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File I.

(From) Terje Christensen Gjerpen Bygds Historie. 
Bygdehistorie Bind II: Fra Omkring 1700 til 1964.

A Norwegian historian, Terje Christensen, wrote a three-volume history of Gjerpen parish, where Ibsen lived between the ages of 7 and 15, where he received his elementary education, and in whose Lutheran church he was confirmed. Following are translations of several selections from Christensen's work:

a. pp. 562 ff. "The preaching of the word -- in and outside the state church."

Hans Nielsen Hauge's preaching around 1800 had a lasting effect in Gjerpen. For a few people the encounter with Hauge was decisive for their lives. The strong inner life of faith which was awakened in a few prepared the ground for religious trends which would seize many more later in the century.

Those who carried the flame forward more than anyone else were Erik Eriksen and his wife Ingeborg in Bøle. Hauge had stayed at their farm when he visited the district, and he also exchanged letters with the family there. Here lay the center of the movement, which had initially acquired its members at Uthaugen. Other friends of Hauge's were Jacob Hansen at Nærum, who was married to Ragnhild Eriksdatter Bøhle, and Lars Larsen Aabye at Meen. But there were also parish people in other parts who wanted to hear Hauge's message and were willing to open their homes to him. After many years in prison he was feeble and broken and could not resume his earlier travelling activity again. But in any case he was on a visit here as late as 1818, and held prayer meetings then in a place at Opphaugen. The occasion for the trip this time was surely of a private nature, since Hauge had been married the year before to Ingeborg Maria Olsdatter from Bø in Gjerpen. Her parents were the tenant farmers Ole Heljesen and Marthe Østensdatter.

Hauge's friends, like the master-teacher himself, were law-abiding and pious people, who wanted to effect the transformation of the minds of individuals by the power of the word and by good example. They were far from breaking with the church, and neither Blom nor the following pastors in Gjerpen appear to have had any conflict with these oldest Haugianists. They wanted to act as a leavening within the existing church, and the "readers," as they were derisively called, had a message to those who did not feel themselves content with the preaching and the life which the church had to offer.

The rationalistic concept of Christianity and its often moralizing and learned preaching style had been prevalent among pastors for a long time, and it would take time before a decisive change in this would take place. Accordingly Edvard Munch (1813-34), who assumed the position of parish minister after Blom, was from the rationalistic school. However, Munch's exceptional competence, and the conscientious manner in which he took care of his parish, must have commanded respect even among those who otherwise took a critical position towards his preaching. He was recommended as Number One for the position by the church owner, the then chief county administrative officer Severin Løvenskiold, who in addition to the best marks and recommendations had his personal knowledge to depend upon. Munch had been employed for four or five years as private tutor by the county officer's father, chamberlain Severin Løvenskiold, "and in that time earned the respect and devotion of my parents and myself, of which I wish to give him evidence . . .". Since at that time, even though he was the family provider, Munch did not have any livelihood, his gratitude for getting the call to Gjerpen parish was great, something he gave expression to in the pastor's book: "Woe is me also, if I did not devote the best powers the Lord has entrusted to me to the congregation's welfare, if I did not faithfully strive to nourish and maintain the great good which is found in the Gjerpen congregation, and which assuredly, next to God's assistance, can and should be attributed to my worthy chairman's straightforward and tireless endeavors." In addition to the appointment at Gjerpen parish, after 1827 Munch was entrusted with the deanship of Telemark and Bamble.

