Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam (1859-1940)
Swedish poet and prose writer, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1916. As a writer Heidenstam represented literary reaction to naturalism, scientific world view, bourgeois culture, and technology. Heidenstam often chose national themes for his novels and his great neoromantic rival was Selma Lagerlöf, the winner of the Nobel Prize in 1909. Heidenstam spent much of his life restlessly traveling. However, his works do not show that he was especially interested in new literary currents.
Swedish poet and prose writer, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1916. As a writer Heidenstam represented literary reaction to naturalism, scientific world view, bourgeois culture, and technology. Heidenstam often chose national themes for his novels and his great neoromantic rival was Selma Lagerlöf, the winner of the Nobel Prize in 1909. Heidenstam spent much of his life restlessly traveling. However, his works do not show that he was especially interested in new literary currents.
Jag vet ej, varför jag vaken sitter,
fast dagen ingen glädje skänkt,
men allt i mitt liv, som likt solar blänkt,
och allt, som i mörker och kval blev sänkt,
det darrari natt i en flod av glitter.
(from 'Månljuset')
Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam was born at Ölshammar, his grandmother's estate on the shores of Lake Vättern. His family was aristocratic and wealthy. In his childhood Heidenstam got used to being center of attention and self-assertion became part of his perrsonality. When he dressed as a king, his grandmother told household servants to play his underlings. At school Heidenstam was lazy, and his educations was superficial - he had troubles in grammatical correctness, he was mostly alone or spent time with female relatives or friends who let him dominate the scene. At the age of sixteen his parents sent him with his cousin Ernst von Heidenstam on a journey to Middle East, Greece, and Italy. On the second journey his companion was Carlo Landberg, a linguistic. The travels in the Mediterranean left their mark on Heidenstam's early poems, which formed a colorful contrast to the prevailing gloomy mood in literature.
Colonel Gustaf von Heidenstam had tried in vain to change his son's aimless life style, and sent him to Paris to study art under Jean Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux Arts. There Heidenstam boasted with his great plans, emphasized his aristocratic background, but actually did not show any ambitions to become an artists. After returning to Sweden in 1880 he married Emilia Uggla, a Swiss woman, against his father's wishes. His early poems Heidenstam sent to the Finnish writer Zachris Topelius, who encouraged him to continue. During the following years Heidenstam lived with his wife in Italy, France, and Norway.
In 1886 the Heidenstams leased a medieval castle in northern Switzerland. Among the regular visitors was the writer August Strindberg, with whom Heidenstam later disputed. In 1887 they returned to Sweden and settled on the family estate. His relationship with his father had improved, but facing an incurable illness Gustaf von Heidenstam committed suicide. He never witnessed the appearance of his son's first collection of poems, Pilgrimage and Wander Years, which became an immediate success in 1888. Nowadays its vision of Middle East as a place of exotic pleasures is considered bizarre. During the next decade Heidenstam's output was prolific. His first novel, ENDYMION (1889), was set in Damascus, and expressed the author's fear of the decline of Orient culture due to European influences. It was followed by a pamphlet, RENÄSSANS (1890), the prose-and-verse novel HANS ALIENIUS (1892), in which the protagonist, a wanderer, depicts his problematic relationship with his father, and DIKTER (1895), in which the declamatory and recitative tone do not hide Heidenstam's wishes to be respected as a national poet.
Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam was born at Ölshammar, his grandmother's estate on the shores of Lake Vättern. His family was aristocratic and wealthy. In his childhood Heidenstam got used to being center of attention and self-assertion became part of his perrsonality. When he dressed as a king, his grandmother told household servants to play his underlings. At school Heidenstam was lazy, and his educations was superficial - he had troubles in grammatical correctness, he was mostly alone or spent time with female relatives or friends who let him dominate the scene. At the age of sixteen his parents sent him with his cousin Ernst von Heidenstam on a journey to Middle East, Greece, and Italy. On the second journey his companion was Carlo Landberg, a linguistic. The travels in the Mediterranean left their mark on Heidenstam's early poems, which formed a colorful contrast to the prevailing gloomy mood in literature.
Colonel Gustaf von Heidenstam had tried in vain to change his son's aimless life style, and sent him to Paris to study art under Jean Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux Arts. There Heidenstam boasted with his great plans, emphasized his aristocratic background, but actually did not show any ambitions to become an artists. After returning to Sweden in 1880 he married Emilia Uggla, a Swiss woman, against his father's wishes. His early poems Heidenstam sent to the Finnish writer Zachris Topelius, who encouraged him to continue. During the following years Heidenstam lived with his wife in Italy, France, and Norway.
