History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North/Part 2/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI.
MODERN DANISH LITERATURE (after 1800).
WITH Baggesen we have already advanced far into the present century. But before taking leave of the eighteenth century we must take a brief glance at the state of things prevailing at its close in order to see how such a man was needed to infuse new life into the whole nation. It is true there was a vigorous and talented activity in many directions, but the fruits of the work done were small in proportion to the strength expended. Both the greatest poets which the age had produced died uncomprehended and by no means sufficiently appreciated, while inferior talent occupied prominent places. Characteristic of the poetical taste of the time is the circumstance that preference was accorded by the public to drinking songs. They were regarded as the main requisite for social intercourse, and accordingly this kind of poetry reached at this time its golden age. In many things there was, of course, strife and fermentation. Opposite tendencies struggled for the supremacy; orthodoxy contended with rationalism, enthusiasm for foreign productions with the national sentiment just awaking, and yet there was a striking smallness and insignificance in all matters pertaining to the world of thought. There existed, to be sure, some conditions for intellectual life, but the most important thing, life itself, was wanting. The eighty years’ peace had in this respect exerted an unfavorable influence; interest for all great things had relaxed, and the minds of men were wrapped up in little things. But with the beginning of the new century there was a complete change. The great misfortunes by which the country was visited and the glorious battle with the English fleet on the 2nd of April, 1801, from which the weak Danish ships came out unconquered, roused the people from their slumber; grand thoughts were conceived and were diffused by their originators among the whole people, who from that moment rapidly qualified themselves to receive and appreciate them; in short, the prolific intellectual development, which still continues without abatement, began. Its foremost representative is Oehlenschläger.
Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger was born in Copenhagen, November 14, 1779. His father belonged to a family, the members of which had for many generations been organists and schoolmasters, and was a German both in language and feeling. His mother was the daughter of a plain Copenhagen citizen, and had also received a German education. The year after Adam’s birth, his father, who was an organist at the church belonging to the small palace of Frederiksburg, was appointed a deputy superintendent of the palace (Slotsforvalterfuldmægtig), with free rooms for himself and family out there. Here the future poet grew in happy though modest circumstances, which could not fail to have a favorable influence on his vivacious and susceptible mind. The palace was as a rule occupied only during the summer, and then it teemed with gentlemen in gorgeous uniforms, and with pretty, handsomely dressed women. During the remainder of the year the boy, his sister and their playmates had as it were the whole palace, with its halls adorned with pictures, and with its park and gardens at their exclusive disposal as their play-ground. The place was quiet and isolated, and yet it was the source of a multitude of impressions that stamped themselves indelibly on the lad’s imagination. He read everything that he could lay his hands on, folk-lore, tales, novels, plays, indiscriminately, yet while his fancy was thus incessantly receiving nourishment from the most various sources, but very little was done to develop the other faculties of his mind until an accidental circumstance brought him to the poet Edward Storm. The latter was inspector of a school, in which he procured the boy free tuition. When he had left school it was decided that he should become a merchant, but before this was brought about, his long-cherished desire to devote himself to study ripened into maturity. But for one reason and another he did not make much progress in his studies. Instead of occupying himself with the ancient classics he read novels and descriptions of travel, and instead of the essays which he was required to write, he composed tales and dramas which he played with his friends. This suggested to him the thought of becoming an actor. His lively, imaginative nature had long been drawing him to the stage, and he believed that this was the right road by which to attain his object. Accordingly, he made his début, but he soon found that he had made a mistake, and left the theatre in order to take up his studies again. In this resolve he was strengthened by the brothers, Hans Christian and Anders Sandöe Oersted, who, notwithstanding their youth, had already distinguished themselves by the publication of valuable scientific works, and with whom he happened to be on very friendly terms. In his twenty-first year he entered the Copenhagen University, where he at first devoted himself very assiduously to the study of jurisprudence, but he soon turned again to occupations which had more attraction for him. He had already begun to take a deep interest in northern antiquities, and wrote a prize essay on the question whether Norse mythology furnished suitable materials for sculpture, a standpoint which he advocated with much warmth. The naval engagement in the Copenhagen roadstead on April 2, 1801, the cannon-thunder of which made a powerful impression on the young generation, also kindled Oehlenschläger’s enthusiasm, and in a little drama which he wrote on this occasion, we hear for the first time notes, whose pure and deep harmony was full of promise in regard to the author’s future success. He was also already at that time writing extensively for several literary journals. He cultivated his mind by daily intercourse with the most prominent persons of the younger generation, and was, in fact, one of the literary representatives of the period, though but few had any foreboding of the extraordinary powers that lay hidden and only waited for a favorable opportunity to be released. He had himself a strong, though undefined, consciousness that he was destined to fulfil a high mission, but not until he had made the acquaintance of Steffens did it become clear to him wherein this mission consisted, and in what manner it was to be accomplished.
Henrik Steffens was born in Norway, 1773, but educated in Denmark. From childhood nature had exercised a peculiarly strong influence on him, and as soon as he entered the university, he began to devote himself with great zeal to the study of natural sciences. On a journey to Germany he became a pupil of the naturalist and philosopher Schelling, and in 1802 he returned to Denmark for the purpose of preaching the gospel of the new school, and of being the apostle of its philosophy and romanticism. Being a man of commanding talents and great strength of character, and being, moreover, enthusiastically devoted to his mission, he made an extraordinary impression on the youth by the new doctrines which he was propagating. The barren ideals of the age of enlightenment in which people had rested in sluggish satisfaction, cleared away before the strokes of “the man of the thunderbolt,” and new wide avenues opened on every side, though they were illuminated only by the faint glare of the twilight, for Steffens was not the man who was able to clear away the mist. He remained only one year and a half in Denmark, and it is more than doubtful whether it would have been of any advantage either to himself or to others if he had prolonged his stay. But during that short time he succeeded in enlarging the intellectual horizon of the nation, and thus, when he returned to Germany, where he remained as a university professor until his death in 1845, he had really accomplished an important work in Denmark. His work was of great benefit to the whole Danish people through the powerful influence which he exercised on the most gifted young men of the time, such as the brothers Oersted, Mynster, Grundtvig, Schack von Staffeldt, Blicher, and others. But his influence on Oehlenschäger proved to be the most decided and enduring.
When Steffens came to Copenhagen, Oehlenschläger had begun the printing of a Norse tale and had made a contract with a publisher in regard to the publication of a volume of poems. They were doubtless similar in character to those already issued by the author, and which had made the impression on Steffens that they had been written by an old man. Oehlenschläger at once felt himself powerfully drawn toward the enthusiastic philosopher, and Steffens’ robust thoughts, which placed poetry, religion and nature in an altogether new and different light and which did justice to the human spirit in all its relations, found a fertile soil in the heart of the young poet. After a conversation of sixteen hours with Steffens the transformation was complete, and the “old man” was changed into a youth full of romantic poetry. That northern tale and those poems were laid aside, and on the morning following that memorable night he at once took the first step in his new career, and composed a poem on the splendid and very ancient golden horns, which had just then been stolen from the royal cabinet of antiquities. In a most fascinating manner the poet represented the horns as a choice gift of the gods, which they, however, had taken back, because man had failed to appreciate them as the precious relics of a venerable antiquity, but only valued them in proportion to the amount of gold they contained. Oehlenschläger has probably nowhere else struck the romantic key so purely and so deeply as in this poem. It had a peculiar ring and rhythm such as had never before been heard in Denmark, and Steffens was at once compelled to acknowledge that the author was a genuine and truly great poet.
What Oehlenschläger now achieved is really astonishing. In the course of a few months he completed a volume of poems, the most of which bear evidence of the intellectual change which had taken place in him. The volume contains a great number of romances and the lyrical drama “St. Hans Aftenspil” (The Play of St. John’s Eve). The latter is one of the most marked of the author’s works; full of romantic passages and at the same time a bold challenge, overflowing with the proud consciousness of certain victory, against the narrow views of poetry and of life on the part of the old school of letters. These poems made the greatest sensation and many were highly enraged at Oehlenschläger, but, like an impetuous, irresistible torrent, they carried the whole young generation with them. All resistance was useless; and with this single daring stroke the poet gained the foremost place in Danish national literature. In 1805 there appeared two new volumes, “Poetiske Skrifter,” which, in addition to a number of poems and cycles of poems (like “Langelandsreisen” and “Jesu Christi gjentagne Liv i den aarlige Natur”[1]), also contains the deeply significant and symbolical “Vaulunders Saga,” the materials of which were borrowed from the ancient times of the North, and “Aladdin eller den forunderlige Lampe,” in which the legend of A Thousand and One Nights has been dramatized with a master’s hand, and which is one of the greatest masterpieces, not only in Scandinavian, but also in European literature.
In 1805 Oehlenschläger made a journey abroad. He first visited Steffens, in Halle, and thereupon he travelled from place to place in Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland, everywhere visiting the representatives of literature—Goethe, Tieck, Madame de Staël, and others. During this time Oehlenschläger wrote some of his most exquisite works. In Halle he completed “Hakon Jarl,” the most excellent of all his plays. In this tragedy the poet wished to extol Christianity as contrasted with heathendom, though the main interest of the play attaches to the representative of the latter, who, in spite of his savage nature, is a grand character, drawn with great dramatic skill. His tragedy, “Palnatoke,” is the counterpart of “Hakon Jarl,” in so far as the former represents one of the noblest characters from the heathen time, with the shady side of Catholicism as a background. Between these two tragedies he wrote “Balder hin Gode” in the antique style, with the compositions of Sophocles fresh in his mind.
From northern antiquities Oehlenschläger passed over to the romantic middle age, borrowing from its ballad literature the materials for his tragedy “Axel og Valborg.” In Rome he wrote the artistic tragedy “Corregio” in the German language, as he was anxious to be acknowledged as a naturalized German author. Although his drama was played in several theaters and was received with great applause, still he neither then nor later accomplished his aim. The reason for this failure must, indeed, largely be sought in his marked northern spirit and feeling, which found no intelligent response in Germany, but want of appreciation among the Germans is mainly attributable to the fact that the whole pantheon of northern gods and heroes, from which Oehlenschläger borrowed the materials for his most charming works, was at the time when he wrote them, almost entirely unknown in Germany, and thus the Germans lacked the most important conditions for a thorough understanding of his compositions. To this must be added that Oehlenschläger himself did a great deal to hinder a correct estimate of him as a poet in Germany. Instead of causing his works to be translated into German by persons thoroughly familiar with the language, he abandoned himself to the illusion that he had mastered German sufficiently to become a German poet in the same sense as he was a Danish one. But the language of the works that he either originally wrote in German, or which he translated into that tongue is of such a quality that it is not strange that they are but little read outside of purely literary circles, and that they even here were not thought to be of much account. Good translations of his best works have, however, since then enabled the Germans to form a correct estimate of Oehlenschläger, but these translations came half a century too late to give him his true position, for the romantic period, to which he entirely belonged, is now a thing of the past.
Though he was thus unsuccessful in reaping any great laurels in Germany he secured all the greater recognition in his own country, and when he returned home in 1809 he was greeted as Denmark’s greatest bard. All the works he had sent home from abroad had produced an extraordinary sensation, both on account of their genuine poetic character and on account of Oehlenschläger’s enthusiastic advocacy of the significance of northern antiquities. The people began to grow conscious of their own national peculiarities, and the new era was in full progress.
During the first years after his return home Oehlenschläger published a large number of works, many of which are inferior to his principal works; and now there broke out between him, or rather between his adherents and Baggesen a violent feud that was destined to make a great stir in Danish literature for many years. At first both the poets were on the best of terms and when Baggesen left Denmark in 1800, never to return there again as he believed, he bequeathed to Oehlenschläger “his Danish lyre.” But during his stay abroad Oehlenschläger had frequent occasions to be displeased with Baggesen, while the latter, as the senior poet and enjoying an established reputation in literature, would assume a patronizing attitude toward the gifted beginner, whose superiority he was, however, secretly and reluctantly obliged to admit. Baggesen gave a striking and characteristic illustration from "A Thousand and One Nights," comparing himself with Noureddin, the inquiring spirit who hazards the work of his whole life in order to obtain the magic lamp, in contrast with Oehlenschläger as Aladdin, the youth favored by fortune, who, without the slightest effort, simply by a whim of fate, obtains possession of the treasure at the very moment when the other was on the point of securing it. But when both afterward met in Paris all jealousy was quickly forgotten and the olden friendship was again established. This did not last long, however, for when Oehlenschläger, on his return to Denmark, published a series of very mediocre works, which were received with great admiration and enthusiasm on the part of his friends, Baggesen seized the opportunity for submitting Oehlenschläger’s tragedies to a very searching criticism, though it made at the time but little impression. When Oehlenschläger thus wrote very hurriedly some very weak opera texts, such as "Ludlams Hule," and "Röverborgen," to which Weyse and Kuhlau composed their beautiful music, Baggesen assumed in his critical reviews an attitude so hostile and reckless, and a spirit so ungenerous, that in spite of the sound judgment with which he defended the cause of correct taste, and in spite of the many excellent ideas his articles contained, they failed to produce the desired effect, on account of the author’s bitterness toward his more fortunate rival.
In the year 1818 Oehlenschläger published a description of a journey under the title "En Reise foralt i Breve til mit Hjem," a very feeble work, which Baggesen at once attacked in the most merciless manner. Baggesen tried in vain to bring the students over to his side, and the only effect of his efforts was that twelve of Oehlenschläger's young worshippers (Hauch, Poul Möller, P. Hjort, etc., the so-called "Tylvt" = dozen) challenged Baggesen to a public disputation in Latin on account of his attacks on the great poet. Grundtvig alone remained faithful to Baggesen, and he at last embraced his cause completely; but not before he had, in a blunt and candid manner, warned Oehlenschläger in regard to the dangerous course on which he had entered, and he particularly complained “that all religious earnest seemed more and more to have been banished from his poems, and that he seemed to be playing fast and loose with all things spiritual.” Oehlenschläger himself scarcely took any part in the controversy. From time to time he would vent his displeasure in prose and verse, but he very rarely published anything of the sort. On the other hand he never ceased, during the whole feud, to publish one work after the other. Among these there were poems which abundantly show that although he might occasionally write "invita Minerva," still he remained in his happy moods the poet of "Hakon Jarl" and of "Aladdin." During this time he published his cycle of romances, "Helge," one of his most exquisite works; also "Hroars Saga;" the tragedy, "Hagbarth og Signe," and several others. In 1818 appeared his charming dramatic idyl, "Den lille Hyrdedreng" (the little shepherd boy), which made so favorable an impression on Baggesen that he thought "the old Adam Ohelenschläger" had returned, and he forthwith ceased to trouble him. But the young friends of the poet were not appeased; they continued to persecute Baggesen until the latter left the country in 1820.
