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LITERATURE.
399
With regard to literature, the love of nature inherent in the
Swedish people, and their great power of imagination, have found
expression in very rich lyric, or perhaps more correctly, lyric-epic
poetry. On the other hand, our dramatic literature has, as a rule,
been of less importance. The epochs of Swedish literature are, on the
whole, simultaneous with corresponding epochs of universal literature
or — before the beginning of a more intimate cultural intercourse with
the peoples of Southern Europe — still more accurately with the
different phases of that culture which for a long period was largely common
to the Northern peoples.
In all probability Sweden bas had an ancient literature of the same kind
as the Icelandic* Eddas and the Anglo-Saxon Ode of Beowulf. Many reasons
point to the last mentioned epic as being founded on poems of Swedish origin,
and by inscriptions on stones it has been proved that at least some of the sagas
which form the subjects of the Eddas were known also in Sweden. At the
sacrificial festivals in old Uppsala, according to Adam of Bremen, many songs were sung.
The traces of this very ancient literature are, however, very rare and consist
principally in short inscriptions on the runestones. The number of such stones
in Sweden is about 2,000, half of which are found in Uppland. The oldest
among them originate from the sixth century, but most belong to the period of
transition between Paganism and Christianity (at about 800—1000). Some of the
inscriptions are written in alliterative versification and contain extracts of long odes
now lost. This is particularly the case with the inscription on the stone called
»Rökstenen» in Östergötland, the longest one known in the world, consisting of
750 runes.
Another branch of literature, for which our ancient times are also noted, is
the Laws of the Provinces, which prove an original and independent conception
of justice. These laws were to begin with written in rhyme for the purpose of
being better remembered, but later on they were rewritten in prose. The oldest
of the written laws is »Vestgötalagen» (the law of the province of Vestergötland),
which dates back from the commencement of the thirteenth century.
On the introduction of Christianity and the incorporation of Sweden with
the Catholic Church, the pagan literature vanished. Latin became the language
of the learned; and religious literature was all-prevailing. It is the era of
mysticism and scholasticism. Saint Bridget (1303/73), the most eminent
Swedish author of the Middle Ages, is the representative of mysticism. Her
»Revelations», first written in Swedish and then translated into Latin by her
father-confessor, are distinguished by a rich imagination and an abundance of
figures and symbols.
At this time the Swedes came in contact with the knightly spirit of Europe.
That gave them a taste for the romance of the Middle Ages, which found
expression in various adaptations and translations of foreign romances of knighthood.
The purest national poetry of medieval times is, however, those poems which
we call national ballads (Folkvisor). These songs, of which the greatest number
is the common property of all Scandinavia, have survived on the lips of the people
to the present day. These national ballads vary considerably in their contents.
Some of them deal with the warriors of the ancient heroic sagas and their deeds, 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 intermingled with dramatical passages; conversations
and events are rendered in a lively and striking manner.
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