In 1886 the Heidenstams leased a medieval castle in northern Switzerland. Among the regular visitors was the writer August Strindberg, with whom Heidenstam later disputed. In 1887 they returned to Sweden and settled on the family estate. His relationship with his father had improved, but facing an incurable illness Gustaf von Heidenstam committed suicide. He never witnessed the appearance of his son's first collection of poems, Pilgrimage and Wander Years, which became an immediate success in 1888. Nowadays its vision of Middle East as a place of exotic pleasures is considered bizarre. During the next decade Heidenstam's output was prolific. His first novel, ENDYMION (1889), was set in Damascus, and expressed the author's fear of the decline of Orient culture due to European influences. It was followed by a pamphlet, RENÄSSANS (1890), the prose-and-verse novel HANS ALIENIUS (1892), in which the protagonist, a wanderer, depicts his problematic relationship with his father, and DIKTER (1895), in which the declamatory and recitative tone do not hide Heidenstam's wishes to be respected as a national poet.
"Oh Sweden, Sweden, native land,
Our earthly home, the haven of our longing!"
The 1890s saw an upsurge in neoromantic historical fiction in response to a growing nationalism. In his essays, of which Renaissance is perhaps the most famous, Heidenstam called for a rejection of the treatment of social problems - or "shoemaker's realism" - and return to imagination, a sense of beauty, and wit. In HANS ALIENUS (1892) he exploited the exoticism of the Near-East, like in the short story 'The Lion's Cage', a mixture of historical fantasy and philosophizing in the style of The Thousand and One Nights. In the story the Sultan wants to wipe out the Brotherhood of the Truthtellers. Num Eddaula, their leader, decides to sacrifice himself in order to save the other truthtellers. He goes to the camp of the Sultan, where he meets the King of Sweden, who is half prisoner and half guest of honour. The King has lost his visions after his defeat in a battle. Num Eddaula tells him to complete his work as a hero: "Thou has command over they features; have command also over thyself. Thou art capable of better things than those thou hast accomplished, and God never forgives a hero for acting thus." Num Eddaula is executed on the following morning, but the King in the story is without doubts Charles XII (1682-1718), Heidenstam's hero, who was defeated at Poltava in the Ukraine, and forced to take refuge in the Turkey until 1714. Four years later he was killed while besieging Fredrikshall, Norway.
Heidenstam interest in Swedish history gave inspiration to his most popular novel KAROLINERNA (The Charles Men 1897-1898). It is a series of stories connected by the life of Charles XII, who is seen together with his patient and loyal soldiers at several stages of his career, particularly during the disastrous invasion of the Ukraine that ended at Poltava in 1709. Heidenstam's common soldiers occasionally express their belief in patriotic ideals, but the thoughts of officers are psychologically more complex. The author had visited the battle grounds in Poltava in the mid-1890s. Deeply moved he picked there flowers and sent them to the Swedish poet and diplomat Carl Snoilsky. Heidenstam saw in The Charles Men Karl XII as a tragic character and when the Kings sarcophagi was opened in 1917, Heidenstam was present.
The 1890s saw an upsurge in neoromantic historical fiction in response to a growing nationalism. In his essays, of which Renaissance is perhaps the most famous, Heidenstam called for a rejection of the treatment of social problems - or "shoemaker's realism" - and return to imagination, a sense of beauty, and wit. In HANS ALIENUS (1892) he exploited the exoticism of the Near-East, like in the short story 'The Lion's Cage', a mixture of historical fantasy and philosophizing in the style of The Thousand and One Nights. In the story the Sultan wants to wipe out the Brotherhood of the Truthtellers. Num Eddaula, their leader, decides to sacrifice himself in order to save the other truthtellers. He goes to the camp of the Sultan, where he meets the King of Sweden, who is half prisoner and half guest of honour. The King has lost his visions after his defeat in a battle. Num Eddaula tells him to complete his work as a hero: "Thou has command over they features; have command also over thyself. Thou art capable of better things than those thou hast accomplished, and God never forgives a hero for acting thus." Num Eddaula is executed on the following morning, but the King in the story is without doubts Charles XII (1682-1718), Heidenstam's hero, who was defeated at Poltava in the Ukraine, and forced to take refuge in the Turkey until 1714. Four years later he was killed while besieging Fredrikshall, Norway.
Heidenstam interest in Swedish history gave inspiration to his most popular novel KAROLINERNA (The Charles Men 1897-1898). It is a series of stories connected by the life of Charles XII, who is seen together with his patient and loyal soldiers at several stages of his career, particularly during the disastrous invasion of the Ukraine that ended at Poltava in 1709. Heidenstam's common soldiers occasionally express their belief in patriotic ideals, but the thoughts of officers are psychologically more complex. The author had visited the battle grounds in Poltava in the mid-1890s. Deeply moved he picked there flowers and sent them to the Swedish poet and diplomat Carl Snoilsky. Heidenstam saw in The Charles Men Karl XII as a tragic character and when the Kings sarcophagi was opened in 1917, Heidenstam was present.