Baggesen's polemics were full of bitterness and littleness; a fact greatly to be deplored, for in many leading points he was unquestionably right. After his return home Oehlenschläger—his literary position being secured—occasionally produced works altogether unworthy of his poetical genius. There was, therefore, real danger that Oehlenschläger might go entirely astray; the more so since his poor productions continued to be received with the same tumultuous joy as his good ones. Against this Baggesen wished to enter his protest, and although the bitter feelings engendered by his losing the first place on the Danish Parnassos may have influenced his manner of attack, still it cannot be gainsaid that his opposition to Oehlenschläger was made chiefly in the name of good taste and sound reason. What Baggesen only dimly felt was afterward distinctly and forcibly stated by J. L. Heiberg, who continued Baggesen's critical work against Oehlenschläger, and who not only brought out in their true light the characteristic excellences of the poet, but also pointed out his faults in a fair and thorough manner.
Of Oehlenschläger's numerous works we have still to mention the following: The great cycle of epic poems, "Nordens Guder" (The Gods of the North), one of his most excellent works. It appeared complete in 1819, while the first part, "Thors Reise til Jotunheim," had already been published in 1807 in his "Nordiske Digte." The tragedy "Yrsa" belongs to the group containing "Hroars Saga" and "Helge." Moreover the masterly written "Orvarodds Saga," the great epic compositions "Rolf Krage" (1829), his last great work, "Regnar Lodbrok" (1848), and the tragedies, "Erik and Abel," "Dronning Margrete," and "Dina."
As a writer of comedies Oehlenschläger does not rank very high. The comedies he produced, especially his "Frejas Alter" (Freyja's Altar), which he revised many times, show that while he possessed the wit and humor, his nature was too direct and he lacked the reflection which is indispensable in the comedy if it is to fulfil its main purpose, that of reflecting faithful pictures of life.
Of the vast number of Oehlenschläger's lyric poems and romances there are many that must be counted among the best productions of the poet. Of his prose works there is a long novel, "Öen i Sydhavet" (the island in the South Sea), which contains many fine episodes, but which, on the whole, is rather fatiguing on account of its great length. His "Levnet," an autobiography which reaches to his thirtieth year, was afterwards continued and enlarged by him under the title of "Erindringer" (recollections). It is a strange and entertaining work, but it suffers from a superabundance of details.
From the year 1810 Oehlenschläger was professor of aesthetics in the University of Copenhagen, and as such he delivered a series of lectures on Ewald and Schiller. Though not gifted with eminent critical talents, still his words are not without value, since his pure poetical instinct supplies what he lacked in other respects. Here we may also call attention to the introductions which he wrote for his earlier poetical works. They consist in admirably conceived dissertations, in which he defends the new æsthetical principles with great ardor and clearness.
Oehlenschläger was not only a very prolific, but also a very versatile poet. There is no kind of poetical composition in which he has not produced something. But the particular kind of poetical composition in which his genius developed the most luxuriant bloom was the romances, or in other words, that form of poetry in which epic blends with lyric. His tragedies—they do not all deserve this name, since but few of his heroes produce any truly tragical impressions—are rather dramatized romances than dramas proper. The scenes do not organically group themselves around a fundamental idea that is developed by necessity, but they resolve themselves into loosely connected pictures in which epic and lyrical elements hold alternately the supremacy. They abound in passages full of a weird imagination and warm feeling, and for this reason they carried everything before them. Though they have but little intrinsic dramatic power, they will always remain an ornament to Danish literature.
Aside from the immediate poetic merit which must be attributed to Oehlenschläger's best works, they have a great and imperishable value for Danish literature, on account of their national character. Holberg availed himself of foreign elements, and established between the literature of his own country and that of Europe a connection which proved advantageous in many respects. No one thought at that time of reverting to the people's historical past. Ewald made the first step in this direction, but he stood alone. Then the times became ripe for a comprehension of antiquity, and Oehlenschläger unlocked its treasures for his people. "In Ewald's 'Rolf Krage, the northern Saga for the first time opened her grave-mound and disclosed to me the shades of the departed," Oehlenschläger has said. And in his own works these spirits of the past were for the first time conjured up in such a manner that the whole people could see and recognize them. Of how great importance this was to the poetic literature of Denmark and for the whole intellectual life of the North will be seen from a very superficial comparison between the form which romanticism assumed in the North, and that which it had in Germany, a country which for centuries had been in a most intimate intellectual union with Denmark, and from which the romantic school had been introduced in Denmark. For while the German romantic school completely loses itself in the incense-smoke of the middle ages and in idle, fantastical musings, or abandons itself to a reactionary obscurantism, Oehlenschläger on the contrary turns himself with his robust, vigorous and thoroughly northern nature to the equally strong, bracing antiquity. And thus his poetry gets a firm basis and support, which preserves it from the aberrations of romanticism, and enables it to lay the foundation of a rich poetic development. For this reason Oehlenschläger is not only what we generally understand by a great poet, but he is also in a great measure the founder of the entire national life of Denmark in this century.
Many objections have been raised in recent years to the manner in which Oehlenschläger conceived and represented the ancient life in the North, nor can it be denied that his pictures are, in many respects, very unreal. But at the same time it must not be forgotten that the ever increasing interest in the past, through which northern archaeology was called into life, or, in other words, that very science which has been the cause of a more thorough criticism of Oehlenschläger's works, is itself the result of that movement to the advancement of which he, through his poetry, was the main contributor. When his works appeared there was as yet no enthusiasm for northern antiquities; but the enthusiasm was created by his works.
Like Baggesen, Oehlenschläger also had the strange illusion that he could be a German, as well as a Danish, poet. When he began his literary career he deeply felt how much he owed to the great poets of Germany, and he also realized that the Germans were a people closely related to the Danes. He therefore made an attempt to belong to both, but his efforts were unsuccessful, and when he approached the end of his life he saw that he had not, as he had intended, directed the eyes of his countrymen to the south, but that he turned them to the north, and that he had awakened in the northern nations a vivid realization of their racial affinity, a fact obscured by centuries of discord. In the summer of 1829 Tegner crowned "the northern king of song" in the Lund cathedral. This was a recognition of the auspicious fact "that the time of discord was at an end," and to this none had contributed more than Oehlenschläger. On the 20th of January, 1850, this "Adam of the skalds" closed the life that had been so important, not only for Denmark, but also for the entire North.[2]
Almost simultaneous with the publication of Oehlenschläger's first epoch-making collection of poems, there also appeared the first poems of Adolph Wilhelm Schack von Stappeldt (1769-1826). He was of German extraction, but acquired such a command of the Danish language that he was able to use it with the same facility as his mother tongue. His works evince extraordinary poetic talent, though they suffer from a too great tendency to speculation and frequently move in a sphere of pure abstractions. He wrote exclusively lyrical poems and romances, and many of them give evidence of deep emotion and genuine poetic sentiment, and are marked by great beauty of form. The spiritual kinship existing between his and Oehlenschläger's first poems is also a characteristic fact. Staffeldt was unquestionably influenced by his great contemporary, but the similarity between the two surely has a deeper reason, which must be sought in the romanticism and in the natural philosophy, which at that time were so much developed and by which both poets had been influenced, though in different degrees. Oehlenschläger soon found, as we know, his work in the field of northern antiquities, and in it his poetry developed in a perfectly characteristic and independent manner, and thus he was able to found his own northern kingdom in the realm of romanticism, while Staffeldt continued in the path he once had entered upon, and his poetry is accordingly more German than northern in its character.[3]
In Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig we have a nature widely different from Oehlenschläger, and yet he exercised in many respects an equally important influence on the intellectual life of Denmark. He was born September 8, 1783, and was descended from a family who had given the country a whole line of excellent preachers. At the university he was a fellow student of Oehlenschläger, and devoted himself to the study of theology. The battle of Copenhagen made a deep impression on him, too, and he was also greatly influenced by the lectures of his cousin Steffens, but inasmuch as Grundtvig clung tenaciously to the views of the olden time, he did not accept all of Steffens' tenets. From Steffens' lectures fell seeds, however, into his soul, which later germinated and were destined to bear abundant fruit. "Steffens," says Grundtvig of himself, "was the first man to make me aware of the fact that history really means something. I did not believe a word of what he said. I even laughed at it all, and yet the idea of a chain of events with Christ as the middle link had found its way into my soul."
Already in his youth Grundtvig had become known by the publication of historical, religious and poetical works, particularly by his brief and spirited "Nordens Mythologi." In the years 1809-11 he published in two volumes a large poetical work: "Optrin af Kæmpelivets Undergang i Norden (Scenes from the close of the heroic age in the North). This work contains episodes partly from the time when heathendom and Christianity were still contending for the supremacy (Gorm den Gamle, Palnatoke, Vagn Aagesön), and partly from the mythic-heroic time (Asers og Norners Kamp; Volsunger og Niflunger), descriptions written in a genuine northern spirit and full of dramatic power and poetic beauty. Grundtvig was an uncommonly fertile composer of songs. Among his poems, which have an essentially historical character, the most prominent are "Roskilde Rim" and "Roskilde Saga." His numerous sacred songs are equal to Kingo's psalms, and many of his national songs belong to the best and most popular which the Danish people possess.
Grundtvig's activity in the service of the church was no less extensive or important than his work as a poet. The religious transformation which he underwent, and which brought him into the most violent conflict with the spiritless and antiquated views of Christianity that were in vogue in his day, revealed itself for the first time in his maiden sermon, delivered in 1810, on the text: "Hvi er Herrens Ord forsvundet fra haus Hus?" (Why has the word of God departed from His house?) By this sermon he provoked the hostility of the whole clergy of the capital and received the sentence of expulsion from the consistory. Some time after he obtained, though with great difficulty, permission to act as assistant to his own father in the country. After many years (in 1825) he again resumed the warfare which he had begun against the infidelity and rationalism of the age, and wrote an extremely violent reply ("Kirkens Gjenmæle ") to a work by Professor H. N. Clausen, on Catholicism and Protestantism. The result was a prosecution for damages that his work was supposed to have caused. He had to pay a fine, and his works were submitted to the censorship of the press. This sentence was for his whole life, but it was rescinded in 1838. He then resigned his clerical office, but in 1832 he was again permitted to preach, and in 1839 he became pastor of the charity hospital of Vartov, in Copenhagen, a position which he held until his death in 1872. At the fiftieth anniversary of his life as a pastor he received the title of bishop.
Grundtvig had early turned his attention to the antiquities of the north, and as he was a man who did with a will anything that his hands found to do, so he also pushed his researches in this department with great energy and perseverance. The abridged mythology mentioned above was thoroughly recast by him and republished in 1832 with the title changed to "Nordens Sindbilledsprog" (the symbolic language of the North). In this strangely interesting book the old myths are subjected to a most original historical-philosophical interpretation, which cannot of course be harmonized with the current conception of mythology, but which, nevertheless, is strikingly and skilfully used as the basis of the author's peculiar historic-poetic view of matters and things in general.
Of his historical works we ought especially to mention his large manual of general history. He translated Saxo's Chronicle of Denmark and Snorre Sturleson's Heimskringla into Danish, and was the first to call public attention to Anglo Saxon literature. He was the author of a free translation of the Anglo Saxon poem, "Beowulf."
Grundtvig's literary productiveness was well nigh unprecedented. In addition to a vast number of articles in many different periodicals, he wrote more than one hundred volumes. No branch of literature was foreign to him, and he furnished valuable contributions in all the more important fields touching the intellectual development of Denmark. Hence an exhaustive account of his literary activity is only possible in connection with a full and explicit history of Danish culture in this century, for he was one of its most significant and potent factors. We must here confine ourselves to the task of stating briefly the essentials of his fundamental principles which gave to his whole literary activity its peculiar and important stamp.
Of Grundtvig, in whose works the poetical element is everywhere conspicuous, it has been forcibly said that he was a skald in the old-fashioned sense of the word, and indeed in this sense, that he considered the art as a means to an end; while, with the modern poet, poetry is the end itself. Grundtvig never divested himself of his skaldship, no matter whether he was fighting for his faith, for his people, or was at work in the service of the church; no matter whether he wrote in poetry or prose; but he never wrote poetry for its own sake. He merely gave utterance in song to the great thoughts which filled him, and for their sake alone did he write poems and make researches.
The most of Grundtvig's poems are marked by rare power and tenderness. The reader always feels that they have welled forth from a strong and profoundly poetical soul. They teem with a great wealth of original and striking pictures, and the verses are remarkable for their full-toned harmony, while the author possesses in a high degree the gift of ferreting out the old forgotten treasures of the language and of discovering new, rich veins among its accumulated stratifications. But by the side of these excellences he frequently shows an almost incredible lack of taste. There are but few of his poems that are entirely faultless in form—this applies especially to his sacred songs—and when a perfect one is found it is the result of chance rather than of artistic reflection. For to Grundtvig the form was of but slight importance. His compositions bear throughout the stamp of being improvisations, and this gives them a freshness and originality, while they evince but little method and artistic elaboration. The same applies to his prose works. His words usually come with power and warmth from the heart, and usually, also, touch the heart; but they rarely make the impression of having been put into the purifying crucible of reflection. Few writers have accordingly been to a greater degree the object of parody, though the latter was not directed so much against the genial master himself as against the swarm of imitators who flocked around him and imitated most scrupulously his weaker sides without possessing the faculty of causing these weaknesses to be overlooked and offset by grand excellences.
