Produced by Clare Boothby, Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Transcriber's note: Front matter listing the novels of BJOeRNSTJERNE BJOeRNSON moved to end of book] THE BRIDAL MARCH & ONE DAY BY BJOeRNSTJERNE BJOeRNSON (_Translated from the Norwegian_) LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN 1896 _BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE_ [The Bridal March _(Brude-Slaatten) was written in Christiania in 1872. It was originally published in the second volume of the first popular edition of Bjoernson's collected tales, issued in Copenhagen in that year. In November 1873, a small edition was published in separate form, and this was followed by an illustrated issue, of which a second edition appeared in 1877._ The Bridal March _was originally composed as the text to four designs by the Norwegian painter, Tidemand. It was dedicated to Hans Christian Andersen._ One Day _(En Dag) was originally issued in the Norwegian Magazine "Nyt Tidsscrift," late in 1893; and was republished in a volume of short stories during the following year._ _E. G._] THE BRIDAL MARCH There lived last century, in one of the high-lying inland valleys of Norway, a fiddler, who has become in some degree a legendary personage. Of the tunes and marches ascribed to him, some are said to have been inspired by the Trolls, one he heard from the devil himself, another he made to save his life, &c., &c. But the most famous of all is a Bridal March; and _its_ story does not end with the story of his life. Fiddler Ole Haugen was a poor cottar high among the mountains. He had a daughter, Aslaug, who had inherited his cleverness. Though she could not play his fiddle, there was music in everything she did--in her talk, her singing, her walk, her dancing. At the great farm of Tingvold, down in the valley, a young man had come home from his travels. He was the third son of the rich peasant owner, but his two elder brothers had been drowned in a flood, so the farm was to come to him. He met Aslaug at a wedding and fell in love with her. In those days it was an unheard-of thing that a well-to-do peasant of old family should court a girl of Aslaug's class. But this young fellow had been long away, and he let his parents know that he had made enough out in the world to live upon, and that if he could not have what he wanted at home, he would let the farm go. It was prophesied that this indifference to the claims of family and property would bring its own punishment. Some said that Ole Haugen had brought it about, by means only darkly hinted at.