Munch, who was deeply involved in the educational system and achieved a great deal in this area, was also strongly taken up with the educational side of the pastoral mission. The great celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Reformation, October 31st, 1817, "the happiest and most remarkable, our generation has experienced," was observed in Gjerpen by hour-long ringing of church bells, and by instrumental music commissioned for the occasion, and in his sermon Munch dwelt among other things on the contemplation of human destiny if Christianity had not conquered and given "the God-ordained word for our correction, chastisement and discipline in righteousness --." Both this sermon and one on Sunday, the second of November, allowed Munch to advocate "as far as possible the preservation of the memory of this important and beautiful celebration of my congregation --," and the printed sermons were distributed to "good and respectable members of the congregation and to certain of my candidates for confirmation who distinguished themselves by reflection, diligence and good conduct." In 1819, when the harvest was so overwhelmingly rich that people had difficulty finding a place for the crop, Munch found a reason to hold a thanksgiving celebration, "and assuredly a good and useful impression was made on everybody there, since almost every eye shimmered with tears." The same year the confirmation candidates from the three preceding years and those who were inscribed in the Spring were called upon to take a test in knowledge of Christianity, and when the result surpassed all expectations, he felt that the Lord had blessed his work. "One of the most laborious parts of the pastor's vocation is indeed to prepare the children of the common people for confirmation. Since, ah, many are so terribly neglected, many if not actually neglected are still so improperly educated, so little accustomed to think, to understand what they read." Also at the dean's visit two years later the young people showed "beautiful proof of their knowledge of God." Munch then preached on the self-chosen text: "How shall a young person keep his path pure?" in which the main idea was that the best parents could do for their children was "to rear them to religion."

Munch introduced the change to the (Sunday) worship service that communion was discontinued from July 1st to Michaelmas, and instead he held communion most Wednesdays during this period. In this way after the sermon he could "catechise" that much longer with the young people who were in the habit of attending in large numbers, school children as well as confirmation candidates from the two last years. "I have always derived great satisfaction from this practice, and the elders of the congregation have always been present at it with noticeable participation."

One matter which naturally was much on Munch's mind was the effort to disseminate the Bible to as many people as possible. The activity acquired an organized form with the founding of the Bible Society in 1816. Under a central committee in Christiania branches were established around in the country, including in Bratsberg, with the purpose of collecting money for the purchase of Bibles which were then distributed to the poor. The business for a time had good success in Gjerpen, but Munch complained that the zeal for this good purpose had diminished in the latter part of his tenure, and that many had resigned from the local branch. The contributions for 1830 were not sent in until 1833 (the sum was 16 specie-dollars 3 ort), and the New Testaments they had received for the amount were distributed free to the poor, as well as to the confirmation candidates who had distinguished themselves by diligence and good behavior. Before he left Gjerpen, Munch recommended most warmly "this concern to my successor's care and attention."

At the end of his 21-year tenure Munch made up a kind of balance sheet for the parish incumbent. There is much to be happy about, but there are also a good many problems. Not the least of these pertains to the dense buildup of population near Skien and Porsgrunn, where the population is less homogeneous and stable and the total number of poor people is large, and furthermore that the towns do not exert the most beneficial influence with respect to morality. Munch also had much to object to in the congregation's behavior during the worship service. For a long time after his appointment he had to put up with people standing outside the church long after the start of the worship service "in order to talk and make deals with each other about all kinds of things;" in church one could often hear whispering, yes even "audible talking" during the sermon, and as soon as it was over both young and old streamed out, so that few or none remained for "the collection at the end of the mass." All this got better in Munch's time, but he complains that there continue to be many people who leave the church before the worship service is finished; some do not even wait until the minister has read the benediction from the altar.

In the pastor's book we find some confidences by Munch with reference to his leaving his "beloved Gjerpen." It is with a bleeding heart that he applies for a transfer, but hard necessity compels him. The bad times have reduced the incumbent's income to an unsettling degree, at the same time as his family has gotten bigger. He now has a wife and not fewer than ten children to support, of which three sons are at the university and one at Skien's Latin school. He indicates his efforts not to sink into debt, accordingly he has roomers living in the parish house "for training, principally foreigners," but despite all his efforts and the utmost thrift in order to get by, he had steadily greater economic difficulties. In his new appointment as dean and parish pastor in Christiania Munch could look forward to a brighter future.

Munch's successor, Frederik Rode (1834-54) was born in Copenhagen in 1800, but came to Norway as a young child. Rode experienced the harshest circumstances which the country then could offer a young pastor, since before his arrival in Gjerpen he had lived for six years in Finnmark and had had responsibility for several of the different widely scattered parishes there. It was therefore not a spoiled Copenhagener that the people of the parish got as pastor. With authority and strength Rode took hold of all the duties for which a priest then had responsibility. Not least he invested a large effort in the educational system. Still more remarkable, perhaps, is his contribution in agriculture: even if he was a town-boy, he was to become a pioneer in the parish, and as an insightful and practical farmer he has scarcely had his equal among any of Gjerpen's pastors.

