DANISH LITERATURE

the body of writings in the Danish language. The first written evidences of Danish may be found in runic inscriptions, the extant majority of which date from 800 to 1100. With the introduction of Christianity in the 12th century, Latin became the predominant literary language of Denmark and remained so until the Protestant Reformation of 1536, when a new literary movement was inaugurated in the native tongue. The European literary Renaissance that reached Denmark in the 17th century led to a strict adherence to classical forms and a great era of science and scholarship. Ludvig Holberg and Johan Herman Wessel, both Norwegian by birth, were influential in the 18th century in creating a modern Danish literature. Adam Oehlenschlger was the leader of the 19th-century Romantic movement in Denmark. The religious philosopher Sren Kierkegaard, on the other hand, occupies a somewhat isolated position in Danish literature. Hans Christian Andersen, the 19th-century master of the fairy tale, was Danish. About 1870 Georg Brandes initiated a naturalistic movement that influenced August Strindberg, Henrik Ibsen, and other Scandinavian writers. Denmark subsequently produced several important fiction writers, among whom were Henrik Pontoppidan, Martin Andersen Nex, and Isak Dinesen.