Description Details
A prelude to the Trojan War.

Description Details
A further instalment of his satirical trilogy opposing the Peloponnesian War.

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His comic masterpiece written beneath the shadow of defeat during the Peloponnesian War.

Description Details
Henrik Ibsen told his readers if they were to understand his work, they should read all his dramas and live them in their person experience. Little has been published about his first plays. This book covers dramas from "Cataline" to "Peer Gynt," and demonstrates how "The Master Builder," "Hedda Gabler" and "The Lady from the Sea" are related to archetypal themes of his youthful work. The thesis is that Ibsen was a creator of myths. Using the psychology of Carl Jung, the book emphasizes Ibsen's awareness of the bipolar, archetypal nature of masculinity and femininity, the difference between falling in love and true love, and the importance of following one's calling. It is written for a general audience, presupposes no knowledge of Ibsen, and could be of literary interest to anyone....

Excerpt Details
Fifty years ago I began my graduate studies in order to become a professor of English. Among the requirements for the master's degree was the necessity of writing a thesis. I chose as a topic "Henrik Ibsen and Nordic Myth." There were several reasons for choosing that topic. As an undergraduate I had taken a course with Philip Wheelwright based upon his manuscript of "The Burning Fountain" and became interested in mythology. I subsequently spent a year at a Danish folk college, whose headmaster gave daily lectures on the pagan mythology of the Nordic folk. Until the 1950s not much had been done on the relationship between Ibsen and Nordic myth. In the words of Pavel Frænkl: From the myth and legend [of his early works] to the "domestic" subjects [of his later dramas] Ibsen's death imagery is consistently determined by Nordic mythology and rite. Even where the material is "contemporary" and the theme "modern," Ibsen's dramatic thought functions myth logically and myth creatively. I cannot see in the great body of literature on Ibsen, either in Norway or abroad, that there has ever been pointed...

Table of Contents Details
Myth Nationalism, Romanticism and Folklore (Denmark) Nationalism, Romanticism and Folklore (Norway) Catiline (1850) The Warrior's Barrow (1850) and Other Poetry St. John's Eve The Master Builder Lady Inger of Østråt (1855) The Feast at Solhaug (1856) The Vikings at Helgeland (1857) Hedda Gabler (1890) On the Heroic Ballad (1857) and Other Writings Olaf Liljekrans (1857) The Lady from the Sea (1888) Love's Comedy (1862) The Pretenders (1863) Brand (1867) Peer Gynt (1867) Ibsen as the Creator of Myths Endnotes Works Cited...