It has taken nearly twenty years. But now it is done, the large work that will show the way through Henrik Ibsen’s linguistic universe.
Through Ibsenkonkordansen (The Ibsen Concordance), it will now be possible to track his use of a particular expression or a striking image or the context of a well-known adage.
The book version of 3200 pages and its electronic version are addressed to scholars and Ibsen-connoiseurs in Norway and abroad. The material is also available by Web.
Bergen Initiative
The idea was conceived in 1975 in the city of Bergen, where the foundational work has also been carried out. A “concordance” is an alphabetical word list of all, or selected, words in a book, corpus, or an author’s collected works, with quotations from passages in the text where the word is used. Ever since the Middle Ages, concordances have been made of the Bible and central works or authorships that belong to world literature, for example, Shakespeare.
From the inception in 1978, Professor Harald Noreng, at that time a member of the The Department for Scandinavian Studies at the University of Bergen and now long since retired, has been the literary and linguistic leader, and Knut Hofland has been responsible for the computerization of the large project which has survived several generations of computers. Kristin Natvig has been associated with the project as research assistant.
The 87-Edition Expanded
The first result of the project came in 1987 with the book Henrik Ibsen’s ordskatt. Vokabular over hans diktning. (Henrik Ibsen’s Vocabulary. A Reference Work of his Writings). Here 617, 137 words were presented with references to where the words are used. By comparison, Ibsen-konkordansen (The Ibsen Concordance) constitutes an expansion, with the words rendered in context. The smallest words (prepositions, pronouns, etc.) have, however, not been included in this book edition.
Development of Language
Ibsen’s use of language developed in the course of his life; his stage language became more realistic, incorporating elements of everyday speech. He was influenced by Shakespeare and other authors, and he carried his own distinctive mark. Expressions and themes recur throughout his authorship. And in each play, he created a “linguistic world,” as one Ibsen scholar has called it, with continual recurrence of central concepts. The Ibsen Concordance is a tool in gaining access to that world.
A Dictionary of Quotations
For the one who is not a scholar, The Ibsen Concordance can work as a lexicon of sayings and quotations. One does perhaps not easily forget the context in which “Gå utenom” (“Round about”) is uttered. But how about “evig eies kun det tapte “ (“singly lost, eternally gained”) or “jeg må, jeg må, så byder meg en stemme” ( “I must, I must, so bids a voice”) or “hva ville jeg også på den galei?” ( appr. “I had it coming!”) or “ jeg er født til kunstner, ser du” (“ I was born to be an artist, you see”)?
Bergens Tidende (The Bergen Times)
Sissel Hamre Dagsland