Danish literature

“ Novels, whether historical or otherwise, were scarcely in vogue in Denmark before the commencement of this present century. Fables there were, indeed—mythological allegories, tales of fairy-land, and stories of mermaids, dwarfs, magicians, and ghosts; but, except these, the only works of light literature or of imagination were poems and plays.
There is, perhaps, no language more abounding in dramatic compositions than the Danish. The Danes have a very large theatrical repertoire, consisting of tragedies, comedies, operas, farces, melodramas, vaudevilles, &c. ”

“ The most eminent woman writer of Denmark was Thomasine Kristine Baroness Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd, who introduced into Danish literature a novel vein of realism and domestic humor. Although she has had many imitators, she is still without a rival. ”

“ But this is a digression from the literature to the feelings of the Danes—a momentary digression, pardonable, however, it is hoped, as poetry, which gave rise to it, and feeling, are inseparably connected.
There is scarcely any subject which has not been treated of by Danish authors during the latter part of the eighteenth century; but some of the "weightiest" of these, to borrow a Danish expression, are not of a nature to add much to the stores of popular literature, being on matters too abstruse or too scientific for general readers. ”

“ The classic mythology never pervaded the literature of Denmark, as it did that of other European countries; and hence the modern development of Danish poetry has a strongly Scandinavian character, the poets drawing their inspirations less from Greece and Rome than from the Scandanavian sagas, brought out by the labors of Vedel and his successors. The chief Danish writer of the 18th century is Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754) , dramatic poet, writer of fiction, and popular philosopher, whose fertile imagination and genial humor manifest themselves with a strong bracing realism. ”

“ His best known work, Aanden i Naturen (“The Soul in Nature”) , has been translated into all European languages. His brother, Anders Sandoe Oersted (1778-1830) , is known as a writer on jurisprudence and diplomacy. In Denmark, as in other lands, the novel takes a foremost place in the literature of the present day. The most celebrated Danish novelist of our time is Hans Christian Andersen (born 1805) . His best works, however, are his short fairy tales. His imagination and humor place these among the most charming of writings, and they are translated into all European tongues. ”

“ In fact, the popularity of foreign authors—English, French, German, and Italian—rather interferes with the sale of original Danish works.
In resuming this slight survey of Danish literature, those authors must be mentioned first who stand, as it were, on the thresholds of two centuries, belonging both to the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Knud Lyne Rahbek is one of those; he was born in Copenhagen in 1760, and died there in 1830. Professor Rahbek was an untiring labourer in the fields of literature. ”

“ It is unnecessary to point out to readers of the present day how incomplete and arbitrary this attempt at a dissection of Danish literature was. I started from the conviction that modern intellectual life in Europe, in different countries, must necessarily in all essentials traverse the same stages, and as I was able to find various unimportant points of similarity in support of this view, I quite overlooked the fact that the counterbalancing weight of dissimilarities rendered the whole comparison futile. ”

“ In reviewing the literature of Denmark, one is surprised to see, not so few but so many authors—many, when the limited size of the country and extent of the population be taken into consideration. It must be remembered that the Danish language is not much known, and that it is spoken and read only by the inhabitants of Denmark Proper, its dependencies, and a portion of its colonists in the East and West Indies; yet it can boast of more writers than countries of an equal or larger size—than Holland, Italy, Spain, or Portugal. ”

“ Amongst others there is an essay on Welsh poetry, a translation of the Death of Balder, etc. If I am spared to the beginning of next year, I intend to bring out a volume called Songs of Denmark, consisting of some selections from the Kæmpe Viser and specimens from Ewald, Grundtvig, Oehlenschläger, and I suppose I must give a few notices of those people. Have you any history of [Pg 402] Danish literature from which I could glean a few hints. I think you have a book in two volumes containing specimens of Danish poetry. ”

“ Its development was retarded by the use of German as the court language and of Latin as the language of literature, and in the 17th century by the inroads of French taste and phrases. In the 18th century it was again affected by the predominance of German culture, but the subsequent revival of ancient Norse studies and of a national literature developed the Danish into one of the richest and most refined European tongues. It is now not only the language of Denmark proper, but also of Norway, and of the northern part of Schleswig. ”

“ Johannes V. Jensen, whose work is new to English readers, was born in 1873 in Himmerland, the district of North Jutland which is richest in memories of the past. He has been recognised for the last thirty years as an independent force in Danish literature, where his production marks a revolt against the French influences prevalent at the close of the nineteenth century and a return to old Scandinavian motives, with a strong leaning towards the English school of imaginative writing. ”

“ We are still endeavoring to check it and hold it dammed up in the swamps of the reaction, but we have succeeded only in checking our literature itself.
It would hardly be difficult to secure unanimous consent to the proposition that Danish literature has at no time during the present century found itself languishing as in our own days. Poetical production is almost completely checked, and no problem of a general human or social character awakens interest or evokes any more serious discussion than that of the daily press or other ephemeral publication. ”

“ In his novel "Without a Centre" (Uden Midtpunkt) the reader feels himself at once face to face with an interesting and considerable personality. He has that sense of surprise and delighted expectation which only the masters of fiction are apt to evoke. It is a story of a Danish national type—the conversational artist. In no [Pg 189] country in the world is there such a conversational fury as in Denmark. A people has, of course, to do something with its surplus energy ”

“ The literary development above referred to ceased almost entirely toward the end of the fourteenth century, and later, during the union with Denmark, the Danish language gradually took the place of the old Norse as a book-language, and the literature became essentially Danish. Copenhagen, with its court and its university, was the literary and educational centre, where the young men of Norway went to study, and authors born in Norway became, to all intents and purposes, Danish writers. ”