"Bort gå de,
stumma skrida de
en efter en till skuggornas värld.
Klockorna dåna. Tungt slå de,
mullra och kvida de,
sjunga sin sång till dödas färd."
(from 'Gustaf Frödings jordafärd')
After the death of his first wife in 1893, whom he had treated coldly, Heidenstam married Olga Wiberg, but the marriage soon ended to divorce. However, their weddings had been a colorful event, which reflected Heidenstam's opposition to everyday dullness. The guests were dressed in Roman togas. The artists Carl Larsson and Anders Zorn had designed a special journal, Evoi, for the occasion. Among its writers were Per Hallström and Gustaf Fröding. In 1900 he married Greta Sjöberg, who was nearly twenty years his junior - the marriage was also short-lived. Heidenstam's interest in the Swedish past continued in HELIGA BIRGITTAS PILGRIMSFÄRJD (1901), FOLKUNGA TRÄDET (2 vols., 1905-1907), describing the foundation of the kingdom of Sweden, and SVENSKARNA OCH DERAS HÖVDINGAR (1908-1910). In the 1910s Heidenstam was labelled as 'the Junkers poet' according to the conservative, militaristic landowners of Prussia, when he abandoned his radical ideals and defended strongly the aristocracy.
Among Heidenstam's later works are a collection of poems, NYA DIKTER (1915), and an idealized childhood memoir, NÄR KASTANJERNA BLOMMADE, in which he again wrote admiringly about his father. The book appeared posthumously in 1941. In the 1920s Heidenstam had designed and constructed a home at Övralid, near Lake Vättern, where he lived quietly. "O Man, you will become wise only when you reach the summit of the evening-cool heights where all the earth is beheld." Heidenstam did not publish further works, and his physical and mental health gradually deteriorated. During this period his companion was Kate Bang, whose two children became close to him. Heidenstam died on May 20, 1940. Heidenstam's reputation has declined in the Swedish Social Democratic society to the point of eclipse. Strindberg, his adversary who also was an individualist, is considered a major writer. Later, after their break, Strindberg called Heidenstam "Sweden's most unintelligent man".
After the death of his first wife in 1893, whom he had treated coldly, Heidenstam married Olga Wiberg, but the marriage soon ended to divorce. However, their weddings had been a colorful event, which reflected Heidenstam's opposition to everyday dullness. The guests were dressed in Roman togas. The artists Carl Larsson and Anders Zorn had designed a special journal, Evoi, for the occasion. Among its writers were Per Hallström and Gustaf Fröding. In 1900 he married Greta Sjöberg, who was nearly twenty years his junior - the marriage was also short-lived. Heidenstam's interest in the Swedish past continued in HELIGA BIRGITTAS PILGRIMSFÄRJD (1901), FOLKUNGA TRÄDET (2 vols., 1905-1907), describing the foundation of the kingdom of Sweden, and SVENSKARNA OCH DERAS HÖVDINGAR (1908-1910). In the 1910s Heidenstam was labelled as 'the Junkers poet' according to the conservative, militaristic landowners of Prussia, when he abandoned his radical ideals and defended strongly the aristocracy.
Among Heidenstam's later works are a collection of poems, NYA DIKTER (1915), and an idealized childhood memoir, NÄR KASTANJERNA BLOMMADE, in which he again wrote admiringly about his father. The book appeared posthumously in 1941. In the 1920s Heidenstam had designed and constructed a home at Övralid, near Lake Vättern, where he lived quietly. "O Man, you will become wise only when you reach the summit of the evening-cool heights where all the earth is beheld." Heidenstam did not publish further works, and his physical and mental health gradually deteriorated. During this period his companion was Kate Bang, whose two children became close to him. Heidenstam died on May 20, 1940. Heidenstam's reputation has declined in the Swedish Social Democratic society to the point of eclipse. Strindberg, his adversary who also was an individualist, is considered a major writer. Later, after their break, Strindberg called Heidenstam "Sweden's most unintelligent man".