Grundtvig concentrated his efforts on treating Christianity, the idea of a union of the North, and the cause of the people as the chief problems of the times, and on pushing these problems one step nearer to their solution. This effort of his was crowned with success, and his influence was felt throughout the whole North. This appears most clearly and forcibly in the attitude he assumed toward Christianity. A large religious party, "The Grundtvigians" do homage to "the joyful Christianity," preached by Grundtvig, who, instead of the Bible, regarded "the oral works of Christ in the institution of baptism and of the Lord's Supper, and the oral confession of faith by the whole Christian community, particularly in connection with baptism, as the only really valid, express and living testimony, by which the Christian faith and the spirit of Christ can be communicated and propagated." The Grundtvigian watchword "the living word"—in the field of religion; "the Lord's own word" as against the apostolic and post-apostolic writings—characterizes the fundamental idea of Grundtvig's views, and indeed not only in his religious works where personal "faith" is strongly emphasized in opposition to "doctrine," but also in all other fields of activity, particularly in the historical, where he with less science than poetry makes Christ the central figure in the world's development.
No one has contributed more with tongue and pen toward awaking a vigorous popular life than Grundtvig. The practical result of his efforts in this respect was the establishment of the so-called "people's high schools," based on purely northern and Christian elements of culture, schools which have been erected by Grundtvig and his followers throughout Denmark, and also in Norway and Sweden. If these schools, of a peculiarly northern character, are to be developed according to Grundtvig's idea, and if they pursue in spirit and in truth the course marked out for them by their founder, they may eventually produce highly beneficial results by the diffusion of national and Christian culture, and by awaking the people to a consciousness of their duties as citizens, but there is great danger that they may fail to accomplish their mission in the fact that the method of instruction is wholly without constraint. Their very nature and plan require the living word to be used almost exclusively in teaching. These schools presented themselves to Grundtvig's poetic vision; they were not only to be a protest against the sterile methods of the Latin schools, hostile in his opinion to the true interests of the people, but also the sure road to the realization of his dreams in regard to a revival of a civil and Christian spirit among the common people. The future will show whether the course chosen by Grundtvig was the right one.
Grundtvig's influence is by no means limited to the very numerous circle of his followers, who have identified themselves with his fundamental thoughts and views of life, but it extends much further, and we may boldly assert that the entire people, Grundtvig's most bitter adversaries included, have been consciously or unconsciously more or less under its spell. He was one of those powerful natures who are bound to leave their deep impress upon their own time, however much the latter may struggle against it. His great activity was in many respects very one-sided, and he accordingly met with a very violent opposition, but still he conquered it. The revival of religious life in Denmark is mainly due to him, whatsoever forms it may have assumed, and it was essentially he who strengthened the national feeling and the cause of the people. He aroused an agitation in which certain unwholesome elements have been engendered through misunderstanding and selfishness, and these may for a time cast a shadow on much of the good done by Grundtvig, but on the other hand, his great and varied activity, though always concentrated on one point, in the service of enlightenment, has already borne abundant fruit, and its consequences will continue to be felt for ages to come.[4]
We have seen that Oehlenschläger in a certain sense belonged to the romantic school. Grundtvig had nothing whatever to do with it, but there was another poet who was thoroughly identified with romanticism, and on whom Oehlensehläger's first works exercised a marked influence, and that poet was Beenhard Severin Ingemann (born 1789). His father was a preacher, and in his parent's house he was imbued with the simple piety which characterizes all his poems. In his first collection of poems (published in 1811), which among other things contains the Oriental legend, "Parizade," there is an elegiac, dreamy style, reminding one of Schiller and of the romantic school. This, together with a graceful rhythm, pleased the public, and by his later works he continued to grow in popular favor. In 1812 appeared a second volume of poems containing "Gangergriffen" (Hippogriff), a Persian legend, and the dramatic poem, "Mithridat," and one year later "Procne," a collection in which is found the lyric-erotic novel, "Warners poetiske Vandringer," which shows us the poet at the climax of idealism. With the legendary poem "De sorte Riddere" (the Black Knights), in which in a symbolic and fantastic form he gives expression to a hyperidealistic conception of the world, Ingemann closes the first epoch of his literary life, mainly a lyric period. In the following years he wrote chiefly dramas, in which the lyrical element is, however, still sufficiently prominent. The most important one of these is unquestionably the dramatized legend, "Reinald Underbarnet" (Reinald the Wonderchild), while "Masaniello" and "Blanca" (1815) reaped the greatest success.
While Ingemann was thus steadily growing in popular favor, the critics began to attack his productions for a want of flavor and marrow, and for an abstract mannerism. This was done most effectually by Heiberg in his witty, satirical drama, "Julespög og Nytaarslöier" (Christmas sport and New Year's fun). Out of this arose a violent literary feud in which Ingemann did not himself take part, but left it to Grundtvig to fight the matter out with Heiberg. In addition to these dramatic works he also published a number of lyrical and epic-lyrical poems, "Helias and Beatrice," "De underjordiske" (The underground people), etc.
In 1818, Ingemann entered on a long journey abroad, which was in many respects favorable to his development, and particularly contributed toward rousing him out of that ethereal frame of mind in which he up to this time had written his works, although the immediate result of his journey, a collection of poems called "Reiselyren" (The Traveller's Lyre), still contains several traces of his former style. Before it was published, he had begun editing a long series of legends and tales, of which the first volume appeared in 1819, and this was followed at various intervals by several others. Though Ingemann was not yet completely emancipated from Hoffman's influence, we still find already in this book more naturalness and freshness, and a more objective treatment than in his earlier works. In his choice of subjects he also manifested a desire of gaining a more solid basis, first in the comedy, "Magnetismen i Barberstuen," and even more so in his "Kampen for Valhal," in which the plot is taken from the ancient history of the North. But all these efforts were rather unsuccessful. His taste for the mystic and fantastic being closely allied to his romanticism, he was naturally drawn to the Middle Ages, and already in his second epoch as a writer we find him borrowing the materials for his poem, "Det öde Slot" (The Deserted Castle), from the times of Valdemar the Great. From 1822, in which year he became Lector at the Soroe Academy, began that period of his poetical career, in which he completed his best works and those which are of most importance to the literature of Denmark. First appeared the poem, "Valdemar den Store og hans Maend," then followed the four historical novels, "Valdemar Seir," "Erik Menveds Barndom," "Kong Erik og de Fredlöse," and "Prinds Otto af Danmark," and this cycle was closed with the poem, "Dronning Margrete." In these works, based on the popular ballads of the Middle Ages, Ingemann took Walter Scott as his model, and though his novels are by no means equal to those of the renowned Scottish author, and though they are in many ways incorrect in personal characterization and historical coloring, still they are exceedingly attractive on account of their vivid and graphic descriptions of the most glorious epoch of Danish history. They have had a very stimulating influence on the Danish people, and by them more than by any other of his works Ingemann came to be regarded as a national poet. The cycle of romances, "Holger Danske," is also closely allied to these historical novels, and is one of his most original and attractive works. Several poems from it have been adopted as popular songs by the common people.
In later times Ingemann wrote several tales in which the plots are taken from real life. The best among them is the admirably written story "Landsbybörnene " (the children of the village), the materials for which are gathered from modern life (1852). A few of Ingemann's dramatic works also date from this time. But at the same time with these works he also continued to produce lyric poems, and he occasionally wrote very fine things in this line. This is particularly true of his religious songs, which are distinguished for their sweetness, melody and love of nature. Many of them, especially the morning and evening hymns, are exceptionally inspiring and attractive and very popular. Ingemann may, without hesitation, be ranked with Kingo and Grundtvig as a writer of sacred poetry, though the style and character of the hymns of the former are quite different from those of the latter. During the last years of his life he was deeply engaged in religious speculations, the results of which he embodied in poetical compositions, such as "Tankebreve fra en Afdöd" (letters containing the thoughts of one departed). Like all his works, so these, too, are the expression of a kind, ideal view of life. He. died in 1862 in Soroe, where he had worked faithfully for forty years.[5]
Johannes Carsten Hauch was born in Norway in 1790, and the impressions which his highly susceptible mind received in his childhood from the austere and grand nature of his native country, never left him throughout the remainder of his life, a circumstance which doubtless contributed much toward giving his poetry a strange and vague color. In the year 1803 he came to Copenhagen, where, four years later (1807), he witnessed the bombarding of the city by the English, and in spite of his tender youth he actually took part in the battle against the enemy. After he had entered the university he felt himself powerfully attracted on the one hand by the natural sciences and by Schelling's philosophy, and on the other hand by poetry, particularly Oehlenschläger's best works, and by those of the German romantic school, which made a deep impression on his mind. He began to write poetry, and espoused with great ardor the cause of Oehlenschläger in the latter’s feud with Baggesen.
His first great work, "Contrasterne," two dramatic poems, which, among other things, contained sallies against the exaggerations of the romanticists, appeared in 1816, and was followed, in 1817, by the lyric drama "Rosaura." But Hauch was himself dissatisfied with these works, and came to the conclusion that poetry was not his vocation; whereupon, he, with redoubled ardor, returned to the study of the sciences, particularly of zoology. After taking the degree of Doctor, he began in 1821, at public expense, a journey abroad for the purpose of study, during which he visited Germany, France and Italy. In the last named country he met with the severe misfortune of losing one leg, the outcome of a disease, and on this account he was overwhelmed with despair, and it seemed to him that his life’s happiness had been forfeited. Then his old love for poetry awoke again with renewed energy, and amid the impressions made on him by the ancient and mediæval monuments of Rome, he wrote his great tragedy, "Tiberius," and the drama "Gregory VII." On this journey he also wrote the dramatized fairy tale, "Hamadryaden," and the tragedy "Bajazeth," and then, after six years absence, he returned to Denmark. Here his works were received with great applause, and personally he gained every recognition. He was appointed Lector at the Soroe Academy, and there he developed a prolific literary activity. Among his historical novels, "Vilhelm Zabern" deserves especially to be mentioned. It is a fascinating autobiography from the time of Christian II, contains many beautiful pictures of contemporary history, and is replete with poetic sentiment. Other prominent works of this class are "Guldmageren" (the adept), "En polsk Familie," "Robert Pulton," etc. In the "Saga om Thorvald Vidförle" and in the admirably written and highly poetical "Fortælling om Haldor," he imitated the style of the old Norse sagas. His later dramatic works were written for the stage and there they were more or less successful. The most noteworthy among them are: "Söstrene paa Kinnekullen," a dramatized fairy tale; "Tycho Brahes Ungdom"; "Svend Grathe" and "Marsk Stig" (Marshall Stig). An abundance of excellent lyrical romances and poems, in which were unfolded the finest blossoms of his poetry, continued at the same time with his other works to flow from Hauch's indefatigable pen. Two large cycles of romances, "Valdemar Atterdag" and "Valdemar Seir," date from the author's last years; but are, nevertheless, imbued with a wonderful freshness and life.
The leading feature of Hauch's works is a deep moral earnestness, and all his productions are characterized by a noble, ideal aspiration. Being a genuine romanticist, the dark powers of existence constantly seem to flit before his vision. In nearly all his poems they break forth as the revelations of a higher world, from which, according to his views, the origin of the lower terrestrial world is to be derived. This did not, however, obscure his keen, penetrating eye in regard to the real world; and he has particularly evinced great mastership in the psychological delineation of character. His style suffered in his earliest works from a certain want of clearness. It seemed as if his mighty thoughts were unable to find utterance. This obscurity gradually wore off, especially in his poems, to which he gave a well-rounded, elegant form. His prose, however, never became entirely free from a tendency to discursiveness, which, doubtless, was caused by the fact that Hauch was in the habit of making very elaborate preparations for his tales, and this led him to fill them with too many details. Nor did Hauch win the favor of the public until after the great value of his poetical works, so rich in thought and fancy, had for a long time been appreciated by the critics. But that he was one of the most noble and gifted poets that Denmark ever produced is now generally admitted.
After the death of Oehlenschläger Hauch became his successor as professor of æsthetics in the Copenhagen University and in this capacity he wrote a number of dissertations, which give evidence of a thorough and comprehensive study of that science. In his books, "Minder fra min Barndom og min Ungdom" (Recollections from my childhood and youth), and "Erindringer fra min förste Udenlandsreise" (Recollections from my first journey abroad), he has given us fragments of an autobiography which is interesting, both on account of the sincerity and knowledge of self revealed, and on account of the story told. He died in Rome in 1871.[6]
Christian Hvid Bredahl (1784—1860) was a very peculiar, romantic, poetical nature. He was already thirty-five years old when he published his first volume entitled "dramatiske Scener." This was followed, in the course of fourteen years, by five other volumes with similar contents. The title suggests the peculiarity of his works as to their form. The loosely connected scenes are intended to produce an independent effect, and accordingly contain each a complete act. No stress is laid on really dramatic combinations of the materials, and this accounts for the fact that these works, which abound in noble and sublime thoughts on life, and are remarkable for their elegance of diction, received but little notice from the poet's contemporaries. He never loses his complete command of language, and whether he indulges in the deepest pathos or vents his feelings in the most withering scorn, he always succeeds in finding the most suitable phrases, and thus he reminds us, in many respects, of Shakespeare. What Bredahl has written in addition to this, his chief work, can in no way be compared with the latter. Greatly disappointed at not finding the merited public appreciation, and upon the whole dissatisfied with the world, he retired in 1824 to a small farm, where he lived by the sweat of his brow in very moderate circumstances until his death.[7]
Nature and popular life found an excellent painter in Steen Steensen Blicher (1782-1848). As a preacher in one of the most desolate heath-regions of Jutland he had the best opportunity for studying the peculiarities of this region, so interesting in spite of all its monotony, as well as of its inhabitants. Endowed with a keen eye and splendid faculties of observation, he understood how to impart a charm to the most insignificant trifles and describe them with great vivacity and a rare dramatic power for his readers. In the beginning his literary activity had taken another direction. He translated Ossian (1807), wrote plays and poems and philanthropic and agricultural dissertations, but without any great success in any of these efforts. Then there appeared in 1824 the story, "En Landsbydegns Dagbog" (A village sexton's diary), and this was soon followed by a famous series of tales, in which he in so masterly and graphic a manner has described the life of the Jutland villagers, in whose midst he was living, that he forthwith became the favorite author of the Danish people. For a few stories Blicher selected his materials from social relations different from his own surroundings, but in these he was not very successful. A definite sphere of literary activity had been allotted to him, and he was not permitted to abandon it for any other. He felt at home, and could revel to his heart's content on the heaths and sand-downs of Jutland among their weather-beaten and frugal inhabitants. He was familiar with the roaring surf of the North Sea along the west coast of Jutland, with the ancient manors and the hunt through the fields, and with brushwood and boggy depressions; and his descriptions of this region are so faithful to nature and are filled with an aroma so subtle and poetical, that Blicher stands unrivalled in this field of composition. The most remarkable of all his works is unquestionably "E Bindstouw" (the knitting-room, that is to say a house where the inhabitants gather to knit stockings and tell stories), a collection of short stories and poems in the Jutland dialect. They consist in pictures from real life, partly pathetic and partly brimful of sparkling humor, and notwithstanding their simplicity and naturalness, they are drawn with a skill that has probably never been equalled by any work of the same kind. As a lyrical poet he has also produced excellent things, and several of his poems have become genuine popular songs.