With Rode rationalism is on its way out, and an authentic Lutheran preaching was heard again from the pulpit. His position was far from the austerity of pietism, however, and his often unorthodox positions offended many in the congregation. It is said that one Sunday he stood in the pulpit and thanked God for the year's rich crop. "The best we can do now is to go home and see to getting it into the house," he added. And when he came home from church he actually gave the people his orders to cart in the grain.

Of literary works from Rode's hand two editions of Luther's catechism can be mentioned, and his Impressions from Finnmark," which was published in 1842. He was soon well-known for his unusual competence. From 1843 on he was entrusted with the deanship, and when he left Gjerpen, it was to take over the deanship and parish minister appointment in Christiania, the same that Munch had earlier had. Already while he was in Gjerpen Rode had received several votes for the open bishopric in Tromsø, but he declined these, just as when later he was elected bishop in Bergen.

The last years in Gjerpen were a difficult time for Rode on account of religious strife and unrest which broke out in his district. From the pulpit he had advised against the oncoming sectarianism as the beginning of dissension and fanaticism. In reprisal he was ridiculed and condemned by his most extreme opponents as a heretic, and what was even worse, a heathen minister. He even got a personal communication with a summons to be converted and become receptive to the true Christianity. More and more people sought their edification elsewhere than in Gjerpen church, and the same day as Rode, deeply moved, bid farewell to the congregation to which he had been minister for 20 years, the ardent separatists flocked by headed for their meeting place in Skien. At the departure itself many followed Rode from the parish to Lillegården in Eidanger. Among those who wanted to pay their respects to the pastor were several of the members of the town board, and according to the report in the Correspondent, Mayor Borchsenius thanked him in a few heartfelt words "for what he had been and done for Gjerpen for 20 years, and how with moved hearts everyone bids him and his family a last farewell." Pastor Rode was not less moved when he answered this farewell greeting. He remembered that he had not always stood in such a friendly relationship to the town as now; he ascribed the former opposition from the town board mainly to youthful zeal and too little understanding and thoughtfulness on both sides. Later, however, there had arisen a more real and significant opposition between the pastor and one part of the congregation. But he did not see these discords as dangerous, either; it was his conviction that with God's help they would lead to something positive, even if one must anticipate that the period of unrest could be long and entail many bitter experiences.

As early as around 1840 a stronger religious activity can be traced in the district. We have mentioned in another connection how an organization was launched for the cause of temperance in 1839, when the painter Fredrik T. Knudsen from Lista visited Skien together with his son Hans Christian Knudsen. The father had been strongly seized by the cause of missions at a time when it was still scarcely known in Norway, and the son had recently returned home from the Rhein Missions Institute. During his stay in Germany he got the idea to found a Norwegian missions society, and a year later he himself went out as the first Norwegian missionary of recent times. They were received with warmth, not least among Hauge's friends, accordingly in Gjerpen they visited both Erik Bøhle and Lars Aabye. Dean Bull in Skien promised to write about the mission in the newspaper and collect subscribers to a society. The first one here in the district was founded in 1844 at the home of the newly awakened Hans Mikkelsen at Klosterorinden in Solum. In addition to this parish the missions society included Gjerpen, Skien and Porsgrunn. Among the members of the first board was the well-known Christen Eriksen from Gjerpen, teacher at the working-class school (almueskole) in Skien.

The same year that the missions society was founded, construction was also started on the children's home "Hans Cappelen's Memorial," which for a long time into the future was one of the most-used meeting places for missions societies, the temperance cause, etc. The founders were Hans Mikkelsen and his wife Anne Marie Johnsdatter. The restraints that were placed on layman-preaching and "devotional prayer meetings" were removed by the annullment of konventikkelplakaten in 1842, something which together with the new "Dissenter Law" of 1845 contributed to the circumstance that religious activity assumed freer forms. One of the preachers who left traces of himself in this time was Hauge's collaborator and follower, Anders Nielsen Haave, who in 1845 and several times later visited the district, and it is said that he awakened Christian life everywhere he went. Soon, however, an awakening far more intense and more extensive would make its entry into the district. The instigator was the Skien priest Gustav Adolph Lammers, and it was the movement he set in motion which created the opposition between Rode and one part of Gjerpen's congregation.

