Theatre
Daniel Hjort
Not translated into English
Josef Julius Wecksell · 1862
Opening lines
Daniel Hjort
Nu står därute hertigens beskickning.
The duke's embassy is now standing outside.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Turku Castle in 1597, during the struggle between Duke Charles and King Sigismund. Daniel Hjort, a foundling taken in and raised at the castle by Klas Fleming, now dead, loves Sigrid, daughter of the warlord Arvid Stålarm, who is promised to Johan, the Flemings' son. An old woman who turns out to be his mother tells him that his father, one of the leaders of the peasant revolt known as the Club War, was killed in the repression: he resolves to avenge him by betraying those who raised him.
Context
Begun at the lyceum of Turku and finished in early 1862, the drama was premiered on 26 November of the same year at the New Theatre in Helsinki; its author attended the first night, mute amid the applause. It appeared in 1863 with a preface by Fredrik Cygnæus, and the Royal Theatre in Stockholm staged it in 1864. The hero owes almost nothing to the real traitor whose name he bears: he has often been compared to Hamlet, and he reflects the democratic aspirations of the author's time. Selim Palmgren made an opera of it in 1910, and Carl Mesterton filmed it in 1962 in the castle itself.
Who it is for
A tragedy in five acts and four tableaux, in Swedish, from 1862. You need to know who Fleming, Stålarm and Duke Charles were, or accept following the quarrel without knowing it.
Prizes and reception
Often regarded as the greatest drama of Swedish-speaking Finland, and even as the best play in the Swedish language before Strindberg.