European men of letters, and an ever deepening personal hold upon
the affections of his fellow-countrymen. In 1903 he was awarded
the Nobel prize for literature. During his later years he, like
Ibsen, was a determined opponent of the movement to replace the
Dano-Norwegian language, which had hitherto been the literary
vehicle of Norwegian writers, by the "Bonde-Maal"--or "Ny Norsk"
("New Norwegian"), as it has lately been termed. This is an
artificial hybrid composed from the Norwegian peasant dialects,
by the use of which certain misguided patriots were (and
unfortunately still are) anxious to dissociate their literature
from that of Denmark. Bjornson, and with him most of the soberer
spirits amongst Norwegian writers, had realised that the door
which had so long shut out Norway from the literature of Europe
must be, as he put it, opened from the inside; and he rightly
considered that the ill-judged "Bonde-Maal" movement could only
have the result of wedging the door more tightly shut.

He died, in April 1910, in Paris, where for some years he had
always spent his winters, and was buried at home with every mark
of honour and regret, a Norwegian warship having been sent to
convey his remains back to his own land.

He was a man of very lovable personality and of the kindest
heart; easily moved by any tale of oppression or injustice, and
of wide-armed (albeit sometimes in judicious) generosity; more
apt, in the affairs of everyday life, to be governed by his heart
than by his head, and as simple as a child in many matters. His
wife was an ideal helpmate to him, and their family life very
happy.