born Nov. 14, 1779, Vesterbro, Den.
died Jan. 20, 1850, Copenhagen
Danish poet and dramatist, considered the national poet of Denmark.
He became the leader of Romanticism in Danish literature with his poem The Golden Horns (1802). Important collections of his poetry, with several lyrical dramas, appeared in 1802 and 1805. His plays drawing on Nordic history and mythology include Earl Haakon the Great (1807). His most significant later work is the poetic epic The Gods of the North (1819), a kind of modern Edda .