Poetry Codex

Nordic

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

1832–1910

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910) was a Norwegian poet, novelist, dramatist and public campaigner, one of the “four great ones” of nineteenth-century Norwegian literature. He wrote the words of the national hymn “Yes, We Love This Land Forever,” and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1903.

The poems here are Arthur Hubbell Palmer’s English versions, made in the original meters and published as Poems and Songs (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1915); Bjørnson’s originals are in Norwegian. Many began as songs inside his peasant tales and plays, such as Synnøve Solbakken and Arne, others as occasional verse for national causes.

Poems (131)

  1. Synnove's Song
  2. The Hare and the Fox
  3. Nils Finn
  4. The Maidens' Song
  5. The Dove
  6. The Mother's Song
  7. Lambkin Mine
  8. Ballad of Tailor Nils
  9. Venevil
  10. Over the Lofty Mountains
  11. The Day of Sunshine
  12. Ingerid Sletten
  13. The Tree
  14. The Melody
  15. Our Country
  16. Song for Norway
  17. The Call
  18. Evening
  19. Marit's Song
  20. Love Thy Neighbor
  21. Oyvind's Song
  22. Love Song
  23. Mountain Song
  24. Answer from Norway
  25. Johan Ludvig Heiberg
  26. The Ocean
  27. Alone and Repentant
  28. The Princess
  29. From Monte Pincio
  30. If Only You Knew It
  31. The Angels of Sleep
  32. The Maiden on the Shore
  33. Secret Love
  34. Olaf Trygvason
  35. A Sigh
  36. To a Godson
  37. Bergliot
  38. To My Wife
  39. In a Heavy Hour
  40. Kaare's Song
  41. Ivar Ingemundson's Lay
  42. Magnus the Blind
  43. Sin, Death
  44. Frida
  45. Bergen
  46. P. A. Munch
  47. King Frederik the Seventh
  48. To Sweden
  49. Our Forefathers
  50. When Norway Would Not Help
  51. Daniel Schjötz
  52. To the Dannebrog
  53. Toast for the Men of Eidsvold
  54. The Norröna-Race
  55. Hymn of the Puritans
  56. Hunting Song
  57. Taylor's Song
  58. Lector Thaasen
  59. During a Journey in Sweden
  60. The Tryst
  61. Song for the Students' Glee Club
  62. Mrs. Louise Brun
  63. To Johan Dahl, Bookdealer
  64. To Sculptor Borch
  65. The Spinner
  66. The White Rose and the Red Rose
  67. Youth
  68. The Blonde Maiden
  69. The First Meeting
  70. Good-Morning
  71. My Fatherland
  72. Choice
  73. Norwegian Seamen's Song
  74. Halfdan Kjerulf
  75. Norwegian Students' Greeting with a Procession
  76. For a Charity Fair
  77. Forward
  78. The Meeting
  79. Norse Nature
  80. I Passed by the House
  81. Those with Me
  82. To My Father
  83. To Erika Lie
  84. At Michael Sars's Grave
  85. To Johan Sverdrup
  86. The Child in Our Soul
  87. Ole Gabriel Ueland
  88. Anton Martin Schweigaard
  89. To Aasmund Olafsen Vinje
  90. Good Cheer
  91. Old Heltberg
  92. For the Wounded
  93. Landfall
  94. To Hans Christian Andersen
  95. To Stang
  96. On a Wife's Death
  97. The Bier of Precentor A. Reitan
  98. Song
  99. On the Death of N. F. S. Grundtvig
  100. From the Cantata for N. F. S. Grundtvig
  101. At a Banquet for Professor Ludv. Kr. Daa
  102. Oh, When Will You Stand Forth?
  103. At Hansteen's Bier
  104. Rallying Song for Freedom in the North
  105. At a Banquet
  106. Open Water!
  107. Song of Freedom
  108. To Molde
  109. Per Bo
  110. Hamar-Made Matches
  111. They Have Found Each Other
  112. The Pure Norwegian Flag
  113. To Missionary Skrefsrud in Santalistan
  114. Post Festum
  115. Romsdal
  116. Holger Drachmann
  117. A Meeting
  118. The Poet
  119. Psalms
  120. Question and Answer
  121. Sung for Norway's Riflemen
  122. Workmen's March
  123. The Land That Shall Be
  124. Young Men and Women, Strong and Sound
  125. Norway, Norway
  126. Master or Slave
  127. In the Forest
  128. When Comes the Morning?
  129. May Seventeenth
  130. Frederik Hegel
  131. Our Language

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