Johan Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven was born in Bergen in 1807,
entered the university in 1825, became a "Lector" in 1840, and
afterward Professor of Philosophy. "His refined æsthetic nature," says
Fr. Winkel Horn, "had been early developed, and when the war broke out
between him and Wergeland he had reached a high point of intellectual
culture, and thus was in every way a match for his opponent. The
fight was inaugurated by a preliminary literary skirmish, which was,
at the outset, limited to the university students; but it gradually
assumed an increasingly bitter character, both parties growing more
and more exasperated. Welhaven published a pamphlet, 'Om Henrik
Wergelands Digtekunst og Poesie,' in which he mercilessly exposed the
weak sides of his adversary's poetry. Thereby the minds became still
more excited. The 'Intelligence' party withdrew from the students'
union, founded a paper of their own, and thus the movement began to
assume wider dimensions. In 1834 appeared Welhaven's celebrated poem
'Norges Dæmring,' a series of sonnets, distinguished for their beauty
of style. In them the poet scourges, without mercy, the one-sided,
narrow-minded patriotism of his time, and exposes, in striking and
unmistakable words, the hollowness and shortcomings of the Wergeland
party. Welhaven points out, with emphasis, that he is not only going
to espouse the cause of good taste, which his adversary has outraged,
but that he is also about to discuss problems of general interest. He
urges that a Norwegian culture and literature cannot be created out of
nothing; that to promote their development it is absolutely necessary
to continue the associations which have hitherto been common to both
Norway and Denmark, and thus to keep in _rapport_ with the general
literature of Europe. When a solid foundation has in this manner been
laid, the necessary materials for a literature would surely not be
wanting, for they are found in abundance, both in the antiquities and
in the popular life of Norway." Welhaven continued his effective work
as a poet and a critic. Through a series of lyrical and romantic poems,
rich in contents and highly finished in style, he developed a poetical
life, which had an important influence in the young Norwegian literary
circles. He died in 1873.
Andreas Munch (1811-1884), an able and industrious poetical writer,
took no part in the controversy between Wergeland and Welhaven, but
followed his Danish models independently of either. His "Poems, Old and
New," published in 1848, were quite popular. His best work is probably
"Kongedatterens Brudefart" (The Bridal Tour of the King's Daughter),
1861.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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