Lammers also came from Denmark, and he was married to Dean Rode's sister. His talents ranged over a wide register; in him great power of intellect was combined with a strong emotional life and a creative imagination. He had a trained musical sensibility, was a competent painter and sketcher, and his abilities in the field of architecture also came to expression: as parish pastor in Bamble, before he came to Skien, he had designed the new church there and directed the construction himself. We have earlier mentioned that Lammers also was chosen as architect for the wooden church which was planned to replace the old Gjerpen church. In addition to these rich talents came qualities which more than any others made him into the powerful personality he was: an unbending, steel will, a manly seriousness and a strong inner glow. After having worked in Bamble for 14 years, he became parish pastor in Skien in 1849. It was in the following period that he displayed the behavior which would make him into one of the models of Ibsen's Brand: the priest with the absolute demand on himself and on others, and the preacher of the message that the spirit of compromise is Satan. From the torch Lammers lighted, the fire spread, not just to Gjerpen and the neighboring parishes, but widely over the country, and at one time it almost looked as though the state church itself was threatened.

An impression of how many people paid attention to Lammers and his preaching is given by Mrs. Bodenhoff of Jønnevall in a written meditation from 1852: "Half of Skien's inhabitants are simply crazy and despise all the others, who do not share their views. Lammers believes that he can read in people's faces, when they receive the sacrament, if they are true believers or not, and is angry because he must not turn them away according to his pleasure; but then he thunders away in retribution, and consoles them with the promise of the hottest hell, etc. Everyone who dances or plays whist is simply lost, he preaches, and that conviction is now shared by half of Skien." That Lammers strongly disagreed with card-playing, dancing and acting was one thing; what was worse, he gradually began to re-introduce the old church discipline and make the confession into a condition for absolution and communion. In addition to the pulpit that he used, and according to the opinion of many misused to promote his ideas, he also made use of personal influence and paid calls at the homes of high and low. He enthroned layman's Christianity in the seat of honor and maintained that lay people at all times had been the main source of renewal in religious life. He soon came into the most irreconcilable opposition to his brother-in-law Dean Rode in Gjerpen, and it was in order to hear Lammers that a large part of the congregation here migrated down to Skien. In his demand for evidence of conversion Lammers was wholly in keeping with the Haugianist tradition, just as in his condemnation of worldly pleasures. The meeting house which Lammers took charge of constructing from collected funds, the first in Bratsberg, accordingly received the name "Hauge's Memorial," and from this meeting place and from Skien's church went out a preaching in these years which would shake up many people from indifference and routine Christianity.

Lammers and his movement came into steadly stronger opposition to the state church until it actually came to a break in 1856, when Lammers resigned from the church and was followed by a great number of his adherents. The decisive issue was his view of the sacraments, especially infant baptism, which Lammers rejected. He then authored a new confession and established "The free apostolic-Christian congregation," which would be governed by the elders. The statutes were adopted by nearly 40 people, of which about one-third were residents of Gjerpen, among them the ship's captain Eckstorm's family in Grini and the former teacher Søren Pedersen Tufte. The first resignations from the state church in Gjerpen took place on July 2nd 1856, and among these was Søren Tufte, entered in the church book as # 1. In the course of the year, according to the same source, the number of the resigned increased to 14, and up to 1860 we find a total of 35 resigned adults who had joined Lammers' movement. The following therefore appears to be rather modest, but the numbers do not give a correct picture of the movement's extent, far less of its significance in the parish. In the first place one part of those most active in the Lammers congregation is lacking in the catalog of the resigned, among them the 11 members of the Eckstorm family. With their zeal and fervor, Lammers' adherents exerted an influence which had no relation to their numbers. For that matter, part of those who were seized by the movement went over to other movements and church assemblies. Not the least significance the Lammers movement had was as a preparation of the ground for religious activity in later periods . . . .

b. pp. 578 ff. "The school and the teachers."

