CHAPTER VII

SELMA LAGERLÖF--SWEDISH REALIST AND IDEALIST

The prize of 1909 has been awarded:

Lagerlöf, Selma, born 1858: “because of the noble idealism, the wealth of fancy and the spiritual quality that characterize her works.”[67]

“I declare it to be my express desire that in the awarding of the prizes no consideration whatever be paid to the nationality of the candidates, that is to say, that the most deserving be awarded the prize, whether of Scandinavian origin or not.” These words from the will of Alfred Nobel had been faithfully obeyed during the first eight years of the awards in literature. Only once had the prize been given to a Scandinavian, to Björnson, the Norwegian, in 1903. When the announcement came that the winner for 1909 was the Swedish writer, Selma Lagerlöf, the most severe critics of the Nobel Foundation Committee in former years were either commendatory or silently acquiescent. Here was an author who richly deserved the prize, for she was already known throughout Europe and America for her unique fiction, in which photographic realism was always blended with a dominant note of idealism. The juvenile book which combined geography, fancy, humor, and fascination for old and young, _The Wonderful Adventures of Nils_, and other books had followed the strange tale of folklore and character study, _The Story of Gösta Berling_; these writings were outstanding evidences of her literary gifts. It was an honor to womanhood everywhere that the Nobel prize was given to Selma Lagerlöf, first of the countrymen of Nobel to be thus immortalized in literature. In her years of teaching and her later messages from the press, she had shown her sincere purpose “to benefit mankind.”

[Illustration:

_By courtesy of The American-Scandinavian Foundation_

SELMA LAGERLÖF]

It is interesting to note that the family name of this woman means “laurel leaf,” a symbol of her fame. In _Mårbacka_, one of her later books to be translated into English, the reader finds detached photographs of the home and environment of this author’s girlhood. Mrs. Velma Swanston Howard, who has been so successful as translator of Miss Lagerlöf’s books, knows perfectly the languages of both Sweden and England; she is a friend of the author, with kinship in her traditions and spirit, and thus has sustained that indefinable but pervading “atmosphere” which characterizes all of Miss Lagerlöf’s fiction. The setting of _Mårbacka_ is alive with elements of Nature and humanity, with folklore and “wonderful tales of old Varmland” which became the basis for many of her later books. The spacious manor house, where Selma Lagerlöf was born sixty-seven years ago, becomes familiar to readers of this autobiography. The nursery chairs, with individual names and portraits of Johan, Anna, and little Selma Ottiliana Louisa, were treasured heirlooms; the beds that “parted company,” perhaps, in the night and the old owl in the lumber-loft above the bedroom, contributed infantile “thrills” and memories.

A gay-hearted, courageous, popular man was her father, Lieutenant Lagerlöf, retired from the army but entertaining former associates in his home and recounting, for his daughter’s education, tales of earlier history of Sweden and his family. The germ-idea of Gösta Berling, hero of her first romance, came after a reminiscence that her father had told her one morning after breakfast, his memory of “the most fascinating of men,” one who could sing, write poetry, dance so that all feet moved in unison, and could bend everyone’s will to his own mood--and yet one who lacked certain qualities of manly strength. The mother of Selma Lagerlöf came from two generations of ministers; she was quiet, practical, intuitive, a fine administrator of her large household and frequent guests. Aunt Lovisa gave a touch of romance to the family circle by a sad chapter in her past that is recounted in “The Bridal Crown,” the tragic result (according to legend) of the substitution of whortleberry for myrtle in the wreath for the bride’s hair. The nurse, Back-Kaisa, large and stern yet devoted to the family, was another interesting character at Mårbacka; from the old housekeeper and the grandmother the children learned stories, sagas, and bits of family histories.

When Selma Lagerlöf was three and a half years old, after bathing in a fresh-water pond with her father, she developed a form of infantile paralysis. Months of inactivity followed; some lasting results of this disease have been handicaps of the author throughout her life. With humor and realistic portrayal of a child’s point of view of this period, she tells in _Mårbacka_, the chapter “Grand Company,” how she increased in social importance in the family, having exclusive attention of the grim nurse, and dainties to eat in place of the usual food, much to the jealous disgust of her brother and sister. A sojourn at Stromstead by the sea brought new vigor and recovery of motion to the little girl; with amazement to herself and her family she walked to investigate a brilliant, stuffed “bird of paradise.” The sprightly zest in living, which characterizes the author’s personality, is reflected in all her books. Animals as pets, poultry of the farmyard, and birds and flowers are vital factors in her earlier and later tales.

