OEHLENSCHLGER, ADAM GOTTLOB

born Nov. 14, 1779, Vesterbro, Den. died Jan. 20, 1850, Copenhagen poet and dramatist who was a leader of the Romantic movement in Denmark and is considered the great Danish national poet. Oehlenschlger attended a school under the poet Edward Storm. After a short career as an actor, he entered the University of Copenhagen to study law, but turned to writing. Oehlenschlger wrote his famous poem Guldhornene (1802; The Golden Horns, 1913), after his meeting with the Norwegian scientist and philosopher Henrik Steffens, who was eager to spread the doctrine of German Romanticism in Denmark. The ideals of Steffens gave Oehlenschlger the courage to break with 18th-century literary traditions, and Guldhornene marks this turning point in Danish literature. Oehlenschlger's first volume of poetry, Digte (Poems), appeared in 1802 and contained not only Guldhornene but also Sanct Hansaften-spil (A Midsummer Night's Play); this latter work is a lyrical drama combining literary satire with poetic discourses on love and nature. His Poetiske skrifter (1805; Poetic Writings) contains two long cycles of lyric poems and Aladdin, a poetic drama on the writer's own life, with the lamp of the story symbolizing intuitive poetic genius. Oehlenschlger was by now recognized as an important poet, and in 1805 he received a government grant to study and travel in Germany and other countries, where he visited J.W. von Goethe and the leaders of the Romantic movement. In the historical plays published in Nordiske Digte (1807; Nordic Poems), Oehlenschlger broke somewhat with the Romantic school and turned to Nordic history and mythology for his materials. In this collection are the historical tragedy Hakon Jarl hin Rige (Earl Haakon the Great), based on that Danish national hero, and Baldur hin Gode (Baldur the Good), based on Norse mythology. Oehlenschlger returned to Copenhagen in 1809 and became a professor of aesthetics at the university there in 1810. He subsequently wrote many other plays, but these are generally thought to be inferior to his earlier plays. His lyric poetry has in general outlived his dramatic verse. Oehlenschlger's most significant later work is the poetic epic Nordens guder (1819; The Gods of the North), which is a sort of modern Edda.