Reading the documents on the rise of Syttende Mai celebrations in North Dakota in 1906, I was more than a little alarmed at the themes and tropes that emerged. In matters of ethnic identity, I am prepared to accept a certain measure of cultural chauvinism, but the remarks of future senator Asle Jorgenson Gronne in Grand Forks went way beyond that. They stereotyped immigrant cultures (including his own!), they invoked white supremacy, and they posed a fossilized model for immigration: We’re here, we got ours, now close the door, we’re done!
These tropes recalled the discomfort I felt a few weeks ago when researching historic Nordic cosmology as background to my treatment of the wonderful 1919 farm ballad from Westhope, North Dakota, “The Sower’s Prayer.” Its Swedish author, John Ferdinand Talcott, penned his stanzas, he said, “after a Scandinavian idea.” Reading up on Norse cosmology, I determined that what he meant was a grounded sense of place in the land based on the mythic tree of life, the Yggdrasil, surely a wholesome thing.
The more, however, I read such century-old classic works as Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland, three volumes by Viktor Rydberg, the more I saw that the revivers, translators, and promoters of Norse saga and identity in those days directly fed the out-of-control race theory represented by Gronne on Syttende Mai.
So I contemplated, on the one hand, the utter grace exemplified by Talcott in his ballad with, on the other hand, the perverse bigotries expressed by Gronne in his address. Going forward from them, are we good? Might a virtuous, constructive species of ethnic identity prevail?
The answer begins already in other proceedings of the Syttende Mai 1906 celebration in Grand Forks. Speakers invoked Vermont's great bibliophile and naturalist, George Perkins Marsh, to fashion a sound strategy for immigrant Americans-in-waiting: demonstrate that you exemplify American values (whatever those might be) better than Americans themselves do. This sort of cultural positioning has worked for three generations ever since.
Another good piece of advice at the time: follow the lead of Thomas Dougall Warloe, of the Chicago Norske Klub, who in his speeches in North Dakota embraced “the New Norway.” He, along with other Norwegian cultural ambassadors, called on Norwegian-Americans to shun all that was coarse or tawdry and thus burnish the lustre of the homeland.
Norwegians there and here proceeded to fashion a mythic nation not on animus or conflict but on arts and letters—a country made by Aasen, Grieg, Ibsen, Bjornson, and Wergeland. It turns out artists and intellectuals make great statues! Surely Willa Cather, who more than any other Anglo-American credited immigrants for their contributions to life on the plains, would be pleased!
In fact, Gronne himself made the argument for treasuring Norwegian culture for what it was. “There is no greater misunderstanding,” he declares, “than that a Norwegian is to put aside all his Norse character when he comes to this country, and in no case should he forget his own language, for therein lies a country’s greatness. A person who would do this can not be a true patriot of the United States.”
In citizenship ceremonies for New Americans, just across the street from Kringen Lodge of the Sons of Norway, I have said the same thing. I have to admit, Gronne said it better in 1906. When the better angels speak, give ear.
