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

literature goes, it is evident that an isolated Norwegian or Swedish or Danish literature
can in no way arouse the attention in Europe or have the influence in the development of
scholarship, as a united Scandinavian [literature can], not to mention that each of the
former separate literatures contains to be sure so much that is valuable and genuine in
relation to its extent. But in the second place, the separate literatures, which could not be
self-sufficient even when they managed without the support which lies in the common
bank, would become far more dependent on literature from abroad, and not be able to
develop themselves into the powerful distinctive feature, which would achieve a genuine
significance. The dependence of Danish literature on the German is all-too-well-known;
the Swedish has walked on the Frenchmen's leash more than is proper; about the
Norwegian, which is still completely in its childhood, nothing definite can yet be said, but
the analogy and simple impression for that matter seem to indicate that it will not be able
to keep itself free from mainly English influence. Now we would not in any way want
Scandinavia's literature to stand, like the Russian, completely isolated from the German,
French and English literatures, which for that matter are not without mutually significant
points of contact either; we have suggested above precisely how with these it constitutes a
higher unity. But we want Scandinavia's literature to defend its independence in this
unity, we want it to stand there with honor, with firm, marked, manly features, we want it
to have its complete significance beside the rest. And it is in this respect significant that
the Danish writer who has given the strongest support to emancipate Danish poetry and
attain that significance--namely Oehlenschlæger --is precisely the one to whom honor
belongs for having first expressed the idea of Scandinavia's unity. His poetry is basically
as Norwegian as it is Danish, and with the exception of the little difference of dialect, it
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