Those who gave us birth,
While the saga-night, dream-weighted,
Broods upon our earth."

Another patriotic song, hardly less popular, opens with the following
stanza:--

"There's a land where the snow is eternally king,
To whose valleys alone come-the joys of the spring,
Where the sea beats a shore rich, with lore of the past,
But this land to its children is dear to the last."

The fresh beauty of such songs as these is, however, almost utterly
uncommunicable in another language. Somewhat more amenable to the
translator is the song 'Over de Hoeje Fjelde' (Over the Lofty Mountains),
which occurs in 'Arne,' and which is perhaps the best of Bjoernson's
lyrics. An attempt at a version of this poem will be found among the
illustrative examples appended to the present essay. The scattered
verses of Bjoernson were collected into a volume of 'Digte og Sange'
(Poems and Songs) in 1870, and in the same year was published 'Arnljot
Gelline,' the author's only long poem not dramatic in form. This uneven
and in passages extraordinarily beautiful work is a sort of epic in
fifteen songs, difficult to read, yet simple enough in general outline.
Arnljot Gelline was a sort of freebooter of the eleventh century, whose
fierce deeds were preserved in popular tradition. The 'Heimskringla'
tells us how, grown weary of his lawless life, he joined himself to Olaf
the Holy, accepted baptism, and fell at Stiklestad righting for
Christianity and the King. From this suggestion, the imagination of the
poet has worked out a series of episodes in Arnljot's life, beginning
with his capture of the fair Ingigerd--whose father he slew, and who,
struggling against her love, took refuge in a cloister--and ending with
the day of the portentous battle against the heathen. It is all very
impressive, and sometimes very subtle, while occasional sections, such
as Ingigerd's appeal for admission to the cloister, and Arnljot's
apostrophe to the sea, must be reckoned among the finest of Bjoernson's
inspirations. Since 1870 Bjoernson has published little verse, although
poems of an occasional character and incidental lyrics have now and then
found their way into print. 'Lyset' (The Light), a cantata, is the only
recent example of any magnitude.

Bjoernson first became famous as the delineator of the Norwegian peasant.
He felt that the peasant is the lineal descendant of the man of the
sagas, and that in him lies the real strength