The Feast at Solhoug
The Feast at Solhoug was written in the summer of 1855 during Ibsen's time as a dramatist and director of productions at Det Norske Theater in Bergen. In his "Preface to the second edition" of the play (1883) Ibsen sketches the creative process. After making a close study of the later Middle Ages in Norway in connection with Lady Inger, he studied the Icelandic family sagas. This inspired The Vikings at Helgeland.
"But then a number of things came between them, mostly, I think, of a personal nature and probably the strongest and most crucial factor; but I believe it was not without some significance, the fact that just at that time I was occupied with making a thorough study of Landstad's collection of «Norwegian Folk Ballads». My moods just then were more in keeping with the literary romanticism of the Middle Ages than with the facts of the sagas, more with the verse form than with prose, and more with the musical element in the language of the song of the giants than the descriptive language of the sagas.
Thus it came to be that the shapelessly fermenting draft of the tragedy «The Vikings at Helgeland» turned for the time being into the lyrical drama «The Feast at Solhoug»."
The play was delivered to Det Norske Theater in the autumn of 1855. The management decided to add it to the repertoire for staging on January 2nd, the date of the founding of the theatre.
First performance
The Feast at Solhoug was first performed at Det Norske Theater in Bergen on January 2nd 1856. As Ibsen had handed in the manuscript in his own name – and not anonymously as in the case of Lady Inger –, he was made responsible for directing both the roles and the staging. Normally Herman Laading took care of the former.
The production was a success. In the preface to the second edition Ibsen recalls the first night:
"The acting was excellent, and full of atmosphere. It was done with joy and devotion, and received in the same way. (...) The author and actors were called back time after time. Later that evening the orchestra, with many members of the audience, serenaded me outside my windows. I think I was so carried away that a made a sort of speech; at least I know I felt exceedingly happy.
In the course of 1856 the play was shown six times in Bergen and twice in Trondheim. At that time this was a large number of times for a play. One of the performances in Bergen was given in honour of Napoleon III, Prince Napoleon, who visited the city in the late summer of 1856.
The Feast at Solhoug was the first of Ibsen's plays to be performed outside the country. It was staged at Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern in Stockholm on November 4th 1857. This was Ibsen's first step towards fame in Scandinavia.
First edition
The Feast at Solhoug was published by Chr. Tønsberg's publishing house in Christiania on March 19th 1856. The exact size of the edition is unknown, but probably 1000 copies at most.
The Feast at Solhoug was by no means such a success in the book trade as on the stage, and sales were fairly poor.
Second edition
In a letter sent from Rome on February 21st 1883 to Frederik Hegel at Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Ibsen asked Hegel to consider the possibility of "a new, thoroughly revised edition of my youthful work «The Feast at Solhoug» being saleable". Hegel was in favour of the idea.
Ibsen soon started revising the play, and finished quickly. He made changes in punctuation, style and dialogue, but not in content. He added a preface to this version, in which he vehemently attacked the critics who believed that The Feast at Solhoug was virtually a plagiarism of the drama Svend Dyrings hus by Henrik Hertz. "This accusation by the critics is unfounded and misinformed", he thundered.
The second edition of The Feast at Solhoug came out on May 10th 1883.
By Jens-Morten Hanssen / ibsen.net