DANISH LITERATURE

Entire body of literature written throughout Denmark, in Latin and German as well as in the Danish language.

Middle Ages.

The earliest literature of Denmark is preserved only in fragmentary form. Runic inscriptions dating from about ad 800 to about 1100 reveal the emergence of concise prose and alliterative verse (see RUNES,). Ancient heroic lays are traceable chiefly in Latin paraphrases made about 1200 for the historical work Gesta Danorum (Deeds of the Danes) by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus.

During the early Middle Ages the Danish clergy produced Latin histories, biographies of saints, and ecclesiastical studies. Books of laws and rudimentary medical textbooks began to be written in the Danish language during the 13th century. Among important later works were the Proverbs of Peder Laale; the Lucidarius, an early encyclopedia; and the Rimkroniken (Rime-Chronicle, 1495), a versified Danish history. Most important, however, were the folk ballads, transmitted orally and not written down until the 16th century.

The Reformation.

The 16th-century religious revolution known as the Reformation stimulated polemical and religious writing in Denmark. In 1550 the first Danish Bible was published, largely through the efforts of the editor and translator Christiern Pedersen (1480?–1554). Bishop Peder Palladius (1503–60) portrayed 16th-century Danish life in his Visitatsbog (Visitation Book). Early hymn writing was represented by Hans Sthen (1544–1610) and the beginnings of Danish dramatic literature by Hieronymous Ranch (1539–1607).

During the 17th century, Danish literature was influenced by the classical interests and humanistic approach that marked the Renaissance. The poet Anders Arrebo (1587–1637) patterned his Hexaemeron (The Creation, 1661) on a work by the French poet Guillaume Du Bartas (1544–90). Bishop Thomas Kingo (1634–1703) composed numerous hymns, many of which are still used in the Danish church. The most notable prose appeared in the memoirs of Leonora Christina (1621–98), the daughter of King Christian IV.

The Enlightenment.

Through the work of the poet, playwright, and historian Ludvig Holberg, 18th-century Danish literature developed the attitudes of reason and tolerance characteristic of the Enlightenment. Holberg’s contemporaries included the poet Ambrosius Stub (1705–58), author of simple lyrics, and the hymn writer Bishop Hans Brorson (1694–1764).

The most important Danish author of the second half of the 18th century was the poet and dramatist Johannes Ewald. His Memoirs contributed significantly to the development of Danish prose. Johan Wessel (1742–85) excelled in humorous poetry and mock-heroic parody. Jens Baggesen was a poet of wit and sentiment.

Romanticism.

The German romantic movement, as interpreted by the Norwegian philosopher Henrik Steffens (1773–1845), inspired the young Danish poet Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, whose first book, Digte (Poems, 1803), inaugurated a major period of Danish literature. Through his lyric poetry and his dramas Oehlenschläger gave Danish romanticism an individual character, free of the excesses of the German style. Other writers of the romantic era were B. S. Ingemann (1789–1862), an author of didactic historical novels and brief songs; Johann Hauch (1790–1872), who wrote dramas, novels, and poetry; and Steen Blicher, whose short stories describe life in the somber Jutland moors. The poet N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783–1872) was also an educator whose reforms led to the establishment of the Danish folk high schools.

A second generation of romanticists gave a new turn to the movement, stressing aesthetic technique and poetic realism. Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1791–1860), who became the arbiter of taste for the period, wrote poetry and light drama. Frederik Paludan-Müller (1809–76), was the author of the verse novel Adam Homo (1841–48). The novelist Meir Aaron Goldschmidt (1819–87) combined romantic and realistic elements. Two figures of international importance were Hans Christian Andersen, the creator of many famous fairy tales, and the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.

Realism.

In the latter half of the 19th century, romanticism was largely replaced by the literary movements known as realism and naturalism. This development was fostered by the critic and biographer Georg Brandes, who put Denmark more fully in touch with the intellectual life of Europe. He influenced such novelists as Jens Jacobsen (1847–85), author of the naturalistic novels Marie Grubbe (1876; trans 1914) and Nils Lyhne (1880; trans 1896). Among other writers influenced by Brandes, but not always following him, were the poet Holger Drachmann (1846–1908) and the novelists Henrik Pontoppidan, Hermann Bang (1857–1912), and Gustav Wied (1858–1914).

The influence of the French symbolist poets produced a reaction against naturalism toward the end of the 19th century. The subsequent revival of lyric poetry in the 1890s included such figures as Viggo Stuckenberg (1863–1905), Ludvig Holstein (1864–1943), Sophus Claussen (1865–1931), Johannes Jorgensen (1866–1956), and Helge Rode (1870–1937).

Nationalism.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a new nationalistic element and a concern with social realism appeared in Danish literature. The poet Valdemar Rørdam (1872–1946) used Danish settings and history. Rural Jutland was the locale of novels by Jeppe Aakjaer, in which he angrily condemned the abuse of farmhands. The novelist Martin Nexø (1869–1954) dealt realistically with the problems of workers. His best-known works are Pelle the Conqueror (1906–10; trans. 1913–16) and Ditte: Daughter of Man (1917–21; trans. 1920–23), the story of a young woman’s oppressed life. Similar approaches characterized the work of the lyric poet and novelist Johannes Jensen, winner of the 1944 Nobel Prize in literature, and the novelists Jakob Knudsen (1858–1917) and Harald Kidde (1878–1918).

After World War I the literary movement known as expressionism influenced such poets as Emil Bønnelycke (1893–1953), and Tom Kristensen (1893–1974). Paul la Cour (1902–56) and Jens August Schade (1903–78) wrote pure poetry, avoiding themes of social concern. Important prose writers of the period between the two world wars were Martin Hansen (1909–55) and the short story writer H. C. Branner (1903–66). Symbol and myth entered Danish literature in the work of Isak Dinesen, who achieved worldwide fame with her Seven Gothic Tales (1934) and the autobiographical Out of Africa (1937), which was made into a prize-winning film in 1985.

The political concerns that dominated Danish literature during World War II gave way to an expression of the pervasive anxiety of the post-war period—evidenced in the existentialist probings of writers connected with the literary journal Heretica, published between 1948 and 1953. The poets Thorkild Bjørnvig (1918– ), Ole Sarvig (1921–81), and Ole Wivel (1921– ) were concerned with the situation of the individual in the modern world—as were the novelists Villy Sørensen (1929– ) and Klaus Rifbjerg (1931– ), editors of another periodical, Vindrosen (1959–63). Sørensen’s novels and short stories, parables of modern life influenced by Hans Christian Andersen and the Austrian Franz Kafka, include Tiger in the Kitchen, and Other Strange Stories (1953; trans. 1969). Rifbjerg, a writer in several genres, wrote the novel Anna, I, Anna (1969; trans. 1982); an English translation of the third edition of his Selected Poems appeared in 1985. His plays, like his novels, deal with contemporary European bourgeois life. Modern Danish drama is represented, also, by the plays of Kaj Munk, with religious overtones and denunciation of fascism, and by the works of Kjeld Abell (1901–61). J.N., JENS NYHOLM, Ph.B., M.A.