



Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books









Transcriber's Notes:

   1. Page scan source:
      http://books.google.com/books?id=fuUsAAAAMAAJ

   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].






                             THE NOVELS OF

                         BJOeRNSTJERNE BJOeRNSON

                        _Edited by EDMUND GOSSE_

                               VOLUME XI






                            _THE NOVELS OF_

                        _BJOeRNSTJERNE BJOeRNSON_

                        _Edited by EDMUND GOSSE_

                           _Fcap. 8vo, cloth_

      _Synnoeve Solbakken_
      _Arne_
      _A Happy Boy_
      _A Fisher Lass_
      _The Bridal March, & One Day_
      _Magnhild, & Dust_
      _Captain Mansana, & Mother's Hands_
      _Absalom's Hair, & A Painful Memory_
      _In God's Way_ (2 _vols._)
      _Heritage of the Kurts_ (2 _vols._)

                               _NEW YORK_
                        _THE MACMILLAN COMPANY_






                            THE HERITAGE OF
                               THE KURTS


                                   BY

                         BJOeRNSTJERNE BJOeRNSON



                   _Translated from the Norwegian by_

                            _Cecil Fairfax_



                                VOLUME I




                                NEW YORK
                         THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
                                  1908






                          _Printed in England_





_All rights reserved_






                           BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE


Upon his taking up his residence in Paris, in 1882, Bjoernson resumed an
interest in prose fiction, which he had for so many years abandoned in
favour of the drama. There can be no question that he was influenced in
this by the successes of Alexander Kielland and Kristian Elster, who
had begun to deal with the problems of Norwegian life in the form of
short novels, which attracted immense public curiosity. After writing
_Dust_ (1882), a very brief episode, Bjoernson started the composition
of his earliest long novel, which he finished and published in 1884, as
_Det flager i Byen og paa Havnen_ ("Flags are Flying in Town and
Harbour"), a title for which we have ventured to substitute, as more
directly descriptive, _The Heritage of the Kurts_. It is to be observed
that, with the exception of Jonas Lie's _Livsslaven_ (which was not yet
published when Bjoernson's book was begun), _The Heritage of the Kurts_
was the earliest novel, treating Scandinavian society on a large scale,
which any Norwegian writer had essayed to produce. This may explain a
certain cumbrousness in the unwinding of the plot, which has been noted
as a fault in this very fine and elaborate romance.

The didactic character of much of the novel, especially of the later
parts, was a surprise to contemporary readers, who were accustomed to
much lighter fare from the novelists of the day. No less a personage
than the great Danish writer, J. P. Jacobsen, joined in the outcry
against "all this pedagogy and all these problems." Physiological
instruction in girls' schools,--this seemed a strange and almost
unseemly subject for a romance addressed to idle readers in Copenhagen
and Christiania. But Bjoernson's serious purpose was soon perceived and
justified, and the popularity of The Heritage of the Kurts was assured
among the best appreciators of his genius. It will always, however,
possess the disadvantages inherent on a tentative effort in a class of
literature as yet unfamiliar to the veteran artist.

Translator, editor, and publisher of the English version alike desire
to express their debt to Mr. C. F. Keary, whose knowledge of Norwegian
matters is so widely recognised, for the help he has given in revising
the translation throughout, and in particular for his advice in regard
to the diction of the first section of the novel, which, in the
original, is an extremely clever _pastiche_ of early eighteenth-century
Danish.

                                                      E. G.




                                CONTENTS


                      I.--_FROM AN OLD MANUSCRIPT_

CHAP
       I. "THE ESTATE" AND THOSE WHO LIVED THERE

      II. WHAT FURTHER CAME TO PASS


                            II.--_JOHN KURT_

       I. LONELINESS

      II. A GENIUS

     III. MAN'S BREAST IS LIKE THE OCEAN

      IV. SAILS IN SIGHT

       V. HOME LIFE

      VI. FIRST RESULTS, AND THOSE THAT FOLLOWED


                           III.--_A LECTURE_

       I. DETHRONED

      II. ON THE MOUNTAIN

     III. THE CHILD

      IV. THE LAST YEARS IN THE GARDEN

       V. THE LECTURE


                            IV.--_THE STAFF_

       I. A GREAT LECTURE AND A LITTLE TOWN





                                   I
                         FROM AN OLD MANUSCRIPT




                               CHAPTER I

                       "THE ESTATE" AND THOSE WHO
                              LIVED THERE


"The Estate" had probably been acquired by the strong hand, as indeed
most domains have been in all countries and at all times; but what
proportion forced marriages and fair bargains bore to actual guile,
fraud, and such base means, we can no longer determine.

Two hundred years ago it was an immense possession, the home farm stood
then as now on the woody mountain <DW72>s overlooking the town, the
whole of which can be seen from there; both the old town on this side
of the harbour, and the new one out by the point. This point shelters
the harbour from the sea, but is not itself absolutely exposed to it,
for islands and skerries lie beyond it, and between them the two
entrances, the North and West Sounds. All this is to be seen from "The
Estate," and far out to sea as well.

Farther away to the right is the river between whose clayey banks the
foaming mass pours down into the harbour. At one time this river and
all the works at its mouth