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

Shall Schleswig for the Danish people become identified as what Finland is for Sweden's
sons, a land for which bitter tears tremble heavily in the eye of the silent spokesman of
sorrow.
Shall Schleswig be dedicated to German plunder, shall the child be torn violently from its
mother? No, brothers, no, there is a sacred law in the depths of the soul, it says: Rescue
your brother!
It says: help, what Nature long bound with noble firm bonds tight to the heart; woe, woe
to you, if you fail in the hour of danger!
Skulda reads your saga strictly and plainly, she requires action for what nourished you
within and not merely resounding floods of words.
Shall Norway stain with a faithless deed its young freedom's bright sunrise? Say, who
planted in the people's breast the advice to sit peacefully while the Danes bleed.
Was it those men whom the people elected, to stand guard over their honor in the Thing?
Why did you not follow honor's noble command, why did you call dishonor upon
yourselves?
Was the choice doubtful when it stood to you to follow the voice of brotherly love. Say,
did you not hear the people's cry?
Already the German advanced closer and closer and yet you could forget those in distress
who still placed in us a confident hope.
Say, Swedish brothers, say why you tarry? Why do you not hurry across the sound's
waves? You hold the Danes as dear as we, you love Zealand with its bright forests.
Say, does not the tumult oppress your soul when you look across the sound towards
Denmark, is not the German's victory cry an awful arrogant insult, you are inclined
willingly to subdue?
Ha! is it true, what is whispered about, that you stare back with fright towards the east,
are Sweden's sons then the barbarians' slaves?
No, no, you fear no foreign judgment; each saga's page from bygone days nobly witnesses
what is related there.
And if only a single band departs for there (Schleswig) from Sweden's coasts and from
Norway's mountains, what use is that? A distant future will before its strict tribunal
condemn the people.
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