WHY TEACH SCANDINAVIAN?
JUST ASK RASMUS ANDERSON
"Already the second term [of my first year in the university]
the number of Scandinavian students had increased and so I was able to organize
a small class in Norwegian. With this as a basis, I gradually began to urge
the addition of Scandinavian languages, etc., as an elective study in the
university curriculum. I wanted these languages and literatures formally
recognized. The whole university faculty refused to listen to me. They were,
all of them, totally ignorant of Scandinavian literature and had only the
most superficial knowledge of Scandinavian history. They said I had Scandinavian
languages on my brain; they regarded this as a form of disease and pitied
me. Imagine a man coming to the university today and insisting it was absolutely
necessary to establish a chair in Patagonian, imagine him claiming that
Patagonia is the cradle of all our liberties and of the laws out of which
all modern civilization has poured, imagine him urging that Patagonian is
more important than any of the studies now offered in the university curriculums,
imagine what sort of reception this Patagonian would receive, and you have
a clearidea of my position as an advocate, champion and apostle of Scandinavian
studies. My efforts hardly left an impression."