Norwegian national romance

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The national romanticism in Norway was a complex cultural and political movement in the intellectual circles of Norway in the first half of the 19th century with a focus on the University of Christiania .

National romanticism as part of romanticism

The Norwegian literary historian Asbjørn Aarseth has thematically subdivided the term Romanticism in his work Romantikken som Konstruksjon 1985 with the subtitle "Traditional Critical Studies on Nordic Literary History" :

  1. Sentimental romanticism continues the sensitive poetry of the 18th century, albeit with the awareness of a turning point (such as Schiller's “ On naive and sentimental poetry ”).
  2. Universal romanticism contains Schlegel's longing for cosmic unity and borders on pantheistic mysticism.
  3. Vital romance emphasizes - u. a. based on organism thinking - the equality or relationship between plants, animals and humans. It comprises Sendling's natural philosophy , the unconscious instincts, the demonic self-development. (2–3. René Wellek's criteria of the concept of nature as a basic quantity for the worldview of romanticism and the imagination as a central moment in romantic poetics are reasonably matched .)
  4. National romanticism means national community as a variant of organism thinking with the inclusion of a historical, Norse-inspired dimension.
  5. Liberal romanticism: the striving for freedom is found both in the demands of the progressive bourgeoisie and in those of the oppressed ethnic groups for independence and self-government (this corresponds to national romanticism in the Napoleonic era and is renewed after the July Revolution ). It can be put together with the so-called romanticism.
  6. Social romanticism includes the utopian socialists ( Saint-Simon and Fourier , later also Marx ) and a certain enthusiasm for social reforms, e.g. B. in bringing up children or forms of living together (such as Almqvists Det går an ).
  7. Regional romance, d. H. Interest in folk life and provincial culture, landscapes and topography, leads to local poetry in the later century.

All of these topics have in common that they see the world as an organism. This then also affects the individual objects, so that the result is to understand the people, the tribe, the family as organisms. In this thought pattern, the term “people's soul” arises. Depending on the extent of the organism picture, the individual people are emphasized as an independent organism in contrast to the other Scandinavian peoples, or to Scandinavianism , which explains Norway, Sweden and Denmark to a basically common organism. Both models have been virulent in Norway and have also led to political controversy.

The national romantic movement in Norway differs in principle from the national romantic movements in the rest of Scandinavia and especially from that in Iceland. While there romanticism from the outset was linked to the strengthening or establishment of the nation and was also widespread among the people, the romantic idea of ​​an independent folk organism in Norway initially had no support from the population. The element of national independence was only registered late and from outside as a result of the Peace of Kiel on January 14, 1814.

Cultural situation

By 1814, Norway had 900 000 inhabitants, of which about 1 / 10 lived in a city. The land was poor, although there was no need in normal harvest years . With the introduction of confirmation in 1736 and elementary school in 1739, reading skills became widespread. However, with very few exceptions, the literature was limited to catechisms and psalms . The population saw themselves as residents of a special geographical area of ​​the Danish Empire. This has never been questioned and has not been the subject of any debate. Norwegian students founded a Norwegian Society (Norske Selskab) in Copenhagen in 1774, and although this society became a forum for national self-aggrandizement, no political program for secession from Denmark emerged. The state was run by about 2,000 civil servant families. The political upper class had close family ties to Denmark and had also attended university in Copenhagen. The romantic ideas therefore did not refer to national independence, but to the awareness of one's own worth within the empire and the glorification of one's own past. Although the mood within the lower classes was not exactly known, King Frederik initially did not dare to announce the cession of Norway to Sweden in the Peace of Kiel for fear of an uprising in Norway. Norway was completely unprepared for this event. Due to the anti-Swedish mood that prevailed in Norway except among the merchants in the East , Eidsvoll then declared independence . Although this independence only lasted for a short time and Sweden took over power, the political events meant that the Storting in Norway now gave top priority to strengthening its own national consciousness.

