Mysteries - Knut Hamsun [155]
67 The editor of the ultraconservative Morgenbladet (The Morning Paper) at the time, Christian Friele (1821-99), was both feared and hated for his sharp, sometimes malicious pen.
67 The Czar alluded to here is Alexander III (1845-94), whose reign was notorious for its reactionary policies.—Jean Constans (1833-1913) was a French politician who, as Minister of the Interior (1889-92), firmly combatted the opponents of the Third Republic led by Georges Boulanger (1837-91). In 1889, hoping to realize his dream of becoming France’s dictator, Boulanger had planned to march on the Elysée Palace with his Revenge Party supporters, but abandoned the idea and fled to Belgium. Having been accused of treason and condemned to life imprisonment, he committed suicide on the tomb of his mistress in 1891, a few months after the period referred to in Hamsun’s novel.—Charles Parnell (1846-91), the Irish nationalist leader, championed Home Rule for his country with considerable success. However, being named a corespondent in a divorce suit caused him to lose his influence, and he died a broken man.—The Balkan Question is linked to the centuries-long endeavor by the European powers to curtail the territory of the Ottoman Empire west of the Bosporus. The problem was particularly virulent in the latter half of the nineteenth century and continued to be so in the twentieth.—Statistische Monatschrift was published in Vienna.
68 Otto von Bismarck (1815-98), creator of the modern German state and chancellor of Germany 1871-90, ruled as a virtual dictator. After nearly two decades of conducting a successful foreign as well as domestic policy, he was dismissed by the Emperor, William II (1859-1941), a longtime enemy, soon after the latter’s accession to the throne.
68 The leading workers’ association in Norway was founded by Eilert Sundt (1817-75) in 1864. From 1879 on, when the Liberal Party took over political leadership from the Conservatives, it became an important forum of radical political propaganda. The Norwegian Labor Party was formed in 1887.
69 James Carey (1845-83) was a member of the Invincibles, an Irish terrorist association condemned by Parnell and the orthodox Fenians. After participating in the Phoenix Park murders on May 6, 1882, Carey informed on his associates and turned state’s evidence. Four of the principals involved were executed in 1883. Carey was shot dead on board ship to Cape Town.
74 The German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) developed a philosophy of aristocratic individualism, epitomized by such concepts as the will to power, the eternal return, and the superman.
77 Joseph Lanner (1801-43) was co-creator, with the Strauss family, of the Viennese waltz and one of the chief generators of the early-nineteenth-century waltz fever. Lanner conducted a small orchestra for which he wrote waltzes and other dances, and Johann Strauss the Elder (1804-49) was his violin player.
80 the law against quacks: Since April 1871, when a new law was passed, persons without a medical degree were permitted, with certain restrictions, to engage in the business of healing in Norway.
91 Built in the first century B.C., the Tower of the Winds, a.k.a. the Horologion of Andronikos Kyrrhestes, stands not far from the site of the Roman agora, just outside the market enclosure. The tower served the triple purpose of sundial, water clock, and weather vane.
98 The Gudbrandsdal Valley in Oppland County extends ca. 130 miles northwest from Lillehammer at the northern end of Lake Mjøsa. The regional culture is marked by a certain “yeoman aristocracy.” The area has preserved many examples of old farm and stave church architecture and has produced a rich store of legends and fairy tales, such as the Peer Gynt story.
99 Nikolai F. S. Grundtvig (1783-1872), Danish poet, churchman, and educator. He founded the folk high school, a form of adult education designed to foster patriotism and religious convictions in young people. This particular line must have impressed Hamsun; it is repeated in his last work, På gjengrodde