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idea, this strong mind has had to participate in the movements of the
whole of the last generation; and every stage of his often painful
mental struggle has left its impress in the highly original works
that are the fruit of his unwearied productive energy. Sprung
from the peasant-class, he found in Aasen’s, Vinje’s and Janson’s
«landsmaal» his most natural form of expression; but he has an
equal command over the ordinary literary language, to which he
often turns when addressing the entire public of Scandinavia in
his essays and papers. Like Bjørnson, Garborg feels himself
driven to throw himself with all his personal energy into debates
on the grave questions of the day. As a young journalist, he
had to take up a position in the free-thinking movement that
spread rapidly all over Scandinavia, especially, perhaps, after the
appearance of Dr. Georg Brandes in Denmark at the beginning
of the seventies. Garborg manifests his break with orthodoxy in
a religiously revolutionary novel — «Ein fritenkjar» (A Free-thinker).
It was not until a few years later, however, that he made a name
with his excellent novel, «Bondestudentar» (Peasant Students) (1882),
which opened up from below, as it were, the comprehension of a
new social element, that brigade in the academic army that
originates from the peasant home. By his tribute to the inconsiderate
naturalism — the novel «Mannfolk» (Men) — he came into
warlike relations with the ruling caste in society, but retaliated
sharply in the bitter play «De uforsonlige» (The Irreconcilables).
He attempted descriptive naturalism in the detailed analysis of a
joyless feminine life, — the story «Hjaa ho mor» (With Mother).
He could not, however, deny expression to his personal inward
life, and with his aphoristieal self-diagnosis, «Trætte mænd»
(Weary Men) (1891), he began the settlement with the objectively
analytic tendency. His desire since then has been to effect a
reconciliation with the belief of his childhood. In his splendid
story, «Fred» (Peace), he first gives a striking description of the
gloomy and melancholy pietism that had laid waste his father’s
home. He then describee the enlightening power of the true,
self-sacrificing [[** sjk]] religion, in his powerful drama «Læraren» (The
Lay-preacher) (1896); and ends with the glorious monologue «Den burtkomne
faderen» (The Lost Father) (1899), where he depicts both
intellectually and touchingly the victorious longing of a despairing doubter,
for rest in a new faith in the all-wise Ruler of the world.
Garborg has also shown his power of making correct verse in the
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