cultural resources in henrik ibsen's early environment - Ibsen.net

over the course of world events cannot ignore, that history withdraws more and more to
the northwest. The old world, Rome's orbis terrarum, is limited for the most part to
countries around the Mediterranean; the Middle Ages' wide-ranging fanciful upheaval
still centers mostly around the former Roman Empire's northern borders, where Romans
and barbarians got along together; more recent history belongs to Central Europe, with
France to a great extent as the leader. And that the last act of this great European drama
will be played especially in our Scandinavia, is evident by much more than the former
analogy. The Scandinavian North for the moment stands at the summit of our time's
civilization; the enlightenment of the people is at least as great and widespread here as
anyplace; Protestantism, whose mightiest champions have already once before gone out
from here, has permeated the population more completely here than in any other place.
The political freedom in the Norwegian constitution has already raised a magnificent
temple; and among our brother peoples, where it has not yet come so far, its voice still
sounds already fuller and more powerful, and the time indeed is not far off, when like an
Orpheus it will get the stones to move; art has already finished several of the northern
temple's ornamentations; science stands like a priest, and poetry already sings splendid
hymns previously construed by the priest in its tabernacle, still really often threatened by
storm. The rest of Europe already begins to turn its glance more and more up here; what
has hitherto stood in the way of our importance has been only our division. Norway,
Sweden, Denmark are each by themselves too small to place any significant weight into
the scale of Europe; only together would they be able to assert themselves, only together
will they be able to carry out with strength the larger and difficult mission to which
already they are more and more obviously beckoned. Now in the first place, as far as
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