For further reading:
Sweden's Laureate by C.W. Stork (1919);
Six Scandinavian Novelists by A. Gustafson (1940);
Den unge Heidenstam by Hugo Kamras (1942);
Vägen till Övralid by Kate Bang (1945);
Heidenstam och sekelskiftets Sverige by Staffan Björk (1946);
Verner von Heidenstam by Fredrik Böök (1945-46, rev. edition 1959);
Diktaren och elden by G. Axberger (1959);
Verner Heidenstam och Ellen Belfrage by Helge Gullberg (1960);
A History of Swedish Literature by A. Gustafson (1961);
Älskade Verner by Karin Österling (1989);
A History of Swedish Literature, ed. by Lars G. Warme (1996, A History of Scandinavian Literatures, vol. 3);
Scandinavian Novel by George C. Schoolfield (1998, Encyclopedia of the Novel, vol. 2)
VALLFART OCH VANDRINGSÅR, 1888 - Pilgrimage and Wander Years
FRÅN COL DI TENDA TILL BLOCKSBERG, 1888
ENDYMION, 1889
RENÄSSANS, 1889
PEPITAS BRÖLLOP, 1890
HANS ALIENUS, 1892
DIKER, 1895 - Poems
OM SVENSKARNAS LYNNE, 1896
KAROLINERNA, 2 vol., 1897-98 - The Charles Men - Karoliinit
KLASSICITET ÓCH GERMANISM, 1898
TANKAR OCH TEKNINGAR, 1899
ETT FOLK, 1899
SANKT GÖRAN OCH DRAKEN, 1900
HELIGA BIRGITTAS PILGRIMSFÄRD, 1901 - Pyhän Birgitan vaellus
A King and His Campaigners, 1902
SKOGEN SUSAR, 1904
FOLKUNGA TRÄDET, 1905-07 (2 vols.) - The Tree of the Folkungs - Folkungien suku
SVENSKARNA OCH DERAS HÖVDINGAR, 1908-10 - The Swedes and Their Chieftains - Kansa ja sen kuninkaat
DAGAR OCH HÄNDELSER, 1909
SAMLADE SKRIFTER, 1909
PROLETÄRFILOSOFIENS UPPLÖSNING, 1911
NYA DIKTER, 1915 - New Poems
SWEDENS LAUREATE: SELECTED POEMS OF VERNER VON HEIDENSTAM,1919
The Soothsayer, 1919
The Birth of God, 1919
UPPSATSER, TAL OCH FANTASIER, 1929
TANKAR OCH UTKAST, 1941
NÄR KASTANJERNA BLOMMADE, 1941
SISTA DIKTER, 1942
SAMLADE VERK, 1943-45
BREV, 1949 (ed. by Kate Bang and Fredrik Böök)
FRAGMENT OCH AFORISMER, 1959 (ed. by Carl Fehrman)
DET BEFÄSTA HUSET, 1986
BREV 1884-1890, 1999 (ed. by Magnus von Platen)
Selected writings:
VALLFART OCH VANDRINGSÅR, 1888 - Pilgrimage and Wander Years
FRÅN COL DI TENDA TILL BLOCKSBERG, 1888
ENDYMION, 1889
RENÄSSANS, 1889
PEPITAS BRÖLLOP, 1890
HANS ALIENUS, 1892
DIKER, 1895 - Poems
OM SVENSKARNAS LYNNE, 1896
KAROLINERNA, 2 vol., 1897-98 - The Charles Men - Karoliinit
KLASSICITET ÓCH GERMANISM, 1898
TANKAR OCH TEKNINGAR, 1899
ETT FOLK, 1899
SANKT GÖRAN OCH DRAKEN, 1900
HELIGA BIRGITTAS PILGRIMSFÄRD, 1901 - Pyhän Birgitan vaellus
A King and His Campaigners, 1902
SKOGEN SUSAR, 1904
FOLKUNGA TRÄDET, 1905-07 (2 vols.) - The Tree of the Folkungs - Folkungien suku
SVENSKARNA OCH DERAS HÖVDINGAR, 1908-10 - The Swedes and Their Chieftains - Kansa ja sen kuninkaat
DAGAR OCH HÄNDELSER, 1909
SAMLADE SKRIFTER, 1909
PROLETÄRFILOSOFIENS UPPLÖSNING, 1911
NYA DIKTER, 1915 - New Poems
SWEDENS LAUREATE: SELECTED POEMS OF VERNER VON HEIDENSTAM,1919
The Soothsayer, 1919
The Birth of God, 1919
UPPSATSER, TAL OCH FANTASIER, 1929
TANKAR OCH UTKAST, 1941
NÄR KASTANJERNA BLOMMADE, 1941
SISTA DIKTER, 1942
SAMLADE VERK, 1943-45
BREV, 1949 (ed. by Kate Bang and Fredrik Böök)
FRAGMENT OCH AFORISMER, 1959 (ed. by Carl Fehrman)
DET BEFÄSTA HUSET, 1986
BREV 1884-1890, 1999 (ed. by Magnus von Platen)
FONTE: Verner von Heidenstam
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