My latest article: Bjørnson, Prince Eugen and the crown of Norway

Edvard Hoem has just become the first author ever to complete a multi-volume biography of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, the poet and dramatist who was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for Literature and who was one of the staunchest opponents of the union with Sweden. Det evige forår, the fourth and final volume of the biography, published at the end of February, shows how Bjørnson, after decades at the front line, was completely sidelined when the union was dissolved in 1905. However, Hoem completely overlooks the most interesting thing Bjørnson did that year: His attempt to act kingmaker by, on his own initiative, offering the crown of Norway to Prince Eugen already four days before the dissolution of the union. In an article in Aftenposten today I tell the story of how this happened and how Prince Eugen reacted (a story which is also included in my 2006 dissertation on the Bernadotte candidature to the Norwegian throne).