“ Towards the end of the Middle Ages the Danish influence shows an immense increase, which marks the gradual decline of Norwegian literature, until at last Norwegian as literary language is completely supplanted by Danish. ”

“ There existed no uniform literary language in the Old Danish period, although some of the most important works of the 15th century, such as Michael's Poems and the Rhymed Chronicle (the first book printed in Danish, in 1495) , on account of their excellent diction, contributed materially to the final preponderance of their dialect, that of Sealand, towards the Reformation.
Form of the language.As to the form of the language, it hardly differs at all during the period between 800 and 1200 A.D. from Old Swedish. It is only in the oldest literature that we can trace any marked differences ”

“ It was not till the 16th century that literature began to be generally practised in the vernacular in Denmark. The oldest laws which are still preserved date from the beginning of the 13th century, and many different collections are in existence.2 A single work detains us in the 13th century, a treatise on medicine3 by Henrik Harpestreng, who died in 1244. The first royal edict written in Danish is dated 1386 ”

“ It is only very recently that the popular literature of Denmark has become at all known to the generality of English readers; that the names of Danish authors have been heard on the shores of this island, where, 800 years ago, Canute, a Danish monarch, reigned. ”

“ It is a delight to read them. The passage of Scripture often occurs to me when I take up these earlier works of Brandes: "He rejoiceth like a strong man to run a race." He handles language with the zest and vigor of conscious mastery. There is no shade of meaning which is so subtle as to elude his grip. Things which I should have said, a priori, were impossible to express in Danish he expresses with scarcely a sign of effort; and however new and surprising his phrase is, it is never awkward, never cumbrous, never apparently conscious of its brilliancy. ”

“ Heiberg (1791-1860) as a critic ruled the Danish world of taste for many years, and by his writings did much to elevate dramatic art and public sentiment. The greatest authoress that Denmark has produced is the Countess Gyllenbourg (1773-1856) . Her knowledge of life, sparkling wit, and faultless style, make her stories, the authorship of which was unknown before her death, masterpieces of their kind.
The greatest pastoral lyrist of this country is Winther (1796-1876) . His descriptions of scenery and rural life have an extraordinary charm. ”

“ One party urged that the literature should break loose from its traditional past, and aim at the cultivation of an exclusively national spirit. The other party declared such a course to be folly, contending that literature must be a product of gradual development rather than of set volition, and that, despite the shifting of the political kaleidoscope, the national literature was so firmly rooted in its Danish past that its natural evolution must be an outgrowth from all that had gone before. ”

“ This must have been a most exceptional state of affairs, if one may judge from Danes one has the pleasure of knowing, or from what one may see of the race making holiday at these seaside resorts. No European people seems to get more out of life and into life than the always cheerful inhabitants of this small land. It is the mark of true genius that, shut out from so much, they have made still more of what remains.
Less than thirty miles north of Copenhagen, where the Sound is straitest, stands the town that is next best known to the world of all on Danish earth. ”

“ But Denmark is a leaner land than Holland, less moist and more thinly inhabited, so that its art lacks the comfortable self-satisfied character of Dutch art. It betrays rather a tremulous longing, a pleasing melancholy and delight in dreams, a trembling dread of contact with coarse and stern reality. It was only for a time, early in the ’seventies, that a touch of cosmopolitanism affected Danish art. The phase of grandiose historical painting and anecdotic genre was experienced there, as in every other country. ”

“ There is a great deal of nationality and patriotism among the Danes, as may be seen by all their popular poetry, from the days of Johannes Ewald to those of Hans Christian Andersen. "Scarcely any writer," says a Danish critic, "was ever more largely endowed with poetical talents than Ewald. ”

“ Generally speaking, it is acknowledged that Denmark’s literary output was influenced far less by Britain than by France and the other Latin countries.
But, be the themes what they may, the Danish Ballads inform them with their own characteristic spirit—the glamour and grimness of the North. The battle-scenes show us glimpses of Bersark fury, and weapons with demon souls. The Dark Powers in the Ballads of magic are those born of long winter nights and misty waters. Here and there we meet with the gods of Valhalla, and the heroes sung in Old Norse Lays. ”

“ His astonishing talents were wasted on trifling themes and in a fruitless resistance to the modern spirit in literature.
Romanticism.—With the beginning of the 19th century the new light in philosophy and poetry, which radiated from Germany through all parts of Europe, found its way into Denmark also. In scarcely any country was the result so rapid or so brilliant. There arose in Denmark a school of poets who created for themselves a reputation in all parts of Europe, and would have done honour to any nation or any age. ”

“ Of all Danish men, there is only one who can be called famous on the largest scale; only one with whom the thoughts of men are for ever busied in Europe, America, Australia, aye, even in Asia and Africa, wherever European culture has made its way; and this one never existed, at any rate in the form in which he has become known to the world. Denmark has produced several men of note—Tycho Brahe, Thorvaldsen, and Hans Christian Andersen—but none of them has attained a hundredth part of Hamlet's fame. ”

“ He would begin to tell a story — after a few minutes' abstracted gazing at some little object, a straw, a pebble, no matter what — most commonly, a toy or a flower — and pour out his fancies in the plain, unadorned forms of the Danish, his voice exquisitely modulated with every emotion or meaning, and his great, ugly, ape-like hands, which looked as if nothing that they touched could escape sullying or destruction, deftly cutting out the quaintest designs in paper, with wonderful rapidity and delicacy as he spoke. ”