Adam Oehlenschläger

Adam Oehlenschläger was a Danish poet and playwright who introduced Romanticism to Denmark. He was born on 14th November 1779 in Copenhagen and died there on 20th January 1850 aged 70.

“Digte” (Poems) (1803) 
“Earl Hakon” (1807)
“Baldur hin Gode”. (Baldur the Good) (1808)
“Axel og Valborg” (Axel and Valborg) (1810)
“Correggio” (1811)
“Aladdin of the Wonderful Lamp” (1820)

1779: Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger was born on 14th November in Vesterbro in Copenhagen, Denmark. His father Joachim Conrad Oehlenschläger was an organist at Frederiksberg Castle, near Copenhagen. His mother Martha Marie Hansen suffered from depression and later madness. He was educated at a school run by the Norwegian poet Edvard Storm. 

1788: He begins writing poetry.

1795: He is confirmed in the church and is destined by his father to become an apprentice to a tradesman.

1797: Instead he becomes a jobbing actor but is not very successful. 

1800: His mother dies. He enters the University of Copenhagen to study law.

1801: The Battle of Copenhagen inspires him to write “April the Second 1801”.

1802: He writes the poem “Guldhornene” (The Golden Horns) after a meeting with the Norwegian scientist/philosopher Henrik Steffens, recently returned to Copenhagen, who was committed to the ideals of German Romanticism and had been to the lectures in Germany of Fredrich Schelling and Fredrich von Schiller.

1803: His first collection, entitled “Digte” (Poems), is published along with the play “Sanct Hansaften-spil” (Play for Midsummer Eve).

1805: He publishes “Poetiske Skrifter” (Poetic Writings) in two volumes which contains cycles of lyric poems and “Aladdin”, a poetic drama on the writer’s own life with the lamp symbolising poetic genius. He receives a government grant to study abroad and goes to Germany. In August he re-joins Steffens at the University of Halle and writes “Hakon Jarl”. He spends the winter in Berlin where he meets Wilhelm von Humboldt, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte.

1806: In the spring he spends a good deal of time in Weimar conversing with Goethe. In the Autumn he moves on to Dresden where he meets the poet Ludwig Tieck and then in December moves on to Paris.

1807: He publishes “Nordiske Digte” (Nordic Poems) which includes the tragedy of “Hakon Jarl hin Rige” (Earl Haakon the Great), based on the Danish national hero.

1808: In July he leaves Paris and goes to Switzerland as the guest of Madame de Staël at her home in Coppet. Here he writes “Baldur hin Gode”. 

1809: In the spring he goes to Rome to visit the Danish Sculptor Bertel Thorvalsdsen and writes the tragedy “Correggio”. He publishes “Palnatoke”.

1810: He returns to Denmark where he is appointed professor of Aesthetics at the University of Copenhagen. He marries Christiane Georgine Elisabeth Heger, the sister of the Danish writer Kamma Rahbek. He publishes the five-act tragedy “Axel og Valborg” which he wrote whilst in Paris. 

1811: He publishes the Oriental tale of “Ali og Gulhynd”.

1812: He publishes the tragedy “Stærkodder” about a legendary Norse giant.

1814: He becomes embroiled in a bitter feud with Jens Immanuel Baggesen as to whom is the most important Danish writer. He publishes the “Helge” cycle.

1815: He publishes the tragedy of “Hagbarth og Signe”, a famous Scandinavian Viking Age legend, often referred to as the Nordic equivalent to Romeo and Juliet.

1817: He returns to Paris and publishes “Hroars Saga” and the tragedy of “Fostbrødrene”.

1818: Death of his sister Sophie Orsted. Back again in Copenhagen he writes “Den lille Hyrdedreng” (The Little Shepherd Boy) and “Nordens Guder” (Gods of the North).

1819: He publishes “Nordens Guder” .

1820: He writes the tragedy of “Erik og Abel”.

