Bjørnsternje Bjørnsons Lig føres gennem København - 1910
ABOUT THE FILM : Bjørnsternje Bjørnsons Lig føres gennem København
Det Danske FilminstitutBjørnsternje Bjørnson's Burial Procession Through Copenhagen
Year: 1910
1st May 1910, a huge crowd flock around the coffin of the great writer Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Thus a journey begins through the streets of Copenhagen. In the people who had gathered to see the funeral cortege go by, anonymous people mingled with the “officials”. Near the customs warehouse, on the port, Chairman of the Commission Carl Theodor Zahle paid the final tribute to Bjørnson: his body must be taken onboard the battleship the “Norge” to be taken back to Norway, his native land.
The Norwegians today claim that the pompous procession reproduced here by an anonymous camera was part of a huge advertising campaign intended to promote Bjørnson’s complete works.
Nationality: Danish
Length: 6' 7"
Genre: documentary
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: black & white
Composer: Pablo Pico
A BRIEF HISTORY : Bjørnsternje Bjørnsons Lig føres gennem København
The first Norwegian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832-1910) was also a committed politician calling on his compatriots to be aware of their national identity. In 1905, the dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway was approved by referendum. The writer’s political activism furthermore led him to write the words of the Norwegian national anthem: so why did this tribute to the idealist who remains the incarnation of a Norway finally freed of any trusteeship take place in the Danish capital?
Copenhagen’s role as a literary capital for Norway is common knowledge. At this time, the literary market of these two Scandinavian countries was a single market. Besides Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, the other three major Norwegian authors of the second half of the 19th century – Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Jonas Lie (1833-1908) and Alexander Kielland (1849-1906) – were also published by Danish publishers Gyldendal; the works of Danish and Norwegian writers were read equally in Denmark as well as Norway in their original versions since the written Norwegian of the time was very similar to Danish. Almost 500 years of Norway’s subservience to the Danish throne (from the 14th century up to the year 1814) explained this closeness.
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson died on 26 April 1910 in Paris, where for some years he had spent his winters. The Norwegian coastal defence ship NhoMS Norge was sent to convey his remains back to his own land. He was buried at home with every mark of honor.
This documentary produced by Ole Olsen’s company (1863-1943), the Nordisk Films Kompagni founded in 1906 includes a catalogue that has already more than one hundred films. Newsreels and travel films were represented from the advent of Danish film, spurred on notably by the forerunner of the genre, Peter Elfelt (1866-1931).
The original music for this film was composed by Pablo Pico in 2010 in the context of the call for proposals launched in partnership with the Sacem (Société des auteurs compositeurs et éditeurs de musique – Society of authors, composers and music editors).
