Book Description

The word "Quisling" has been used as a synonym for "traitor" or "treachery." The original Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945) was a gifted Norwegian army officer who sided with the Nazis on the first day of Norway's entry into the Second World War. Dahl's biography is the first to use a complete range of source material from Nordic, German, Italian and Russian archives, and family archives now in the United States tracing Quisling's career through to the drama of his trial and execution for high treason in 1945. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Quisling was more than an arch collaborator.
Because the name Quisling has passed into everyday language, there is a danger we sloganize the historical character. As Dahl makes clear in this scholarly but most readable biography, Quisling was not simply a nazi yes man. His own ideas owed much to Christian fundamentalism and a home grown philosophy called Universalism. He collaborated with Hitler, whom he met far more frequently than the head of any other conquered country, in the hope that he could re-establish Norwegian independence after the war. His dawning realization that this was impossible produced personal hopelessness and made him detested in Norway. He had backed the wrong horse. Dahl is excellent in showing up both the tensions in Quisling himself and in the ruling NS party, itself by no means united. The minister president's own often tortuous dealings with Terboven, the Reich's commissioner in Norway, are particularly well described. Once he realized he would be executed, Quisling put forward the thesis that he would be far more dangerous after his death than during his life. He was wrong about that too. Outside Norway, the family name lives on only in a US medical clinic which his relatives once founded. The name Quisling still means in Madison, Wisconsin good health and well being. This masterly book is a first rate insight into the politics of absolute failure. ... Read more

Book Description

Read the account of Kajsa Svensson Runeberg, an emigrant wife who recounts, through her diary, how she and her family built up a farm on the unsettled Kansas prairie. This historical fiction is based on the Swedish woman who homesteaded the author's childhood home."...could well be the most endearing 'first settler' account ever told. Once a reader starts the book, they are compelled to keep reading to see what will happen next on the isolated prairie homestead. Not to be missed!- Capper's Family Bookstore ... Read more

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Ranks as high as Little House on the Prairie books!
One of the best "first settler" accounts I've ever read! Hubalek's story of Swedish immigrant, Kajsa, who settled in Central Kansas was riveting. I couldn't put it down until I had read the whole book. Stories of rattlesnakes coming through the dugout ceiling, prairie fires, the joys of newborn babies and the heartaches of losing loved ones.... Reading Hubalek's book shows that starting life as a homesteader was very tough, and the story was so real that I was working the sod right with her. Be sure to read the whole 4-book series, and her other two series as well. ... Read more

Book Description

1919. One of the greatest and best known of the medieval occultists was Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim or, as he is generally called, Paracelsus. He belongs to that type of mysticism which may be termed scientific rather than religious. He was not so much a mystic as an occultists, being a magician rather than a saint. This work represents a biographical sketch of this occultist and his times. Contents: early life and travels; wanderings and death; as above so below, doctrine of signature; necromancy; origin of disease; magic; alchemy; astrology; comparison with other mystics; a Christian occultist. ... Read more

Book Description

The influence of old Sweden helped to make a Swede the Swede of today.This book is an insightful look at the influence of heritage in producing national character.The history starts with the Vikings and Sweden's early trading contacts with the ancients, Rome and Egypt.There are rebel heroes, Engelbrekt and Dacke, who became legends in the hearts of common folk.There are backgrounds on prominent poets, writers, artists, scientists, and inventors.Vividly describes the advent of repression, fire, pain and suffering that contributed to the molding of the contemporary Swedish citizen. ... Read more

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NOT a great book
In this small book Jack R. Evans attempts an "all-you-wanted-to-know-about-Sweden" book. Unfortunately, his book is very uneven, and it reads like a collection of high-school term papers on Swedish topics, with little connecting thread. His historical section ends with the establishment of the present royal house in 1818, his section on religion devotes more to the mythical Sankta Lucia than to either Christianity or the old faith, and sprinkled here and there are a few pages on Swedish inventors, foods and recipes. There is nothing on Swedish politics after the early nineteenth century, and almost nothing on the contributions of Swedish-Americans to our national culture. On top of that, the book is terribly edited, with typos throughout, from "Lews," Delaware, as the name of the first Swedish settlement in America (it's "Lewes") on page 1 to two different misspellings of the name for Swedish hot spiced wine on page 149. In a time when word-processors can handle almost anything, there is little excuse for Evans' almost total omission of Swedish diacritical marks. There are many far better books. For starters, try Sweden: A Political and Cultural History by Eric Elstob, and Swedish Mentality by Ake Daun (my wife says she can see me in this one!). ... Read more

Book Description

Bard of Iceland makes available for the first time in any language other than Icelandic an extensive selection of works by Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807–1845), the most important poet of modern Iceland. Jónas was also Iceland’s first professionally trained geologist and an active contributor in a number of other scientific fields: geography, botany, zoology, and archaeology. He played a key role as well in Iceland’s struggle to gain independence from Denmark. "Descriptive power and fullness of spirit were the hallmarks of his soul," wrote a contemporary admirer.Dick Ringler, one of the premier scholars of Icelandic literature in the world, offers a substantial biography of Jónas, a representative selection of his most important poems, and some of his prose work in science and belles lettres. Ringler also provides extended commentaries and an essay on Icelandic prosody.

