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| Danish author Karen Blixen |
| Courtesy Karen Blixen
museum |
“The only place you can meet the whole
language is in writing.” - Bjarne Reuter, Danish
author
Real Danish literature (and history) began with
the inescapable Saxo Grammaticus, who wrote The
Deeds of the Danes. This brought all the legends
and ballads together and refined them into the two
disciplines, and nothing written since in Denmark
can be said to be entirely fee of its influence.
Among other stories, he told the story of Hamlet,
which, according to historian Bo Lidegaard, “Shakespeare
took terrible liberties with.”
Arild Huitfeldt, writing in 1590, published The
Chronicle of the Kingdom of Denmark, which describes
the Danish history from Saxo to his own time. Then
we find the hymns by Thomas Kingo, bishop of Odense,
who illustrated a power in the Danish language that
was unsuspected before he turned his talents to
it.
Absolutist rule, fostered by Christian IV, wanted
a national literature that would be as orderly as
the society it was trying to create. But what it
got was “the world as an unreliable voyage,
“ evidenced by J.A Brorson’s The Pitiful
End of Lisbon, (1756) Another passenger on this
voyage was Ludvig Holberg, who wrote books from
his travels and comedies for the Lille Gronnegade,
Denmark’s first theater, in 1722.
Things got a bit more positive with the Enlightenment,
which started around 1750 and produced organizations
like the Society for the Furtherance of the Fine
and Useful Sciences. This was leading, as in the
rest of Europe, to Romanticism. This, for Denmark,
was to be a Golden Age. The prime mover in this
genre was Adam Oehlenschlager (1779-1850). A friend
of Goethe and professor of aesthetics, Oehlenschlager's
mastery of Danish brought a new spark into Danish
poetry. Drawing on Nordic mythology, he tapped a
vein that has made his influence felt in Danish
literature to the present day.
The 19th century, another Golden Age, brought Søren
Kierkegaard, who was admittedly more of a thinker
than a literary craftsman. His thoughts continue
to drive Danish behavior today, but hardly anybody
actually wades through his prose. N.F.S Grundtvig
is a similar case, his ideas about education set
up the Danish Folk High School movement, which has
led to, among other things, the foundation of the
Danish Academy for Rhythm.
Then there was Hans Christian Andersen, without
a doubt the most widely read Danish author in history.
As prolific as Mozart, he wrote plays, operas and
travel books, novels and three autobiographies.
He happened to hit the jackpot with the fairy tales,
which he aimed at readers of all ages, but he is
no less a voice for that success.
The Modern Breakthrough, coming into full flower
in the 1880s, has been called “a confrontation
with the past.” It was headed, more or less,
by George Brandes (1842-1927), a free thinker who
laid the groundwork for cultural radicalism and
translated John Stuart Mills' On the Subjugation
of Women. A critic and biographer who claimed to
have “discovered” Nietzsche, he is credited,
through his university lectures and writings, with
renewing the concept of Danish literature and criticism.
Another leader in the breakthrough is one who is
still read widely today. Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847-1885)
managed to pack into his short life an international
literary success, dissertations on fresh water algae
and a translation of Darwin (Rilke learned Danish
in order to read him in the original). He is credited
with carrying the banner of individualism to the
point of modernity.
Danish literature in the 20th century gave us angry
young men, absurdists, magical realists and a revival
of lyric poetry. The occasional international hit
came with Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen, 1885-1962.)
She is credited with inventing the term “Gothic
Tales” with her eponymous first book, published
in 1934. Out of Africa followed in 1937. She came
close to receiving the Nobel prize for Literature
(three Danes have received it: Henrik Pontoppidan
& Karl Adolph Gjellerup, 1917, and Johannes
V. Jensen, 1944.) When Hemingway got one in 1954
he said he would have gladly waited until she got
hers.
Today, Denmark’s best known writer is Peter
Hoeg (born 1957), whose Miss Smilla’s Feeling
for Snow was filmed by Bille August. Having staked
out an area on the edge of normality, he is reported
at the moment to be taking a break from writing.
Hans Christian Andersen left some pretty big footprints,
but Danes are still working in the genre of children's
literature. Besides Bjarne Reuter, it got a European
shot when Janne Teller won the Minister of Culture’s
Prize for Children’s Literature for Nothing,
an existential children’s story. It concerns
a youngster who declines to go to school because
“Nothing has any meaning.” Ms. Teller
– our readers will be astonished to learn –
lives in Paris.
For more information on Danish literature visit:
www.denmark.dk
and click on “literature.”
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