Viktor Rydberg

Abraham Viktor Rydberg born the December 18th 1828 with Jönköping, dead the September 22nd 1895, is a writer, publicity agent, poet and politician Swedish. It also translated the work of Edgar Allan Poe into Swedish.

Biography

Wire of a prison warder, former soldier, and of a midwife, Rydberg has two brothers and three sisters. In 1834, his/her mother dies, victim of an epidemic of Choléra. The Alcoolisme of his/her father contributes to the loss of his employment and the apartment of the family, leading the authorities to place Rydberg in pension in various establishments for the poor. In spite of its economic statute, Rydberg is recognized for its talents.

Of 1838 with 1847, Rydberg studies with the college, finally joining the university of Lund of 1851 with 1852. Poverty, once again, affects its life, and it must stop its studies before to have obtained its diplomas.

Working like tutor and in various liberal newspapers, it continues to deal of poetry and literature. Its work is rewarded, and it becomes a figure exchange of the Romantisme finishing in Sweden. Its first book is Fribytaren på Östersjön (1857), a historical lovesong being held at the 17th century, exploring piracy, hunting for the witches and the excursions nautical.

Its first great success, and one of its most popular novels, Singoalla (1858), is a black and romantic history occurring in a medieval decoration . The hero of the novel is a young knight named Erland which meets the love, symbolized by a gipsy, Singoalla. His do not accept this relation, and it must repress its truths feelings. The sin which it makes by repressing its true nature, led to its death of the plague. Rydberg rewrites this book during all its life until the fourth and last edition of 1894, which is completed with Erland dying like a monk hermit; its conclusion prepares the future attacks of Rydberg against the Christianisme.

Den sist Atenaren ( the Last Athenian , 1859), his novel more known, offers a contrast between the tolerance from the point of view of the Greeks with the Christian religious bigotry. Its attack of the Church of the 19th century is painted in the novel, whose history proceeds with Athens, during the reign of the last pagan emperor Julien the Apostate. Dogmatic and fanatic Christianity is victorious sensual, natural and noble civilization of the traditional Greece.

In 1862, it writes and publishes Bibelns will lära om Kristus ( Christ according to the Bible ), a book on the contemporary religious criticism, which is an enormous success. Continuing with its liberal attacks against the Church of Sweden, it uses the New Testament to deny the divinity of the Christ. In the long run, this book would have contributed to weaken the authority of the Church on the elite educated of Sweden. However, this book did not find the favor of religious orthodoxy, and it is said that it is mainly responsible for his exclusion of the Swedish Academy until in 1877. Medeltidens Magi ( Magic of the Middle Ages , 1865) is based on the practices and magic beliefs of the medieval period. The contemporary Church is always in agreement with the ideas of the dark Ages, and the dualistic concepts of good and evil, represented by God and the Devil, the Paradise and the Hell, contributes to hunting for the witches E the period.

Lille Viggs äventyr på julafton ( Adventures of small Vigg Christmas day before, 1871), is a court tells Christmas for all the ages, writing at the origin for a newspaper, but later largely printed.

Among his other work, one notes his translation of the Faust (1876) of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; Romerska Dagar ( Roman Days 1877), a series of archaeological studies and tests on Italy; Vapensmeden (1891), a historical novel being held at the time of the Reform with, of an end to the other, a message on the importance of the historical heritage and art; poems, Tomten (1881) being most largely known. Between 1886 and 1889, it publishes three studies on the mythologies Germanic and Scandinavian: Undersökningar I germanisk mythologi I ( Investigations on Germanic Mythology I , 1886); Fädernas gudasaga ( Saga of the gods of our fathers , 1887) (a version for children of Scandinavian mythology); and Undersökningar I germanisk mythologi II ( Investigations on Germanic Mythology II , 1889). Undersökningar I germanisk mythologi I was translated into English by Rasmus B. Anderson in 1889, under the title Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses from the Northland . Largely widespread today, the investigations try to find the still existing traces of the old Germanic myths in the oldest sources having for subject the Christian and traditional influence. It concluded not only that the myths are really old, but that they are fragments of a vast mythical epopee.

At the beginning of its life, Rydberg is active in the liberal policies of its time. The liberals are firm lawyers of the separation of the Church and E the State, which find a resonance particular in the impassioned feelings of Rydberg for Germanic paganism. Its devotion to liberalism is made less obvious when it starts to apprehend the Capitalisme, the economic system of which the liberals free-traders are in favor. In the long poem Den nya Grottesången , it develops a wild attack of capitalism.

Representing the traditional agricultural economic system of Sweden, of 1870 with 1872, Rydberg is member of the Swedish Parliament like partisan of the country Party. In 1870, through its newspaper, the “Handelstidningen”, Rydberg defends a position pro-allemande discussed during the Guerre free-Prussian. Its scorn of the modernism and the policy and the left are obvious at the time of its refusal, in 1884, to support the anarchistic writer August Strindberg, shown Blasphème. As sworn at the time of the lawsuit of the socialist leader Hjalmar Branting in 1888, Rydberg votes in favor of its imprisonment for blasphemy.

During its life, Rydberg was reader with the Université of Gothenburg (1876), honorary doctor of the university of Uppsala (1877), elected with the Swedish Academy (1877), professor d' Histoire of the Culture, then with the pulpit of History of art with Stockholm (1884 - 1888).

Its life is completed in 1895, of the diabetes and a Artériosclérose. A national mourning is decided everywhere in Sweden, and its tomb is, nowadays, a national monument. Many its texts were translated and remain largely read in the whole of the schools of Sweden. A group of three colleges and colleges under contract of Stockholm were baptized with its name. The three colleges Victor Rydberg are located at Djursholm, Odenplan and Jarlaplan and are among the gravitational schools of Sweden, having one of the highest averages of graduates of the country, and among its best teachers.

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