Oehlenschläger, Adam Gottlob

Oehlenschläger, Adam Gottlob (ä`däm gŏt`lŏb ö`lənshlāgər), 1779–1850, Danish romantic poet and dramatist. Oehlenschläger turned for themes to the sagas and to Scandinavian history; he is known as the national poet of Denmark. His poem "The Golden Horns" (1803, tr. 1913) is an original and creative treatment of myth. Other works include lyrics, epics, and a series of historical plays, the best known of which, Earl Hakon the Mighty (1807, tr. 1857), describes the decline of heathenism in Scandinavia. Other dramas are Axel and Valborg (1810, tr. 1851) and Helge (1814). In 1829, Oehlenschläger was crowned Scandinavian poet laureate.

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Oehlenschläger, Adam Gottlob

(born Nov. 14, 1779, Vesterbro, Den.—died Jan. 20, 1850, Copenhagen) Danish poet and dramatist, considered the national poet of Denmark. He became the leader of Romanticism in Danish literature with his poem The Golden Horns (1802). Important collections of his poetry, with several lyrical dramas, appeared in 1802 and 1805. His plays drawing on Nordic history and mythology include Earl Haakon the Great (1807). His most significant later work is the poetic epic The Gods of the North (1819), a kind of modern Edda.

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Oehlenschläger, Adam Gottlob 

Born Nov. 14, 1779, in Copenhagen; died there Jan. 20, 1850. Danish romantic writer.

Oehlenschläger became a student at the University of Copenhagen in 1800; in 1809 he was made a professor of aesthetics there. He popularized the prefeudal and pre-Christian culture and folklore of the Scandinavian peoples. Oehlenschläger’s early poetry was marked by romantic symbolism and patriotic ideals. His narrative poem The Golden Horns (1802) and drama St. John’s Eve Fete (1803) served as the “overture” to Danish romanticism. The principles of Danish romanticism were embodied in Aladdin (1805; abridged Russian translation, 1842), an allegorical drama based on a story in A Thousand and One Nights, and Vaulundur’s Saga (1805), an allegorical drama based on motifs from an ancient Scandinavian legend.

In the historical tragedies Hakon Jarl (1807; Russian translation, 1897), Palnatoke (1807; Russian translation, 1968), and Stxrkodder (1812; Russian translation in fragments, 1840), Oehlenschläger raised universally relevant problems of the struggle between the new and the old. He dealt with the opposition between Christianity and paganism, between the people’s rights and royal power, and between humanism and social evil.

In the tragedy Correggio (1809), Oehlenschläger depicted the dramatic position of the artist and art vis-à-vis a society preoccupied with property. He portrayed conflicts based primarily on love in the lyric tragedies Baldur the Good (1806), Axel and Valborg (1808, published 1810; complete Russian translation, 1968), and Hagbarth and Signe (1815; Russian translation, 1968), all of which used mythological and conventional historical themes. In the novel The Isle in the South Sea (1824–25), Oehlenschläger reworked the Utopian theme of Felsenburg Island, a novel by the 18th-century German writer J. G. Schnabel.

Such later tragedies as Olaf the Holy (1836), Canute the Great (1839), and Erik dipping (1844) were marked by one-dimensional characterizations and by the idealization of royal power. Oehlenschläger also wrote the autobiographical works Life of Oehlenschläger (vols. 1–2, 1830–31) and Reminiscences (vols. 1–4, 1850–51).

WORKS

In Russian translation:
P’esy. Introductory article by A. Pogodin. Moscow, 1968.

REFERENCES

Tiander, K. F. “Elenshleger i datskii romantizm.” In Istoriia zapadnoi literatury (1800–1810), vol. 2. Edited by F. D. Batiushkov. Moscow [1913].
Gozenpud, A. “Datskii teatr.” In Istoriia zapadno-evropeiskogo teatra, vol. 4. Moscow, 1964.
Andersen, V. Adam Oehlenschläger; Et livs poesie, vols. 1–3. Copenhagen, 1899–1900.
Henriques, A. Oehlenschläger og vor tid. Copenhagen, 1961.
Billeskov Jansen, F. J. Danmarks digtekunst, book 3, 2nd ed. Copenhagen, 1964.
Dansk litteratur historie, vol. 2. Copenhagen, 1965. (Contains bibliography.)

V. P. NEUSTROEV