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DASS, PETTER (1647 – 1708)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 845 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DASS, PETTER (1647 – 1708) , the " See also:father " of See also:modern See also:Norwegian See also:poetry, was the son of See also:Peter Dundas, a Scottish See also:merchant of See also:Dundee, who, leaving his See also:country about 163o to See also:escape the troubles of the Presbyterian chursh, settled in See also:Bergen, and in 1646 married a Norse girl of See also:good See also:family. Petter Dass was See also:born in 1647 on the See also:island of See also:Nord See also:Hero; on the See also:north See also:coast of See also:Norway. Seven years later his father died, and his See also:mother placed him with his aunt, the wife of the See also:priest of another little island-See also:parish. In 166o he was sent to school at Bergen, in 1665 to the university of See also:Copenhagen, and in 1667 he began to See also:earn his daily See also:bread as a private See also:tutor. In 1672 he was ordained priest, and remained till 1681 as under-See also:chaplain at Nesne, a little parish near his birthplace; for eight .years more he was See also:resident chaplain at Nesne; and at last in 1689 he received the living of Alstahoug, the most important in the north of Norway. The See also:rule of Alstahoug extended over all the neighbouring districts, including Dass's native island of Hero, and its privileges were accompanied by See also:great perils, for it was necessary to be constantly See also:crossing stormy firths of See also:sea. Dass lived here in quietude, with something of the honours and responsibilities of a See also:bishop, brought up his family in a See also:God-fearing way, and wrote endless reams of verses. In 1700 he asked leave to resign his living in favour of his son Anders Dass, but this was not permitted; .in 1704, however, Anders became his father's chaplain. About this See also:time Petter went to Bergen, 'where he visited Dorothea See also:Engelbrechtsdatter, with whom he had been for many years in See also:correspondence. He continued to write till 1707, and died in See also:August 1708. The materials for his See also:biography are very numerous; he was regarded with universal curiosity and admiration in his lifetime; and, besides, he See also:left a garrulous autobiography in See also:verse. A portrait, painted in See also:middle See also:age, now in the See also:church of Melhus, near See also:Trondhjem, represents him in canonicals, with deep red See also:beard and See also:hair, the latter waved and silky, and a See also:head of massive proportions.

The See also:

face is full of See also:fire and vigour. His writings passed in MS. from See also:hand to hand, and few of them were printed in his lifetime. Nordlands Trompet (The See also:Trumpet of Nordland), his greatest and most famous poem, was not published till 1739; Den norska See also:Dale-Vise (The Norwegian See also:Song of the Valley) appeared in 1696; the Aandelig Tidsfordriv (Spiritual Pastime), a See also:volume of sacred poetry, was published in 1711. The Trumpet of Nordland remains as fresh as ever in the memories of the inhabitants of the north of Norway; boatmen, peasants, priests will alike repeat See also:long extracts from it at the slightest See also:notice, and its popularity is unbounded. It is a rhyming description of the See also:province of Nordland, its natural features, its trades, its advantages and its drawbacks, given in dancing verse of the most breathless See also:kind, and full of See also:humour, See also:fancy, wit and See also:quaint learning. The other poems of Petter Dass are less universally read; they abound, however, in queer turns of thought, and See also:fine homely fancies. The collected writings of Dass were edited (3 vols., See also:Christiania, 1873-1877) by Dr A. E. Eriksen.

End of Article: DASS, PETTER (1647 – 1708)

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