Origin of the national idea

Soon after the country changed under Swedish rule, the task arose of creating a national feeling in Norway related to Norway, a process that is dealt with separately under “ Nation building in Norway ”. First, an education offensive began. The driving force was the industrialist Jacob Aall . He was a founding member of the “Selskap for Norges Vel” and had been very committed to the establishment of a Norwegian university. Not only did he participate in the drafting of the constitution, but he also published a number of moral writings that aimed to create a national sentiment among the people through ethical arguments. In addition, he dealt with the translation and publication of the royal sagas in the Heimskringla . In 1814 he financed the publication of Orðabók Björns Halldórsonar (an Icelandic-Latin-Danish dictionary), which was obtained from the linguist Rasmus Christian Rask . In 1824 the poet and lawyer Anke Bjerregaard published the magazine "Patrioten". He, too, was strongly influenced by Romanticism in his works and can be considered a forerunner of the romantic lyric poet and critic Welhaven and the likewise romantic lyric poet Wergeland .

The July Revolution in France gave new impetus to the idea of ​​freedom. Wergeland translated the French anthem of freedom. From all parts of the country sons from intellectual circles, mostly from pastors, came to Christiania and met at the university. The political debate was dominated by the 20-30 age group. The Storting was also filled with new people in the elections of 1833. For the first time, the farmers elected representatives from their own ranks, so that almost half of the representatives were farmers.

The cultural confrontation

Two circles were formed around three men each: The cultural life was determined by the men Henrik Wergeland, Johan Welhaven and PA Munch . In politics these were the leading state councilor Frederik Stang , the spokesman for the civil servants' group in the Storting Anton Martin Schweigaard and the leader of the farmers in the Storting Ole Gabriel Ueland . These two groups determined the intellectual life of the 1830s. Politics and culture were intertwined. Debates about poetry and aesthetics were basically political debates that always centered around the concept of "freedom".

Many law students at the university in Christiania felt like patriots and formed a student association. The majority of them aspired to the civil service. In particular, the farmers in Storting were called patriots who, together with some of the officials in Storting, formed the opposition. The patriots were united by the defense of the constitution, the front against the bureaucracy, the austerity in public spending and the striving to strengthen and democratize local governments. On the other side were men like Jacob Aall, Welhaven and his friends, who had close ties to Denmark and who rejected the perceived crude agitation of the patriots who branded their opponents as traitors. They were called the "intelligence" ( Intelligensen ). You resigned from the student union. The protagonists of the dispute were Welhaven and Wergeland, who attacked each other in poems. The supporters of the "intelligentsia" were allied with political power, if not unconditionally and without reservation.

The “intelligentsia” brought the debate about the concept of “freedom” onto the general agenda. Welhaven had grown up in the classical tradition, had joined the romantic view of poetry as an independent, beautiful art and believed that one could only gain freedom from form if one had crossed and overcome the constraints of form. Wergeland claimed another freedom for himself, the freedom of genius. That was the freedom to enrich his language with words that were most effective, with the images he found indicative, with sentences as long as he thought necessary, with erotic themes that went well beyond that went beyond what was then considered permissible. The fact that in a poem he had a woman mated with a goat was unheard of in 1830, in Welhaven's eyes a mortal sin against poetry. This dispute was also waged in the field of cultural policy: it was about what poetry the people should have. The poetic form could not be separated from the purpose of poetry. Welhaven considered Wergeland's poetry to be perishable.

painting

Bridal trip on the Hardangerfjord , 1848 - The painting, composed by Tidemand and Gude together in a romantic attitude, shows the landscape of Norway as the “Switzerland of the North” and refers to the “depths of the folk soul” by means of a scene from the customs of Norway.
Devotion of the Haugians , 1852

Coming from the Düsseldorf School of Painting , Norwegian landscape and genre painters such as Hans Fredrik Gude and Adolph Tidemand developed national romantic image content in the 1840s. This impressed the Swedish King Oskar I so deeply that in 1849 he commissioned them and Joachim Frich to paint his neo-Gothic castle Oskarshall and in 1850 initiated a travel grant for Swedish painters at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . In his main work Andacht der Haugianer (1848), Tidemand referred to the religious awakening movement of the Norwegian lay preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771-1824), which was closely linked to national self- reflection in Norway, by means of a sermon scene in an old Norwegian smoke house ( Årestue ) . Because of its great success in Germany, Tidemand made a further version of the picture for the National Gallery in Oslo in 1852, which used folklore studies of costumes and models of Düsseldorf genre painting. Together with the picture Bridal Voyage on the Hardangerfjord , it was shown at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1855 , where these exhibits earned their creator a first class medal and the honor of the Legion of Honor. Other Norwegian painters followed the paths prepared by Gude and Tidemand, such as Johan Fredrik Eckersberg , Knud Bergslien , Erik Bodom , Lars Hertervig , Anders Askevold , Morten Müller and Hans Dahl .