Blicher's aim was to awaken the popular mind, and for this he labored in proportion to his strength with marked success during the third and fourth decades of this century. But he contributed most toward the elevation of Danish popular life by his throughly national and popular stories, which everybody knows, and which continue to be read over and over again by all Danes whether they be rich or poor.[8]
Poul Martin Möller (1794-1838) was one of Oehlenschläger's most ardent admirers, and took a very active part in the literary campaign that was fought on the one side by Oehlenschläger's friends and on the other by Baggesen and Grundtvig. Against Baggesen he wrote the poem, "Om Jenses Lidenhed" (On Jens' littleness, i.e., Jens Baggesen's), a scathing parody on the latter's well known poem, "Da jeg var lille" (When I was little), and against Grundtvig he composed the exquisite "Himmelbrev," in which he parodies in a masterly manner the peculiar style of his adversary. In his poems, which are not very numerous, but which are marked by an original and choice style, we frequently find a sound and thoroughly humoristic view of life. His poem, "Glæde over Danmark" (Joy over Denmark), is particularly fine, and was written by him on the Pacific Ocean during a voyage to China. His student songs and his unfinished story, "En Students Eventyr," also abound in rare buoyancy and fresh humor. His translation of the first six books of the Odyssey, published in 1825, was the first attempt at a Danish version of Homer. In 1826, he was appointed professor of philosophy in the university at Christiania, and a few years later he returned to Denmark to fill a similar position in the Copenhagen University. While connected with these universities he wrote several excellent philosophical treatises[9]
Christian Winther (1796-1876) was Poul Möller's step-brother, and he was also intellectually related to him. He had already become conspicuous by student songs and by contributions to periodicals, all of which were brimful of exuberant animal spirits, when in 1828 he published his first large collection of poems, a volume which was at once received with signal favor. It contains among other things fine descriptions of popular life, to which compositions he gave the very appropriate name "Wood-cuts." In course of time there followed a large number of lyrical poems and romances, through which he acquired a large circle of friends and admirers. Some of his tales did not become very popular on account of their dismal contents, while others, as for instance, "Ristestenen" (the furrowed stone), "Et Aftenbesog" (an evening visit), and "De to Peblinge" (the two schoolboys), must be ranked as excellent and most delicately sketched genre pictures. Both in his prose and in his verse Winther is a perfect master of style.
In 1855 appeared his chief work, the cycle of romances called "Hjortens Flugt" (the flight of the stag). The poet transports himself to the time of the Danish middle age, and giving loose reins to his glowing imagination presents to our eyes in ever-changing panoramas a series of most charming and highly colored pictures.
All of Christian Winther's poetical productions are marked by great naturalness in the very best sense of the word. To his cheerful temperament all life is "a merry feast" to which no guest comes too late, who still feels himself young. He sings of “the broad leaves on the slender stem of the vine, that is shaded by clusters of golden grapes;” but above all he sings of the glowing, intoxicating love, of “all the rapturous joy that can bloom between man and woman,” and of nature, for the beauty of which he had the enthusiastic yet also the critical eye of the lover. When he sings of these things his song strikes a mellow and sonorous note, and stands unrivalled in Danish literature.
Winther is a genuine national poet both as regards form and substance, for he always seeks his materials on his native soil. He has also sketched a few pictures from the South, which he visited in the vigor of his manhood, and though he had a keen eye with which to discern the beauties of southern nature, still he did not succeed so well here as when he extolled the beauties of his own country. In descriptions of nature he is a master. Nothing escapes his glance, and he faithfully reproduces every detail in most charming pictures. And yet he is far from striving after realistic correctness in his representations or plunging into details to such a degree as to destroy the unity of the composition. His pictures of nature may be compared with those of a skilful landscape painter, in whose pictures all the details are pervaded by the conception of the whole, while they at the same time contribute to giving bold relief to the total impression. In Winther we find no general, conventional descriptions; there is nothing indefinite or confused, but all the nuances, of which he presents an abundance, receive their pregnant and perfectly appropriate expression. This is the reason why, in perusing Winther’s descriptions of nature, we feel as it were wrapped in poetical fragrance, for by entering so deeply into the details he makes us understand the spell with which nature unconsciously binds us. Winther is particularly the interpreter of the Zealand nature just as Blicher interpreted for us the Jutland scenery. Winther was especially fond of that which is soft and harmonious in nature and in human life, while Blicher's eyes and ears were more impressed with the grand and striking traits; their views of life are as different as the two regions of which they sang are varied in their natural aspects.[10]
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75) was the son of poor parents, who could not afford to give their eager and talented boy a suitable education. In his fourteenth year he left his native town, Odense, and went to Copenhagen, where he hoped to realize the dream of greatness and honor which from early childhood he had continued to cherish. At first he tried his fortune as an actor, but proved a complete failure. In the meantime he had the good fortune of falling in with people who took an interest in him, and thus he was able to enter the university in the year 1828. At that time he had already written several very pretty poems, among which "Det döende Barn" (the dying child), and from this time his genius developed rapidly and revealed its great powers in a number of compositions. His first more ambitious work "Fodreise fra Holmens Kanal til östpynten af Amager" (a journey on foot from the Holmen Canal to the eastern point of Amager) a humorous fantasia in Hoffmann's style, and a collection of poems, appeared in 1829, and in the same year his first dramatic work, the vaudeville "Kjarlighed paa Nicolai Taarn" (Love on the Nicolai Tower), was produced on the stage. Then followed in quick succession romances (among them the best he ever wrote, such as "Improvisatoren" and "Kun en Spillemand") and dramas, and in 1835 was published the first volume of his fairy tales—those poetical compositions by which, together with his "Billed-bog uden Billeder" (Picture book without pictures) and his "Historier," his old dreams of fame and fortune were to be abundantly realized, for they were at once translated into almost all the languages of the world, and carried Andersen's name to every land on the globe. Not only the children for whom his fairy-tales were primarily written, but also grown people, and that too even in a higher degree, could enjoy these tales, which seemed so easy and natural, but which in reality were the result of the consummate skill of the artist. The fairy tales are unquestionably the flower of Andersen’s poetical compositions, and in this field he certainly has no peer. No other poet can be compared with him in this style of literature. He is always the same Andersen, whether he invents the story himself or borrows it from popular traditions or old ballads, as for instance, in the splendid tale, "Den uartige Dreng" ("The naughty boy"), the materials of which are taken from Anacreon. Even in his last collections, which were published in his old age, we still find the same grace and freshness which had been admired in his earliest works of this kind. A unique kind of literature are his fairy comedies "Mer end Perler og Guld" and "Ole Luköie," which were played in Copenhagen with extraordinary success, and which are very amusing on account of the rapid succession of attractive situations that pass before the spectators. On the other hand he made decided failures in several of his dramatic works, as for instance in "Ahasuerus," and "Agnete og Havmanden," in which he lost all control of his imagination. In many of his other works he has also shown a striking lack of self-criticism, and of artistic command of his materials. Some of his descriptions of travel are very interesting, as for instance, "En Digters Bazar," "I Sverrig," etc. He has given us an attractive and faithful autobiography in his "Mit Livs Eventyr" (The story of my life).[11]
Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1791-1860), a son of Peder Andreas Heiberg, who was mentioned in the preceding chapter, though he most decidedly must be characterized as a romanticist and was on his first appearance strongly influenced by Oehlenschläger, still is in many respects a sharp contrast to the poets already described. For while the latter on the whole abandoned themselves freely to their poetical inspirations, without criticising their own works, Heiberg was in the highest sense reflective, and he severely criticised all his poetical productions. In 1814 he published his first great work, "Marionettheatret," which contained the two romantic dramas, "Don Juan" and "Pottemager Walter" (Potter Walter). The refined and noble diction in these pieces did not fail to attract wide attention. Three years later followed "Dristig vovet, halv er vundet" (Boldly ventured is half the victory), a study from Calderon, of whom Heiberg was so exceedingly fond that he chose him as the subject of his thesis for the degree of doctor; and in the same year he also published a romantic work on the myth about Psyche. His critical bent had already in 1815 vented itself in the above mentioned dramatic satire, "Julespög og Nytaarslöier," in which he rebuked, in a most scathing manner, the vagaries of the romantic school, especially Ingemann's idealistic dramas and the public who were wild with enthusiasm over them. This led to a feud between himself and Grundtvig, who assumed the defence of Ingemann, but was completely vanquished by Heiberg's sharp work: "Ny A B C Bog til Äre, Nytte og Fornöielse for den unge Grundtvig" (New primer in honor of and for the use and amusement of the youth Grundtvig).
After a journey abroad during which he visited his father, who still lived in Paris, he became Lector of Danish language and literature in Kiel, but after a few years he returned to Copenhagen, where the vaudevilles he published made great stir in æsthetical circles. The peculiarity of this kind of plays introduced on the Danish stage by Heiberg consists, as is well known, in the manner in which the words and music are blended into one, but still so that the music is the subordinate element, serving chiefly to give a lyric character to the drama. The models of these light, lively little plays were really taken from the French stage, but in Heiberg's hands the vaudeville was essentially changed and became an entirely new dramatic species, which Heiberg well knew how to use as a means for arousing that taste for local comical element which is peculiar to the very nature of the Danish people. The best among the vaudevilles are: "Kong Salomon og Jörgen Hattemager," "Aprilsnarrene," "Recensenten og Dyret," and "de Uadskillelige," all of which were received with storms of applause on account of the genuine humor in the dialogue and in the couplets, of the charming melodies admirably adapted to the words, and of the really comical characters that occur in the plays. This great enthusiasm for the plays came, however, only from the public at large, which had been entirely captivated, for pretended critics did not fail to direct violent attacks against this new style of drama, but Heiberg utterly vanquished them in his excellent dissertation, "Vaudevillen som dramatisk Kunstart."
Of Heiberg's greater plays, "Elverhöi," is the most remarkable. Here, as well as in "Syvsoverdag," the style of the popular ballad has been applied in a masterly manner for the purpose of increasing the romantic coloring. In the fairy comedy, "Alferne," Tieck's fairy tale, "Die Elfin," has been dramatized with great art and skill. The Aristophanic comedy, "En Sjæl efter Döden" (a soul after death), is a strikingly witty satire on narrowmindedness, with bold indirect sallies against various prominent individuals and the prevailing tendencies in the literature of the period. In addition to many lyric poems and romances, he also wrote the charming cycle of romances called "De Nygifte."
Of all Heiberg's poetical compositions his vaudevilles have had the most influence on the development of Danish literature, and by them he gained his aim, which was to awaken in the people a taste for a local comedy, and thus he created the conditions by which the modern comedy was able to thrive in Denmark. But notwithstanding the high value of his poetical productions Heiberg unquestionably ranks still higher as a writer on æsthetics. From 1827 he edited for many years the weekly paper "Den flyvende Post" (the flying mail), and later the "Intelligensblade," and by the former especially he guided with marked ability, though not without a certain one-sidedness, the æsthetic development of the people. Heiberg was the first to proclaim the Hegelian philosophy in Denmark, both in purely philosophical essays and in connection with his æsthetic criticisms, which, though scattered in a multitude of articles and short papers, still, taken as a whole, constitute a scientific system. His polemical writings against Oehlenschlæger, Grundtvig, Hauch and others are no less thorough and instructive than they are elegant and witty, particularly those which grew out of his dispute with Oehlenschlæger in regard to the latter's tragedy "Væringerne i Miklegaard" (The Varagians in Constantinople). On account of this thorough investigation of important æsthetical questions, they have a value extending far beyond the limits of their own time.
Toward the close of his life, Heiberg devoted himself assiduously to the study of natural sciences, particularly of astronomy, for which he had always had great fondness, and the fruit of this study was a series of interesting essays. In his various relations to the theatre as dramatist, as manager (1849-1856), and as censor, Heiberg exercised an important influence on its development, but the dogmatic obstinacy with which he adhered to his in many respects one-sided æsthetic theories prevented this influence from being altogether a favorable one, notwithstanding his taste and long experience with the stage. In the numerous conflicts in which he was entangled, right was by no means always on his side.[12]
While the poets who were mentioned before Heiberg—excepting Grundtvig, who stands alone in Danish literature—by their very nature belong to the Oehlenschläger school, though each one of them with great originality developed his peculiar shade of the common fundamental color, the following are to be grouped around Heiberg. This spiritual kinship was the closest between the latter and Henrik Hertz (1798-1870), the founder of the new comedy in Denmark. The first greater work from his pen was "Amors Genistreger" (1830), a beautiful, charming comedy in verse. The versification is not only masterly, but it defies imitation. This kind of poetical composition, hovering between the pathetic and the work-a-day element, afforded an excellent arena for sportive grace, and was the field in which Hertz, by the very bent of his genius, must have felt himself most at home. At the same time Hertz also published his celebrated "Gjengangerbreve eller poetiske Epistler fra Paradis" (A Ghost's letters, or epistles from Paradise), a series of rhymed epistles in which he has taken Baggesen as his model in respect to form, but the work is written with such skill and elegance that the disciple may in this case be said to have surpassed his master. The purpose of these letters was to influence the æsthetic tendency of the age, and especially to support Heiberg in his literary controversies with Hauch, Ingemann and others.
