I need only mention
the masterly tale "The Father," with its sobriety and serene strength. I
know but one other instance[3] of so great tragedy, told in so few and
simple words. "Arne," "En Glad Gut" (A Happy Boy), and the amusing
dialect story, "Ei Faarleg Friing" (A Dangerous Wooing), also belong to
this delightful collection. These little masterpieces of concise
story-telling have been included in the popular two-volume edition of
"Fortaellinger," which contains also "The Fisher-maiden" (1867-68), the
exquisite story, "The Bridal March" (1872), originally written as text
to three of Tidemand's paintings, and a vigorous bit of disguised
autobiography, "Blakken," of which not the author but a horse is the
ostensible hero.
[3] Austin Dobson's poem, "The Cradle."
The descriptive name for all these tales, except the last, is idyl. It
was, indeed, the period when all Europe (outside the British empire) was
viewing the hardy sons of the soil through poetic spectacles. In Germany
Auerbach had, in his "Black Forest Village Tales" (1843, 1853, 1854),
discarded the healthful but unflattering realism of Jeremias Gotthelf
(1797-1854), and chosen, with a half-didactic purpose, to contrast the
peasant's honest rudeness and straightforwardness with the refined
sophistication and hypocrisy of the higher classes.
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