by Johs. B. Thue
There is a song that touch Norwegian hearts like no other – a motherless son’s tribute to the mother he lost: “The very first song I ever heard, was my mother’s singing by my cradle”. Per Sivle wrote this song. Sivle was an important poet and a critical editor. As a child, his playing fields included the whole of Nærøyfjord and Flåm.
The story of his mother’s life is a realistic female tragedy, typical of the times. Susanna Ryum, her maiden name, died at only 38 years of age, in the autumn of 1859, after giving birth to a third pair of twins in two and a half years. Per had an indistinct, blurred recollection of her, “like the radiance or glow of her face”.
Nevertheless, his mother and his maternal family were to become important to him, writes Bjarte Birkeland in his dissertation on Per Sivle. She was born into the Fretheim family, one of the most powerful in the area. They were competent, influential people. Susanna’s father, Anders Hylland from the Nærøydalen valley, married Kari Torsteinsdotter Fretheim who was the widow in charge of Ryum before Bachelor Anders Hylland popped the question and was rewarded with acceptance.
Per was to feel close to his mother and his maternal family. As an adult, he often visited his maternal aunt, Gjertrud Flåm, and on those occasions he often said: “Everything bad in me comes from Voss, everything good in me comes from Sogn”. This story of his yearning for home and the fjord, is especially touching: In the last summer of Per’s life, a visitor from his native Sogn called on him. At the time, Per Sivle lived in Drammen. He asked his visitor to take this greeting home with him from a distraught writer: “When you get home, walk down to the pier, put your hand in the waters of the Sognefjord, close your hand, and say: Greetings from Sivle”.
All the stories of Susanna Sivle coincide: she was a particularly competent and authoritative person. Furthermore, she was kinder than most. She showed special care for the poor and anyone in need. As he was growing up, Per would hear these stories everywhere he went. He came to be a mother’s boy, and it is obvious that this helped form his image of his mother. Stories and dreams combined to create this picture, which gave us Norwegian literature’s most beautiful tribute to mothers.
Susanna Ryum fell pregnant before she was married. We are told that while carrying the child, she was often found sitting on the Stalheim precipice, crying. People’s gossip and a sense of shame was close to killing this strong woman. It was her brother who picked her up and took her home from Stalheim. It was wintertime, and there was ice on the Nærøyfjord. They were pulling a hay sled along the fjord. Suddenly, Susanna made moves to jump into a hole in the ice.
Her brother managed to stop her at the last second, but she did break the neck of her femur. At home at Ryum they refused to take her in, this wayward woman who carried the child of that good-for-nothing horse dealer Eirik Sivle. She was therefore forced to lodge with her halfsister, Gjertrud, who had married and now lived at Frammigarden farm at Flåm. This is where Per was born, and Per always remained very close to his aunt Gjertrud at Flåm.
Per Sivle took his own life. He bade farewell by writing two poems. One of them is entitled “Hide me, Mother!” This poem reveals his longing for his mother, his yearning for closeness, safety and warmth.
“The lad is resting on his Mother’s arm, unfearing, warm, and for ever calm”
This autumn, a memorial to Susanna Sivle will be erected in the old churchyard at Oppheim, where she is buried. This memorial will be a combined tribute to mothers, great poetry, and women’s lot in the old agrarian community, where family pride came before care for women and innocent children.