In his numerous subsequent poetical works, Hertz made a practical application of the æsthetic theories which he had laid down in his rhymed epistles. The drama was his specialty, and he has produced very excellent things in every branch of theatrical composition. Following in the wake of Heiberg, he wrote admirable vaudevilles, such as "Debatten i Politivennen" (the debate in the Police Friend, a local paper), and "De Fattiges Dyrehave" (a park for the poor). He also wrote comedies, for which the plot was taken from life, such as "Sparekassen" (the savings bank), "Besöget i Kjöbenhavn" (the visit to Copenhagen); plays in which the plots were borrowed from various countries and various ages, such as "Ninon," "Tonietta," "De Deporterede," and others; and finally also romantic plays, "Kong Réné's Datter" and "Svend Dyrings Hus," in the latter of which he not only put on the stage a subject borrowed from the popular ballad, but also adapted the form to that which it originally had in the mediæval compositions; in other words, he produced from the lyric metre of the heroic ballad an exceedingly effective dramatic metre. In the most of his plays, with the exception, perhaps, of his vaudevilles, which, on the whole, are inferior to Heiberg's, Hertz evinces perfect command of the technical methods of the drama and a never failing vein of humor which produces a most excellent effect, especially in those of his dramas which deal with national subjects. In them he presents a crowded gallery of admirably drawn typical characters, which not unfrequently remind us of Holberg's comedies.
Hertz has also written a number of excellent poems, remarkable for their perfect form and interesting contents, a few stories, and two contemporary sketches: "Stemminger og Tilstande" and "Johannes Johnsen."[13]
Frederik Paludan-Müller (1809-76) entered the University of Copenhagen in 1828, together with so large a number of gifted young men (Andersen, etc.), that 1828 has been humorously styled the year of the four great and the twelve small poets. The joke was, upon the whole, sustained by the facts, for the annals of the Copenhagen University can boast of no other year which, like that of 1828, furnished so splendid a galaxy of really poetical talents. But there was a mistake made in the classification of these aspirants, inasmuch as Paludan-Müller was assigned a place among the twelve lesser ones; for it was not long before he surpassed all the others. His poetical works are so rich in thought and have so much intrinsic value, that he must unhesitatingly be regarded as one of the most prominent poets that Denmark has ever produced. The first works that he published, his poetic patriotic romances, and his witty, graceful play, "Kjærligheden ved Hoffet" (love at the court), awakened great expectations in regard to the young author's future productions. Then followed two poems, "Danserinden" and "Amor og Psyche," by which the expectations were raised to a still higher degree. Both these works are peculiarly characteristic of the poet's muse, since both of them revealed clearly and for the first time the two main tendencies of the author's writings. The first of these works is a lyrical epic, in which the religious and ethical element preponderates, while there is also a strong tendency to be satirical, and the plot is taken from real life. In the second the theme is borrowed from an ancient myth; but both present the author's peculiar view of life, and in both the author makes long digressions to discuss realistic details. In both these works the author shows his strength as a lyric poet, a fact which is particularly prominent in his "Amor og Psyche," while in "Danserinden" the most sublime pathos alternates with the most scathing satire. All his later works represent now the one and now the other of these two main tendencies; but the interest widens and deepens, and there is an increasing beauty of form.
The satirical tendency of his muse, directed against his own time, reached its climax in "Adam Homo." It is the fully developed blossom of that bud which is to be found in "Danserinden." The half derisive, half plaintive satire of his early performances is, in "Adam Homo," developed into biting irony. The poet has seen the world in the meantime, and has learned to know humanity — what humanity is, as a rule. What he has seen has filled his soul with disgust and resentment, and in this mood he created his great poem, which is one of the most remarkable that any literature can boast. The poet looks out upon the sea of humanity around him and from the multitude he selects an individual, a very ordinary mortal, and then he shows how his hero, whose intellectual powers are of no mean order, and who might have become something good and useful, from mere human weakness permits the intellectual capital with which Heaven has endowed him to be squandered, and the hero ends as a miserable snob, which does not, however, by any means prevent him from attaining a high social position in the world. As a contrast to this individual, whose career the poet sketches from the cradle to the grave, the author has also introduced a female character of the highest purity and intellectual beauty, refined and charming, and still no less human and real than the hero himself. From an æsthetical standpoint some important objections have been raised against this grand poetical composition, the justice of which objections cannot well be disputed. Thus the whole plan of the poem, the development of "Adam Homo" presented to the reader as a man naturally endowed with good parts and gradually dwindling down into a contemptible wretch, cannot but make a painful and accordingly unæsthetic impression, which gives way to one of unalloyed comicalness only when the hero, after dismissing all his ideals, with a narrow-minded vulgarity becomes satisfied with empty glamour. This is, in fact, the weak point of the poem. The moral indignation with which the poet was filled made him forget in a higher degree than is generally advisable, the important requisite of every poetical work, namely, that it should give pleasure and intellectual recreation. In compensation for this he has drawn a picture of human weakness in all its littleness, with a truthfulness so striking and genuine in many of the details, that no one can read this remarkable work without being compelled, in many ways, to recognize himself. Paludan-Müller knows the human soul so well, and he has succeeded so admirably in creating a typical man of our time, that no sincere reader is able to say: "I thank Thee, O Lord, that I am not like that sinner." Not one of us can say that. The poet brandishes his rod and brings it down without mercy. His "Adam Homo" becomes privy councillor, receives decorations from potentates, and becomes director of a charitable institution for fallen women, while the poor girl whom he has seduced goes to ruin. The poet mercilessly throws aside the screen behind which the hero would fain conceal his moral hideousness, even from his own self, and gives us a most painful picture of humanity, such as it is generally to be found in real life. His love, his enthusiasm for what is good and true, put the scourge into his hand, and the faithfulness with which he constantly keeps his ideal in bold relief, gives a terrible effect to his blows. Rarely has any poem welled forth from such depths of sincere pain and grief as "Adam Homo."
In this poem the religious-ethical element is by far more prominent than in "Danserinden," in which it appeared for the first time. Later the poet frequently employed it again and it forms the basis of several of his best works, such as "Abels Död" (Abel's Death), "Benedikt fra Nursia," "Paradiset," "Ahasverus," and "Kalænus." The last named work is profoundly conceived and executed in a grander style than the most of his other works. The poet here represents the Greek intellectual life with its exclusive love of beauty, and contrasts it with the speculative Indian mysticism, with the latter's hazy yet far more ambitious ideals, and then he impersonates both these essentially different and utterly irreconcilable views of life, the Greek by the world-conquering Alexander, and the Indian by the sage Kalænus, who is solely in quest of God. The latter enthusiastically meets the Greek hero as the divinity whom he has so long been expecting, but by degrees he perceives that he has been taking appearances for reality, and he expiates his error by immolating himself on an altar to the God whom he has offended. The sage is really a sublime figure, and Alexander is also represented in a manner no less magnificent or charming. With matchless art and skill the poet has succeeded in drawing truthful and striking pictures from both the worlds which have come into conflict, and as both the principal figures are right from his stand-point, the effect is necessarily a very tragical one. A strikingly brilliant halo of beauty had been thrown around the heroic figure of Alexander and around the life of which it is the centre.
Of Paludan-Müller's works, that owe their origin to the other main tendency of his poetry, and which deal with ancient mythology, the best in addition to his "Amor and Psyche" are "Venus," "Tithon" and "Dryadens Bryllup" (the wedding of the dryad). All his works in this field are clothed in the dramatic form; the only exception being the small lyric epic "Adonis," which was written a short time before the author's death. Though this class of Paludan-Müller's works are not equal in depth and solidity to his other productions, still they are very attractive on account of their refined and pregnant diction, and on account of the sublime lyric vein pervading them.
We also have a number of poems and poetical tales from the pen of Paludan-Müller ("Zuleimas Flugt," "Slaven," "Vestalinden," etc.), the latter of which are distinguished more by the purity and elegance of their form, than by anything very striking in their contents. They remind one of similar compositions by Byron, with whom Paludan-Müller had much in common.
All the above mentioned works by Paludan-Müller are written in verse. He had a rare facility of versification and well understood how to adapt the poetical form in a most pleasing manner to the various requirements of the contents. He left behind him only two prose works and these date from his riper years. The one is an allegorical fairy tale "Ungdomskilden," (the well of youth), and the other a very discursive social novel, "Ivar Lykkes Historie," which forms a contrast to Adam Homo, inasmuch as in Ivar Lykke he represents the better aspect of his age, while in Adam Homo we have only the ugly features.[14]
The most important female writer of this period is Thomasine Christine Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd (1773-1856). When still very young she was married to Peder Andreas Heiberg, and Johan Ludvig was their son. When her husband was banished, she contracted a new marriage with the Swedish Baron Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd, who, as a participator in the conspiracy against Gustaf III, had been exiled from Sweden, and resided in Denmark. In daily intercourse with the most intellectual men of the time, she acquired much culture and an unusually refined æsthetic taste, and being in possession of a remarkable poetical talent, a fact abundantly shown by her writings, it is rather strange that she did not make her literary début before she was fifty-three years old. It was the novel "Familien Polonius," which half for sport and anonymously she permitted to be printed in the journal edited by her son, "Flyvende Post," but her work met with such signal success that the author was encouraged to continue to write. She at the same time continued to write anonymously and assumed the nom de plume, "Forf. af en Hverdagshistorie" (the author of an every-day story), from the title of one of her most successful works. The subjects of her numerous novels have been taken almost exclusively from everyday life, the various doings of which, in all classes of society, she had had excellent opportunities to observe through a long life rich in personal experiences. Her refined intellectual culture, her natural amiability, her harmonious and humane view of life, which in many respects probably bears the stamp of the close of the eighteenth century, the time when she attained her intellectual maturity,—all impart to these pictures of life a strange charm. If to this we add her masterly style and careful and striking delineation of character, we easily understand why her works attained such wide popularity. To her best tales in addition to "En Hverdagshistorie" belong also "Dröm og Virkelighed" (dream and reality), "To Tidsaldre" (two generations), and "Extremerne." The author attempted several times to put her materials in a dramatic dress, but did not succeed.[15]
Nicolai de Saint Aubain (1798-1865), known as author only by the pseudonym Carl Bernhard, was a nephew of Baroness Gyllembourg and thus a cousin of Heiberg. He, too, made his first modest attempt in the "Flyvende Post," and succeeding beyond all expectation, he henceforth devoted himself with great ardor to literary work. He did not possess the great talents which belonged to his aunt, and his work does not come up to her standard of excellence. Still, we always find in his tales a skilfully selected plot, developed in an easy elegant manner, and carried forward through interesting situations to a satisfactory conclusion. This, together with his lively and tasteful style, makes his works a very attractive and charming reading. Of his many novels, in which the plot is taken from modern daily life, his "Lykkens Yndling" (Fortune's favorite) and "To Venner" (two friends) had the greatest success, and of his historical novels the most remarkable are "Gamle Minder" (Old recollections) from the times of Struense and Queen Carolina Mathilde; "Kröniker fra Erik af Pomerens Tid" (Chronicles from the time of Erik of Pomerania), and "Kröniker fra Christian den Andens Tid" (Chronicles from the time of Christian II).[16]
From this sketch of modern Danish poetical literature it appears that it attained an uncommonly rich development after Oehlenschläger had appeared and spoken the emancipating word which broke the magic bonds that had fettered the intellectual powers of the nation. And yet we have given only the most important names. The intellectual life was thriving to an almost incredible degree, and almost every day brought forth a new poet. Many of them lived to be sure only an ephemeral life in the literature, but in addition to those already mentioned, there were still many who became known and deserve recognition from the fact that they expressed from their own point of view certain sides of the aesthetic culture of the period. We shall name the most important ones among them.
Emil Aarestrup (1800-56) was a remarkable lyrical talent, whose glowing erotic poems betray an intellectual kinship now with Chr. Winther, and now with Heine, yet his productions always bear the unmistakable stamp of the peculiar individuality of the author. One of the main features of his poetry is a strongly marked sensuality—and in this he goes further than any other poet of his time—and a vigorous bold humor that is sprinkled through his verses. To this he adds a rare talent for producing a very effective picture in a few words, and in general for handling the language in a masterly manner. It is a striking proof of how the times were surfeited with the æsthetic productions which the close of the first half of the present century poured forth, that the volumes of poems published in 1838 by Aarestrup hardly received any notice. He was discovered as it were after his death, and not until then did he receive the recognition due to him.
Ludvig Bödtcher (1793-1874) was also a peculiarly gifted lyric poet. His talent was not very comprehensive, but what he sang had a full, pure tone, and his songs were always clothed in a beautiful form. As a very young man he repeatedly published poems, and this he continued to do from time to time to the close of his life, always preserving his intellectual freshness and enjoying life. Though all his poems are contained in one small volume, still the latter may be said to contain only gems. Bödtcher's poems are chiefly erotic. One of their main traits is a quiet, gentle enjoyment of life, though he is at times exuberant and sparkling. His love of existence reveals itself in a tender feeling for all that is beautiful and good in life, and in a remarkably refined taste for the beauties of nature. He had lived many years in Italy, and reminiscences of his sojourn there are found in his poems. The themes of some of his finest poems are taken from Italy.
Carl Bagger (1807-46) did not, on account of unfortunate circumstances, attain the full development of his fine talents, whose originality and freshness are most brilliantly revealed in several exquisite poems of his youth, though they are not always free from a certain rhetorical bombast. His chief work, "Min Broders Levned" (My brother's life), a novel written after a French pattern, is in part autobiographical. On this account the book acquires a greater interest than its merits would otherwise give it.
