Magdalene Thoresen

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Anna Magdalene Thoresen (born June 3, 1819 in Fredericia , Denmark , † March 28, 1903 ) was a Danish-Norwegian writer and mother-in-law of Henrik Ibsen .

Magdalene Thoresen. Photograph by Ludvig Grundtvig (1836–1901), Det Kongelige Bibliotek

Life

Magdalene was the daughter of the cargo ship Thomas Nielsen Krag († 1846 ) and his wife Anne Kristine Pederssen.

Because of the poor financial situation of her parents, Magdalene grew up with her grandmother. When she was 14 years old, her grandmother died and she moved back to live with her parents. Even as a child she loved reading and writing poetry. At the age of 20 she started training as a teacher in Copenhagen . In 1842 she moved to Norway to take a job as a tutor for the widowed pastor Hans Conrad Thoresen in Herøy parish .

A year later she married Thoresen, who had meanwhile been appointed provost, and moved to Bergen with him and his daughter Suzannah . He encouraged her artistic development. She traveled to Copenhagen in 1853, where she met Johan Ludvig Heiberg . Further trips took her to Germany, Brussels, Paris and London. In Bergen she was in contact with Bishop Jacob Neumann , Lyder Sagen , Hans Holmeboe , Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson .

In the 1850s Magdalene Thoresen supported the National Movement in Bergen. She helped found the "Det norske Theater", wrote theater reviews for the Bergenske Blade and anonymously plays for the theater. With the help of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, she published her first poems.

In 1856 her stepdaughter Suzannah married the writer and playwright Henrik Ibsen.

criticism

Hans Marquardt, editor of the volume Menschen im Frühling (Leipzig 1974, p. 566), writes about the author:

“She is [...] one of the most popular actors in Norwegian peasant and fisherman life, and some of her stories can assert themselves in language and composition next to those of the great Norwegian master [Björnson]. […] Magdalene Thoresen […] was able to win a place of honor among the Norwegian writers of her time with her first Fortaellinger collection (stories, 1863). The story Luknegaarden (Der Luknehof, 1873) is considered to be the author's real masterpiece [...] . Even more than Björnson's, the peasants here are tough, stubborn and tenacious natures [...]. "

Works

  • Fortællinger (1863)
  • Nyere fortællinger (Recent Stories, 1873)
  • Livsbilleather (1877)
  • Herluf Nordal (1879)
  • Fra midnatssolens land (1886)
  • Billeder fra midnatssolens land (Pictures from the land of the midnight sun; Volume I: 1884; Volume II: 1888)
  • Digte (1887)

German-language editions

Spectacles

  • Inden døre (1877)
  • Kristoffer Valkendorf and Hanseaterne (1878)
  • En opadgaaende sol (1881)

swell

literature

  • Hans Marquardt : People in Spring - Nordic Love Stories , Leipzig 1974 (on Magdalena Thoresen: pp. 158–166, 566).
  • Alfred Vienna: Magdalene Thoresen . In: Das literäre Echo 11 [1908/09], Sp. 1206–1212.

Web links