In Munch's time the Gjerpen parish farm became, to a greater extent than before, a center for education and enlightenment. In addition to being a thoroughly schooled theologian Munch was also a remarkable linguist, and had a command of both written and spoken German and French. For a number of years he conducted private instruction, and among the young men who received in his house a foundation for further education and studies were prime minister Løvenskiold's sons Otto and Severin, Hans E. Møller the younger, from Åkre, Paul Hofgaard and Knud O. Knudsen (both of the two last-named later became parish pastors) the Frenchman Dublicat, together with Munch's own sons. We know about Peter Andreas Munch that when as a 13-year-old in 1823 he started at the newly-established Latin school in Skien with the outstanding rector Ørn as teacher, he was well prepared by his father both when it came to Greek and Latin as well as living languages. Both the instruction at home and in the milieu he grew up in must have contributed to arousing the boy's historical interests. The time was marked by the Constitution and the work of liberation, and during the susceptible years of childhood and youth he received strong impressions of the events of 1814. Not far from home he could investigate the ruined church at Dag Eilifsson's and Gregorius Dagsson's Bratsberg. He experienced the jubilee in 1817, the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Reformation, when hour-long uninterrupted ringing of all the church bells introduced the thanksgiving service, and a chorale with clarinets was played from the tower during the congregation's departure from the church. The following year was also marked by great events: King Carl XIII's death and Carl Johan's coronation. Moreover, during the prolonged pealing on this occasion one of the two bells in Gjerpen church with runic inscriptions from the Middle Ages, which could still be seen, shattered in pieces. There were enough impulses here to draw from for one who as an adult would make a pioneering contribution as a historian and become the inspiring focal point in our work of national reconstruction.

Another form of educational activity at the parish farm was, however, of greater significance on the local level than the preparatory instruction with a view to admission into Latin schools. Shortly after his arrival at the parish, in 1814 or 1815, Munch had taken up the work of educating teachers, and in 1816 he reports that he already has "a little nursery of that kind." But when his office and other duties did not allow him to give the time which is needed in this work, he received a little help from Christen Lund, an assistance with which he was very satisfied. After three years' education at the Brahetrolleborg teachers' college in Denmark and seven years' activity at Fossum, partly as a teacher at the ironworks' school, partly as private tutor at the Løvenskiolds' house, Lund was very well qualified for this task. Lund was to assume the position of sexton, which church-owner Løvenskiold had the right to fill, when it became available after Gjert Monrad, and Løvenskiold had borne the costs of the young farmer's son's education with the idea of combining the job of sexton with a teaching job. However, it appeared that in the long run Lund could with difficulty manage the instruction in an ordinary school (almueskole) on the grounds of a weak chest.

It was with this background that in 1816, when at Monrad's death it became feasible to appoint a new sexton or church-singer as it was now called, in an understanding with prime minister Løvenskiold, Munch proposed that Lund be excused from instructing in one of the ordinary schools, and in return join the pastor in educating prospective teachers. They referred to Lund's well-known proficiency in instructing young people, as Munch especially emphasized that he not merely sang well, but that he also could teach singing, and thereby be helpful to the pastor in his efforts to improve the singing in church. The idea was supported in the diocese administration, and thereby the institution received its official sanction. Regular instruction began at the start of the year 1818, with a firmly fixed schedule. The record of "Gjerpen parish's school-teachers' college" is also preserved from this year. Here we find the plan for "the scheme of education." It would be divided into two classes or sections, with one year of standard time in each class. The subjects were reading, writing, practical accounting, religion, biblical and church history, biblical interpretation, catechizing (instruction by question and answer), and learning by rote combined with practical exercises, grammar and spelling, practice in writing essays, elementary mathematics and mathematical geography, general history, but especially Norway's, geography with special emphasis on Norwegian and biblical geography, and finally singing (choral practice). To begin with instruction would be according to the following schedule:
 

The founding of the teachers' college at Gjerpen parish farm was to all appearances the most important new element in the areas of enlightenment and education in Gjerpen in the first half of the 19th century. Until then teachers' education was a rare exception, and teachers with that kind of qualifications were solitary birds who were not satisfied with the teachers' conditions at the ambulatory school, even the permanent schools in the parish with the best reputations, Fossum Works and Osebakken's school, had only for short periods made use of teaching talents with such an education. Now a radical transformation came about. Instead of the rather random training which had hitherto been usual, the new teachers got a rather solid foundation for their work by undergoing a systematic as well as well-rounded two-year course. In comparison to their older colleagues they were well educated people who in due course assumed the teaching positions in the parish. The change did not take long; in 1834 Munch reports that all the teachers in the parish were graduates of the parish farm's teachers' college. Rode says later that Gjerpen had the satisfaction "not alone of having trained all its own schoolteachers itself, but also of having furnished several of the neighboring parishes, namely Skien and Porsgrund, with some of their most competent teachers." We have set up the following alphabetical list of the candidates who with certainty appear to have taken part in the teachers' college during the ca. 35 years the instruction continued:

