born Dec. 3, 1684, Bergen, Nor.
died Jan. 28, 1754, Copenhagen, Den.
Norwegian-Danish man of letters.
Educated in Denmark and England, he traveled in various European countries before becoming a professor at the University of Copenhagen; while there he began to create a new class of humorous literature. His seriocomic epic Peder Paars (1719), a parody of Virgil 's Aeneid , is the earliest classic of the Danish language. Holberg was soon producing a steady flow of stage comedies, including The Political Tinker (1723), The Weathercock (1723), Jean de France (1723), Jeppe of the Hill (1723), The Fussy Man (1731), and Erasmus Montanus (1731), many of which are still produced. The outstanding Scandinavian literary figure of the Enlightenment , Holberg is claimed by both Norway and Denmark as a founder of their literatures.