“Now there was a female elephant kept with this elephant, and the name of the female elephant was Nicaea; and to her the wife of the king of India, when dying, intrusted her child, which was just a month old.  And when the woman did die, the affection for the child displayed by the beast was most extraordinary; for it could not endure the child to be away; and whenever it did not see him, it was out of spirits.  And so, whenever the nurse fed the infant with milk, she placed it in its cradle between the feet of the beast; and if she had not done so, the elephant would not take any food; and after this, it would take whatever reeds and grass there were near, and, while the child was sleeping, beat away the flies with the bundle.  And whenever the child wept, it would rock the cradle with its trunk, and lull it to sleep.  And very often the male elephant did the same.”

PER DANIEL AMADEUS ATTERBOM

(1790-1855)

Among the leaders of the romantic movement which affected Swedish literature in the earlier half of the nineteenth century was P.D.A.  Atterbom, one of the greatest lyric poets of his country.  He was born in Ostergoethland, in 1790, and at the age of fifteen was already so advanced in his studies that he entered the University of Upsala.  There in 1807 he helped to found the “Musis Amici,” a students’ society of literature and art; its membership included Hedbom, who is remembered for his beautiful hymns, and the able and laborious Palmblad,—­author of several popular books, including the well-known novel ’Aurora Koenigsmark.’  This society soon assumed the name of the Aurora League, and set itself to free Swedish literature from French influence.  The means chosen were the study of German romanticism, and a treatment of the higher branches of literature in direct opposition to the course decreed by the Academical school.  The leaders of this revolution were Atterbom, eighteen years old, and Palmblad, twenty!

The first organ of the League was the Polyfem, soon replaced by the Phosphorus (1810-1813), from which the young enthusiasts received their sobriquet of “Phosphorists.”  Theoretically this sheet was given to the discussion of Schelling’s philosophy, and of metaphysical problems in general; practically, to the publication of the original poetry of the new school.  The Phosphorists did a good work in calling attention to the old Swedish folk-lore, and awakening a new interest in its imaginative treasures.  But their best service lay in their forcible and earnest treatment of religious questions, which at that time were most superficially dealt with.