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

THE GIANT OAK TREE
In the farthest North stood a giant oak; its origins were in heathen times; its glorious
crown rose towards heaven, and its roots struck deep into the earth. Its mighty boughs, its
vigorous shoots spread from the North Pole to the Eider, 14 proudly shaded the land of the
Swedes, and crowned the Western sea's 15 rocky shores!
But the storms of time moved against the giant; they crushed its mighty trunk, and over
that split, sunken Nor 16 they roared violently like a funeral song, and the East's 17 ravenous
eagle looked across the blue Codan 18 with a covetous eye, while the German stretched his
hand towards the prey, which lay, like one dying, unprotected!
Yet the crushed (tree) bore sprouting shoots, the living spark grows easily into a flame!
Youth remembers what the graybeard was, and is readily disposed to grow the same.
Those separated soon seek their brother again, and extend their hand to him like a faithful
friend; soon they shall be united, soon they shall fuse together, like the Northern Lights'
flame in a winter night's sky!
POEMS FROM 1849
THE SPRING OF MEMORY
A maiden sits in the evening hour, gazing into the waves in the stream, and yonder, down
in the deep shallows the dark forests are reflected.
She gazes and gazes with a melancholy smile just as if she longed for something; but the
wave runs away in merry haste embraced by leafy banks.
She sat this way often in innocent childhood, she saw an image on the bottom then: a
youth who beckoned, smiling gently; long ago the sight disappeared.
14 A river which today is in Germany, but which then was considered by the so-called “Eider Danes” to be
the limit beyond which German expansion should not be allowed.
15 The Atlantic Ocean.
16 Goddess of the North.
17 Russia’s.
18 The Baltic Sea.
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