Popular educational measures

For Wergeland the language was an essential point of contact for the development of the nation. In the magazine Vidar PA Munch published an article in which he was of the opinion that there is only one spoken Norwegian language, but that it has many ramifications in the form of dialects similar to Old Norwegian . As a supporter of the Intelligence Party, Munch admitted that the contemporary written language was not Norwegian, but felt that the penetrated Danish language was a gift for Norway. In his answer, Wergeland emphasized the value of its own vernacular for a nation and defended it against the "linguistic aristocrat" Munch. It was also about the so-called "original Norwegian" against a cosmopolitan language of the educated. Wergeland also reports that one day the border between countries will no longer be a river, but a word. But Welhaven by no means completely rejected the vernacular. He too emphasized national differences and appreciated nationality as the source of poetry, which would then lead to national romanticism. Ivar Aasen drew the conclusions from the dispute over the language reform and developed a Norwegian language in the spirit of Munch through dialect research . He turned down the offer of a scholarship to the university because he did not want to adapt to urban student fashions. Rather, he kept his peasant costume. His national sentiments then came to full bloom in the language dispute. In his 1836 work Om vor Skriftsprog , he presented his national language policy program. For him, a separate national written language instead of Danish was inevitable. For both social and national reasons, it is important for an independent nation to have its own written language based on its own national dialects.

Since the "people's soul" of Norway could not refer back to previous generations, as these were overlaid by Danes, the cultural monuments had to take over this function. The Norwegian texts were particularly suitable for this . On the one hand, they represented an independent literature and were testimony to their own creativity and the high level of education of their creators. On the other hand, they documented the past of the people and were thus able to underpin the demand for sovereignty. The sources suggest that the Norwegian Empire was roughly the same age as the Danish or Swedish Empire . Aesthetic appreciation generated literary interest, while content-related interest generated historical interest, with historical research being more important for the political scene. This was expressed in the fact that norrøne texts that had no relation to Norway, such as the Icelandic sagas , were neglected.

The source material was collected and edited, translated and commented on according to scientific standards. This happened in the newly founded university. The leading people were Rudolf Keyser and his students PA Munch and Carl R. Unger. Keyser also taught the norrøne language at the university. Three commissions were soon established for the publication of historical sources. First came the Legal History Commission, which dealt with the old Norwegian laws. Then the commission for the Diplomatarium Norvegicum came into being. Third came the commission for the source fund, which dealt with the sagas and literature. The activities of all three commissions focused on historical research. This was seen as an important national task.

The core of the popular educational work was the Heimskringla's royal sagas . They were first translated by Jakob Aall in 1838/1839. Munch's translation followed in 1859. Further editions appeared in 1871 and 1881. Aalls and Munch's plan for translation came about a good decade after Grundtvig's translation in Denmark. The language was not the decisive factor, as Aall and Munch also wrote Danish, albeit with words from Norwegian dialects . Rather, what mattered was that a text that was decisive for Norwegian history was translated by Norwegians in Norway.

Another field was painting. Adolph Tidemand became the illustrator of national romanticism and the publisher Christian Tønsberg became the engine with his magnificent illustrated books on Norwegian nature and culture. Another national romantic painter was Knud Bergslien , who belonged to the circle around Tidemand in Düsseldorf. He described the peasant culture as the bearer of the old Norwegian values. The third important painter of Norwegian national romanticism was Johan Fredrik Eckersberg , who worked more in Norway and also ran an art school there, where many painters were trained.