Students accepted by Gjerpen parish farm's teacher's college ca. (1816-1851):

NB: f.=born, d.=baptized

Pp. 588 ff.:
 

Hans Isaksen began his school activity a short time after he was confirmed, first in Bø district around 1820, later in Grini school district. In 1835 he was appointed to Fossum Ironworks school, and he had this position for a number of years. He was one of the teachers who was given a prize for his effort and competence; in Dean Rode's recommendation from 1837 it says that he distinguished himself by "capability and zeal for his vocation, as well as by a worthy character and conduct," and a couple of years later he is designated as the most capable and most respectable of the professionally active teachers in Gjerpen. The school at Fossum, which had only one teacher, must therefore have been very good in Hans Isaksen's time, probably the best in the parish, and represented under the circumstances a good educational offering for the children of the ironworks.

We should, however, be aware that neither the school at the ironworks nor the ambulatory schools in the parish were folkeskoler in our understanding of the term. Not everyone went there: they were almueskoler, the designation poor-schools was also used. Those who stood higher on the social scale, like civil servants and landowners, partly instructed their children themselves, especially at the elementary level, partly they paid for private instruction, preferably by a private tutor such as we have seen in older times. The private tutor was generally a university student, or a so-called "clerk;" at the home of Sheriff Pedersen in Limi, where we know that the children were educated at home, there was in the 1830's a clerk by the name of Jørgen Johan Ibsen, who was certainly in charge of private instruction. Also the wealthiest farmers, or other parish people who were ambitious enough on their children's behalf and saw a way to do it, made provision for special instruction, either in place of the usual school, or in addition to it. Private tutors were usually university students. (sic) The most respected teachers in the "almueskole" were often engaged in instruction in their free time, or after they had stopped teaching in the public school. To the last-named category belonged Mikkel Evensen, who had been sexton and teacher in Bø, but moved to Gjerpen in 1820 and settled down at Eikåsen, for that matter as the first self-owner we have knowledge of at this farm. We have intact his detailed journal notes over several years, where we get quite familiar with his many tasks as a farmer, but he discusses also his instructional activity. He never had any connection to the public school system in the parish, apart from that at one time he was school superintendent in his district. In one place it is noted that he has had "Hansen's three children the whole week," on another page it is reported that "at Kløker's I shall get daily 12 (shillings) for three hours' instruction, also 6 ort" every month. The payment was therefore 4 shillings per hour. At times Eversen had many private students, both from estates and tenant farms.

Among those who spent his childhood in Gjerpen and received his basic education while he lived here, besides P. A. Munch, was another who later in life would attain the summit of fame: Henrik Ibsen. After his father, Knud Ibsen, who was a businessman in Skien, had lost his money, he moved with his family in 1835 to the farm Erland's Venstøp, a property he had bought in 1833. Henrik therefore had his home here in the important years of childhood and youth from the age of 7 years until he was about 15. It was not an unhappy time, despite the clouds which the economic shipwreck cast over the family. His father was a respected man in Gjerpen, among other things he was elected as a deputy in the parish executive committee and sat sometimes in court marshal Ernst Løvenskiold's absence. He also had the means to be a host at festive gatherings both for the parish association and Skien's shooting club, where he pursued his interest in hunting. And for an aspiring poet the beautiful farm, nature and the whole parish milieu must have been a well of valuable impressions, and from here also are drawn many of the themes in his later writing: the dark loft with the maimed wild duck, the mill-race where the wife in Rosmersholm drowns herself, the manor and its master, the chamberlain, and the miner who breaks through down in the depths with his heavy hammer-blow.

