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INTRODUCTION
The biographer of Björnson, Christian Collin,
characterizes both Björnson and Ibsen as men of
“two-story minds,” and suggests that herein lies the secret of
their power and charm. The foundation-story, in both
cases, is built of material quarried from the historical and
legendary past of Norway, its sagas, its folk-lore, and its
mythology, and in this rich treasure-house of imagery and
fundamental motive both poets found the poetical
inspiration of their earlier work. Then the ferment of modern
thought became active in their minds, and they built their
superstructure out of the materials—political or social,
intellectual or moral— provided by contemporary life,
discussing or envisaging the problems of the modern world
in the light of the creative imagination that had come to
maturity during their preoccupation with the deep-rooted
ideas that were their racial inheritance. Certainly, the
outstanding fact in the career of both poets is the
transformation in form, if not in spirit, that came over their work at
the age of forty or thereabouts. Ibsen spoke of having had
many a lyrical Pegasus slain beneath him, and Björnson
proclaimed that the best poet a people could have was he
who flung himself into the thick of life, and came most
closely in touch with his fellow-men.
If, on the other hand, we ask how the two poets are
differentiated, it seems fair to say that Björnson’s lower
story has deeper foundations, and is more solidly built, than
Ibsen’s, and that his superstructure does not exhibit so
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