Hans Peter Holst (born 1811) first attracted the general attention of the public by a short poem written in 1839, in the memory of Frederik VI, soon after the death of the king, and which he expressed in a simple and impressive manner the sorrows of the whole people. Much popularity was also attained by his cycle of romances, "Den lille Hornblæser" (The little trumpeter), which in a plain and direct manner presents episodes from the war of 1848-50. In addition to a number of poems and sympathetic pictures from the south, he has also written a series of tales in verse, "Fra min Ungdom" (From my Youth).
Among less important names the following are yet to be mentioned: Thomas Overskou (1798-1873), who gained much reputation as a writer of plays. They have this in common with the plays of Herz—to which they are not, however, equal—that they are based on the national dramatic foundation laid by Heiberg in his vaudevilles. His great work, "Den danske Skueplads; dens Historie fra de förste Spor af danske Skuespil indtil vor Tid" (The Danish Theater and its history from the earliest traces of Danish plays down to our time), is a production of great value. Caspar Johannes Boye (1791-1853) is mainly known as the author of dramas, among which are "Juta" and "William Shakespeare," but he also wrote very charming, both secular and sacred, songs. Just Mathias Thiele (1795-1874) wrote a detailed and valuable life of Thorwaldsen and edited important collections of Danish popular legends. Two works in which he gives an account of his own life, "Erindringer fra Bakhehuset," that is, Rahbek's dwelling, and "Af mit Livs Aarböger," contain important contributions to the history of the culture of his time. His dramatic and lyric works are, however, of but slight value. Of the many works of the talented poet Franz Johannes HansenJust Mathias Thiele (1810-52) the novel "Let Sind og Letsind" (A light mind and lightmindedness) is the most successful. During the fourth decade of the century Hans Peter Koefoed Hansen (born 1813) wrote under the pseudonym Jean Pierre several theological and philosophical dissertations and the tales, "Liv og Död" (Life and death) and Kjöd og Aand" (Flesh and Spirit), which are strongly influenced by the religious and philosophical agitations of the age and betray a certain spiritual affinity to Kjerkegaard. After a silence of many years he again appeared in 1875 with a long novel "Livslænker" (Fetters of Life). Peter Ludvig Möller (1814-65) published talented works of criticism and a few volumes of lyric poems, which have some value, though they show more thought and æsthetic taste than any richly flowing vein of poetry. Paul Chievitz (1817-54) was a conspicuous comical talent, which sometimes, however, was rather crude in regard to form. He also wrote both novels and dramas, and his best and most widely known work is the novel "Fra Gaden" (From the street).[17]
Toward the middle of the century this plethora of poets began to decrease. Poetry, which up to that time had played a very prominent part, began to recede somewhat into the background. The spirit of freedom gradually absorbed all powers and interests, and though people still liked to hear the old well known voices, still the unmistakable change in the tendencies of the age revealed the fact that the number of new poets was considerably diminished. In Parmo Karl Ploug (born 1813) editor of the daily paper "Faedrelandet," we meet with a very characteristic combination of the poet and the new practical ideas which had such great influence on the younger generation. From his youth he was a strenuous advocate of Scandinavianism and of liberal progressive ideas, and for these he fought both in his songs and in the paper which he edited. He began his literary career as a writer of songs for the students, for whom he wrote a number of witty and graceful poems. They were originally intended simply for the narrow circle of his comrades, but on account of their peculiar power and freshness they soon found their way to the people. In several dramatic works ("Attelaner") overflowing with wanton humor, he poured forth a most telling satire on the political and literary conditions of his time. It was not long before he became the bard of the whole people, and for many years his mighty voice was heard on every great national event whether of joy or sorrow. Many of his best poems are associated with certain definite occasions, and the most of them are the poetical expression of the vital ideas of the times, but they all, whether relating to a certain occasion or not, are marked by a peculiarly powerful style, and contain the finest poetical sentiments.[18]
Jens Christian Hostrup (born 1818), like Ploug, proceeded from the circle of university students for whom he wrote songs brimful of youthful buoyancy. Soon he also wrote comedies, amusing operettas, which at first were played with great success at the Students' Union, but which also reached the public at large, and by his comedy "Gjenboerne" he at once became the favorite of all classes. This piece was soon followed by a series of others, some of them short, merry vaudevilles, "Intrigerne," and "Soldaterlöier," and other operas, "En Spurv i Tranedans," "Mester og Lærling," "Eventyr paa Fodreisen," and all are brimful of bright, harmless fun, while some of them do not lack a serious background. In the text are inserted excellent songs sung to most charming airs, so that his plays are of the most amusing and popular to be found on the Danish stage. They continue to be represented with great applause in all the leading theaters in the country. In addition to these dramatical works, Hostrup has written a number of merry, beautiful songs and graceful lyric poems, among which his patriotic hymns are marked by a rare sublimity of style. In 1855 he became a preacher. Since that time he has but seldom been heard from and then always in simple lyric poems, yet these always contain the same freshness of thought and forms, and the same genial warmth of feeling and sentiment as his earlier productions.[19]
Christian Richardt (born 1831) has written a number of excellent poems that show strong and deep feeling. The form of his verses is frequently very original, but always exceedingly elegant. When he abandons the lyrical field, as for instance in his fairy tale "Tornerose," and the biblical poem of Judith, he assumes a task beyond his strength, though he has given many proofs of his poetical powers in these works. His recently published lyrical drama "Drot og Marsk," (King—Erik Slipping—and Marshal—Stig) is an exception. In this drama he had a fine opportunity of displaying his great talents, and he has succeeded in imparting to the varying mood a splendid and characteristic expression.[20]
Hans Wilhelm Kaalund (born 1818) published in 1858 a collection of poems under the title "Et Foraar" (a spring), which was very well received. It is not very comprehensive, but what it contains is full of grace and harmony. His poems are excellent, and so are his animal fables, for which he seems to be endowed with exceptionally fine talents, while he at the same time knows how to paint scenes from human life in a no less attractive form. Before the above volume of poems appeared, he had repeatedly tried his hand in various kinds of poetical composition, but without success. His epic "Kong Halfdan den Stærke," as well as his dramatic work "Valkyrien Göndul," betrayed an utter lack of self-criticism. It is all the more surprising that Kaalund is the author of the excellent play "Fulvia," recently published, the plot of which is laid in the times of the early Christians. In a series of effective scenes he has here given us a graphic picture of the struggle between Christianity and the heathen faith. The drama is largely lyric in its character, and this fact makes it less adapted for the stage. Since the above mentioned volume of poems he has from time to time published single poems, which are in every way equal to the former ones.[21]
Erik Bögh (born 1822) is a very peculiar genius who has acquired a remarkable command of the chit-chat style in "feuilletons," in lectures, and in light stories. His numerous poems, of which some are very popular, always contain something racy, though they are usually very ordinary as to contents. He is also master in the art of localizing foreign vaudevilles, which under his hand receive an entirely new stamp. Of the plays which he has himself written, "Fastelavnsgildet," a most exquisite comedy, is the best.[22]
Christian Knud Frederik Molbech (born 1821) has collected his youthful, poetic compositions into two volumes, which, in addition to a number of lyric poems and romances, (among them "Billeder af Jesu Liv"), also contain a few dramatic compositions and among them "Dante." All these works show great mastership of form, but do not betray any rare poetical gifts. The more surprising it is that Molbech has recently produced the drama, "Ambrosius," which is a most charming work both on account of its characters, which are drawn with a steady hand, and on account of the beautiful and poetic style in which it is written. The main figure in the play is the poet Ambrosius Stub. By this drama Molbech's genius seems to have broken entirely new ground. His faithful and elegant translation of Dante's Divina Comedia is an excellent work, and together with the translations of Shakespeare by Foerson (1777-1817), of Homer and Euripides by Wilster (1797-1840), and of Shakespeare and a part of Byron by Lembcke (born 1815), it is the best of what has hitherto been translated from the foreign classics into Danish.[23]
Christian Arentzen (born 1823) is to be mentioned less on account of his poetical productions than on account of his really valuable work on Baggesen and Oehlenschläger.
Among the prose writers of recent times, the two pseudonyms, P. P. and Carit Etlar, have addressed themselves to the public at large, and must be regarded as popular writers in the best sense of that word. The former, Theodor Wilhelm Rumohr (born 1807), has published a number of novels, mostly treating of popular heroes, such as Tordenskjold, Niels Juel and others, and presenting faithful, vivid pictures of the same. These books have had a very wide circulation, and have contributed much to awakening among the people a taste for national history. The latter, Johan Carl Christian Brosböll (born 1820), describes in his numerous tales episodes from Danish history, or scenes from the popular life of Jutland, with which he is almost as familiar as Blicher, and thus he may in one sense be regarded as his successor. He has a lively, sometimes even an unbridled, imagination, and a fresh and fluent style which makes his works both attractive and amusing. His most successful works are a series of descriptions from the middle of the seventeenth century, when Denmark was threatened with the Swedish yoke. Among these are "Dronningens Vagtmester" and "Gjöngehövdingen" (the chief of the Gjonges), a small clan in northern Scania. He has also written several sketches of modern life with its social conflicts, but in these he has not been successful.[24]
An author of great merit is Meyer Aaron Goldschmidt (a Jew by birth, born 1819). Already in his early youth he became conspicuous and feared as the editor of the satirical weekly paper, "Corsaren" (1840-46), by his witty and incisive articles which, as the champion of liberal ideas, he directed against the waning absolutism of the time, and whereby he frequently came into collision with the authorities. In the periodicals which he afterward edited, "Nord og Syd" and "Ude og Hjemme," he was less polemical, but in his articles, all written with sparkling humor and refined elegance, he remained faithful to the cause of freedom and nationality. In so doing he occupied an entirely individual standpoint, which often involved him in violent conflicts with the leaders of the national liberal party. As the author of novels and tales, Goldschmidt has achieved even more than by his great journalistic activity. He has no superior in his command of language, and his style is pure and elegant in an unusual degree. At the same time the author's deep psychological insight and his gift of seizing the most interesting details and of rendering them in a striking, graceful manner lends to his work a rare charm. His great talent is shown to best advantage when he treats of Jewish affairs. In this line he has created real masterpieces, such as "En Jöde," "Ravnen," "Maser," and others. In his descriptions of nature and popular life, found as episodes in his larger works, for instance in his novel, "Hjemlös" (Homeless), or in independent tales, he has the art of charming by means of his keen observation and poetical interpretation of the facts. On the other hand he lacks genuine dramatic talent, though his works in this field are not wholly without interest, for his deep psychological insight is seen in the characters he sketches. In 1877 he published an autobiography, entitled "Livserindringer og Resultater." These results give his views of life and existence, gained by his philosophical and mythological studies carried on for a long series of years. He has made a special study of Egyptian mythology.[25]
Herman Frederik Ewald (born 1821) published his first book, "Waldemar Krones Ungdomshistorie," in 1859. It is a well executed picture of modern life, and was followed by several similar stories, "Johannes Falk," "Familien Nordby," "Hvad Ellen vilde," in all of which the author gave abundant proof of his skill as a character painter. In later times he has devoted himself to the historical novel, and produced many creditable works in this field, among which we may mention "Svenskerne paa Kronborg," "Den skotske Kvinde paa Tjele," etc. What gives these books a particularly high value is the fact that Ewald studies with great care the epoch to which his story belongs, and then faithfully utilizes the results gained, and thus his novels are important as pictures containing the history of culture.[26]
Thomas Lange (born 1829) has a rare talent for describing nature, especially in its wild and grand aspects, and for bringing nature and man into such a relation to each other that they seem mutually to call for and explain each other. His greatest work is "Aaen og Havet" (the river and the sea).[27]
Wilhelm Bergsöe (born 1835) was originally a naturalist, but on account of the weakness of his eyes he was compelled to abandon this study. He employed his involuntary leisure in the composition of novels, and being in possession of a lively fancy and powerful descriptive faculties, his stories were received with boundless favor. His most popular works are: "Fra Piazza del Populo," "Fra den gamle Fabrik," and "Bruden fra Rörvig." His poems, which in form are without blemish, are inferior to his tales in intrinsic value.[28]
The authors who have hitherto been mentioned in this chapter, many of whom are still living and at the zenith of their productive power, form, notwithstanding their dissimilarity as regards details, essentially one group, owing their origin to the romantic tendency in literature, and representing an ideal view of life and art. The realistic element is surely not altogether lacking in the Danish æsthetic literature of the first half of the nineteenth century, though it is not conspicuous in the beginning of that literary epoch, and several poets, Paludan-Müller, Blicher and others, draw very decidedly on real life, which they possessed the gift of painting both vividly and faithfully. But behind these pictures of reality there is almost always concealed a marked ideal conception of life, and the former are used, directly or indirectly, only for the purpose of satire, to pave the way, so to speak, for the ideal. The climax of the ideal tendency in Danish literature was reached during the first four decades of this century; during the following decades it gradually decreased, and during the last decade scarcely a single representative of the ideal tendency has been added. With the exception of the few writers who had already conquered for themselves a position in literature and continued their activity, and excepting the young poet, Ernst von der Recke, who in a series of dramatic works had shown eminent dramatic talents, all the rest that was produced in this latter period was extremely weak and sapless, in fact, an epigoni-literature, of which the bulk was ladies' novels. In recent times the aesthetic literature has again been awakened to a new life, but its productions have an essentially different character from the idealism of the preceding period, being very intimately connected with that powerful realistic tide which, during the last decades, has almost flooded the general literature of the civilized world. It endeavors, in a much higher degree than ever before, to approach reality and to describe it, either for its own sake or with a view of preparing the way to tendencies and views which are diametrically opposed to the old, idealistic views of life. This movement came to Denmark as a result of the social and religious agitations with which it is everywhere intimately connected. In Denmark, Georg Brandes (born 1842) was the first to champion the modern radical ideas, whose claims he advocated with great enthusiasm and talent, though he can hardly be acquitted from the reproach of a blind one-sidedness and a passion which have provoked much bitterness and discord. By his historical and critical works on literature, in which he has chiefly adopted Taine as his model, he has contributed vastly to drawing the attention of the Danish people to the literary movements in Europe and making the Danes feel the need of spiritual intercourse with the outside world and so to emerge from the intellectual stagnation which had fallen on Denmark. This realistic tide would, of course, sooner or later have reached Denmark, even if Brandes had not been, and yet the fact that realism has already acquired so great prominence in Denmark must, in a great measure, be ascribed to him, though the events and movements in the world generally during the last decades may also have had their share in bringing about this result.