Among important influences of her childhood was the singing of Bellman Ballads, with their humor, pathos, and haunting music. One day when Miss Lagerlöf had won a place among twenty-five chosen candidates at Teachers’ College in Stockholm, and had been listening to a lecture about Bellman and Runeberg and their ballads, she had her “flash of inspiration.” She determined to tell stories about her own Varmland; she would become narrator of her “Cavaliers” and would incorporate into her tales the legends, folklore and real characters of the home district. She had cherished ambitions to write verse and even plays, from the days when, as a young girl, she visited her uncle in Stockholm and went to the theatre with the old housekeeper, becoming impressed by peasant plays and scenes from Nosselt’s _History_. She had lain awake at night, composing rhymes and neglecting the sleep which would have fitted her for the tasks of the next day in “composition and arithmetic.”[68]

After graduation she taught at Landskrona, in the province of Skåne, always hoping to find time to write, always meeting disappointments because of the demands of the classroom, often telling orally some of her tales to her pupils after school hours, always returning to her old home, Mårbacka, in vacations and gaining new impetus for her literary aspirations. Her first chapter of _The Story of Gösta Berling_ was composed on a Christmas holiday evening when she, with members of her family, was returning from a party at a distant neighbor’s house. A blizzard was raging and she sat in the sleigh, covered with furs, while the old horse, urged by the aged coachman, tried to plough through the drifts, in defiance of the wild winds. In her mind was formulated that chapter of the Christmas night at the smithy, which is an arresting episode in the complete novel. She made first a metrical version; then she tried it in dramatic form and, finally, wrote it as a short story. Later she wrote other episodes--that of the flood at Ekeby and another of the ball. In 1890, at the urgence of her sister, she sent some of these episodic stories to a prize competition, offered by the magazine, _Idun_, for the best novelette of one hundred pages. A few weeks later the journal announced that some of the manuscripts were “so confusedly written that they could not be considered for the prize”; Miss Lagerlöf was sure that hers was among this rejected class. Then came a telegram, signed by three classmates, with the words, “Hearty Congratulations.”

The editor offered to publish the novel, in expanded form, if Miss Lagerlöf could have it ready in a short time. Again, she was in despair when a friend, Baroness Aldersparre, arranged financial matters so that the teacher could be given a year’s leave of absence--and “the miracle happened.” When she had completed this initial story, combining Swedish legend, history of the days of the Cavaliers and the pensioners and the old forges, with humor and delicate idealism, she was dissatisfied because it seemed to her “wild and disjointed.” There are passages where the sentences are detached, places where the links in her chain of plot are weak. In structure she has gained skill, as is evident by a comparison of her earlier fiction with such masterworks as the first part of _Jerusalem_ and _The Emperor of Portugallia_. With this improved technic, she has kept her spontaneity, her vital realism and intuition, her spiritual insight. After the publication of one of her novels, the _London Times_ said, with true emphasis upon her unusual combination of qualities: “She is an idealist pure and simple in a world given over to realism, yet such is the perfection of her style and the witchery of her fancy that a generation of realists worship her.” An optimism which defies apparent failures, akin to that of Browning, brings about the redemption of her characters from Gösta Berling, drunken poet-preacher and fascinating vagabond, and flighty Marianne Sinclair to Lilliecrona, the restless violinist, and Glory Golden Sunnycastle, heroine of _The Emperor of Portugallia_.

Mrs. Velma Swanston Howard said, in a recent interview with the writer of this book, that Miss Lagerlöf, like her translator, considers this story of Jan, who calls himself “The Emperor of Portugallia,” and his daughter, Glory, as her best work in fiction. Thousands of readers will echo the preference. To the incisive, ruthless realism in this tale she has added sympathy that grips the heart, poetic setting and sagas, and a message that is more impressive because it is dramatic rather than sermonic. The threads of this story are seldom tangled; the pattern stands out with distinctness and artistry.

_Invisible Links_, a collection of short stories, was published in 1894, with peasants, fisherfolk, children, and animals all “linked” in interrelations of spirit; Miss Lagerlöf then received a yearly stipend for her services to literature, through the friendly interest of the Swedish Academy and King Oscar and his son, Prince Eugen. With a friend she went to Italy and Sicily, gaining impressions that bore harvest in _Miracles of Antichrist_, issued in 1897 and translated into English two years later by Pauline Bancroft Flach, who had done the same service for _The Story of Gösta Berling_ and _Invisible Links_. Mingling traditions and poetry of old Sicily with reactions to modern socialism and its effects upon established religion, Miss Lagerlöf wrote with deep fervor and colorful imagination. The slight plot is evolved about the ruse of the Englishwoman who coveted an image of Christ as a child, in a church in Rome, and substituted an image, seemingly the same but with the legend upon the crown, “My Kingdom is only of this World.” By a miracle, a few weeks later, the false image is cast down and the true Christchild stands in the doorway. The Antichrist is taken away to Sicily where miracles of helpfulness are recorded by its agnostic followers. Miss Lagerlöf seeks to preach, through the words of the Pope to Father Gondo, the ideal of unity between Christianity and antichristianity: “You could take the great popular movement in your arms, while it is still lying like a child in its swaddling clothes, and you could bear it to Jesus’ feet; and Antichrist would see that he is nothing but an imitation of Christ, and would acknowledge him his Lord and Master.”[69]

