Ingemann, Bernhard Severin

Ingemann, Bernhard Severin (bĕrn`härt sĕv`ərēn ĭng`əmän), 1789–1862, Danish poet, playwright, and novelist. As teacher and director of Soro Academy, Ingemann adopted the folk high school principles of N. F. S. Grundtvig. His novels, recalling Denmark's past greatness, were important in reviving national literary consciousness. The poems in Holger Danske (1837) became popular national songs, and the religious Morning and Evening Songs (1839) includes some of the finest lyric poetry in Danish.

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Ingemann, Bernhard Severin 

Born May 28, 1789, in Torkilstrup, Falster Island; died Feb. 24, 1862, in Sorø. Danish writer. The son of a pastor.

Ingemann became a professor of Danish language and literature in 1822. His work was strongly influenced by German romanticism, especially by F. Novalis. The author of the melodramatic historical tragedy Masaniello (1815) and the sentimental tragedy Blanca (1816), Ingemann idealized the Middle Ages in such historical novels as Waldemar the Great and His Men (1824), Waldemar the Victorious (1826), Prince Otto of Denmark (1835), and Queen Margrethe (1836). He wrote romances, such as the cycle Holger Danske (1837), in the genre of knightly ballads, and the collections of religious poems Morning and Evening Hymns (1838) and Lyrical Psalms (1854). The novel Children of the Village (1852) presents an idyllic picture of the happy life of a man who rose from the people.

WORKS

Samlede skrifter, parts 1–4. Copenhagen, 1845–57.
In Russian translation:
“Altarnyi obraz v Sore.” In Datskaia novella XIX-XX vv. Leningrad, 1967.

REFERENCES

Gozenpud, A. “Datskii teatr.” In Istoriia zapadnoevropeiskogo teatra, vol. 4. Moscow, 1964.
Langballe, C. B. S. Ingemann et digterbillede i ny belysning. Copenhagen, 1949.