Pictures of Sweden
by
Hans Christian Andersen
Part 1 out of 3
Produced by Asad Razzaki and PG Distributed Proofreaders. Produced
from page images provided by the Internet Archive Children's Library.
PICTURES OF SWEDEN
By
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
Author of
"The Improvisatore," &c.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1851.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION
TROLLHAeTTA
THE BIRD PHOENIX
KINNAKULLA
GRANDMOTHER
THE PRISON-CELLS
BEGGAR-BOYS
VADSTENE
THE PUPPET-SHOWMAN
THE "SKJAeRGAARDS"
STOCKHOLM
DIURGAERDEN
A STORY
UPSALA
SALA
THE MUTE BOOK
THE ZAeTHER 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 Skjaergaards, 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!
TROLLHAeTTA.
* * * * *
Who did we meet at Trollhaetta? 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 Trollhaetta 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
Staerkodder dwelt in this district, and liked the pretty girl Ogn right
well; but she was fonder of Hergrimmer, and therefore he was
challenged by Staerkodder 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 Staerkodder 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 Trollhaetta'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 Goeta stortade fran Fjallen,
Hemsk Trollet fran sat Toppfall roet!
Men Snillet kom och spraengt stod Hallen,
Med Skeppen i sitt skoet!"
"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 Tjoerneroes 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 Trollhaetta.
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 Trollhaetta 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 Trollhaetta.
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. Trollhaetta 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 Trollhaetta--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
Vaermeland, Trollhaetta." 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 Trollhaetta. "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 fran 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 Trollhaetta! 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 Trollhaetta'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
Trollhaetta'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.
Skjaergaardens' 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 Lockoe'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 Tradgarden!"
(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 bekaenna, att jag formar
ilia anda mit Ave Maria eller laesa mit Paternoster, utan du kommer mig
ichagen. Ja i sjelfa messen kommer mig fore dit taeckleliga Ansigte och
vart karliga omgange. Jag tycker jag kan icke skifta mig for n genann
an Menniska, jungfru Maria, St. Birgitta och himmelens Haerskaror
skalla kanske straffe mig harfar? Men du vet det val, hjertans kaeraste
att jag med fri vilja och uppsaet aldrig dissa reglar samtykt. Mine
foraeldrer hafva vael min kropp i dette fangelset insatt, men hjertaet
kan intet sa snart fran 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 oefver skoen 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.
Lindkjoeping'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 Lindkjoeping, 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 bad 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 Lejonhufved: 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 "SKJAeRGAARDS."
* * * * *
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 Skjaergaards:" 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 Skjaergaard to Skjaergaard. 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 Skjaergaards 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 Skjaergaards--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
Skjaergaard to Skjaergaard.
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 Maelaren 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
Skoetkonge 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 Maelar 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 Maelar 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 Roerstrand'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 Maelar'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 Skoetkonge stretched the iron chains across the
mouth of the Maelar 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 Soedermalm'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 Soedermalm, 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 Soedermalm'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 Soedermalm'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
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