Steen Steensen Blicher was an author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 and poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 born in Vium near Viborg

Viborg, Denmark

Viborg , a town in central Jutland, Denmark, is the seat of both Viborg municipality and Region Midtjylland. Viborg is also the seat of the Western High Court, the High Court for the Jutland peninsula...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

.

Biography

Blicher was the son of a literarily inclined Jutland

Jutland

Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...

ic parson whose family was distantly related to Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

.

He grew up in close contact to nature and peasant life in the moor areas of Jutland

Jutland

Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...

. After trying his hand as a teacher and a tenant farmer, he at last became a parson like his father and from 1825-1847 served in the parish at Spentrup.

As a clergyman he is said to have been less than inspired. His main interests were hunting and writing. In 1842 he was accused of alcoholism and abandoned from a Cooperation of Danish writers. Many struggles with his superiors the following years led to his dismissal shortly before his death.

He had ten children, (seven sons and three daughters), with his wife Ernestine Juliane Berg whom he married on 11 June 1810.

Prose

Blicher is known as the pioneer of the novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

 in Danish. From the 1820s until his death he wrote several tales that were published in local periodicals (mostly dealing with his home region), as well as historical and amateur scientific sketches. Much of this work is entertainment but as many as twenty or thirty pieces have been called masterpieces.

In these works he describes human fate in his home region in Jutland, He is often called a tragic and melancholic writer, but he is not without wit and humour.

The Diary of a Parish Clerk, his break-through story, tells of a poor peasant boy’s troubled life with unhappy love, war and exile. Years after the main plot

Plot

Plot is a literary term defined as the events that make up a story, particularly as they relate to one another in a pattern, in a sequence, through cause and effect, or by coincidence. One is generally interested in how well this pattern of events accomplishes some artistic or emotional effect...

 occurred, he discovers that the woman he was in love with for years, ended up as a poor, pathetic alcoholic. He spent his old age in resignation and distrust.

His sombre story The Hosier and his Daughter (twice filmed) that describes the mental breakdown of a girl because of unhappy love is a classic prose tragedy.

The Parson of Veilbye, written in the first person, is the first Danish crime novel. The narrator makes fatal wrong conclusions resulting in a wrongful conviction. It too has been filmed.

Tardy Awakening, a tragedy of adultery and suicide, is perhaps influenced by the fact, that he in 1828 found out that his wife had a love affair.

E Bindstouw is a mixture of tales and poetry on the model of the Decameron

The Decameron

The Decameron, also called Prince Galehaut is a 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio, told as a frame story encompassing 100 tales by ten young people....

, written in the Jutlandic

Jutlandic

Jutlandic or Jutish is a term for the western dialects of Danish, spoken on the peninsula of Jutland....

 dialect. Here he turns loose his humorous side.

Earlier reviews noted that Blicher’s literary skill lies in his descriptions of scenery, especially the Jutlandic moor landscape and its inhabitants: the long-suffering peasantry and “free” moor gypsies. Later some biographies pointed out his skills in describing tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

 and psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

.

Stylistically he alternates between his own detailed intellectual narrative style and the colloquial speech of peasants, squires and robbers.

Poetry

Blicher wrote poetry from the years of the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

 until his death. Among his most important poems are the melancholic Til Glæden (“To Joy”) from 1814, his interesting local patriotic song Kærest du Fødeland (“Dear are You, Fatherland

Fatherland

Fatherland is the nation of one's "fathers", "forefathers" or "patriarchs". It can be viewed as a nationalist concept, insofar as it relates to nations...

”) that shows his love for his home region, and his impressive winter poem Det er hvidt herude ("It is white out here").

The bluff and cheerful dialect poem Jyden han æ stærk å sej ("The Jutlander he is strong and tough") is from 1841.

More uncharacteristic is his collection Trækfuglene ("Birds of Passage") inspired by a serious illness. In this poem various symbolic birds express his personal situation.

Political and social themes

Blicher was a man of far-ranging interests. Beginning as a conservative he developed into an eager critic of society, uniting the role of the enlightened citizen of the 18th century with modern liberalism

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

. He tried to arrange national feasts in Jutland and proposed numerous laws and reforms, but he was never really accepted by the established liberal politicians.

Also something of an Anglophile, he translated British poetry, including Macpherson

Macpherson

MacPherson or Macpherson can refer to:*Clan Macpherson, a Scottish clan*MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co.*MacPherson strut, a car suspension system*MacPherson, Singapore*Macpherson Stadium -In sports:...

