A hoary priest
of Balder actually performs the wedding ceremony in the restored temple,
and pronounces a somewhat unctuous wedding oration, which differs from
those which Tegner himself had frequently delivered chiefly in the
substitution of pagan for the Christian deities. As a matter of fact,
marriage was a purely civil contract among the ancient Norsemen, and had
no association with the temple or the priesthood, which, by the way, was
no separate office but a patriarchal function belonging to the secular
chieftainship. But Tegner's public were in nowise shocked by
anachronisms of this sort; they probably rejoiced the more heartily in
the happiness of the reunited lovers, because their marriage was,
according to modern notions, so "regular."
It was soon after his publication of "Frithjof's Saga" that Tegner
became Bishop of Wexioe. He then removed from Lund and took up his
residence upon the estate Oestrabo, near the principal town in his
diocese. The great fame of his poem came to him as a surprise; and he
even undertook to protest against it, declaring with perfect sincerity
that he held it to be undeserved.
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