hoven up in the air. He sat with closed eyes, but giddiness +breathed on his head, and on his breast; his inwardly-turned eye +measured the giddy depth through the tun: "It is appalling," said he. + +"Appalling!" echoed the brave and estimable stranger, whom we met at +Danemora's great gulf. He was a man from Scania, consequently from the +same street as the Sealander--if the Sound be called a street +(strait). "But, however, one can say one has been down there," said +he, and he pointed to the gulf; "right down, and up again; but it is +no pleasure at all." + +"But why descend at all?" said I. "Why will men do these things?" + +"One must, you know, when one comes here," said he. "The plague of +travelling is, that one must see everything: one would not have it +supposed otherwise. It is a shame to a man, when he gets home again, +not to have seen everything, that others ask him about." + +"If you have no desire, then let it alone. See what pleases you on +your travels. Go two paces nearer than where you stand, and become +quite giddy: you will then have formed some conception of the passage +downward. I will hold you fast, and describe the rest of it for you." +And I did so, and the perspiration sprang from his forehead. + +"Yes, so it is: I apprehend it all," said he: "I am clearly sensible +of it." + +I described the dirty grey snow covering, which the sun's warmth never +thaws; the cold down there, and the caverns, and the fire, and the +workmen, &c. + +"Yes; one should be able to tell all about it," said he. "That _you_ +can, for you have seen it." + +"No more than you," said I. "I came to the gulf; I saw the depth, the +snow below, the smoke that rolled out of the caverns; but when it was +time I should get into the tun--no, thank you. Giddiness tickled me +with her long, awl-like legs, and so I stayed where I was I have felt +the descent, through the spine and the soles of the feet, and that as +well as any one: the descent is the pinch. I have been in the Hartz, +under Rammelsberg; glided, as on Russian mountains, at Hallein, +through the mountain, from the top down to the salt-works; wandered +about in the catacombs of Rome and Malta: and what does one see in the +deep passages? Gloom--darkness! What does one feel? Cold, and a sense +of oppression--a longing for air and light, which is by far the best; +and that we have now." + +"But nevertheless, it is so very remarkable!" said the man; and he +drew forth his "Hand-book for Travellers in Sweden," from which he +read: "Danemora's iron-works are the oldest, largest, and richest in +Sweden; the best in Europe. They have seventy-nine openings, of which +seventeen only are being worked. The machine mine is ninety-three +fathoms deep." + +Just then the bells sounded from below: it was the signal that the +time of labour for that day was ended. The hue of eve still shone on +the tops of the trees above; but down in that deep, far-extended gulf, +it was a perfect twilight. Thence, and out of the dark caverns, the +workmen swarmed forth. They looked like flies, quite small in the +space below: they scrambled up the long ladders, which hung from the +steep sides of the rocks, in separate landing-places: they climbed +higher and higher--upwards, upwards--and at every step they became +larger. The iron chains creaked in the scaffolding of beams, and three +or four young fellows stood in their wooden shoes on the edge of the +tun; chatted away right merrily, and kicked with their feet against +the side of the rock, so that they swung from it: and it became darker +and darker below; it was as if the deep abyss became still deeper! + +"It is appalling!" said the man from Scania. "One ought, however, to +have gone down there, if it were only to swear that one _had_ been. +You, however, have certainly been down there," said he again to me. + +"Believe what you will," I replied; and I say the same to the reader. + + + + +THE SWINE. + + * * * * * + +That capital fellow, Charles Dickens, has told us about the swine, and +since then it puts us into a good humour whenever we hear even the +grunt of one. Saint Anthony has taken them under his patronage, and if +we think of the "prodigal son," we are at once in the midst of the +sty, and it was just before such a one that our carriage stopped in +Sweden. By the high road, closely adjoining his house, the peasant had +his sty, and that such a one as there is probably scarcely its like in +the world. It was an old state-carriage, the seats were taken out of +it, the wheels taken off, and thus it stood, without further ceremony, +on its own bottom, and four swine were shut in there. If these were +the first that had been in it one could not determine; but that it was +once a state-carriage everything about it bore witness, even to the +strip of morocco that hung from the roof inside, all bore witness of +better days. It is true, every word of it. + +"Uff," said the occupiers within, and the carriage creaked and +complained--it was a sorrowful end it had come to. + +"The beautiful is past!" so it sighed; so it said, or it might have +said so. + +We returned here in the autumn. The carriage, or rather the body of +the carriage, stood in its old place, but the swine were gone: they +were lords in the forests; rain and drizzle reigned there; the wind +tore the leaves off all the trees, and allowed them neither rest nor +quiet: the birds of passage were gone. + +"The beautiful is past!" said the carriage, and the same sigh passed +through the whole of nature, and from the human heart it sounded: "The +beautiful is past! with the delightful green forest, with the warm +sunshine, and the song of birds--past! past!" So it said, and so it +creaked in the trunks of the tall trees, and there was heard a sigh, +so inwardly deep, a sigh direct from the heart of the wild rose-bush, +and he who sat there was the rose-king. Do you know him! he is of a +pure breed, the finest red-green breed: he is easily known. Go to the +wild rose hedges, and in autumn, when all the flowers are gone, and +the red hips alone remain, one often sees amongst these a large +red-green moss-flower: that is the rose-king. A little green leaf +grows out of his head--that is his feather: he is the only male person +of his kind on the rose-bush, and he it was who sighed. + +"Past! past! the beautiful is past! The roses are gone; the leaves of +the trees fall off!