The "Nordic" language

The problem of a national language was sparked by the state of the Norwegian theater. In Christiania, the theater, which was newly built in 1827, only performed plays in Danish, also because there were no trained Norwegian-speaking actors, but only professional actors from Copenhagen. This aroused the displeasure of Henrik Arnold Wergeland . He found it particularly inappropriate that Danish was spoken in pieces that took their material from Norwegian early history, and in 1834 wrote ironically to Ridderstad: “You can believe that Håkon Jarl and Sigurdur Jorsalafar speak 'Københaunsk' to hear. ”He also claimed the Norwegian share of Danish literature: Ludvig Holberg , the satirists Claus Fasting , Johan Herman Wessel , the epic writers Christen Pram , the poets Edvard Storm , Jens Zetlitz , Jonas Rein , Johan Vibe , Christian Braunmann Tullin and Johan Nordahl Brun , the playwrights Peter Andreas Heiberg , Envold de Falsen , who he claimed were born in Norway, which is not always true because De Falsen was born in Copenhagen, for example. PA Munch also advocated a specifically Norwegian written language, which he sought to gain by “refining” the most widespread Norwegian dialect. He rejected an artificial language that would be composed of all dialects. In contrast to Munch and Ivar Aasen , he did not want to wait for a scientific study, but to start immediately, for example by Norwegianizing the naming. One should no longer use the meaningless biblical or Christian names such as Tobias, Daniel, Michael, Anna and so on, nor the danish saints names such as Jørgen, Bent, Nils, Søren, but national Nordic, meaningful names Olaf, Håkon, Harald, Sigurd, Ragnhild, Astrid and Ingeborg. He was less interested in the written language than in the opinion that the spoken language had to be developed first. Because the spoken language leads to national independence.

Danish and Norwegian

Parallel to the two cultures of Norway there were two languages: Danish in the upper class , and Norwegian dialects in the rest of the population. Although the dialects were spoken by the majority of the population, they had no written tradition. The patriotic Norwegian writers enriched their Danish with individual vernacular expressions, but the gap between the two languages ​​remained considerable.

What is norwegian

In the years after 1814 a discussion arose about the meaning of the word norsk ("Norwegian"). The educated Norwegians used written Danish as a cultural language. Some have argued that this Danish was also co-created by Norwegian writers such as Ludvig Holberg and was therefore a common property of Danes and Norwegians. So the question arose as to whether this common written language should be called “Norwegian” or whether only the Norwegian dialects should be called that. In the 1830s, despite Danish protests, the first view prevailed.

Differentiation from Swedish

The first language dispute in 1816 was about the saga translations by Jacob Aall (1773–1844). In his translation he had used some terms that came from the Norwegian dialects, but which were also used in Swedish . Critics of the translation saw it as a sign of an impending linguistic rapprochement with Sweden.

Nynorsk

In the middle of the 19th century, Norway found itself in a situation where it had its own state but no language of its own. A makeshift solution was to declare the Danish language to be the common Danish-Norwegian language and call it Norwegian , but that was not very satisfactory in the long run. This led to different proposals for solving the problem.

Norwegianization of the written language

Some Norwegian writers tried to enrich their Danish written language with Norwegian dialect expressions. The dialects that could be used to Norwegianize the vocabulary were not held in high esteem. The linguistic connection between the Old Norse and the Nine-Norwegian dialects was already known, but no noteworthy conclusions were drawn from it.

In the 1930s, Henrik Wergeland and his partisans were zealous for norskhet ("Norwegianism") in language as well. He and his supporters demanded to separate not only politically but also linguistically from Denmark.

Revival of the old Norwegian

Peter Andreas Munch, a member of the Norwegian Historical School, saw a separate language as the most important characteristic of a nation of its own. In 1832 and 1845 he suggested reviving the old Norwegian language.

Creation of Nynorsk by Ivar Aasen

In the 1840s Ivar Aasen (1813-1896) collected dialect material from which he created Landsmål ( Nynorsk ), which he propagated as a replacement for Danish. As a romantic and linguist, he had clear ideas about languages:

  • Language is a form of expression of the people's spirit, that is, a language of its own belongs to an independent nation.
  • Danish cannot be Norwegianized because it comes from a different people and spirit.
  • “Correct” is the old, original, national language.
  • The Norwegian dialects, however different from each other, are more or less perfect realizations of the language from the folk spirit.

Like the Norwegian Historical School, Aasen also consciously built on the pre-Danish era; in his opinion, the Danish era was just a non-organic, non-related interlude that did not need to have any linguistic consequences, given the linguistic decline - especially in the Østlandet and in the cities - again fixed.

