Note 79.
FREDERIK HEGEL. This poem is the last in the third edition (1890),
for which it seems to have been written. Hegel (1817-1887) was from
1850 the head of the Gyldendal publishing house in Copenhagen.
Bj?rnson made his acquaintance in 1860, and, beginning with King
Sverre in 1861, Hegel became Bj?rnson's publisher. In 1865
Bj?rnson's influence secured to him Ibsen's works, and later those
of Lie and many other Norwegian authors. The cultural
dependence of Norway upon Denmark for centuries had prevented the
prosperous growth of the publishing business in the former country,
whose leading publisher went into bankruptcy soon after 1860. That
Bj?rnson thus went to Copenhagen with his books may seem to have
been a blow to the cause of Norwegian independence, and to have
delayed the rise of a thriving, stable business, but on the other
hand Bj?rnson's action and influence contributed greatly to
establish for perhaps half a century a certain dominance of the
Norwegian spirit in all Scandinavia. For Bj?rnson personally, as his
correspondence with Hegel shows, it was certainly a great good
fortune to gain Hegel as his publisher and later as his friend. This
Hegel was to all his authors in the most faithful, self-sacrificing
way, and no less their valued financial adviser.
Note 80.
OUR LANGUAGE. Written in defense of the Norwegian-Danish speech
of the cultured classes and of the cities in Norway, the result of
development and tradition through several centuries, the so-called
Riksmaal (language of the kingdom) or Bymaal (city-language).
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