WI: No Peer Gynt

Ibsen's first important work was his fantasy "Peer Gynt", a fantasy psychological study of human personality, written in verse. The hero lives a bizarre life avoiding responsibility and seeking pleasure, and his experiences are a mixture of grim reality and mythological fantasy, including work as a slave-trader, and an orgy with female trolls in their mountain lair. This work formed the basis for one of the composer Grieg's most famous works -- you have most certainly heard a portion of Grieg's incidental music, "Morning", if you've ever attended a Planeterium show -- had a major influence on late nineteenth century theatre, and was a formative influence on psychoanalysis. In addition, one of Adolf Hitlers first important friends was the German translator of Peer Gynt, Dietrich Eckhart, who in 1921 gave Hitler an autographed copy of the work and tickets to a performance in Berlin, where it was enjoying a long stage run. The influence of the character of Peer Gynt on Hitler, and on the German psyche, is an interesting one to speculate on.

What if, Peer Gynt had never been written?