_From a Swedish Homestead_, which was published in 1899, contains the strong, mystical novelette, “The Story of a Country House.” A student at Upsala University loses his reason as a result of seeing his flock of sheep frozen to death in a storm when, by his forethought, the tragedy might have been averted. Known as “The Goat,” he wanders about the countryside, selling toys and trinkets, until his redemption and sanity are achieved through his love for a girl of noble character. Among the other short tales in this same volume is “Santa Catarina of Siena,” a reflection of the Italian trip, and “The Emperor’s Money Chest,” which is allegorical yet photographic of Belgium in an industrial crisis.

Two other books preceded the award of the Nobel prize--_Jerusalem_ and _The Wonderful Adventures of Nils_, with its sequel. In 1899, the Swedish government gave to Miss Lagerlöf a commission to go to Palestine. She was to report, on her return, upon conditions which she might discover there in the Swedish colony which had migrated from Nås, a parish of Dalecarlia, a few years previously. Urged by promoters of missionary enterprise, among them Mrs. Edward Gordon of Chicago, scores of peasants and householders had sold their homesteads and left their families to join this colony in the Holy Land. Rumors had come to Sweden of direful conditions there--of disease and hunger, of depleted morale and bickerings among colonists and missionaries. “Jerusalem kills!” became a common phrase of the day. Miss Lagerlöf undertook investigation and made a report on existent evils and exaggerated rumors. She accomplished a far more important work for literature than this report. She gathered material for one of her most emotional, graphic books, _Jerusalem_. Against the background of facts, both in Dalecarlia and Palestine, she wove a story of intense feeling, with folklore, psychological insight, and characterization of a fine type. The portrayals of the Ingmarsson family and the women, Brita, Karin, and Gertrude, whose fates were interlinked with those of the later generation of the ancestral family of Dalecarlia, are vivid.

Humor relieves the tragic intensity of this book, so well rendered into English by Mrs. Howard who has, says Mr. Henry Goddard Leach in the Introduction, been able “to reproduce the original in essence as well as verisimilitude.” An example of the descriptive style of this story of Swedish life under religious tension is found in the opening sentences of the chapter, “The Departure of the Pilgrims” of Part I.[70] “One beautiful morning in July, a long train of cars and wagons set out from the Ingmar Farm. The Hellgumists had at last completed their arrangements, and were now leaving for Jerusalem--the first stage of the journey being the long drive to the railway station.

“The procession, in moving towards the village, had to pass a wretched hovel which was called Mucklemire. The people who lived there were a disreputable lot--the kind of scum of the earth which must have sprung into being when our Lord’s eyes were turned, or when he had been too busy elsewhere.

“There was a whole horde of dirty, ragged youngsters on the place, who were in the habit of running loose all day, shrieking after passing vehicles, and calling the occupants bad names; there was an old crone who usually sat by the roadside, tipsy; and there were a husband and wife who were always quarrelling and fighting, and who had never been known to do any honest work. No one could say whether they begged more than they stole, or stole more than they begged.

“When the Jerusalem-farers came alongside this wretched hovel, which was about as tumbledown as a place can become when wind and storm have, for many years, been allowed to work havoc, they saw the old crone standing erect and sober at the roadside, on the same spot where she usually sat in a drunken stupor ... and with her were four of the children. All five were now washed and combed, and as decently dressed as it was possible for them to be....

“All the Jerusalem-farers suddenly burst into tears, the grown-ups crying softly, while the children broke into loud sobs and wails.... When they had all passed by, Beggar Lina also began to weep.

“‘Those people are going to Heaven to meet Jesus,’ she told the children. ‘All those people are going to Heaven, but we are left standing by the wayside.’”

Another literary outcome of the visit of Miss Lagerlöf to Palestine was a renewed interest in legends about Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Always deeply religious, with an unusual ability to blend worship with tradition and never lose the distinctive flavor of each element, she wrote the tales that were collected as _Christ Legends_, translated by Mrs. Howard in 1908. Here are new, impressive versions of such old myths as “The Wise Men’s Well,” “Saint Veronica’s Kerchief,” and “Robin Redbreast.”

