Brief description
In a letter to his publisher, Frederik Hegel, dated 5 January 1867, Ibsen writes from Rome:
At last I am able to tell you that my new work is in full swing, and will, if all goes well, be finished in early summer. It will be a large-scale dramatic poem whose main character is one of the Norwegian peasantry's half-mythical and legendary figures from recent times. It will bear no resemblance to "Brand," having no directly polemical content, etc.
– I have been thinking about this subject for a long time, and now I have worked out the whole plan, written it down and started the first act. [read the letter in HISe]
Peer Gynt was written partly in Rome, partly on Ischia and partly in Sorrento. Ibsen sent the fair copy version of the play to Hegel in three parts, the fifth (and last) act being posted from Sorrento on 18 October 1867. It came out on 14 November 1867 at Gyldendalske Boghandel (F. Hegel) in Copenhagen. The first edition comprised 1,250 copies and was followed by a re-print of 2,000 copies after only fourteen days. The large sales were due to the success of the previous play, Brand.
Peer Gynt was not written for the stage. Vilhelm Bergsøe, the Danish writer who became Ibsen's regular companion for walks on Ischia, repeats the following conversation with Ibsen in the book Henrik Ibsen paa Ischia og «Fra Piazza del Popolo»: Erindringer fra Aarene 1863-69 (Copenhagen 1907):
«Is it possible to have a man running about on the stage with a casting ladle?»
«Yes, why not?» I answered.
«Yes, but it would have to be a ladle that was big enough to re-cast people.»
«That would look rather comical,» I remarked.
«Yes, I think so too; but I don't think it's going to be staged, either.»
A few years later, however, Ibsen had changed his mind. On 23 January 1874 he wrote to Edvard Grieg from Dresden, saying he intended to adapt Peer Gynt for the stage, and asking whether Grieg was willing to «compose the necessary music.» On 6 February the same year he wrote to Ludvig Josephson, the Swedish director of Christiania Theater who in 1873 successfully staged both The Pretenders and Love's Comedy. Ibsen writes that he has adapted the dramatic poem for the stage, shortening it in the process, and that he would like it to be arranged as a «musical drama» [read the letter in HISe]. Josephson was enthusiastic about the idea, but two years passed before the plan was carried out. The first performance took place on 24 February 1876 at Christiania Theater, and the production was an enormous success, judged both artistically and by the audience's response.
Ten years after Christiania Theater's success, the play was staged for the second time by Dagmarteatret in Copenhagen with the same winning team: Henrik Klausen – who had played Peer Gynt at Christiania Theater – in the title role and Grieg's stage music.
(From ibsen.net)
Plot summary
Peer Gynt is the son of the once rich and highly regarded Jon Gynt, who had become a drunkard and lost all his money, leaving Peer and his mother Aase to live in poverty. Peer wants to restore what his father had ruined, but gets lost in boasting and day-dreams. He is involved in a fight and carries off the bride Ingrid of Hægstad on her wedding-day. He is outlawed and has to flee from the parish. During his flight he meets three amorous dairy-maids, as well as the green-clad woman, who is the daughter of the old man of the Dovre mountains, and Bøygen (the great obstacle).
Solveig, whom Peer met and fell in love with at the Hægstad wedding, comes to his outlaw cabin in the forest to live with him, but because he is ashamed of his past with the green-clad woman, he leaves Solveig and goes on abroad. He is away for many years, takes part in various occupations and plays various roles including that of a businessman engaged in shady enterprises on the coast of Morocco, wanders through the desert, becomes a Bedouin chief and a prophet, tries to seduce Anitra, daughter of a Bedouin, passes the Memnon statue and the Sphinx, and ends up as a visitor in the madhouse in Cairo, where he is hailed as emperor.
When at last on his way home as an old man, he is shipwrecked. Among those on board he has met the Strange Passenger, who wants to make use of his corpse to find out where dreams are located.
Back home in the parish, he comes upon a peasant funeral as well as an auction where everything from his earlier life is offered for sale. He meets many strange figures on this last stage of his journey, including the Button-moulder, who maintains that Peer's soul must be melted down with other faulty goods unless he can explain when and where in life he has truly been «himself».
Peer, in ever greater despair, reaches Solveig, who has been waiting for him in the cabin ever since he left. She tells him that he has always been himself in her belief, hope and love.
(Source: Merete Morken Andersen, Ibsenhåndboken, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1995.)
Read Peer Gynt (in Norwegian)
In the online version of the official Ibsen edition (HISe), you can read Peer Gynt in various formats. This content is currently only available in Norwegian. Follow the links below to read the play:
Introduction to the work (in Norwegian)
The online version of the official Ibsen edition (HISe) offers extensive information about Peer Gynt in Norwegian. Follow the links below to read about various aspects connected to the play.
Reviews
Here you can find reviews in full text and an overview of registered reviews in various languages.
- Reviews from Ibsen's life time in full text
- Reviews registered in the Ibsen bibliography (nb.no)
- Reviews registered in "Norsk litteraturkritikk" (UiO)
Translations
- The Multilingual Ibsen
- Translations in various languages
- Overview of translations from Ibsen's lifetime (HISe)