The collection of sagas and fairy tales

In 1825, the “Nordiske Oldskriftsselskab” was founded in Copenhagen, based on the model of the German “Society for Older German History”. The main leader of the society was Professor Carl Christian Rafn . He stated that the aim of society was to awaken and strengthen the patriotic spirit. Already in the first years of the society he published a whole series of sagas . His endeavor to group all Norwegian and Icelandic linguistic monuments under the name "Nordic" met with resistance in Norway. In 1832 a call was therefore issued in Norway to support the "Samlinger til det norske Folks Sprog og Historie". It is a patriotic task to place this collection in Norwegian hands so that “foreign zeal about Norway does not seize guardianship and write the history of Norway on foreign soil with a different hand and with a different heart.” In 1833 Andreas Faye published the Norske Folke Sagn . He followed the goal set out by the Brothers Grimm to preserve every piece of folklore in its original form. After Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe had published the Norske Folke-Eventyr , Welhaven wrote his national ballads . The language in which the Norske Folke-Eventyr were handed down was non-literary, on the other hand the written language had no national style. As a result, Asbjørnsen and Moe developed a style that was composed of written language and vernacular. This style gave folk tales their national value.

But the development of an independent written Norwegian language also began. While Munch had suggested using a Norwegian dialect as a starting point, Ivar Aasen explained that the new Norwegian language had to be put together from all dialects as equal sources.

One of the first major works to appear on Nynorsk was Steinar Schjøtt's translation of Heimskringla. The large number of translations and their editions are evidence of the spread and interest in this work in the 19th century. But it wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that the Heimskringla achieved its real breakthrough with the epoch-making translation by Gustav Storm, which appeared in 1899.

The Immigration Theory

Keyser and Munch were commissioned by the Norwegian government to copy the old Norwegian laws in Copenhagen. They believed that they could expose the old Norwegian sentiment in the old regulations on civil law . Keyser was familiar with the philological research by Rasmus Christian Rask and developed the theory that a language rich in forms with poorly developed syntax indicates that the language level in question is very old. He came to the conclusion that Old Norse was actually Norwegian. The countries that used this language were settled from Norway. The norrøne breed colonized the Scandinavian peninsula from the north to the German border. In addition, they derived from the synonymous use of Normanni and Dani for the Vikings in the French and German sources and of Norrønir , Norvegr and Nordvegir in the sagas that the authors of the 10th century had summarized the entire ethnic group under the term "Norwegian". At that time, the name "Norwegians" also meant Danes and Swedes. In this way they believed they could advance to a pure Norwegian human race. What is old must also be good, and the good is characterized by simplicity, unmixedness, purity. Schøning even went so far as to claim that Norway was the "vagina gentium". Since Iceland was a Norwegian colony, Icelandic is actually Norwegian and the Danes are Norwegian emigrants. The aim of these theories was to demonstrate the superiority and purity of the Norwegian people, which gave a great boost to Norwegian national consciousness.

The immigration theory could not be refuted at the time. But she embittered the Danish scholars. In addition, Keyser and Munch claimed that there was a Gothic or German group from the south in Denmark, which was particularly unwelcome in view of the German efforts in Schleswig-Holstein .

All historians of the time had the metaphysical- teleological perspective of romanticism on history in common. The story had a "goal". In the end, good triumphs over evil, the hero takes his fate into his own hands, and the hero in this case was the Norwegian people.

The end of national romanticism

National romanticism had its heyday between 1845 and 1850.

In the literary field, skepticism and doubt spread in the 1950s, and these were not romantic attitudes. The poet and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard became more influential, to a lesser extent satirists like Heinrich Heine .

