y Longfellow, Tegner conveyed a true image of Sweden's religious
life. The scene in the country church, decked out with flowers and
evergreens for the solemn ceremony, the rustic boys and girls bowing
and curtseying as they make their responses before the assembled
congregation, and the attitude and words of the patriarchal pastor are
all true to life. The somewhat declamatory tone of the oration is not
less consistent with the character of the rural parson, the trend of
Swedish religious thought, and the solemnity associated with these
occasions.

It was in his patriotic war-songs, however, that Tegner roused the
greatest enthusiasm. His _Svea_, his dithryambic declamation _King
Charles_, and his _Scanean Reserves_, sent a thrill through young and
old. When _Svea_ was read at the Swedish Academy, which awarded the
poem its gold medal, the friends and opponents of Tegner alike were
moved to undisguised admiration. In breadth and intrinsic power, and
in the beauty of its rythm, which seems to echo the clash of arms and
the marching of masses, this poem is unequalled in Swedish literature.
Tegner's name soon became known far beyond the limits of the lands
where his language is understood. His works were translated into
almost all modern tongues, so that some fifty different translations
of the whole or parts of his poems now exist in eleven European
languages.

A new feature was introduced into Swedish poetry by Runeberg. Although
born of Swedish parents, he was brought up in Finland, his mind being
nurtured in the traditions and the mixed racial influences of his new
fatherland. Thus he breathed a new spirit, and a new inspiration,
drawn from the realities of life, into poetical fiction. He was a
realist in the best sense of that much-misused word. He sought his
ideals _in_ life, instead of outside of it and above it in imaginary
creations. He saw nature such as it is, with all its faults and
sublimities, and, loving it with a true poet's devotion, he painted it
simply and faithfully, without aiming at ennobling it, but seeking and
finding what there is of native dignity in its humblest expressions.
In his lyrical poem, _The Sayings of Sergeant Stal_, he portrayed
incidents of the wars of Finland fighting by the side of Sweden in
1809, when the country was conquered by Russia. It was a series of war
pictures, a collection of hero types, painted in living colors, and
breathing the most ardent patriotism.--Simple tales t