The Feast at Solhaug

The Feast at Solhaug (or in the original Norwegian Gildet paa Solhoug) is the first publicly successful drama by Henrik Ibsen.

The play opens on the day of the feast celebrating the third wedding anniversary of the marriage of Bengt Gauteson and Margit.

Knut, a warlike man, is advised that he must demonstrate peaceful ways for a year before Margit will support the marriage.

Once they depart and her husband leaves, Margit speaks of her regret in marrying Bengt Gauteson, although he was a wealthy older landowner.

Margit, who has loved him since he departed three years earlier, treats him poorly until she realizes that, although once close to the king, he has been outlawed and is on the run.

In the first staging of the play, at Det norske Theater in Bergen in 1856, the main characters were performed by Johannes Brun as Bengt Gauteson, his wife in real life Louise Brun as Margit, Fredrikke Nielsen as Signe, Jacob Prom as Gudmund Alfson, Andreas Isachsen as Knut Gesling, and Carl Hansen as Erik of Hegge.

Sketch from inside the rear cover of the prompter 's script from 1855, which probably shows the householder Bengt Gauteson drawn by the playwright himself, Henrik Ibsen .