Fagartikkel (PJMoe)
«Verne’s Nordic journey in 1861
and it’s literary connections to “Journey to the centre of the earth”, three years later»
er nå publisert i antologi (fagtekstene gjengis på engelsk / spansk).
I: Ciencia y geografía en los Viajes extraordinarios
Comunicaciones del III Congreso Internacional Verniano.
Editors : Ariel Pérez Rodríguez og Nicolás J. Moragues González
ISBN 978-84-09-33921-1
Edition Paganel, España 2021
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Full text, academic essay here – Hele fagartikkelen kan leses som PDF, her
Illustrations connected to presentation of paper, here
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Abstract
by Per Johan Moe
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Recent studies of Verne’s travel diary from his journey to the Nordic countries in 1861, indicate that real life experiences were valuable inspiration for his prose, shortly after. In 1864 he took his readers along on a ‘voyage extraordinaire’ to Germany and further North. Several narrative elements of Voyage au centre de la Terre, apparently originate from the author’s own journey to the centre of Scandinavia.
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how certain parts of the novel seems to have direct links to the author’s own journey and diary – such as passages describing Lidenbrock’s Hamburg or Axel’s preparations for coping with heights, from the summit of a Copenhagen church tower. When in Norway, during the author’s visit down into the corridors of the Kongsberg silver mines, material was easily accessible for the lively descriptions of the protagonists’ volcanic descent. Likewise, the Norse, runic letters of the cryptogram that opens the story, may also have been an Idea conceived in this area. Just after entering Telemark, Verne spent several hours to admire the wooden, 13th century church at Heddal – with it’s famous runic inscriptions.
This paper aims also, to discuss the novel’s connections to the works of Nordic writers. We know that Verne had extensive knowledge of the Sagas of Snorre Sturlason (1179-1241). Therefore, intertextual connections to “Niels Klim’s journey to the underground’ by Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754), may also exist.

Keywords:
Verne diary, 1861, Voyage au centre de la Terre, Intertexts, Scandinavia,
Literature:
Verne, Jules (1861): Carnet du voyage en Scandinavie
– Bibliothèques d’Amiens Metròpole, JV MS 12.5
Verne, Jules (1861): Joyeuses Misères de trois voyageurs en Scandinavie
– Bibliothèques d’Amiens Metròpole
Holberg, Ludvig (1828 [1741]): Journey to the world underground, being the Subterraneous Travels of Niels Klim. London, Thomas North.