Poetry
All That Is Mine Demand
Friheten
Nordahl Grieg · 1943
Opening lines
Bomber falt rundt huset.
Blåblek lyste løkten
gjennom nattemørket
i hotellets gang,
Bombs fell around the house.
Pale blue the lantern shone
through the dark of night
in the hotel corridor,
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from bokselskap.no
Synopsis
The poems were written during the war, far from the occupied country. In “17. mai 1940”, the flagpole at Eidsvoll stands bare on a national holiday, and it is when it is missing that one understands what freedom is. Other pieces address the Norwegian army in Scotland, Sweden, the king, London, or salute fallen fighters such as Captain Martin Linge; “De beste” says that it is the best who die, and yet refuses the mourning that would betray them.
Context
The collection appeared in 1943 in Reykjavík, from Helgafell, shortly after the author's plane was shot down; the Norwegian edition, from which Britannica dates it, followed at the liberation. According to the War Poets Association, it was banned in the occupied country, where thousands of copies were smuggled in, and the author read his poems on the BBC's Norwegian broadcasts. Britannica makes it the Norwegian counterpart of the war poems published in English in 1944 under the title All That Is Mine Demand.
Who it is for
Occasional poems, rhymed and made to be spoken; in French, only a selection of the work has appeared, from Seghers in 1954.
Prizes and reception
One of the best-selling poetry collections in Norway; “17. mai 1940” is its best-known piece.
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The pages consulted to check this page.