In his translation of Peer Gynt, Kenneth McLeish states that Ibsen intended his work to be read and not performed on stage. But, McLeish notes, Ibsen's work was quickly recognized as a masterpiece of Scandinavian literature, of equivalent status to Goethe's Faust in Germany or Manzoni's / promessi sposi in Italy. The reason for this acclaim did not simply lie in the text's brilliance, although many critics did embrace Peer Gynfs poetic narrative. Instead, it was Ibsen's use of Norwegian folklore, especially Peter Christen Asbjorsen's Norwegian Fairy Tales, upon which Peer's early adventures are based, that broadened the text's appeal. McLeish also declares that Ibsen's satirizing of several contemporary trends also increased the poem's appeal. Some of these trends, states McLeish, include satire on.

The new 'science' of archeology, of superstition and above all of the 'back to nature' movements of the 1860s: his trolls believe in...