The Swedish school authorities wished for a good geography which should be popular with the children and satisfy the teachers. The National Teachers’ Association appealed to Miss Lagerlöf for such a book and the results were _The Wonderful Adventures of Nils_ and _Further Adventures of Nils_, appearing in 1906 and 1907. These books, so widely read in schools and homes in every civilized country to-day, are worthy a place on the shelves beside _Alice in Wonderland_ of the past and _Doctor Doolittle_ of the present type of juveniles. The boy, Nils Holgersson, and his “goosey-gander,” with companions on the earth and in the air, appeal to the imagination of all ages, while the information about Sweden’s outlines and landmarks is both accurate and entertaining.

Such had been the literary output of Miss Lagerlöf before she was chosen for the Nobel winner of 1909. Already she had been given a gold medal for her work by the Swedish Academy and the degree of LL.D. by the University of Upsala. Five years after the award she was elected to membership in the Swedish Academy, “the eighteen immortals”--the first woman to be thus honored. When the prize was given to her, with a grand fête at Stockholm, she was the guest of honor at a banquet at the Grand Hotel, given by King Gustav V. Her acceptance was in the form of a unique speech, a story, briefly told, of her summons to her father to aid her in saying the right words, this father who, long dead, had been her inspiration for her first work in literature and her spiritual guide in many crises. Wistful beauty and delicate humor were blended in the closing words:[71] “Father sits and ponders a while; then he wipes away the tears of joy, shakes himself, and strikes his fist on the arm of the chair. ‘I don’t care to sit here any longer and muse on things which no one, either in heaven or on earth, can answer!’ he says. ‘If you have received the Nobel Prize, I shan’t trouble myself about anything but to be happy.’

“Your Royal Highness--Ladies and Gentlemen--since I got no better answer to all my queries, it only remains for me to ask you to join me in a toast of gratitude, which I have the honour to propose to the Swedish Academy.”

Miss Lagerlöf was fifty-one years old when this honor came to her; in the years since then she has exemplified, in spoken and written words, “the noble idealism, the wealth of imagination, the soulful quality of her style.” Her speech, in 1911, when the International Suffrage Congress was held in Stockholm, was widely read and translated. In this, as in so many of her stories, she stressed the idea of home and its influence throughout every avenue of betterment in the world. This year marked, also, the publication of _Lilliecrona’s Home_, translated in English three years later by Anna Barwell. The setting was Varmland and the hero’s home, Lövdalla, closely resembles the home of the author, Mårbacka. This is, perhaps, the most poetic and mystical of all her stories. The violinist who found in “music and music alone his home, his place of rest,” is a haunting character, sharing many traits with Gösta Berling. His life-passage is turbulent, often dramatic, sometimes melancholy, ending in a happy romance for him and Maia Lisa, the pastor’s daughter. There are scenes of emotional vigor, like “The Bride’s Dance” and “The Accusation.” These are comparable to the more familiar chapters in _The Story of Gösta Berling_, like that where the autocratic Mistress of Ekeby is driven forth by her pensioners because they discover that she has vowed a soul each year to the devil (in expiation for her secret sin) or the redemptive power of Countess Elizabeth in reclaiming Gösta’s manhood. Beautiful descriptions of apple orchards in bloom are found in the later book, interwoven with romantic legends like the excitement for the pastor’s daughter when young Lilliecrona comes forward in her dream and offers her water “after the magic pancake,” a sure prophecy that he will be her husband.

Against the same background of her girlhood home is placed the later, strong story of _The Emperor of Portugallia_. This is less episodic and more unified than some of her other fiction. Jan, the dull, plodding man with no zest in life until he holds in his arms his little daughter, whom he calls Glory Goldie Sunnycastle, is a vital character; we share his pride in the beauty and charm of Glory, his faith in her even when rumors would smirch her moral character, not without basis, as she goes out into the world to save the home for Jan and his wife, Katrina, his final act of self-sacrifice when, with clouded mind but spiritual vision, he would save her from the demons of “Pride and Hardness, Lust and Vice.” This story has been well called in France “an epic of fatherhood--a Swedish _Père Goriot_.”