--it is wet here, and it is cold and raw!--The +birds that sang here are now silent; the swine live on acorns; the +swine are lords in the forest!" + +They were cold nights, they were gloomy days; but the raven sat on the +bough and croaked nevertheless: "brah, brah!" The raven and the crow +sat on the topmost bough: they have a large family, and they all said: +"brah, brah! caw, caw!" and the majority is always right. + +There was a great miry pool under the tall trees in the hollow, and +here lay the whole herd of swine, great and small--they found the +place so excellent. "Oui! oui!" said they, for they knew no more +French, but that, however, was something. They were so wise, and so +fat, and altogether lords in the forest. + +The old ones lay still, for they thought; the young ones, on the +contrary, were so brisk--busy, but apparently uneasy. One little pig +had a curly tail--that curl was the mother's delight. She thought that +they all looked at the curl, and thought only of the curl; but that +they did not. They thought of themselves, and of what was useful, and +of what the forest was for. They had always heard that the acorns they +ate grew on the roots of the trees, and therefore they had always +rooted there; but now there came a little one--for it is always the +young ones that come with news--and he asserted that the acorns fell +down from the branches: he himself had felt one fall right on his +head, and that had given him the idea, so he had made observations, +and now he was quite sure of what he asserted. The old ones laid their +heads together. "Uff," said the swine, "uff! the finery is past! the +twittering of the birds is past! we will have fruit! whatever can be +eaten is good, and we eat everything!" + +"Oui! oui!" said they altogether. + +But the mother sow looked at her little pig with the curly tail. + +"One must not, however, forget the beautiful!" said she. + +"Caw! caw!" screamed the crow, and flew down, in order to be appointed +nightingale: one there should be--and so the crow was directly +appointed. + +"Past! past!" sighed the Rose King, "all the beautiful is past!" + +It was wet; it was gloomy; there was cold and wind, and the rain +pelted down over the fields, and through the forest, like long water +jets. Where are the birds that sang? where are the flowers in the +meadows, and the sweet berries in the wood?--past! past! + +A light shone from the forester's house: it twinkled like a star, and +shed its long rays out between the trees. A song was heard from +within; pretty children played around their old grandfather, who sat +with the Bible on his lap and read about God, and eternal life, and +spoke of the spring that would come again: he spoke of the forest that +would renew its green leaves, of the roses that would flower, of the +nightingales that would sing, and of the beautiful that would again be +paramount. + +But the Rose King did not hear it; he sat in the raw, cold weather, +and sighed: + +"Past! past!" + +And the swine were lords in the forest, and the mother sow looked at +her little pig, and his curly tail. + +"There will always be some, who have a sense for the beautiful!" said +the mother sow. + + + + +POETRY'S CALIFORNIA. + + * * * * * + +Nature's treasures are most often unveiled to us by accident. A dog's +nose was dyed by the bruised purple fish, and the genuine purple dye +was discovered; a pair of wild buffalos were fighting on America's +auriferous soil, and their horns tore up the green sward that covered +the rich gold vein. + +"In former days," as it is said by most, "everything came +spontaneously. Our age has not such revelations; now one must slave +and drudge if one would get anything; one must dig down into the deep +shafts after the metals, which decrease more and more;--when the earth +suddenly stretches forth her golden finger from California's +peninsula, and we there see Monte Christo's foolishly invented riches +realized; we see Aladdin's cave with its inestimable treasures. The +world's treasury is so endlessly rich that we have, to speak plain and +straightforward, scraped a little off the up-heaped measure; but the +bushel is still full, the whole of the real measure is now refilled. +In science also, such a world lies open for the discoveries of the +human mind! + +"But in poetry, the greatest and most glorious is already found, and +gained!" says the poet. "Happy he who was born in former times; there +was then many a land still undiscovered, on which poetry's rich gold +lay like the ore that shines forth from the earth's surface." + +Do not speak so! happy poet thou, who art born in our time! thou dost +inherit all the glorious treasures which thy predecessors gave to the +world; thou