ARNE

EARLY TALES AND SKETCHES

WORKS OF BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON

PATRIOTS EDITION

Arne

Early Tales and Sketches

Translated from the Norse By

Rasmus B. Anderson

NEW YORK

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

Copyright, 1881, 1882,

By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.

All rights reserved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE.

"Arne" was written in 1858, one year later than "Synnöve Solbakken," and is thought by many to be Björnson's best story, though it is, in my opinion, surpassed in simplicity of style and delicate analysis of motives, feelings, and character by "A Happy Boy," his third long story, the translation of which is now in progress, and which will follow this volume.

Norway's most eminent composers have written music for many of Björnson's poems, and made them favorite songs, not only with the cultivated classes, but also with the common people. To the songs in "Arne" melodies were composed by Björnson's brilliant cousin, Rikard Nordraak, who died in 1865, only twenty-three years old, but who had already won a place as one of Norway's greatest composers.

With a view of popularizing these melodies in this country, all the poems have been given in precisely the same metre and rhyme as the original, and those