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

things;" in church one could often hear whispering, yes even "audible talking" during the
sermon, and as soon as it was over both young and old streamed out, so that few or none
remained for "the collection at the end of the mass." All this got better in Munch's time,
but he complains that there continue to be many people who leave the church before the
worship service is finished; some do not even wait until the minister has read the
benediction from the altar.
In the pastor's book we find some confidences by Munch with reference to his
leaving his "beloved Gjerpen." It is with a bleeding heart that he applies for a transfer,
but hard necessity compels him. The bad times have reduced the incumbent's income to
an unsettling degree, at the same time as his family has gotten bigger. He now has a wife
and not fewer than ten children to support, of which three sons are at the university and
one at Skien's Latin school. He indicates his efforts not to sink into debt, accordingly he
has roomers living in the parish house "for training, principally foreigners," but despite all
his efforts and the utmost thrift in order to get by, he had steadily greater economic
difficulties. In his new appointment as dean and parish pastor in Christiania Munch could
look forward to a brighter future.
Munch's successor, Frederik Rode (1834-54) was born in Copenhagen in 1800,
but came to Norway as a young child. Rode experienced the harshest circumstances
which the country then could offer a young pastor, since before his arrival in Gjerpen he
had lived for six years in Finnmark and had had responsibility for several of the different
widely scattered parishes there. It was therefore not a spoiled Copenhagener that the
people of the parish got as pastor. With authority and strength Rode took hold of all the
duties for which a priest then had responsibility. Not least he invested a large effort in the
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