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Page 2
Tegn�r, according to his own words, "was born and reared in a remote
mountain region where nature herself composes noble but wild music, and
where the ancient gods apparently still wander about on winter evenings."
His ancestry went back for several generations through the sturdy bonde
class, though his father was a preacher and his mother the daughter of a
preacher. The father's people dwelt in the province of Sm�land and the
mother's ancestors had lived in the picturesque province of V�rmland. The
future poet was born on the 13 of November, 1782, at Kyrkerud, V�rmland,
his father holding a benefice in that province. While he was yet a mere
child of nine the father died and the family was left in poverty. A
friend of the Tegn�r family, the judicial officer Branting, gave the
young Esaias a home in his house. The lad soon wrote a good hand and was
given a desk and a high, three-legged chair in the office. Branting took
a fancy to the young clerk and soon fell into the habit of inviting him
to accompany the master upon the many official journeys that had to be
made through the bailiwick. Thus Esaias came to see the glories of nature
in his native province, and deep and lasting impressions were left upon
his mind. His quick imagination was further stirred by the heroic sagas
of the North, in the reading of which he at times became so absorbed that
the flight of the hours or the passing events were entirely unnoticed by
him.
Branting, who had become convinced that his young clerk was by nature
endowed for a much higher station than a lowly clerkship offered,
generously provided Esaias with an opportunity for systematic study. In
1796 he wrote a good friend in whose home an elder brother of Esaias was
then acting as tutor, suggesting that the younger brother be given a home
there also and thus have the advantage of the brother's tutelage. A ready
acquiescence meeting this proposal, Esaias now went to Malma, the home of
Captain L�wenhjelm, and at once plunged into the study of Latin, French
and Greek under the brother's guidance. Independently of the instructor
he at the same time acquired a knowledge of English and read principally
the poems of Ossian, which greatly delighted him.
The following year the elder brother accepted a more profitable position
as tutor in the family of the great iron manufacturer Myhrman at R�men in
V�rmland and thither Esaias accompanied him. Here he could drink deep
from the fountain of knowledge for at R�men he found a fine library of
French, Latin and Greek classics. He worked prodigiously and this,
coupled with a remarkably retentive memory, enabled him to make
remarkably rapid progress in his studies. He would have remained in the
library all the time poring over his dear classic authors but for the
fortunate intervention of the young members of the Myhrman family, seven
in all, who frequently would storm into his room and carry him off by
sheer force to their boisterous frolics. To one of these playmates, Anna
Myhrman, the youngest daughter of the family, he soon became attached by
the tender ties of love.
In 1799 Tegn�r was enabled, through the generosity of Branting and
Myhrman, to repair to Lund and enter the university of that place. Here
he made a brilliant record as a student, particularly in the classics,
and after three years he was awarded the master's degree. In recognition
of his remarkable scholarship he was soon after made instructor in
aesthetics, secretary to the faculty of philosophy and assistant
librarian. In 1806 he claimed Anna Myhrman as his bride.
We have the testimony of Tegn�r himself that already as a child he began
to write poetry, in fact these efforts began so early in his life that he
could not remember when he for the first time exercised the power that
later was to win him an abiding fame. As early as his clerkship days in
the office of Branting he wrote a poem in Alexandrine verse with the
subject taken from the Old Norse sagas. His numerous productions before
1808 attracted little attention and failed to get any prize for the
young author. But in the above mentioned year he sprang into immediate
popularity by the stirring "War Song of the Scanian Reserves" (Krigss�ng
f�r sk�nska lantv�rnet), the Marseillaise of the Swedish nation. Sweden
had just suffered great reverses in war, her very existence as an
independent power seemed to hang in the balance, and confusion and
discouragement were evident on every hand. Then came Tegn�r's patriotic
bugle blast, stirring the nation to renewed hope and courage. Speaking
of this poem Professor Boyesen says: "As long as we have wars we must
have martial bards and with the exception of the German Theodore K�rner
I know none who can bear comparison with Tegn�r. English literature can
certainly boast no war poem which would not be drowned in the mighty
music of Tegn�r's 'Svea', 'The Scanian Reserves', and that magnificent
dithyrambic declamation, 'King Charles, the Young Hero'. Tennyson's
'Charge of the Light Brigade' is technically a finer poem than anything
Tegn�r has written, but it lacks the deep, virile bass, the tremendous
volume of breath and voice, and the captivating martial lilt which makes
the heart beat willy nilly to the rhythm of the verse" (Essays on
Scandinavian Literature, 233).
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