Post by Grubb.
Yesterday, after we plowed our way through the parading throng, we tooled around some picturesque neighborhoods.
Then we ended up at a cemetery. Followed a crushed gravel path that skirted a slope where Ibsen is buried. Figured the truncated obelisk marked the spot.
So, yes, above his grave, inscribed on the leaning stone monument, is a hammer. Strange. It could have been a rubbing for a social realist poster advertising Wajda’s “Man of Iron.” But then what did I expect? Doves? Kneeling angels? This is Norway, a struggle unto death. Apparently the hammer is taken from an Ibsen poem entitled “The Miner”.
Downward, then! the depths are best;
There is immemorial rest.
Heavy hammer burst as bidden
To the heart-nook of the hidden!
That’s right, digging into the soul to reveal poetic truths is work. Got that, Knut? We’re in Norway now and there’s no fooling around!
Up the hill from where Ibsen is buried there was Munch’s final resting place. I almost expected to see a bust of his face twisted in anguish.
I liked this grave. Indications of a restless soul.
