World Literature - Scandinavian Literatures

Ethnologists tell us that the people of Scandinavian countries represent today the purest strain of the ancient race which settled in Europe so many centuries ago and which has affected so profoundly the thought and civilization of the whole world. Let us remember also that Northern Europe produce great literature as much as a thousand years ago, and that their successors have in our own day made significant contributions to European letters.

Speaking now of the literature, the Eddas and sagas of Iceland demand first attention that a people so small and so scattered, in such untoward circumstances of life and at so early a point in the culture of the North, could produce literature of this order seems amazing to us. This literature is the treasure house of the ancient myths, legends, and traditions of the Northern people.

The two great figures in modern Scandinavian literature are Hans Christian Andersen and Henrick Ibsen. They have taken a sure place in European letters. The contrast between the two is very great.

Romance, hop, fantasy, characterize Andersen, whereas Ibsen is solitary, holds himself aloof, displays an intensely critical and pessimistic spirit verging on despair, and never tempers judgment with mercy. Both have made a great contribution. Ibsen, despite many drawback,  has done much for Europen thought, and his is the larger figure of the two.