Much has been explained where it concerns Henrik Ibsen's youth, but we have no certain information about one important aspect of the poet's childhood, his first attendance at school. It has therefore been an open field for speculation. It has been maintained as a possibility, even as the most likely, that his father placed him in Fossum Ironworks school. We can safely disregard this, however. This school as we know was established for the children of the ironworks' people, although students from the neighboring district also had access by exception when they lived in the vicinity of Fossum. But what can otherwise be said positively about it, was that it was and remained an almueskole; the children of the district's laborers and artisans, tenant farmers and painters went here, but we find very few farmers among the parents, let alone wealthy self-owned farmers. And still it was a good step up from there to the cultured class Knud Ibsen was at home in, notwithstanding his economic misfortune. The social division was deep and indisputable; in those days one did not place "children from better families" on the school bench together with children of poor people. The ironworks school therefore did not represent an educational opportunity for the upper classes in the surrounding area, and the Schaaning family in northern Hyni, Cudrio in southern Venstøp and Gasmann in northern Foss must like Ibsen arrange for elementary education for their children in another way. Where it concerns the last-named, they have thought that Henrik possibly received instruction at Hans Isaksen's, and that can well be imagined. This teacher as we have seen had fully adequate qualifications for instructing in that period's folkeskole. If it is correct that court marshal (Ernst) Løvenskiold used him as a private teacher for his children, as it has been claimed, that serves as complete confirmation of Isaksen's competence. Another possibility is that the instruction took place at the home of chapel-singer Lund in Århus. With three years' training from the Brahetrolleborgske teachers' college in Fyn, one of the best in Scandinavia, he was without equal the best educated of all the teachers in the parish, and the close collaboration over many years with learned men like Munch and Rode had doubtlessly enriched the apt college graduate and promoted his further development. We know that Lund kept school at Århus and that it was sometimes attended by young people from Skien. To secure his son instruction there must probably have suited Knud Ibsen well, with the ambitions he had, not least when it concerned Henrik. He and his siblings were for that matter a good deal together with Sexton Lund's children and well known there at the farm. It suggests that Lund himself must have had considerably more than a purely superficial contact with the young Henrik Ibsen, when he could give utterance to a prediction like this: "Henrik will be a great man!" As the statement of an outstanding teacher about one unusually gifted student, this prophecy loses the character of a pure vision, even if it is astonishing enough in-and-of itself. Taking everything into consideration, we shall consider it as probable that Henrik Ibsen received his first regular instruction at the home of Christen Lund, so that his walk to school was about 1 1/2 kilometers long stretching between Venstøp and Århus.

The last couple of years of his time in Gjerpen, from 13 to 15 years of age, Henrik Ibsen walked to school in Skien, first to the earlier discussed private middelstandsskole ("middle-class school") which was conducted by Hansen and Stockfleth, afterwards at Skien's borgerskole. He was accompanied by his brother Johan, Peder Christian Lund Pedersen, son of Sheriff Pedersen of Limi, and Gottfried Christian Gasmann; the last-named had the longest walk to school, he walked all the way from northern Foss. Others with whom Henrik Ibsen was together part of the time and who also received an education beyond the elementary, were the contemporary Ole Paulsen from Gulset, son of mine captain Andreas Paulsen, and the older Christen Vilhelm Lund, son of Christen Lund.

In 1843 the Ibsens' farm Venstøp was sold at auction and the family moved back to town. But the connection to Gjerpen was underscored by among other things that in the autumn the 15-year-old Henrik stood for confirmation in Gjerpen church. He was placed third on the church platform, after Captain Eckstorm's son Theodor from Grini and Peder Chr. Lund Pedersen, something Knud Ibsen was deeply disappointed about: he declared that his son answered in such a way during the oral examination as if it had been a complete declamation. It was even hinted that gifts to the priest had decided the places, and that Henrik actually should have stood first, a contention that according to our knowledge of Dean Rode we find no reason to take seriously.

We do not know much about what impression Rode received of the young Henrik Ibsen, but he was without a doubt aware that he had here a student out of the ordinary. In the record where Henrik Ibsen's name was inscribed in June 1843, certainly in connection with the preparation for confirmation, it usually says about the best students that they read "really well" or "very well," that they have good knowledge of Christianity and the like. Against the background of the plainness which characterizes Rode's giving of grades, it is evidence that he gives the aspiring poet a rare distinction: "Reads remarkably well in the Book, and displays thoughtfulness." Henrik Ibsen's grade at the confirmation was: "Very good knowledge of Christianity."

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