Note 62.
AT A BANQUET. The coronation was that of Oskar II, as King of Norway.
Olaf, Olaf Trygvason, see Note 10.
Note 63.
SONG OF FREEDOM. See the poem, Rallying Song, etc., and notes
thereto.
Note 64.
TO MOLDE. This poem, begun in 1878, was finished the next year in
Copenhagen. Bj?rnson attended a school in Molde from his eleventh
to his eighteenth year. The varied beauty, not too grand and not
too somber, of the scenery about Molde left on him indelible
impressions.
Note 65.
HAMAR-MADE MATCHES. To this poem Bj?rnson appended a note: "The
founder of Norway's first folk-high-school, Herman Anker, built
later in Hamar a match factory [the first large one in the country],
the product of which was quickly distributed in Norway and offered
for sale on the street with the cry: 'Here your Hamar-made matches!'
The poem is a sort of allegorical comparison of these two 'works of
enlightenment' from the hand of the same man." Herman Anker
(1839-96) studied theology, and after the death of his father, a
wholesale merchant, inherited a very comsiderably fortune, which he
applied mostly to cultural purposes. With O. Arvesen he founded in
1864 the first Norwegian folk-high-school at Sagatun, near Hamar.
Folk-high-schools are schools for adult men and women, where the
instruction aims directly at making good citizens. The method of
instruction is "historical," but the teacher's personality is all-
important in relation to the pupil's individuality.
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