dost learn from them, that truth only is eternal,--the +true in nature and mankind. + +Our time is the time of discoveries--poetry also has its new +California. + +"Where does it exist?" you ask. + +The coast is so near, that you do not think that _there_ is the new +world. Like a bold Leander, swim with me across the stream: the black +words on the white paper will waft you--every period is a heave of the +waves. + + * * * * * + +It was in the library's saloon. Book-shelves with many books, old and +new, were ranged around for every one; manuscripts lay there in heaps; +there were also maps and globes. There sat industrious men at little +tables, and wrote out and wrote in, and that was no easy work. But +suddenly, a great transformation took place; the shelves became +terraces for the noblest trees, with flowers and fruit; heavy clusters +of grapes hung amongst leafy vines, and there was life and movement +all around. + +The old folios and dusty manuscripts rose into flower-covered tumuli, +and there sprang forth knights in mail, and kings with golden crowns +on, and there was the clang of harp and shield; history acquired the +life and fullness of poetry--for a poet had entered there. He saw the +living visions; breathed the flowers' fragrance; crushed the grapes, +and drank the sacred juice. But he himself knew not yet that he was a +poet--the bearer of-light for times and generations yet to come. + +It was in the fresh, fragrant forest, in the last hour of +leave-taking. Love's kiss, as the farewell, was the initiatory baptism +for the future poetic life; and the fresh fragrance of the forest +became sweeter, the chirping of the birds more melodious: there came +sunlight and cooling breezes. Nature becomes doubly delightful where a +poet walks. + +And as there were two roads before Hercules, so there were before him +two roads, shown by two figures, in order to serve him; the one an old +crone, the other a youth, beautiful as the angel that led the young +Tobias. + +The old crone had on a mantle, on which were wrought flowers, animals, +and human beings, entwined in an arabesque manner. She had large +spectacles on, and beside her lantern she held a bag filled with old +gilt cards--apparatus for witchcraft, and all the amulets of +superstition: leaning on her crutch, wrinkled and shivering, she was, +however, soaring, like the mist over the meadow. + +"Come with me, and you shall see the world, so that a poet can have +benefit from it," said she. "I will light my lantern; it is better +than that which Diogenes bore; I shall lighten your path." + +And the light shone; the old crone lifted her head, and stood there +strong and tall, a powerful female figure. She was Superstition. + +"I am the strongest in the region of romance," said she,--and she +herself believed it. + +And the lantern's light gave the lustre of the full moon over the +whole earth; yes, the earth itself became transparent, as the still +waters of the deep sea, or the glass mountains, in the fairy tale. + +"My kingdom is thine! sing what thou see'st; sing as if no bard before +thee had sung thereof." + +And it was as if the scene continually changed. Splendid Gothic +churches, with painted images in the panes, glided past, and the +midnight-bell struck, and the dead arose from the graves. There, under +the bending elder tree, sat the mother, and swathed her newly-born +child; old, sunken knights' castles rose again from the marshy ground; +the drawbridge fell, and they saw into the empty halls, adorned with +images, where, under the gloomy stairs of the gallery, the +death-proclaiming white woman came with a rattling bunch of keys. The +basilisk brooded in the deep cellar; the monster bred from a cock's +egg, invulnerable by every weapon, but not from the sight of its own +horrible form: at the sight of its own image, it bursts like the steel +that one breaks with the blow of a stout staff. And to everything that +appeared, from the golden chalice of the altar-table, once the +drinking-cup of evil spirits, to the nodding head on the gallows-hill, +the old crone hummed her songs; and the crickets chirped, and the +raven croaked from the opposite neighbour's house, and the +winding-sheet rolled from the candle. Through the whole spectral world +sounded, "death! death!" + +"Go with me to life and truth," cried the second form, the youth who +was beautiful as a cherub. A flame shone from his brow--a cherub's +sword glittered in his hand. "I am _Knowledge_," said he: "my world is +greater--its aim is truth." + +And there was a brightness all around; the spectral images paled; it +did not extend over the world they had seen. Superstition's lantern +had only exhibited _magic-lantern_ images on the old ruined wall, and +the wind had driven wet misty vapours past in figures. + +"I will give thee a rich recompense. Truth in the created--truth in +God!" + +And through the stagnant lake, where before the misty spectral figures +rose, whilst the bells sounded from the sunken castle, the light fell +down on a swaying vegetable world. One drop of the marsh water, raised +against the rays of light, became a living world, with creatures in +strange forms, fighting and revelling--a world in a drop of water. And +the sharp sword of Knowledge cleft the deep vault, and shone therein, +where the basilisk killed, and the animal's body was dissolved in a +death-bringing vapour: its claw extended from the fermenting +wine-cask; its eyes were air, that burnt when the fresh wind touched +it. + +And there resided a powerful force in the