Stiernhielm, Georg

Stiernhielm, Georg

 orig. Jöran Olofsson or Georgius Olai or Göran Lilia

(born Aug. 7, 1598, Vika, Swed.—died April 22, 1672, Stockholm) Swedish poet and scholar, often called “the father of Swedish poetry.” Beginning about 1640 he was poet in attendance at the court of Queen Christina. His most important work is the allegorical, didactic epic Hercules (1658), a sermon on virtue and honour and a fine example of late-Renaissance Classicism; it greatly influenced the development of Swedish poetry. His poems were collected in Swedish Muses (1668).

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Stiernhielm, Georg 

Born Aug. 7, 1598, in Svartskär, Da-lama; died Apr. 22, 1672, in Stockholm. Swedish poet; scholar of encyclopedic scope.

Stiernhielm studied in Germany and Holland. In the allegorical-didactic narrative poem Hercules (1648, published 1658) he affirmed the ideas of Renaissance humanism and moral stoicism. Stiernhielm was the first in Swedish literature to use classical and Renaissance plots; he introduced accentual versification, the hexameter line, the alexandrine, the sonnet, and other verse forms and meters into Swedish poetry. Stiernhielm was the compiler of an unfinished dictionary entitled Treasury of the Language of the Svear and Götar (1643).

WORKS

Samlade skrifter [parts 1–3]. Stockholm, 1924[-57],
In Russian translation:
“Gerkules (fragmenty).” In Evropeiskaia poeziia XVII veka. Moscow, 1977.

REFERENCE

Wieselgren, P. Georg Stiernhielm. Stockholm, 1948.