More important are the Landsmaal translations beginning with Ivar Aasen’s in 1853.  They are interesting because they mark one of the most important events in modern Norwegian culture—­the language struggle.  Ivar Aasen set out to demonstrate that “maalet” could be used in literature of every sort, and the same purpose, though in greatly tempered form, is to be detected in every Landsmaal translation since.  Certainly in their outward aim they have succeeded.  And, despite the handicap of working in a language new, rough, and untried, they have given to their countrymen translations of parts of Shakespeare which are, at least, as good as those in “Riksmaal.”

Herman Wildenvey stands alone.  His work is neither a translation nor a mere paraphrase; it is a reformulating of Shakespeare into a new work of art.  He has accomplished a feat worth performing, but it cannot be called translating Shakespeare.  It must be judged as an independent work.

Whether Norway is always to go to Denmark for her standard Shakespeare, or whether she is to have one of her own is, as yet, a question impossible to answer.  A pure Landsmaal translation cannot satisfy, and many Norwegians refuse to recognize the Riksmaal as Norwegian at all.  In the far, impenetrable future the language question may settle itself, and when that happy day comes, but not before, we may look with some confidence for a “standard” Shakespeare in a literary garb which all Norwegians will recognize as their own.

CHAPTER II

Shakespeare Criticism In Norway

The history of Shakespearean translation in Norway cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be called distinguished.  It is not, however, wholly lacking in interesting details.  In like manner the history of Shakespearean criticism, though it contains no great names and no fascinating chapters, is not wholly without appeal and significance.  We shall, then, in the following, consider this division of our subject.

Our first bit of Shakespearean criticism is the little introductory note which the anonymous translator of the scenes from Julius Caesar put at the head of his translation in Trondhjems Allehaande for October 23, 1782.  And even this is a mere statement that the passage in the original “may be regarded as a masterpiece,” and that the writer purposes to render not merely Antony’s eloquent appeal but also the interspersed ejaculations of the crowd, “since these, too, are evidence of Shakespeare’s understanding of the human soul and of his realization of the manner in which the oration gradually brought about the result toward which Antony aimed.”