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literati re.
487
represented in Sweden by various adaptations and translations of foreign
romances.
The purest national poetry of mediaeval times is, however, that which we call
national ballads (Folkvisor). These songs, of which the majority are the common
property of all Scandinavia, have survived on the lips of the people to the present
day. National ballads vary considerably in their subject matter. Some of them
deal with the warriors of the ancient heroic sagas and their exploits, or of
divinities of nature and their relations to man; others, and the most numerous,
sing of knights and love. But whatever the subjects may be, the literary style
of the songs is epic, sometimes with dramatic traits; conversations and events
are rendered in a lively and graphic manner.
G. Stiernhielm.
The Revival of Learning has left only very faint traces in our fifteenth and
sixteenth century literature. Only with the Reformation does literature waken into
renewed life. In the van of thought during the time of the Reformation went
Olaus Petri (1493—1552), an unusually nobleminded, independent and
courageous man, a personal disciple of Luther. All his writings are marked by
powerful genius, and his style bears the stamp of simplicity coupled with
erudition and an exceptionally keen insight. Few authors have handled the
language as he has, and rarely has it rung out so loud and clear as in his
works. But that freedom of research which characterized the early days of the
Reformation was stifled after his death, and the religious literature grows
more orthodox and dogmatic. At the end of the sixteenth, and in the beginning
of the seventeenth century, theology is the main subject of interest, and, with
the exception of history, the other studies are neglected. The polite literature
of this period is of small value.
During the time of the Thirty Years’ War a great change takes place
Sweden then comes into contact with the world-wide civilization of Germany
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