sword; _so_ powerful, that +the grain of gold was beaten to a flat surface, thin as the covering +of mist that we breathe on the glass-pane; and it shone at the sword's +point, so that the thin threads of the cobweb seemed to swell to +cables, for one saw the strong twistings of numberless small threads. +And the voice of Knowledge seemed over the whole world, so that the +age of miracles appeared to have returned. Thin iron ties were laid +over the earth, and along these the heavily-laden waggons flew on the +wings of steam, with the swallow's flight; mountains were compelled to +open themselves to the inquiring spirit of the age; the plains were +obliged to raise themselves; and then thought was borne in words, +through metal wires, with the lightning's speed, to distant towns. +"Life! life!" it sounded through the whole of nature. "It is our time! +Poet, thou dost possess it! Sing of it in spirit and in truth!" + +And the genius of Knowledge raised the shining sword; he raised it far +out into space, and then--what a sight! It was as when the sunbeams +shine through a crevice in the wall in a dark space, and appear to us +a revolving column of myriads of grains of dust; but every grain of +dust here was a world! The sight he saw was our starry firmament! + +Thy earth is a grain of dust here, but a speck whose wonders astonish +thee; only a grain of dust, and yet a star under stars. That long +column of worlds thou callest thy starry firmament, revolves like the +myriads of grains of dust, visibly hovering in the sunbeam's revolving +column, from the crevice in the wall into that dark space. But still +more distant stands the milky way's whitish mist, a new starry heaven, +each column but a radius in the wheel! But how great is this itself! +how many radii thus go out from the central point--God! + +So far does thine eye reach, so clear is thine age's horizon! Son of +time, choose, who shall be thy companion? Here is thy new career! with +the greatest of thy time, fly thou before thy time's generation! Like +twinkling Lucifer, shine thou in time's roseate morn. + + * * * * * + +Yes, in knowledge lies Poetry's California! Every one who only looks +backward, and not clearly forward, will, however high and honourably +he stands, say, that if such riches lie in knowledge, they would long +since have been made available by great and immortal bards, who had a +clear and sagacious eye for the discovery of truth. But let us +remember that when Thespis spoke from his car, the world had also wise +men. Homer had sung his immortal songs, and yet a new form of genius +appeared, to which a Sophocles and Aristophanes gave birth; the Sagas +and mythology of the North were as an unknown treasure to the stage, +until Oehlenschläger showed what mighty forms from thence might be +made to glide past us. + +It is not our intention that the poet shall versify scientific +discoveries. The didactic poem is and will be, in its best form, +always but a piece of mechanism, or wooden figure, which has not the +true life. The sunlight of science must penetrate the poet; he must +perceive truth and harmony in the minute and in the immensely great +with a clear eye: it must purify and enrich the understanding and +imagination, and show him new forms which will supply to him more +animated words. Even single discoveries will furnish a new flight. +What fairy tales cannot the world unfold under the microscope, if we +transfer our human world thereto? Electro-magnetism can present or +suggest new plots in new comedies and romances; and how many humorous +compositions will not spring forth, as we from our grain of dust, our +little earth, with its little haughty beings look out into that +endless world's universe, from milky way to milky way? An instance of +what we here mean is discoverable in that old noble lady's words: "If +every star be a globe like our earth, and have its kingdoms and +courts--what an endless number of courts--the contemplation is enough +to make mankind giddy!" + +We will not say, like that French authoress: "Now, then, let me die: +the world has no more discoveries to make!" O, there is so endlessly +much in the sea, in the air, and on the earth--wonders, which science +will bring forth!--wonders, greater than the poet's philosophy can +create! A bard will come, who, with a child's mind, like a new +Aladdin, will enter into the cavern of science,--with a child's mind, +we say, or else the puissant spirits of natural strength would seize +him, and make him their servant; whilst he, with the lamp of poetry, +which is, and always will be, the human heart, stands as a ruler, and +brings forth wonderful fruits from the gloomy passages, and has +strength to build poetry's new palace, created in one night by +attendant spirits. + +In the world itself events repeat themselves; the human character was +and will be the same during long ages and all ages; and as they were +in the old writings, they must be in the new. But science always +unfolds something new; light and truth are everything that is +created--beam out from hence with eternally divine clearness. Mighty +image of God, do thou illumine and enlighten mankind; and when its +intellectual eye is accustomed to the lustre, the new Aladdin will +come, and thou, man, shalt with him, who concisely dear, and richly +sings the beauty of truth, wander through Poetry's California. + + +THE END. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Pictures of Sweden, by Hans Christian Andersen + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12313 *** |