1823: He writes his first historical novel “Øen i Sydhavet” (The South-Sea Island).

1826: He writes “Væringerne i Miklagaard”.

1827: His father dies.

1829: He is crowned in Lund Cathedral as the “King of Nordic Poetry” and the “Scandinavian King of Song” by the Bishop of Vaxjo. He writes the epic “Hrolf Krake”.

1833: He publishes “Tordenskjold” (Thunder Shield) and “Dronning Margrethe” (Queen Margrethe).

1835: He publishes “Sokrates”.

1836: He publishes “Olaf den Hellige” (Saint Olaf).

1838: He publishes “Knud den Store” (Canute the Great).

1842: He publishes “Dina”.

1843: He publishes “Erik Glipping”.

1847: He publishes “Kiartan og Gudrun” (Kjartan and Gudrun).

1849: On the occasion of his seventieth birthday on 14th November a public festival is arranged in his honour and he is awarded the Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Dannebrog by the King of Denmark.

Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger died on 20th January 1850 in Copehagen and was buried in the cemetery of Frederiksberg Church in the city.

Adam Oehlenschläger was influenced by German Romanticism and in particular the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. The Norwegian philosopher and scientist Henrik Steffens introduced him to German Romanticism and the philosophy of Friedrich Schelling. He travelled to Germany in 1805 on a government grant to study with several members of the Romantic Movement in more depth including Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Ludwig Tieck, Friedrich Schlegel and his brother August Wilhelm as well as Goethe himself. He then moved on to Switzerland where he met Madame de Staël. Steffens lectures at the University of Copenhagen were said to have introduced Goethe and Schiller to the Danish public. 

He also drew widely on Scandinavian mythology including the stories of Hakon Jarl hin Rige and Baldur hin Gode. Up to that period no Danish writer had had so wide an influence and his work developed a passion amongst Danes for poetry about their history. 

He had gone to a school run by the Norwegian poet Edvard Storm known for his drinking songs. After a failed attempt at being an actor he went to the University of Copenhagen to study law but was more interested in writing. His poetry is prized for its lyrical beauty, focus on the natural world, mythology and personal details of his characters. His famous poem “Guldhornene” (The Golden Horns) of 1802 concerns the loss of two golden horns symbolising a union of past and present and marks a turning point in Danish literature. In 1805 is “Poetiske Skrifter” (Poetic Writings) contains two long lyric poems and a drama “Aladdin”. The latter is about the poet’s own life, with the lamp symbolising poetic genius however, in Britain at least. It has become better known in the guise of a pantomime of that name.

In 1807 with the publication of the historical plays “Nordiske Digte” (Nordic Poems) he broke away from Romanticism and looked to Nordic history to provide his source material. This contains his first, and some say best, tragedy “Hakon Jarl hin Rige” (Earl Haakon the Great). He also translated the thirteenth century historians Saxo Grammaticus and Snorri Sturluson and translated “Beowulf” Into his native language. Returning to Copenhagen in 1810 he became Professor of Aesthetics at the university where he maintained an extensive correspondence with Sir Walter Scott and had an impressive knowledge of English literature and especially Lord Byron. Although he wrote many other plays, they have not been as popular with the exception of “Helge” in 1814 which inspired the Swedish writer Esaias Tegnér’s 1825 epic “Frithiofs Aaga” and the Finnish poet Johann Ludwig Runeberg’s “Kung Fjalar” in 1844. In 1829 he had been crowned “King of Nordic Poetry” in the Cathedral of Lund in Sweden, by Tegnér himself. He became the centre of a notorious literary feud about literary styles with his younger adversary the poet Jens Baggesen when his fame was declining. In general, his lyric poetry has survived better than his dramatic verses which began to fade away after his death in the 1850’s particularly in Norway who were trying to develop their own national theatre as opposed to a pan Nordic one. Although not popular outside of Nordic countries the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow did mention his works in his essay on the Danish language. 

List of works by Oehlenschläger.