The chief facts of Bjoernson’s life may be briefly set forth.  The son of a parish priest, he was born December 8th, 1832, at Kvikne.  When the boy was six years of age, his family removed to the Romsdal, and a few years later Bjoernstjerne was sent to school at Molde.  His childhood was thus passed in the midst of the noblest scenery of Norway, and in regions of the richest legendary association.  The austere sublimity of the Joetunheim—­the home of the frost-giants—­first impressed his childish sensibilities, but was soon exchanged for the more varied and picturesque but hardly less magnificent scenery of the western fjords.  At the age of seventeen the boy was sent to school in Christiania, and in 1852 entered the University.  Instead of devoting himself to his studies, he wrote a play called ‘Valborg,’ which was actually accepted by the management of the Christiania Theatre.  The piece was, however, never printed or even performed; for the author became so conscious of its imperfections that he withdrew it from rehearsal.  But it gave him the entree of the playhouse, a fact which did much to determine the direction of his literary activities.  He left the University with his course uncompleted, and for two or three years thereafter supported himself by journalism.  In 1857, at the age of twenty-four, his serious literary career began with the publication of ‘Synnoeve Solbakken,’ his first novel, and ‘Mellern Slagene’ (Between the Battles), his first printed dramatic work.  In this year also, upon the invitation of Ole Bull, he went to Bergen, where he remained for two years as director of the theatre.  In 1860 he secured from the government a traveling stipend, and spent the greater part of the next two years abroad, mostly in Rome, busily writing all the time.  Returning to Norway, he has since remained there for the most part, although his winters have frequently been spent in other countries.  For a long time he lived regularly in Paris several months of each year; one winter (1879-80) he was the guest of the Grand Duke of Meiningen; the following (1880-81) he spent in the United States, lecturing in many cities.  Since 1874 his Norwegian home has been at Aulestad in the Gausdal, where he has an estate, and occupies a capacious dwelling—­half farm-house, half villa—­whose broad verandas look out upon the charming open landscape of Southern Norway.  For the last twenty years he has been almost as conspicuous a figure in the political as in the literary arena, and the recognized leader of the Norwegian republican movement.  Numerous kinds of social and religious controversy have also engaged his attention, and made his life a stirring one in many ways.