Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

DAHLSTJERNA, GUNNO (1661-1709)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 734 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

DAHLSTJERNA, GUNNO (1661-1709) , See also:Swedish poet, whose See also:original surname was Eurelius, was See also:born on the 7th of See also:September 1661 in the See also:parish of Ohr in Dalsland, where his See also:father was See also:rector. He entered the university of See also:Upsala in 1677, and after gaining his degree entered the See also:government See also:office of See also:land-See also:surveying. He was sent in 1681 on professional business to See also:Livonia, then under Swedish See also:rule. A dissertation read at See also:Leipzig in 1687 brought him the offer of a professorial See also:chair in the university, which he refused. Returning to See also:Sweden he executed commissions it land-surveying directed by See also:King See also:Charles XI., and in 1699 he became See also:head of the whole See also:department. In 1702 he was ennobled under the name of Dahlstjerna. He wandered • over the whole of the See also:coast of the Baltic, Livonia, Riigen and See also:Pomerania, preparing 'maps which still exist in the office of public land-surveying in See also:Stockholm. His See also:death, which took See also:place in Pomerania on his See also:forty-eighth birthday, 7th of September 1709, is said to have been hastened by the disastrous See also:news of the See also:battle of See also:Poltava. Dahlstjerna's patriotism was touching in its pathos and intensity, and during his See also:long periods of professional See also:exile he comforted himself by the See also:composition of songs to his beloved Sweden. His See also:genius was most irregular, but at his best he easily surpasses all the Swedish poets of his See also:time. His best-known original See also:work is Kungaskald (See also:Stettin, 1697), an See also:elegy on the death of Charles XI. It is written in alexandrines, arranged in ottava rima.

The poem is pompous and allegorical, but there are passages -full of See also:

melody and high thoughts. Dahlstjerna was a reformer in See also:language, and it has been well said by See also:Atterbom that in this poem " he treats the Swedish speech just as dictatorially as Charles XI. and Charles XII. treated the Swedish nation." In 1690 was printed at Stettin his See also:paraphrase of the Pastor Fido of See also:Guarini. His most popular work is his See also:Gotha kampavisa om Konungen och Herr Peder (The Goth's Battle See also:Song, concerning the King and See also:Master See also:Peter; Stockholm, 1701). The King is Charles XII. and Master Peter is the See also:tsar of See also:Russia. This spirited ballad lived almost until our own days on the lips of the See also:people as a folk-song. The See also:works of Dahlstjerna have been collected by P. Hanselli, in the Samlade Vitterhetsarbeten of svenska Forfattare fr¢n See also:Stjernhjelm till Dalin (Upsala, 1856, &c.).

End of Article: DAHLSTJERNA, GUNNO (1661-1709)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
DAHLMANN, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH (1785-186o) 		[next]
DAHN, JULIUS SOPHUS FELIX (1834— )

Site © 2006 - Net Industries