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OHLENSCHLAGER, ADAM GOTTLOB (1779-1850)
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See also:OHLENSCHLAGER, See also:ADAM GOTTLOB (1779-1850) , Danish poet, was See also:born in Vesterbro, a suburb of See also:Copenhagen, on the 14th of See also:November 1779. His See also:father, a Schleswiger by See also:birth, was at that See also:time organist, and later became keeper, of the royal See also:palace of Frederiksberg; he was a very brisk and cheerful See also:man. The poet's See also:mother, on the other See also:hand, who was partly See also:German by extraction, suffered from depressed See also:spirits, which afterwards deepened into See also:melancholy madness. Adam and his See also:sister See also:Sofia were allowed their own way throughout their childhood, and were taught nothing, except to read and write, until their twelfth See also:year. At the See also:age of nine Adam began to make fluent verses. Three years later, while walking in Frederiksberg Gardens, he attracted the See also:notice of the poet Edvard See also:Storm, and the result of the conversation was that he received a nomination to the See also:college called " Posterity's High School," an important institution of which Storm was the See also:principal. Storm himself taught the class of Scandinavian See also:mythology, and thus Ohlenschlager received his earliest See also:bias towards the poetical See also:religion of his ancestors. He was confirmed in 1795, and was to have been apprenticed to a tradesman in Copenhagen. To his See also:great delight there was a hitch in the preliminaries, and he returned to his father's See also:house. He now, in his eighteenth year, suddenly took up study with great zeal, but soon again abandoned his books for the See also:stage, where a small position was offered him. In 1797 he actually made his See also:appearance on the boards in several successive parts, but soon discovered that he possessed no real histrionic See also:talent. The See also:brothers Orsted, with whom he had formed an intimacy fruitful of profit to him, persuaded him to quit the stage, and in 1800 he entered the university of Copenhagen as a student. He was doomed, however, to disturbance in his studies, first from the See also:death of his mother, next from his inveterate tendency towards See also:poetry, and finally from the attack of the See also:English upon Copenhagen in See also:April 18o1, which, however, inspired a dramatic See also:sketch (April the Second r8oz) which is the first thing of the See also:kind by Ohlenschlager that we possess. In the summer of 18oz, when Ohlenschlager had an old Scandinavian See also:romance, as well as a See also:volume of lyrics, in the See also:press, the See also:young Norse philosopher, Henrik See also:Steffens, came back to Copenhagen after a See also:long visit to See also:Schelling in See also:Germany, full of new romantic ideas. His lectures at the university, in which See also:Goethe and See also:Schiller were for the first time revealed to the Danish public, created a great sensation. Steffens and Ohlenschlager met one See also:day at Dreier's See also:Club, and after a conversation of sixteen See also:hours the latter went See also:home, suppressed his two coming volumes, and wrote at a sitting his splendid poem Guldhornene, in a manner totally new to Danish literature. The result of his new See also:enthusiasm >peedily showed itself in a somewhat hasty volume of poems, published in 1803, now chiefly remembered as containing the lovely piece called Sanct-Hansaften-Spil. The next two years saw the See also:production of several exquisite See also:works, in particular the epic of Thors Reise til See also:Jotunheim, the charming poem in hexameters called Langelandsreisen, and the bewitching piece of fantasy Aladdin's Lampe (1805). At the age of twenty-six Ohlenschlager was universally recognized, even by the opponents of the romantic revival. as the leading poet of See also:Denmark. Henow collected his Poetical Writings in two volumes. He found no difficulty in obtaining a See also: Here he resided eighteen months and wrote his three famous masterpieces, Baidur See also:bin Gode (18o8), Palnatoke (1809), and Axel og Valborg (181o). In 'See also:July 18o8 he left Paris and spent the autumn and winter in See also:Switzerland as the See also:guest of Madame de See also:Stael-See also:Holstein at Coppet, in the midst of her circle of wits. In the spring of 1809 Ohlenschlager went to See also:Rome to visit See also:Thorwaldsen, and in his house wrote his tragedy of See also:Correggio. He hurriedly returned to Denmark in the spring of 181o, partly to take the See also:chair of See also:aesthetics at the university of Copenhagen, partly to marry the sister-in-See also:law of Rahbek, to whom he had been long betrothed. His first course of lectures dealt with his Danish predecessor See also:Ewald, the second with Schiller. From this time forward his See also:literary activity became very great; in 1811 he published the See also:Oriental See also:tale of See also:Ali og Gulhyndi, and in 1812 the last of his great tragedies, Staerkodder. From 1814 to 1819 he, or rather his admirers, were engaged in a long and angry controversy with See also:Baggesen, who represented the old didactic school. This contest seems to have disturbed the See also:peace of Ohlenschlager's mind, and to have undermined his See also:genius. His talent may be said to have culminated in the glorious See also:cycle of See also:verse-romances called Helge, published in 1814. The tragedy of Hagbarth og\Signe, 1815, showed a distinct falling-off in See also:style. In 1817 he went back to Paris, and published Hroars See also:Saga and the tragedy of Fostbrodrene. In 1818 he was again in Copenhagen, and wrote the idyll of Den See also:lille Hyrdedreng and the Eddaic cycle called Nordens Guder. His next productions were the tragedies of Erik og See also:Abel (1820) and Vaeringerne i Miklagaard (1826), and the epic of Hrolf Krake (1829). It was in the last-mentioned year that, being in See also:Sweden, Ohlenschlager was publicly crowned with See also:laurel in front of the high See also:altar in See also:Lund See also:cathedral by See also:Bishop Esaias See also:Tegner, as the " Scandinavian See also: Although his See also:inspiration came from Germany, he is not much like a German poet, except when he is consciously following Goethe; his See also:analogy is much rather to be found among the English poets XX. a his contemporaries. His See also:mission towards antiquity reminds us of See also:Scott, but he is, as a poet, a better artist than Scott; he has sometimes touches of exquisite diction and of over-wrought sensibility which recall See also:Coleridge to us. In his wide ambition and profuseness he possessed some characteristics of See also:Southey, although his style has far more vitality. With all his faults he was a very great writer, and one of the principal • pioneers of the romantic See also:movement in See also:Europe. (E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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