The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Feast at Solhoug, by Henrik Ibsen,
Translated by William Archer and Mary Morrison

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Title: The Feast at Solhoug

Author: Henrik Ibsen

Release Date: May 21, 2006 [eBook #18428]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FEAST AT SOLHOUG***

E-text prepared by Douglas Levy

THE FEAST AT SOLHOUG.

by

HENRIK IBSEN

From The Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen, Volume 1
Revised and Edited by William Archer

Translation by William Archer and Mary Morrison

INTRODUCTION*

Exactly a year after the production of _Lady Inger of Ostrat_--that
is to say on the "Foundation Day" of the Bergen Theatre, January 2,
1866--_The Feast at Solhoug_ was produced. The poet himself has
written its history in full in the Preface to the second edition.
The only comment that need be made upon his rejoinder to his critics
has been made, with perfect fairness as it seems to me, by George
Brandes in the following passage:** "No one who is unacquainted with
the Scandinavian languages can fully understand the charm that the
style and melody of the old ballads exercise upon the Scandinavian
mind. The beautiful ballads and songs of _Des Knaben Wunderhorn_
have perhaps had a similar power over German minds; but, as far as
I am aware, no German poet has has ever succeeded in inventing a
metre suitable for dramatic purposes, which yet retained the
mediaeval ballad's sonorous swing and rich aroma. The explanation
of the powerful impression produced in its day by Henrik Hertz's
_Svend Dyring's House_ is to be found in the fact that in it, for
the first time, the problem was solved of how to fashion a metre
akin to that of the heroic ballads, a metre possessing as great
mobility as the verse of the _Niebelungenlied_, along with a
dramatic value not inferior to that of the pentameter. Henrik
Ibsen, it is true, has justly pointed out that, as regards the
mutual relations of the principal characters, _Svend Dyring's
House_ owes more to Kleist's _Kathchen von Heubronn_ than _The
Feast at Solhoug_ owes to _Svend Dyring's House_. But the fact
remains that the