In 1922 appeared in the United States _The Outcast_, the English version of _Bannlyst_, as its title was in Swedish when it was published in 1918. The World War entered as a motif in the latter part of the story, sometimes with strained effects. As a work of artistic fiction it seems inferior to _The Story of Gösta Berling_ or _The Emperor of Portugallia_. It has virility however, and much intensity of feeling. Although she lived in a neutral country Miss Lagerlöf was deeply stirred by the war and the terrible sacrifices of life. She resented all evidences of brutal humanity. The sacredness of human life forms her keynote in _The Outcast_. Sven Elversson, who had lived through a fearful experience upon an Arctic expedition and had been accused of eating human flesh in an hour of imminent famine, returns to his mother and his home to find himself denounced by the villagers and even by the minister. To save his mother from further torture of spirit, after he has tried in vain to overcome the prejudice of the people by his charity and Christlike deeds, he goes away to the woods of the Far North. Here he wanders, and is called “The Outcast,” until he meets the beautiful wife of the bigoted minister who had preached against Sven, the man who, in unfounded jealousy, had cast off his wife. The love scenes in this book are elemental in their simplicity, yet have poetic touches. Then comes the Battle of Jutland and the frightful scenes when the bodies of the dead are washed upon the shores of his home town. Sven returns and organizes a group of men to bury the dead; in the pocket of one of the victims is found a letter which exonerates Sven from the false charge of cannibalism. It is a daring, grotesque tale in parts, with local color and superstition interwoven with good character-drawing and a dominant message of faith.

An early folk story which has been recently translated by Arthur G. Chater, is entitled _The Treasure_. It is slight in volume and literary value compared with such major books as _Jerusalem_ and _The Emperor of Portugallia_. It has features of the spectacular with restrained dramatic power. It lends itself to scenario effects because of the pictorial background and the brilliant contrasts in characters and sentiments. In Sweden of the sixteenth century, in the days of Frederick II of Denmark (who was also ruler of Sweden), occurred this legendary tale. It mingles the sea, with its galleys and its wild storms, with the parsonage and the hidden treasure chest which was looted. All the family had been murdered by these mysterious robbers except a foster child, Elsalill. The supernatural element is used with fine effects; this girl is haunted by the ghost and messages from her foster sister who was killed. Elsalill is in anguish of spirit because she loves the bold, persuasive, and richly apparelled Sir Archer, although she finds that he is one of the robber-murderers. How her body becomes his shield from the sheriff, even to her death and his escape, forms the romantic climax of this tale.

Miss Lagerlöf’s early ambition to become a dramatist has never wholly died; she has written a few plays that have been staged with success in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Among these has been a dramatization of _The Girl from the Marshcroft_; this story has been shown as a film in many places in America as well as abroad. The setting in rural picturesqueness, with tragic and romantic notes mingled, affords dramatic opportunities. Mrs. Howard says that _The Story of Gösta Berling_ has been shown at the cinema in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe. “Will Miss Lagerlöf ever come to the United States?” we ask her friend and translator. The reply is a probable negative. She is deeply interested in America and reads many books by our authors, especially those of mystical or informing trend. She had an uncle who lived in Seattle and, on the walls of her dining-room, are found landscapes of Western America. She is not very strong, although never lacking in energy of mind and purpose. The freedom and vivacity of American women impress her as she receives many visitors, either at her summer home at Mårbacka or in the winter at Falun, close to the scenes of the first part of _Jerusalem_. She reads six languages with ease and is conversant with the major interests of every country. She has a keen humor and rare graciousness.

Miss Lagerlöf is intensely racial and national in her literary reflections; she is international in her sympathies and insight into problems of life. Love of home is one of the primal qualities of her personality and writing. She has applied her creed of “keeping the imagination young” by never losing her own delight in sagas, hero tales, and “belief in fairies” that will enhearten and redeem humanity. Edwin Björkman, in _Voices of Tomorrow_, has stressed her ability and courage “to dream and feel and aspire.” Her literary work varies in excellence; sometimes it is weak in structure and ineffective in artistry; in other and major portions she has clothed the commonplace incidents of life with original, new vitality and revealed their meanings with imaginative beauty. Her characters and settings are racial but her impulses and messages are universal, unconfined by land or age.

FOOTNOTES:

[67] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1909.

[68] _Selma Lagerlöf; The Woman, Her Work, Her Message_ by Harry E. Maule, Garden City, N. Y., 1917. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.

[69] _Miracles of Antichrist_ by Selma Lagerlöf, translated by Pauline Bancroft Flach, Garden City, N. Y., 1899. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.

[70] _Jerusalem_ by Selma Lagerlöf, translated by Velma Swanston Howard, Garden City, N. Y., 1916. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.

[71] _Selma Lagerlöf: The Woman, Her Work, Her Message_ by Harry E. Maule, Garden City, N. Y., 1917. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.

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