HENRIK WERGELAND 1808 - 1845 Norway´s national poet, symbol of Norway´s independence. Wergeland´s opposition to pro-Danish "intelligentsija" made him one of the ideological leaders of the patriotic movement in the early 1800s. As a national leader Wergeland was called "Folkelærer", a teacher and educator of the people. The writer Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson once said that in Wergeland and in his visions of the future were combined a worker and king, criminal and legislator, fool and sage, into one great unity. Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland was a Norwegian poet and prose writer, born in Kristiansand. He was the oldest son of Nikolai Wergeland (1780–1848), who had been a member of the constitutional assembly which proclaimed the independence of Norway in 1814 at Eidsvoll. The father was himself pastor of Eidsvoll and the poet was thus brought up in the very holy of holies of Norwegian patriotism. Wergeland´s younger sister was Camilla Collett. He entered the University of Christiania in 1825 to study for the church and graduated in 1829. That year, he became a symbol of the fight for celebration of the constitution at May 17. Later to become the Norwegian National Day. He became a public hero after the infamous "battle of the Square" in Christiania, which came to pass because any celebration of the national day was forbidden by royal decree. Wergeland was, of course, present and became renowned for standing up against the local governors. Later, he became the first to give a public address on behalf of the day and thus he was given credit as the one who "initiated the day". His grave and statues are decorated by students and school children every year. Notably, the Jewish community of Oslo pays their respects at his grave on May 17, in appreciation of his efforts to allow Jews into Norway. During the Second World War, the Nazi occupants forbid any celebration of Wergeland. They even put out a warrant for him, just in case. In 1829 he published a volume of lyrical and patriotic poems, Digte, første Ring (poems, first circle), which attracted the liveliest attention to his name. In this book we find his ideal love, the heavenly Stella, which can be described as a Wergeland equivalent to Beatrice in Dante´s poem Divina Commedia. Stella is in fact based on four girls, whom Wergeland fell in love with (two of whom he wooed), and never got really close to. The character of Stella also inspired him to endeavour on the great epic Skabelsen, Mennesket og Messias (Creation, Man and the Messiah). It was remodeled in 1845 as Mennesket (Man). In these works, Wergeland shows the history of Man and God´s plan for humanity. The works are clearly platonic-romantic, and is also based on ideals from the enlightenment and the French revolution. Thus, he criticizes abuse of power, and notably evil priests and their manipulation of people´s minds. In the end, his credo goes like this: Heaven shall no more be split after the quadrants of altars, the earth no more be sundered and plundered of tyrant´s sceptres. Bloodstained crowns, executioner´s steel torches of thralldom and pyres of sacrifice no more shall gleam over earth. Through the gloom of priests, through the thunder of kings, the dawn of freedom, bright day of truth shines over the sky, now the roof of a temple, and descends on earth, who now turns into an altar for brotherly love. The spirits of the earth now glow in freshened hearts. Freedom is the heart of the spirit, Truth the spirit´s desire. earthly spirits all to the soil will fall to the eternal call: Each in own brow wears his heavenly throne. Each in own heart wears his altar and sacrificial vessel. Lords are all on earth, priests are all for God. At the age of twenty-one he became a power in literature, and his enthusiastic preaching of the doctrines of the revolution of July made him a force in politics also. Meanwhile he was tireless in his efforts to advance the national cause. He established popular libraries, and tried to alleviate the widespread poverty of the Norwegian peasantry. He preached the simple life, denounced foreign luxuries, and set an example by wearing Norwegian homespun clothes. He strived for enlightenment and greater understanding of the constitutional rights his people had been given. Thus, he became increasingly popular among common people. Critics, especially Johan Sebastian Welhaven, claimed his earliest efforts in literature were wild and formless. He was full of imagination, but without taste or knowledge. Therefore, from 1830 to 1835 Wergeland was subjected to severe attacks from J. S. Welhaven and others. Welhaven, being a classicist, could not tolerate Wergeland´s explosive way of writing, and published an essay about Wergeland´s style. As an answer to these attacks, Wergeland published several poetical farces under the pseudonym of "Siful Sifadda". Welhaven showed no understanding of Wergeland´s poetical style, or even of his personality. On one hand, the quarrel was personal, on the other, cultural and political. What had started as a mock-quarrel in the Norwegian Student´s Community soon blew out of proportion and became a long lasting newspaper dispute for nearly two years. Sadly, Welhaven´s criticism, and the slander produced by his friends, created a lasting prejudice against Wergeland and his early productions. Recently, this has been debated, and his early poetry has been more favorably recognized. Wergeland´s poetry can in fact be regarded as strangely modernistic. From early on, he wrote poems in free style, without occurring rhymes or metre. His use of metaphors are vivid, and complex, and many of his poems quite long. He challenges the reader to contemplate his poems over and over, but so does his contemporaries Byron and Shelley, or even Shakespeare. The free form and multiple interpretations especially offended Welhaven, who held an aesthetical view of poetry as appropriately concentrated on one topic at a time. In 1840 he married Amalie Sofie Bekkevold, and she became en inspiration for a new book of love-poems, filled with flowers, where his love-poems from the earlier stage had been filled with stars. Amalie was the daughter of a ferryman. His nationalist political propaganda lacked knowledge and system. His partisans were alienated by his inconsistent admiration for King Carl Johan, by his unpopular advocacy of the Jewish cause, and by the extravagance of his methods generally. His popularity waned as his poetry improved, and in 1840 he found himself a really great lyric poet, but an exile from political influence. In that year he became keeper of the royal archives. The following year, be moved from Damstredet to Grotten. He died of tuberculosis, July 12,. 1845. His statue stands between the Royal Palace and Storting by Oslo´s main street, his back turned to Nationalteateret. On Norwegian Constitution Day, it receives an annual wreath of flowers from students at the University of Oslo. Selected works: AH!, 1827 IRREPARIBLE TEMPUS, 1828 SINCLAIRS DØD, 1828 DIGTE, FØRSTE RING, 1829 - Poems, first cycle SKABELSEN, MENNESKET OG MESSIAS, 1830 - Creation, Humanity, and Messias SPANIOLEN, 1833 - The Spaniard DIGTE, POESIER, 1838 DEN KONSTITUTIONELLE, 1839 JAN VAN HUYSUMS BLOMSTERSTYKKE, 1840 - Jan van Huysum´s Flowerpiece SVALEN, 1841 JØDEN, 1842 - The Jew - read the poem from the home page of International Friends of Literature and Culture JØDINDEN, 1844 DEN ENGELSKE LODS, 1844 - The English Pilot TILL MIN GYLDENLAK, 1845 MENNESKET, 1845 SAMLEDE SKRIFTER, 1952-1957 Poems, 1929 (reprinted in 1979) SKRIFTER, 1957-62 HJERTELAG, GENI OG ULYKKE, 1970 VINTERBLOMMER I BARNEKAMMARET, 1976 VORD LYS, 1977 VESLE-HANS´S EVENTYR I SKOGEN, 1982 DEN INDISKE CHOLERA, 1984 INTET ANDET END DIGTER, 1994 DEN FØRSTE GANG, 1995 WERGELAND PÅ PROSA, 2000