"
This passage is by no means the only one in which Tegner, with an utter
absence of vanity or illusion, judged his work and found it wanting.
There is no mock modesty in his manly deprecation of the honors that
were showered upon him; but as a father knows best the faults of his
child whom he loves, so he knew the defects of his work, as measured by
his own high standard, and refused to accept any more praise than was
his due. Not even the fact that Goethe expressed his admiration of
"Frithjof's Saga" could persuade him that he was entitled to the
extravagant homage which his enthusiastic countrymen accorded him. There
were even times when he disclaimed the title of poet. Whether he was
forgotten a little sooner or a little later, he said, was a matter of
small moment.
"Speaking seriously," he writes in 1824 (accordingly before the
publication of "Frithjof"), "I have never regarded myself as a poet in
the higher significance of the word.... I am at best a John the Baptist,
who is preparing the way for him who is to come.
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