In the field of the fine arts, national romanticism lasted longer: the historicizing styles, especially the neo-Gothic , are probably inconceivable without romanticism. Typical for Norway is the kite style in the 90s of the 19th century. This was the only Neo style based on old Norwegian elements. When the personal union with Sweden was dissolved in 1905, the dragon style faded into the background. It was not only a fashion in art, but also an expression of the anti-unionist attitude of many Norwegians before 1905. After the dissolution of the union in 1905, its political-demonstrative function was no longer necessary.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted in Brønsted, p. 2.
  2. ↑ Jørgensen, p. 44.
  3. ↑ Bliksrud, pp. 54-64.
  4. ↑ Seip, p. 12.
  5. ↑ Jørgensen, p. 45.
  6. ↑ a b Seip, p. 14.
  7. ↑ Seip, p. 16.
  8. ↑ Seip, p. 17.
  9. ^ Ernst Haferkamp: The Norwegian artists in Düsseldorf. The cultural transfer between Düsseldorf and the north. In: Bettina Baumgärtel (Hrsg.): The Düsseldorf School of Painting and its international impact 1819–1918. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86568-702-9 , Volume 1, p. 172 ff.
  10. ^ Wend von Kalnein (ed.): The Düsseldorf school of painting . The same thing about it: Düsseldorf's influence on painting outside Germany . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1979, ISBN 3-8053-0409-9 , p. 197 ff.
  11. ↑ Wend von Kalnein, p. 489 (explanation of Cat.-No. 256 with further evidence)
  12. ↑ Elviken, p. 105.
  13. ↑ Elviken, p. 112.
  14. ↑ Elviken, p. 125.
  15. ↑ Elviken, p. 127.
  16. ↑ Jørgensen, p. 48.
  17. ↑ Elviken, p. 96.
  18. ↑ Cecilie Boge: Nasjonsbyggar eller sosial klatrar? Chr. Tønsberg og Norske Folkelivsbilleder . University of Bergen 2001.
  19. ↑ Quoted in Storsveen (2004), p. 571.
  20. ↑ Storsveen (2004), p. 583 and footnote 99.
  21. ↑ Storsveen (2004), p. 585 f.
  22. ↑ Skard, pp. 6-7.
  23. ↑ Spurkland, pp. 64–65.
  24. ↑ Skard, pp. 16-18.
  25. ↑ Skard, pp. 53-55.
  26. ↑ Falnes pp. 278–282 and Jahr p. 71.
  27. ↑ Samlinger to Det Norske Folks Sprog og Historie. Christiania 1833. Volume 1, p. 3.
  28. ↑ Elviken, p. 119.
  29. ↑ Jørgensen p. 55.
  30. ↑ Elviken, p. 120 f.
  31. ↑ Elviken, p. 121.
  32. ↑ Storsveen (2004), p. 180.
  33. ↑ Beyer, p. 158.
  34. ↑ a b Beyer, p. 161.
  35. ↑ Opstad, p. 272

literature

  • Harald and Edvard Beyer : Norsk literature history . Oslo 1970.
  • Liv Bliksrud: Maken the smilende. Oslo 1999.
  • Mogens Brønsted: The romantic research in Scandinavia . In: Oskar Bandle , Jürgen Glauser , Christine Hollinger and Hans-Peter Naumann : Nordic Romanticism. Files of the XVII. Study conference of the International Association for Scandinavian Studies, 7. – 12. August 1988 in Zurich and Basel . Helbing & Lichtenhahn Basel 1991. pp. 1-9.
  • Ståle Dyrwik and Ole Feldbæk: Mellom brødre. 1780-1830. Volume 7 of Aschehougs Norges historie. Oslo 1996.
  • Andreas Elviken: The Development of Norwegian Nationalism . Berlin 1930.
  • Oscar J. Falnes: National Romanticism in Norway . Diss., New York, 1933.
  • Ernst Håkon Year: Språkutviklinga etter 1814 . In: Vårt Eget Språk . Vol. 1. Oslo 1987.
  • Jon Gunnar Jørgensen: Norrøne Kildenkster og Norsk Nasjonsbygging. In: Annette Lassen (Red.) Det norrøne og det nationale. Studied in Iceland as a whole litteratur in national contexts in Norway, Sverige, Iceland, Great Britain, Tyskland and Denmark. Proceedings of the conference in the Vigdís Finnbogardóttir Institute for Foreign Languages ​​at the University of Reykjavík on 17-18. March 2006. Reykjavík 2008. pp. 43–58.
  • Jan-Lauritz Opstad. "Blant Plysj og Palmer". In: Norges Kulturhistorie Vol. 4. Oslo, 1980.
  • Anne-Lise Seip: Nasjonen bygges 1830–70. Volume 8 of Aschehougs Norges historie. Oslo 1997.
  • Didrik Arup Seip : Norskhet i sproget hos Vergeland og hans Samtid . Kristiania 1914.
  • Vemund Skard: Norsk Språkhistorie , Vol. 3 (1814–1884). Oslo 1973.
  • Terje Spurkland: Språkutviklingen for 1814 . In: Vårt Eget Språk , vol. 1. Oslo 1987.
  • Odd Arvid Storsveen: En bedre vår. Henrik Wergeland og norsk nasjonalitet. 2. Vol. Oslo 2004.