time there is no doubt that The Folk-Lore of Peer Gynt might form the subject of a much more extended study than our space or our knowledge admits of.[1] The whole atmosphere of the first three acts and of the fifth is that of the Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales. It must be remembered, too, that in the early 'sixties Ibsen was commissioned by the Norwegian Government to visit Romsdal and Söndmöre for the purpose of collecting folk-songs and legends. To these journeys, no doubt, we are mainly indebted for the local colour of Brand and Peer Gynt.
What are we to say now of the drift, the interpretation of Peer Gynt? The first and most essential thing may be said in Ibsen's own words. On February 24, 1868, he wrote from Rome to Frederik Hegel: "I learn that the book has created much excitement in Norway. This does not trouble me in the least; but both there and in Denmark they have discovered much more satire in it than was intended by me. Why can they not read the book as a poem? For as such I wrote it. The satirical passages are tolerably isolated.
- ↑ Further gleanings of legendary lore concerning Peer Gynt may be found in the Norwegian periodical Syn og Segn, 1903, pp. 119-130. The writer, Per Aasmundstad, is of opinion that Peer Gynt's real name was Peer Haagaa (the owner of Haagaa farm) and that Gynt was either a name given him by the huldra-folk, or else a local nickname for humorists of his kind. According to this authority, he probably lived as far back as the seventeenth century. Per Aasmundstad's article is written in the local dialect, with such ruthless phonetic accuracy that I read it with difficulty; but he does not seem to have discovered anything that has a definite bearing on Ibsen's work. From the wording of Ibsen's letters to Hegel, however (p. viii), it would seem that he had some knowledge of the Gynt legend over and above what was to be found in Asbjörnsen. (For access to Syn og Segn, and for other obliging assistance, I am indebted to Herr Halvdan Koht, the author of the excellent biographical introduction to Ibsen's Letters.)
