Symra: A Memoir

Abstract

by EINAR HAUGEN 6 Symra: A Memoir The the periodical year of Norway's Symra independence was launched from in 1905, the the year of Norway's independence from the union with Sweden. The editors and publishers were Kristián Prestgard and Johannes B. Wist, and the place of publication was Decorah, Iowa. The editors declared their intention of "building bridges of understanding and fellowship" not only between Norwegians "who stayed at home" and those "who left," but also among Norwegians in America. The magazine was subtitled "An Annual for Norwegians on Both Sides of the Sea," whose purpose would be "to sharpen the awareness of our historical memories in this country and of Norwegian history, literature, and culture in general." By this stress on their common heritage, the editors hoped for a "unification on a national basis ( paa national Grund)" of the Norwegians in America. This appeal can be appreciated against a background of factional strife among Norwegian churches and societies in America, an activity that especially characterized the last decades of the nineteenth century. The founder of Decorah-Posten, B. Anundsen, had made it a keystone of his journalistic policy not to engage in reli101 Einar Haugen gious, social, or political controversies. Symra was printed in the Lutheran Publishing House, which has now become the chief building of the NorwegianAmerican Museum "Vesterheim." Wist and Prestgard were both editors of Decorah-Posten, and they remained solely responsible as editors, publishers, and owners of Symra's 'first eight volumes. From 1905 to 1908 these were annuals, from 1909 to 1912, quarterlies. But in 1912 the Symra Company was organized under the presidency of Dr. Trond Stabo and became the publishers of the last two volumes, which were issued bimonthly. Professors Knut Gjerset of Luther College and P. J. Eikeland of St. Olaf College were added to the editorial staff. But it was of no avail: 1914, the centennial of Norwegian independence from Denmark and the first year of World War I, sounded Symra's knell. Before expiring, however, the Symra Company published at least two valuable books as well: Digte (Poems) by Professor Agnes Mathilde Wergeland in 1912 and Norsk-amerikanernes festskrift 1914, edited by Wist. The latter volume has remained a classic of Norwegian-American historical writing, the only large-scale survey of the cultural institutions created by Norwegian immigrants, containing essays by leading writers on the Norwegian- American press, church, schools, societies, literature, politics, and the teaching of their culture in American universities. The name "Symra" was clearly derived from the modest , but classic collection of poems so named by their author, Ivar Aasen, published in Christiania in 1863. This collection contained most of the poems that made Aasen's New Norwegian language singable and that enshrined his name among the common people of Norway. One stanza of his opening poem ("Fyrestev") explains the name: Symra teiknar til Sumars Bil; um Vaaren tidla ho bl0mer; 102 SYMRA: A MEMOIR men fleire Blomar maa koma til, naar Kulden or Markom r0mer. The "symra" heralds the summertime; early in spring she blossoms; but other flowers must also bloom, when the frost has fled from the fields. In his dictionary of the New Norwegian ( landsmaal ) language, Aasen defined "symra" as "a spring flower," mostly used in compounds, where it could designate the blue or the white anemone (geitsymra, kvitsymra) or the primula (kusy mra). He derived it from the word for "summer" (sumar), an etymology accepted by other linguists , suggesting that "symra" meant "a flower that heralds the summer." While the usual Norwegian names for these flowers have remained blãveis, hvitveis, and primula, the dialect word symra has won status since Aasen's time as a poetic term. It was no doubt in full awareness of these facts that the editors gave the name Symra to the periodical which Theodore C. Biegen has described as "beyond question the best literary magazine that the Norwegians in America ever published." It was a suggestive and hopeful name for the fledgling yearbook, reflecting the ethnic loyalty of Kristián Prestgard, who set his mark on the whole enterprise. Prestgard was born in Heidal, one of the tributaries of the upper Gudbrandsdal valley, in...