NOTES

Stanza 3. About five centuries of less renown for Norway are passed over, and this and the following stanza refer to the time of the Great Northern War, 1700-21, and the danger arising from Charles XII of Sweden. From 1319 to 1523 Norway was in union with Denmark and Sweden; from 1523 with Denmark only. In this war, waged by Denmark- Norway, Russia, and Saxony-Poland against Charles XII, in order to lessen the might which Sweden had gained by the Thirty Years' War, Norwegian peasants, men and women, took up arms against the Swedes.   Peasant is in this volume the usual rendering of the word "bonde" in the original; for its fuller significance see Note 78.   Tordenskjold, Peter (1691-1720), a great Norwegian naval hero, whose original name was Wessel, and who was born in Trondhjem. He received the name Tordenskjold when he was ennobled. By his remarkable achievements he contributed much to the favorable issue of the Great Northern War; he often had occasion to ravage the coast of Sweden and to protect that of Norway.

Stanza 4. Fredrikshald. Here, on September 11, 1718, Charles XII met his death on his second invasion of Norway. The citizens had earlier burned the City, so that it might not afford shelter to the Swedes against the cannon of the fortress Fredriksten.

Stanzas 5 and 6. Again a rather long period of peace is passed over. In 1807 Denmark was induced by Napoleon to join the continental system. England bombarded Copenhagen and captured it and the Danish fleet. The war lasted seven years for Norway also, which was blockaded by the English fleet and suffered sorely for lack of the necessaries of life. But the nations sense of independence grew, and when the Peace of Kiel in January, 1814, separated Norway from Denmark, Norway refused to be absorbed by Sweden, and through a representative assembly at Eidsvold declared its independence, adopted a Constitution on May 17, 1814, and chose as King, Prince Christian Frederik, the later King Christian VIII of Denmark. The Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johan led an invasion of Norway in July, and there was fighting until the Convention of Moss, August 14, in which he approved the Norwegian Constitution in return for the abdication of Christian Frederik. Negotiations then led to the federation of Norway as an independent kingdom with Sweden in a union. This was formally concluded on November 4, 1815, by the adoption of the Act of Union, and the election of the Swedish King Karl XIII as King of Norway.
  The last four lines of stanza 6 refer to "Scandinavism," i.e., a movement beginning some time before 1848 to bring about a close federation or alliance of the three Northern kingdoms (see Note 21).

Note 6.
ANSWER FROM NORWAY. First printed in a newspaper, April 7, 1860, with the title "Song for the Common People," this poem refers to a stage of the long conflict over the question of a viceroy in Norway, so important in the history of the union of Sweden and Norway. The Norwegian Constitution gave to the King power to send a viceroy to reside in Norway, and to name as such either a Swede or a Norwegian. Until about 1830 the viceroy had always been a Swede, thereafter always a Norwegian. On December 9, 1859, the Norwegian Storting voted to abolish this article in a proposed revision of the Constitution. The matter was discussed in Sweden with vehemence and passion. The storm of feeling raged most violently in March, 1860, when on the 17th, in Stockholm, this revision was rejected. However, no viceroy was appointed alter 1859, and in 1873 the question was amicably settled as Norwegians desired.
  While the situation was tense, an unfounded rumor had spread, that on one occasion the Norwegian flag had been raised over the residence of the Swedish-Norwegian Minister in Vienna. This caused loud complaints in Sweden, that "the Norwegian colors had displaced the Swedish," while in the House of Nobles a member declared that Norway ought to be "an accessory" to Sweden; that "young, inexperienced" Norway's demand of equality with Sweden was like a commoner's importunity for equality with a nobleman. He went on to say that the Swedish nation must crave again its (pure) flag: "For in our ancient blue-yellow Swedish flag, that waved over Lützen's blood-drenched battlefield, are our honor, our memories, and thousand-fold deaths."
  The (pure, i.e., without the mark of union) Swedish flag consists of a yellow cross on a blue ground, the (pure) Norwegian flag of a blue cross within a white border on a red ground; in each the cross extends to the four margins. At the date of this poem each flag showed a mark of union, a diagonal combination of the colors of both, in the upper field nearest the staff. (For a brief history of the flag of Norway, see Note 66.)

Stanza 2. Magnus the Good, son of Olaf the Saint, reigned from 1035 till his death in 1047. He was victorious in conflict with the Danish King Knut the Hard, and by agreement received Denmark after his death. Magnus died in Denmark on one of several successful expeditions against the rebellious Svein Jarl.
  Fredrikshald, see Note 5.
  Ad(e)ler, Kort Sivertsen (1622-1675), was a distinguished admiral, born in Norway. He reorganized the Danish-Norwegian fleet, which late in the seventeenth century several times defeated the Swedish.

Stanza 3. Lützen. In the battle of Lützen, November 16, 1632, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was killed.   Grandsire's ancient seat, symbol of Norway's ancient power and glory. In one of the Swedish speeches were these words: "If Norway had had a Gustavus Adolphus, a Torstenson, a Charles the Twelfth, if its name like ours had gone forth victorious in history, no Swede would deny its right to stand before us. This, however, is not the case. ..."

Stanza 4. Sverre Priest, see Note 5. When young he was a priest.

Stanzas 5 and 6. Christie, Y. F. K. (1779-1849), was a vice- president of the convention of Eidsvold, April 10-May 20, 1814, and president of the first extraordinary Storting after the convention of Moss, August, 1814. To him more than any other man was due the securing of Norway's independence and welfare in the framing and adoption of the Constitution and the Act of Union. In a sense he was the real founder of Norway's liberty (see Note 5).

Stanza 7. Wessel=Tordenskjold, see Note 5.

Stanza 8. Torgny. At the Ting in Upsala, February, 1018, when the Swedish King Olaf refused peace and his daughter's hand to the Norwegian King, Olaf the Saint, the aged and revered peasant lawman, Torgny, the wisest and most influential man in the land, rebuked the King, declaring that the peasants wished peace with Norway, and concluding thus: "If you will not do what we say, we shall attack and kill you and not suffer from you breach of peace and law." The King yielded, and made a promise which he afterwards broke.

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