Olaf Liljekrans
The creative process leading to Olaf Liljekrans began with The Grouse of Justedal, a National Play in Four Acts by Brynjolf Bjarme, a drama Ibsen began to write in Christiania in 1850, but never finished. The fragment ends in the middle of the second act.
Six years later, in 1856, he resumed work on the subject. After the success of The Feast at Solhoug, it was tempting for Ibsen to write another play in the style of the folk ballads. The Grouse of Justedal had been inspired by a story in Andreas Faye's collection Norwegian Legends about a little girl on the farm "Birkehaug" in Justedalen. She was the only survivor in the valley of the Black Death, and when, after a long time, people came from the neighbouring parish and found her, she had become "as timid and wild as a bird" in her solitude, and so was called "The Grouse of Justedalen".
Ibsen included this motif in Olaf Liljekrans, but not a single line from The Grouse of Justedal is to be found in Olaf Liljekrans. Ibsen borrowed the name of the character in the title from a ballad in Landstad's Norwegian Folk Ballads about a man called Olaf Liljukrans who was killed by elves on the eve of his wedding.
Olaf Liljekrans was ready to be handed in at Det norske Theater in Bergen at the beginning of October 1856, and was immediately accepted for staging.
First performance
Olaf Liljekrans was first performed at Det norske Theater in Bergen on January 2nd 1857. Ibsen directed the production himself. After the success of The Feast at Solhoug the previous year there were great expectations and there was a full house, but the play was not a success, with either the audience or the critics, and the play was only performed twice.
Ibsen sketched the costumes himself for all the characters in Olaf Liljekrans. The sketches are water-colours and probably formed the basis for the new costumes ordered for the staging of the play.
First edition
It was to be almost a whole generation before the play was published for the first time. It was included in Volume 2 of Henrik Ibsens Sämtliche Werke in deutscher Sprache, published in Berlin in 1898. Emma Klingenfeld was the translator.
The play was not published in the original language until 1902, in supplementary volume (Volume 10) of Ibsens Samlede Værker (Ibsen's Collected Works).
By Jens-Morten Hanssen / ibsen.net