The poems are translated into English equivalents of their original complex meters in Icelandic and Danish. As a poet Jónas was intimately familiar with his nation’s medieval literary inheritance—the sagas and eddas—and also with the groundbreaking work of contemporary German and Danish Romanticism (Chamisso, Heine, Oehlenschläger). A master of poetic form, Jónas not only exploited and enlarged the possibilities of traditional eddic and skaldic meters, but introduced the sonnet, triolet stanza, terza and ottava rima, and blank verse into the Icelandic metrical repertory. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Skillfully gathered with astute and insightful commentary
Translated into English for the first time by Dick Ringler (Professor Emeritus of English and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison), Bard Of Iceland: Jonas Hallgrimsson, Poet And Scientist is an extensive, 474-page compilation of and commentary upon the poetry of Jonas Hallgrimsson (1807-1845), a Renaissance-style scientist who contributed to geography, botany, zoology, and archaeology. His life, his struggle to help Iceland gain independence from Denmark, and his mastery of poetic verse in context are all showcased in this impressive literary collection, skillfully gathered with astute and insightful commentary by an accomplished Scandinavian literary academician and expert. ... Read more

Book Description

In order to understand the Germany that was coming into being at the beginning of the 19th century, the Germany that longed for unification, one must know Ernst Moritz Arndt. Arndt, the professor of history, taught Germans to respect their culture but also to learn from their past division and resulting misery. Arndt, the poet, taught the Germans to sing of Germany, and they sang his songs. When he died in 1860, Arndt was a national hero. Dow comprehensively presents this engaging biography of a man whose life illuminates Germany past and present. Contents: Education; The Professor; The Maelstrom; Arndt's Ideas; The Road to Petersburg; The War of Liberation; Bonn; Years of Woe; Release; Revolution; Farewell; In Memoriam. ... Read more

Book Description

Selma Lagerlof is one of Sweden's best-loved storytellers. In 1909 she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature. In these stories, Lagerlof adapts stories from the bard Snorri Sturlason's "Heimskringla," focusing on the women characters. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Wisdom worth more than gold
Illustrated with engravings of Viking artifacts.

Silent and thoughtful should a warrior be, and bold on the battlefield; cheerful and content should every man be, until he meets his death.

This verse, and the others in this book, come from the Hávámál, a compilation of Old Norse poems that offers the reader a variety of practical advice, rules of conduct, and words of wisdom. Said to be given by Odin, Father of the Norse Gods, they represent a clear picture of the heroic ethics, home life and warrior code of the Viking Period (c790 AD-c1070 AD).

Seek swiftness from a ship, protection from a shield, cuts from a sword kisses from a maiden.

Although the words Hávámál are attributed to Odin, there is no mention of life after death, of religious belief, or of faith in gods. The advice is very practical and applies to the everyday life of the "average" Viking.

With half a loaf and a cup of ale, I have found many a friend.

Friendship is another important aspect of the Hávámál. A man often placed his life in the hands of his comrades, and he needed to be certain of their loyalty. Therefore, gold was not given to the son to inherit, but spent freely by friends. The penalty for betrayal was death, and vengeance was the noble course of action. Wisdom is worth more than gold or an unknown path.

Ultimately, these proverbs paint a picture of the ideal Viking: he must be open, friendly and generous; he must be wise - but not too wise - he must keep his wits about him and be ready for a fight; he must hold honor high and be loyal to his friends and kin. In short, he must be the perfect hero.

Three Stories
Selma Lagerlöf's stories of Scandinavian royalty in Queens at Kungahälla retain some of the Viking flavor of Icelandic bard Snorri Sturlason's Heimskringla (1230), which provided the historical basis for them. In "Astrid" and "Sigrid Storräde," a princess and a queen from the still-pagan land of Sweden join with kings from a Christianized Norway at Kungahälla-a site on the coast of western Sweden where the countries negotiated peace, often through marriage. The women are strong-willed, but the men are strong of faith; the drama Lagerlöf imagines between them reveals her romantic fascination with this conflict. "The Silver Mine" is a later work, and centers on the extravagant 18th-century King Gustav III. On a visit to a small town, this king learns how the parish has come to value peace of mind over material wealth.

In 1909, Lagerlöf became the first woman-and the first Swede-to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, and several years later became the first woman inducted into the Swedish Academy. She is an exemplar of humanism, a champion of the world's unfortunates, as well as a captivating storyteller. Unfortunately, with her works out of print for over half a century, her eloquent writing has gone unnoticed by recent generations. Penfield Press is releasing four reprints of her work, including Invisible Links (short stories), Memories of Mårbacka, Scandinavian Kings and Queens, and Girl from the Marsh Croft and other stories. ... Read more