Henrik Ibsen is called the "father of modern drama" and is considered the world's most important playwright after Shakespeare. Hardly a day goes by without at least one of Ibsen's plays being performed in a theater in several places around the world or an article about his play being published in a magazine. Every now and then a new book about Ibsen and his dramatic writings is published.
The most common and most important explanation for why Ibsen and his works could become the pinnacle of world drama has been that he was able to draw on all the drama that had been created by the generations before him. Many Ibsen scholars have therefore been keenly interested in finding what he read and borrowed or "stole" from other playwrights.
Others, like his later townsman and most important biographer, Halvdan Koht, have claimed that "There was a coercive force within him that drove him". He was a genius who could have been born anywhere and at any time. Therefore, they have only mentioned as a biographical detail that Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828 in Skien, Norway, in what almost everyone has perceived as a small, insignificant coastal town in a small, underdeveloped country on the outskirts of Europe.
Ibsen became great – not in spite of, but because he was born in Skien in 1828.
But if it is to have any meaning to mark the 200th anniversary of Henrik Ibsen's birth in Skien in 2028, the most important reason for that must be that Ibsen became great – not in spite of, but because he was born in Skien in 1828.
The question is therefore not whether, but how his background from Skien has given Henrik Ibsen the fundamental attitudes and experiences that shaped his life, lifestyle – and work.
This means that Ibsen and his works must be explained based on his background and the basic experiences he had from growing up in Skien.
Most of those who have written about Ibsen have had remarkably little knowledge of his background and upbringing in Skien, and most of it has been based on myths and assumptions. It is therefore now important to show that because he was born in Skien in 1828, Ibsen had a completely different background and completely different assumptions than has been assumed so far.
For Skien was no insignificant coastal town on the outskirts of Europe, as most Ibsen scholars have assumed. Skien had been a meeting point and center of power for almost a thousand years before Ibsen was born. This was the prerequisite for his ancestors and foremothers to have established themselves in Skien over several generations.
To understand Ibsen, we must therefore look at the town he came from, Skien; the area he came from, Telemark, and then show what an exceptional family background he had on his mother's and not least his father's side – and then collectively look at what fundamental experiences he gained precisely because he was born in Skien in 1828.
He was not alone in having a background from Skien. The most important players in the modernization of Norway in his time also had a background from Skien. And he was not the only outstanding artist who had a background from Skien.