One of the most eminent representatives of the new tendency is Holger Drachmann. Already his earliest poems, in which he appeared as a champion of radicalism in literature, made a great sensation, and the friends of this tendency greeted the new phenomenon with an enthusiasm hardly warranted by the intrinsic value of the poems. They were followed by other works in prose and in verse, published in rapid succession and in great numbers, all of which give evidence of a fertile imagination and of a rare gift of drawing pictures from life. His productions are deeply impressed with the stamp of reality, while they are at the same time highly colored by the author's keen eye for observing every element of poetry. Such is especially the case when he describes the sea, which he is particularly fond of doing. No other Danish poet has ever equalled Drachmann in painting the ever-changing aspects of the sea. He may be said to have conquered this domain of poetry. His original profession is painting, and his speciality is marine views, and this has unquestionably been of great service to him in his poetry. And never before—when we except Blicher—has Danish popular life been painted with so great poetic effect as in the sketches made by Drachmann from the life of the Danish fishermen and sailors. His talent produces the most splendid results in his lyric poems, in which he frequently reaches a high degree of perfection in his command of language, and in his shorter stories, "Paa Sömands Tro og Love" and "Ungt Blod." His series of sketches "Derovre fra Grændsen," of which several editions appeared in rapid succession, has become exceedingly popular. In these the poet eloquently and graphically describes the heroic endurance of the Danish soldiers and the depressed condition of the neighboring population during the siege of Düppel. In his long stories, such as "En Overcomplet" and "Tannhäuser" we find many exquisite passages, but Drachmann lacks the ability to manage properly works undertaken on a great scale. In his former works he has shown a marked predilection for the realistic school, but recently, in a phantastic composition, "Prindsessen og det halve Kongerige" (the princess and half the kingdom), he has turned decidedly to the romantic school. The future will show whether this is a mere caprice or whether the poet means to continue in this field.
Sophus Schandorph originally belonged essentially to the old school, but in his published poems appear symptoms of inward struggle, which finally led to a rupture with the old principles. He has now completely embraced the new tendency, as is seen by his recent prose works, especially the story "Uden Midtpunkt" (without centre). In this work he exposes, with a keen faculty of observation and with great satirical humor, the weaknesses of the times, particularly as they are to be found in Denmark.
The pseudonym "author of Jason with the golden fleece," as he styles himself after his first book, has assumed the task of portraying the wrongs of his own time, and in this work he has had marked success in his "Nutidsbilleder," which are written with spirit and ability.
One of the most important works of the new school, one in which the leading principles are prominently set forth, is Jacobsen's "Fru Marie Grubbe," which is a series of loosely connected sketches from the seventeenth century. They consist in historical pictures drawn from life, written with a rare command of language, and distinguished by their truthfulness in regard to the historical details and by a subtle psychological insight. The book is exceedingly entertaining, though it contains little or nothing of what has hitherto been regarded as poetry.[29]
In this chapter we have thus far occupied ourselves exclusively with the modern æsthetical literature, which in the beginning of this century assumed unprecedented proportions. Meanwhile there was no less activity in the other domains of thought, and in no previous epoch has there been achieved so much in all directions as during the last fifty years. A detailed account of all this grand activity would lead us far beyond our present limits, and we will, therefore, content ourselves with brief notices of the most eminent writers in each department of research.
Jacob Peter Mynster (1775-1850) was one of Denmark's greatest theologians. He, too, like so many other young men, had been powerfully impressed and strongly influenced by Steffens' teachings. By his great eloquence he was the first to champion a more sound development of the religious life, which in the beginning of this century was still fettered by the chains of rationalism. He was not a controversialist like Grundtvig, but still his influence on the character and tendency of the religious agitations was of great importance, for his vast learning, his profound knowledge of human nature and his commanding intellect lent an extraordinary weight to his words. By his writings and addresses he labored with indefatigable zeal for the advancement of religious life, filling in the meantime various high positions in the church. In 1834 he was made bishop of Zealand. Among his published works his brilliant "Betragtninger over de christelige Troeslærdomme" (Meditations on the tenets of the Christian faith) deserves particularly to be mentioned.
Henrik Nikolai Clausen (1793-1877) is an important representative of the critical tendency within the domain of theology. By his first great work "Katholicismens og Protestantismens Kirkeforfatning," he drew upon himself the above mentioned violent attacks from the pen of Grundtvig. His later works, all of which are marked by great clearness and keen analysis, are chiefly devoted to historical criticism. Of no slight importance to the history of his time is his "Optegnelser om mit Levneds og min Tids Historie" (Memoranda from the history of my life and of my time). It furnishes valuable information not only concerning the political life in which the author took a prominent part, but also in regard to the religious and ecclesiastical movement in Denmark. His works contain many valuable facts for a thorough understanding of the intellectual movements of his time.
Hans Lassen Martensen (born 1808), bishop of Zealand, has attained a celebrity extending far beyond the limits of Denmark by his very important works "Den christelige Dogmatik" and "Den christelige Ethik." His work on ethics contains not only a wealth of great theological learning in a form intelligible even to the layman, but also the results of mature reflections concerning all the relations of life viewed from a Christian standpoint.[30]
In the works of these three authors there is a marked philosophical element, but still they are decidedly theologians. But Sören Aaby Kjérkegaard (1813-1855), the greatest thinker Denmark ever produced, must be looked upon as the connecting link between theology and philosophy. Religion was almost exclusively the object of his researches, yet it was not the dogmatic details, but the fundamental principles of Christianity, on which he wrote, and which he conceived in a most striking and original manner. The religious view which he advocates in his numerous works, form a decided contrast to that presented in the religious works of other authors. According to strictly logical methods he sets forth the absolutely ideal claims of Christianity, and in this respect he is a most remarkable parallel to Feuerbach. But while the tenets of the latter lead the reader away from Christianity, Kjerkegaard most emphatically leads him to it. According to him Christianity is a paradox, that is to say, objectively considered it is an absurdity, which is of value only to the religious consciousness. To the reason it is a source of vexation, and to faith it is an object of passion. Life in faith is, therefore, according to Kjerkegaard, exclusively a union between God and "individuals" (one of his characteristic expressions). Of life in the Christian community he has not only no appreciation, but he even assumes an almost hostile attitude to it. When bishop Martensen, after Mynster's death, called the latter "a witness of truth" Kjerkegaard's attacks on the "official" Christianity assumed a more and more violent character. According to Kjerkegaard, official Christianity was glaringly opposed to that "imitation of Christ," which he demanded, and which in his estimation had nothing in common with the former, for the existing Christendom is a union of Christianity and the world, whereby the former is expelled, while real Christianity means a renunciation of the world." In his pamphlet "Öieblikket" (the Moment), the last of his very numerous works, the violence of his attacks on the official Christianity reaches its climax. His literary activity began with the philosophical dissertation "Om Begrebet Ironi" (On the idea of irony), then followed two works "Enten — Eller" (Either — Or), and "Stadier paa Livets Vei" (Stations on the path of life), in which the æsthetical and ethical points of view are contrasted with the Christian. In several works published under various signatures he developed his own peculiar conception of Christianity in its various relations. The most remarkable of these are probably "Afsluttende, uvidenskabelig Efterskrift," "Indövelse i Kristendom," and "Til Selvprövelse." All his works are distinguished for their refined and brilliant dialectics combined with passionate enthusiasm for the maintainance of Christianity as the "gospel of suffering." His style is noble, full of poetic sentiment, and very eloquent, though it is not always perfectly clear. His writings exercised a powerful influence upon his contemporaries and sowed in many souls the seeds of true religion.[31]
Frederik Christian Sibbern (1785-1872) was from 1813 until a few years before his death professor of philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, and exercised in the capacity of instructor a great influence on the successive generations of students. He accomplished more as a teacher than as an author, though his numerous philosophical works were not without influence on his contemporaries. The most important of his works are: a dissertation "Om Poesie og Kunst," and the Utopian romance, "Meddelelser af Indholdet af et Skrift fra Aaret 2135 (the contents of a manuscript from the year 2135), in which he gives us in a succinct manner his religious and social ideas. In his philosophy he was essentially influenced by Schelling, and he never rose to the production of an independent system. In Sibbern imagination and feeling overbalanced reflection. His poetical compositions, "Udaf Gabrielis Breve til og fra Hjemmet" and "Efterladte Breve af Gabrielis," are of a more solid character than his philosophical works.
Rasmus Nielsen (born 1809), professor of philosophy, following in Kjerkegaard's footsteps, began in 1849 a struggle against theology as a science, a struggle which he has continued to the present time, maintaining that faith and science, though legitimate contrasts, are absolutely irreconcilable. One of his peculiarities is his effort to obtain a thorough knowledge of the sciences in order to bring them into a definite relation to his philosophical system. Instead of losing himself in abstract metaphysical speculations, he turns to the experimental sciences in order to get the means for testing the results of philosophical deductions. His chief works are "Grundideernes Logik" (of which two volumes have been published) and "Natur og Aand," in which he develops his views of philosophy and nature. He has also written a great number of books and dissertations, partly purely scientific and partly popular in form. In all his writings as also in his professional lectures he is exceedingly eloquent.
A decided opponent of Nielsen's conception of the religious principle was Hans Bröchner (1820-76), professor of philosophy in the University of Copenhagen. Still he did not take the side of the theologians, but he may rather he said to have exercised a subtle negative criticism not upon theological views of Christianity, but also upon Christianity itself. He has made very valuable contributions to the history of philosophy, among which are his "Benedikt Spinoza," "Philosophiens historiske Udvikling," and "Philosophiens Historie i Grundrids."[32]
In the domain of natural sciences we must, above all, mention Hans Christian Oersted (1771-1851) the discoverer of electro-magnetism and the author of many valuable works on physics. His views concerning the philosophy of nature he has developed in a brilliant and attractive work, "Aanden i Naturen" (The soul in Nature). The following are also to be mentioned: the botanist, Joachim Frederik Schouw (1789-1852); the geologist and chemist, Johan Georg Forchhammer (1794-1864), and the zoölogist, Japetus Steenstrup (born 1813), who also has distinguished himself in archæology to which he has been led by his palæontological studies.[33]
The study of antiquities acquired from the beginning of the present century a grand development, partly from the fact that the national feeling was strengthened, and partly in consequence of the enthusiasm which Oehlenschläger's writings had aroused for the ancient times of the North. Among the men whose activity contributed most to advance this science the following are especially to be mentioned: Peter Erasmus Müller (1776-1834), a compiler and editor of antiquarian works. In his "Sagabibliothek" he gives a critical exposition of the whole saga literature. He made a careful examination of the chronicles of Saxo and Snorre, and edited a fine edition of Saxo. The works of the Icelander Finn Magnusson (1781-1846) present the mythology and early history of the North with great learning. He also edited the Elder Edda in the original text and in a Danish translation. Niels Mathias Petersen (1781-1862) did much excellent work in the field of linguistics and the history of literature, and his "Det Danske, norske og svenske Sprogs Historie" and "Bidrag til den danske Literaturs Historie" are works of great merit. He also made faithful and elegant translations of different sagas, and among his historical writings we would call special attention to his "Danmarks Historie i Hedenold." Christian Thomsen (1788-1865) advanced in a very effective and practical manner the study of archæology, and the care which he bestowed on the great collection of antiquities which he superintended can hardly be overestimated. As a writer he was not remarkable, and still it should be remembered that it was his little work, "Ledetraad til nordisk Oldkyndighed," which laid the foundation of a systematic study of northern antiquities. Jens Worsaae, (born 1821) by his numerous and excellent archæological and historical works has contributed much to the eminence which antiquarian studies have attained in a comparatively short time. Among his historical works the most remarkable is "De Danskes Erobring af England og Normandiet" (The conquest of England and Normandy by the Danes).[34]
In the department of history we have to mention Erik Christian Werlauff (1781-1871), who in numerous works, particularly in his "Historiske Antegnelser til Holbergs Lystspil," has given us important contributions to the history of Danish culture, and Christian Molbech (1783-1837), who developed a literary activity of rare wealth. The first real historian of Denmark (Holberg excepted) was Karl Ferdinand Allen (1811-1872), who combined a comprehensive historical knowledge with an excellent talent for its exposition. His great work, which unfortunately was not completed, "De tre nordiske Rigers Historie under Hans, Christjern II, Frederik I, Gustav Vasa og Grevefeiden, 1497-1537," is a masterpiece. The works of Frederik Schjern (born 1816), though not very voluminous, are equally excellent, both as to style and contents. A large work by him "Europas Folkestammer," has not been completed. The works of Caspar Peter Paludan-Müller, "Grevens Feide," and "De förste Konger af den oldenborgske Slægt," have considerable historical value.[35]
The study of languages has been pursued with marked success in connection with the archæological researches. In this field the above mentioned Christian Molbech distinguished himself by his great lexicographical works, "Dansk Ordbog," "Dansk Dialektlexikon," etc. We have already mentioned N. M. Petersen as the author of many valuable linguistic works. But the most distinguished scholar in this field is Rasmus Christian Rask (1787-1831). By his prize essay on the Old Norse or Icelandic language, by his Icelandic grammar and other works, he laid the foundation of a comprehensive and systematic study of this old language. His extraordinary linguistic talent is also demonstrated by the fact that he is one of the founders of modern comparative philology.[36]
In classical philology Johan Nicolai Madvig (born 1804) has attained a world-wide reputation.
- ↑ The life of Christ annually repeated in nature.
