His two years set apart for study had not yet expired when his mother persuaded him to participate in a competition for the prize offered for the best poem on the death of Frederik V (1766). Ewald yielded to her entreaties and wrote the most beautiful lyric poem that had ever been composed in Denmark, and thus laid the foundation of his great fame as a lyric poet. In the year 1769 the Adamiade appeared in a revised edition with the title changed to "Adam and Eve, a biblical drama in five acts." The work shows to what a degree Ewald had become Klopstock's disciple, while there are also found traces of Corneille's influence. In spite of this Ewald's own deep, poetical nature also reveals itself in many passages, and though the poet is not perfect master of the dramatic form, which by the way was not at all suited to the subject, and though his style is somewhat artificial and bombastic, still the work is of great interest as the first serious attempt made in Danish literature in solving a great poetical problem in a grand style. The poet now made Klopstock's acquaintance, who strengthened his purpose of taking the theme for his next book from Danish legendary history, and he chose the story of Rolf Krage as told by Saxo. In 1770 there appeared a tragedy written in prose, entitled Rolf Krage, which notwithstanding its manifest faults contains passages of great beauty, and which is well worthy of our attention, since it imparted the first impulse to a fertile national movement in the field of art.
After a few satirical dramas and a number of excellent lyrical poems there appeared in 1773 the tragedy, "Balder's Death," the materials for which had also been borrowed from Saxo, and which is distinguished for the beauty of its style and language. It was the first drama in Denmark written in iambic pentameters, and there is a ring in the verses, particularly in the interludes, such as had never before been heard in the Danish language. Ewald composed this tragedy in the little village of Rungsted, which has a romantic situation on the Sound, and which he has glorified in one of his