’s Ossian

Ossian

Ossian is the narrator and supposed author of a cycle of poems which the Scottish poet James Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in the Scots Gaelic. He is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a character from Irish mythology...

 and novels such as Goldsmith

Goldsmith

A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...

’s The Vicar of Wakefield

The Vicar of Wakefield

The Vicar of Wakefield is a novel by Irish author Oliver Goldsmith. It was written in 1761 and 1762, and published in 1766, and was one of the most popular and widely read 18th-century novels among Victorians...

– once he even tried to write poetry in English.

Though being a member of the first Romanticist generation of Danish writers, Blicher is in many ways unique. He is more of a realist, dealing with broken dreams and with Time as man’s superior opponent. His religion is the old rationalist one.

He is a belated Danish pupil of the 18th century English epistolary style while, in his interest for dialect and peasants, he anticipates the regional writers who emerged around 1900, such as Johannes Vilhelm Jensen

Johannes Vilhelm Jensen

*Not to be confused with German author Wilhelm Jensen .Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, in Denmark always called Johannes V. Jensen, was a Danish author, often considered the first great Danish writer of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1944...

.

Present-day appreciation

Today he is regarded as the pioneer of the Danish short story and regional writing. Many of his verses have been set to music and his best novels have been reprinted many times.

He has never enjoyed international interest on the scale of Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...

 or Karen Blixen

Karen Blixen

Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke , , née Karen Christenze Dinesen, was a Danish author also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen. She also wrote under the pen names Osceola and Pierre Andrézel...

 but in Denmark he is almost just as well known. In 2006 his novel Præsten i Vejlbye was adapted in the Danish Kulturkanon, which means, officially one of the 10 Order of Merit

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit is a British dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...

 novels in Danish literature.

Works

• Brudstykker af en Landsbydegns Dagbog (1824, novella, "Diary of a Parish Clerk")
• Sneklokken (1825, poetry, "The Snow Bell")
• Røverstuen (1827, novella, "The Robber’s Den")
• Ak! hvor forandret (1828, novella, "Alas how changed")
• Sildig Opvaagnen (1828, novella, "Tardy Awakening")
• Præsten i Vejlby (1829, novella, The Rector of Veilbye
  The Rector of Veilbye
  The Rector of Veilbye , is a crime mystery written in 1829 by Danish author Steen Steensen Blicher. The novella is based upon a true murder case from 1626 in Vejlby, Denmark which Blicher knew partly from Erik Pontoppidan's Danish Church History , and partly through oral tradition...
  
  )
• Kjeltringliv (1829, novella, "Gypsy Life")
• Telse (1829, novella)
• Hosekræmmeren (1829, novella, "The Hosier and his Daughter")
• Trækfuglene (1838, poetry, "Birds of Passage")
• De tre Helligaftner (1842, novella, "Three Holliday Eves")
• E Bindstouw (1842, novella-poetry, dialect)

Blicher's works in English

• The Diary of a Parish Clerk and Other Stories. Pref. by Erik Harbo, introd. by Margaret Drabble, transl. by Paula Hostrup-Jessen. Athlone Press (1996) ISBN 0-485-11500-X
• Tardy Awakening and Other Stories, ed. with afterword and comment. by Niels Ingwersen, transl. by Paula Brugge & Faith Ingwersen. University of Wisconsin (WITS II vol.#7, 1996).

Litterature

• Brix, Hans: Steen Steensen Blicher (in: The American Scandinavian Review Vol. 15. 1928, Number 10 October)
• Baggesen, Søren: Den blicherske novelle, Odense Universitetsforlag 1965
• Sørensen, Knud: Steen Steensen Blicher. Digter og samfundsborger. En illustreret biografi. Cph. 1984.
• Aakjær, Jeppe: Steen Steensen Blichers Livs-Tragedie i Breve og Aktstykker, bind 1- 2 (Nordisk Forlag 1904)

External links

• S.S. Blicher's Autobiography at The Archive of Danish Literature (Online in Danish)
• http://adl.dk/adl_pub/fportraet/cv/ShowFpItem.xsql?nnoc=adl_pub&ff_id=40&p_fpkat_id=biog;Biography by Baggesen at The Archive of Danish Literature (Online in Danish)]