- ↑ Oehlenschläger's Poetiske Skrifter, edited by F. L. Liebenberg, I-XXXII, Copenhagen, 1857-62. Erindringer, I- IV, Copenhagen, 1850-51. C. L. N. Mynster: Mindeblade om Oehlenschläger og hans Kreds, Copenhagen, 1879. Kr. Arentzen: Adam Oehlenschläger, Copenhagen, 1879. Kr. Arentzen: Baggesen og Oehlenschläger, I-VIII, Copenhagen, 1870-78. Ersch und Gruber Allg, Encykl. I, Section XXIX. Fr. Horn: Umrisse zur Geschichte und Kritik der schönen Literatur Deutschlands, 1799-1818, Berlin, 1819.
- ↑ Schack Staffeldts samlede Digte, I-II, edited by F. L. Liebenberg, Copenhagen, 1843. Samlinger till Schack Staffeldts Levnet, edited by F. L. Liebenberg, I-IV, Copenhagen, 1846-51.
- ↑ N. F. S. Grundtvig: Digte, a selection by S. Grundtvig, Copenhagen, 1869. Kirkelig og folkelig Digtning, Copenhagen, 1870. Optrin af Nordens Kæmpeliv, Copenhagen, 1861. Salmer og aandelige Sange, I-IV, Copenhagen, 1873-1875. Roskilde-Rim, Copenhagen, 1814. Roskilde-Saga, 1814. Kvædlinger, Copenhagen, 1815. Nordens Mythologi, Copenhagen, 1808. Nordens Mythologi eller Sindbilledsprog, Copenhagen, 1839. Haandbog i Verdenshistorien, I-III (1833-34) Copenhagen, 1862-1869. Kirkespeil eller Udsigt over den christne Menigheds Levnedslöb, Copenhagen, 1871. Bragesnak over græske og nordiske Myter og Oldsagn (1844), Copenhagen, 1876. Mands Minde, 1788-1838, Copenhagen, 1877. Smaaskrifter om den historiske Höiskole, Copenhagen, 1872. Ersch und Gruber Allg. Encykl, I, Section XXIX. Dr. Julius Kaftan: Grundtvig, der Profet des Nordens, Basel, 1877.
- ↑ B. S. Ingemanns Samlede Skrifter, I-XLI, Copenhagen, 1843-65. A. G. Rudelbach: Ueber das Leben und die Werke des dänischen Dichters. B. S. Ingemann in "Blätter für literar., Unterhaltung, 1838: No. 219-20.
- ↑ C. Hauchs samlede Ramaner og Fortællinger, Copenhagen, 1873-74. Dramatiske Værker, I-III, 2d ed., Copenhagen, 1858-59. Lyriske Digte (1842), Copenhagen, 1854. Lyriske Digte og Romancer (1861), Copenhagen, 1862. Valdemar Seir, et romantisk Eventyr, Copenhagen, 1862. Nye Digtninger, Copenhagen, 1869.
- ↑ C. Bredahls dramatiscke Scener, I-III, 2d ed., edited by F. L. Liebenberg, Copenhagen, 1855.
- ↑ Blichers Noveller i et Udvalg ved P. Hansen, I-III, Copenhagen, 1871. Digte, edited by P. Hansen, 1870.
- ↑ P. M. Möllers efterladte Skrifter i et Udvalg ved Chr. Winther, Copenhagen, 1873.
- ↑ Chr. Winthers samlede Digtninger, I-XI, Copenhagen, 1860-72.
- ↑ H. C. Andersens samlede skrifter I-XXXII, Copenhagen, 1854-76.
- ↑ J. L. Heibergs poetiske Skrifter, I-XI, Copenhagen, 1862. Prosaiske Skrifter, I-XI, Copenhagen, 1861-1862.
- ↑ H. Hertz: Dramatiske Værker, I-XVIII, Copenhagen, 1854-73. Digte, I-IV, Copenhagen, 1851-63.
- ↑ Fr. Paludan-Müllers poetiske Skrifter, I-VIII, Copenhagen, 1878-1879. Ivar Lykkes Historie, I-III, Copenhagen, 1866-1873.
- ↑ Fru Gyllembourg: Samlede Skrifter af Forf. til en "Hverdagshistorie" (2nd ed.), I-XII, Copenhagen, 1866-1867.
- ↑ Carl Bernhards samlede Noveller og Fortællinger, I-XIV, Copenhagen, 1856-67.
- ↑ Emil Aarestrups samlede Digte, Copenhagen, 1877. Ludvig Bödtcher: Digte aeldre og nyere, Copenhagen, 1878. Carl Bagger: Samlede Værker, I-II, Copenhagen, 1867. H. P. Holst: Udvalgte Digte, Copenhagen, 1874. Den lille Hornblæser (1849), 5th ed., Copenhagen, 1873. Ude og Hjemme (1843), 3d ed., 1872. Fra min Ungdom, 1873. Overskous udvalgte Komedier, I-II, Copenhagen, 1877. Den danske Skueplads i dens Historje, I-V, Copenhagen, 1854-64. C. J. Boye: Udvalgte poetiske Skrifter, I-IV, Copenhagen, 1850-51. J. M. Thiele: Thorwaldsen og hans Værker, I-IV, Copenhagen, 1842-57.
- ↑ C. Plougs samlede Digte, Copenhagen, 1862. Nyere Sange og Digte, Copenhagen, 1869.
- ↑ C. Hostrups samlede Skrifter, I-IV, Copenhagen, 1865.
- ↑ C. Richardt: Smaadigte, Copenhagen, 1861. Nyere Digte, Copenhagen, 1864. Texter og Toner, Copenhagen, 1868. Billeder og Sange, Copenhagen, 1874. Halvhundrede Digte, Copenhagen, 1878. Drot og Marsk, Copenhagen, 1878.
- ↑ H. W. Kaalund: Et Foraar, Copenhagen, 1858. En Eftervaar, Copenhagen, 1877. Fulvia, Copenhagen, 1875.
- ↑ Erik Bögh: Dramatiske Arbeider, I-VII, Copenhagen, 1858-1870. Digte, I (Fortællinger paa Vers og blandede Digte), Copenhagen, 1879. Syv Forelæsninger, Copenhagen, 1877 (5th ed.). Jonas Tværmoses Ærgrelser, I-II, Copenhagen, 1875. Udvalgte Fortælliger, I-II, Copenhagen, 1876.
- ↑ C. K. P. Molbech: Digte lyriske og dramatiske, I-II, Copenhagen, 1863. Ambrosius, Copenhagen, 1877.
- ↑ P. P. (Theodor W. Rumohr): Fædrelandshistoriske Malerier, I-XIV, Copenhagen, 1850-65. Carit Etlar (J. C. C. Brosböll): Skrifter, I-XXTV, Copenhagen, 1859-68. Skrifter, ny Samling, I-V, Copenhagen, 1878-79.
- ↑ Meyer A. Goldschmidt: En Jöde, Copenhagen, 1845. Hjemlos, Copenhagen, 1857. Fortællinger og Skildringer, Copenhagen, 1863-65. Arvingen, Copenhagen, 1867. Smaa Fortællinger, Copenhagen, 1869. Kjærlighedshistorier fra mange Lande, Copenhagen, 1868. Livserindringer og Resultater, I-II, Copenhagen, 1877. Fortællinger og Virkelighedsbilleder, I-II. Copenhagen, 1877.
- ↑ H. F. Ewald: Valdemar Krones Ungdomshistorie, Copenhagen, 1860. Familien Nordby, Copenhagen, 1862. Johannes Falk, Copenhagen, 1865. Hvad Ellen vilde, Copenhagen, 1869. Svenskerne paa Kronborg, Copenhagen, 1867. Den skotske Kvinde paa Tjele, Copenhagen, 1871. Knud Gyldenstjerne, Copenhagen, 1875. Niels Brahe, Copenhagen, 1877.
- ↑ Thomas Lange: Eventyrets Land, Copenhagen, 1868. Aaen og Havet, Copenhagen, 1870. Nyt Liv, Copenhagen, 1879.
- ↑ Vilhelm Bergsöe: Fra Piazza del Populo, Copenhagen, 1867. Fra den gamle Fabrik, Copenhagen, 1869. Bruden fra Rörvig, Copenhagen, 1872. I Ny og Næ (Poems), Copenhagen, 1867. Hjemve (Poems), Copenhagen, 1873.
- ↑ E. von der Recke: Kong Liuvigild og hans Sönner, Tragedy, Copenhagen, 1878. Archilocos, dramatisk Skizze, Copenhagen, 1878. G. Brandes: Æsthetiske Studier, Copenhagen, 1868. Kritiker og Portraiter, Copenhagen, 1870. Den franske Æsthetik i vore Dage, Copenhagen, 1870. Hovedströmninger i det nittende Aarhundredes Literatur, I-IV, Copenhagen, 1872-75. Sören Kjerkegaard, Copenhagen, 1877. Danske Digtere, Copenhagen, 1877. Esaias Tegnér, Copenhagen, 1878. Benjamin Disraeli, Copenhagen, 1878. H. Drachmann: Digte, Copenhagen, 1872. Dæmpede Melodier, poems, Copenhagen, 1875. En Overkomplet, Copenhagen, 1876. Tannhäuser, Copenhagen, 1877. Ungt Blod, Copenhagen, 1877. Derovre fra Grændsen, Copenhagen, 1877. Sange ved Havet, Copenhagen, 1877. Paa Sömands Tro og Love, Copenhagen, 1878. Prindsessen og det halve Kongerige, Copenhagen, 1878. Ranker og Roser, poems, Copenhagen, 1879. Poul og Virginie under nordlig Bredde, Copenhagen, 1879. S. Schandorph: Nogle Digte, Copenhagen, 1875. Fra Provindsen, Copenhagen, 1877. Uden Midtpunkt, Copenhagen, 1878. Unge Dage. Fortælling paa Vers, Copenhagen, 1879. Fem Fortællinger, Copenhagen, 1879. Jason med det gyldne Skind, Copenhagen, 1875. Nutidsbilleder, Copenhagen, 1878. Fra Studiebogen, Copenhagen, 1879. J. P. Jakobsen: Fru Marie Grubbe, Copenhagen, 1876.
- ↑ J. P. Mynster: Kleine theologische Schriften, Copenhagen, 1825. Betragtninger over de christelige Troslærdomme, I-II, Copenhagen, 1833. H. N. Clausen: Katholicismens og Protestantismens Kirkeforfatning, Copenhagen, 1825. Optegnelser om mit Levneds og min Tids Historie, Copenhagen, 1877. H. L. Martensen: Den christelige Dogmatik, Copenhagen, 1849. Den christelige Ethik, I-III, Copenhagen, 1871-1878.
- ↑ S. Kjerkegaard: Om Begrebet Ironi, Copenhagen, 1841. Enten—Eller, Copenhagen, 1843. Stadier paa Livets Vei, Copenhagen, 1845. Afsluttende, uvidenskabelig Efterskrift, Copenhagen, 1846. Indövelse i Christendommen, Copenhagen, 1850. Til Selvprövelse, Copenhagen, 1851. Öieblikket, Copenhagen, 1855. A. Bärthold: Noten zu Sören Kjerkegaards Lebensgeschichte, Halle, 1876. Lessing und die objective Wahrheit aus Sören Kjerkegaards Schriften zusammengestellt, Halle, 1877. Die Bedeutung der æsthetischen Schriften Sören Kjerkegaards, Halle, 1879.
- ↑ C. F. Sibbern: Om Poesie og Kunst, I-III, Copenhagen, 1853-69. Meddelelser af Indholdet af et Skrift fra Aaret 2135, Copenhagen, 1858-72. Efterladte Breve af Gabrielis, Copenhagen, 1826. Udaf Gabrielis Breve, Copenhagen, 1850. R. Nielsen: Grundideernes Logik, I-II, Copenhagen, 1864-66. Natur og Aand, Copenhagen, 1873. H. Bröchner: Benedikt Spinoza, Copenhagen, 1856. Bidrag til Opfattelsen af Philosophiens historiske Udvikling, Copenhagen, 1869. Philosophiens Historie i Grundrids, I-II, Copenhagen, 1873-74.
- ↑ H. C. Oersteds samlede og efterladte Skrifter, I-IX, Copenhagen, 1850-52. J.F. Schouw: Naturskildringer, Copenhagen, 1839. J. J. Steenstrup: Om Forplantning og Udvikling, gjennem vexlende Generationsrækker, Copenhagen, 1842. Undersögelser over Hermaphroditismens Tilværelse i Naturen, Copenhagen, 1846.
- ↑ P. E. Müller: Sagabibliothek, I-III, Copenhagen, 1817-1820. Kritisk Undersögelse af Danmarks og Norges Sagahistorie, Copenhagen, 1833. Finn Magnusson: Eddalæren og dens Oprindelse I-IV, Copenhagen, 1824-26. Runamo og Runerne, Copenhagen, 1841. N. M. Petersen: Det danske, norske og svenske Sprogs Historie, I-II, Copenhagen, 1829-30. Danmark's Historie i Hedenold, I-III, Copenhagen, 1854-55. Nordisk Mythologi, Copenhagen, 1862. Bidrag til den danske Literaturs Historie, I-VI, Copenhagen, 1853-61. Bidrag til den oldnordiske Literature Historie, Copenhagen, 1866. J. J. A. Worsaae, Danmarks Oldtid, Copenhagen, 1843, Rumano og Braavalleslaget, Copenhagen, 1844. Blekingske Mindesmærker, Copenhagen, 1846. Minder om de Danske og Nordmændene i England, Skotland og Irland, Copenhagen, 1851. Den danske Erobring af England og Normandiet, Copenhagen, 1863.
- ↑ K. P. Allen: Haandbog i Fædrelandets Historie, Copenhagen, 1840. De tre nordiske Rigers Historie, 1497-1536, I-V, Copenhagen, 1864-1872. Fr. Schjern: Europas Folkestammer I, Copenhagen, 1851. Historiske Studier, I-II, Copenhagen, 1856-1857. Nyere historiske Studier, I-II, Copenhagen, 1875-1879. C. P. Paludan-Müller: Grevens Feide, I-II, Copenhagen, 1853-1854. De förste Konger af den oldenborgske Slægt, Copenhagen, 1874.
- ↑ R. Rask: Samlede Afhandlinger, I-III, Copenhagen, 1834-1838.