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But when I heard at school of Baggesen's treatment of Oehlenschlaeger, thus realising that there had been various tendencies in literature at that time, and various opinions as to which was preferable, I read with enthusiasm a volume of selected poems by Baggesen, which I had had one Christmas, and the treatment of language in it fascinated me exceedingly, with its gracefulness and light, conversational tone.
Supplanted in public favor by the rising glory of Oehlenschlaeger, he had the misfortune to see the poetic crown of Denmark placed on the head of his rival; and the last years of his life were embittered by disappointment and care.
For to entertain kindly sentiments for the man who had dared to profane Oehlenschlaeger was like siding with Loki against Thor. Poul Moeller's Collected Works I had received at my confirmation, and read again and again with such enthusiasm that I almost wore the pages out, and did not skip a line, even of the philosophical parts, which I did not understand at all.
The grimness of the Viking life is softened by romantic coloring, and the poet has not freed himself from the influence of Oehlenschlaeger. But in "Sigurd Slembe" he found a subject entirely worthy of his genius, and produced one of the noblest masterpieces of all modern literature. This largely planned and magnificently executed dramatic trilogy was written in Munich, and published in 1862.
We stood out of the bay, rounding the lofty lighthouse, which stands on a ledge of rocks, and then bent our course to the south, in the direction of the straits. It was a glorious morning, a blue sunny sky and blue sunny ocean; or, rather, as my friend Oehlenschlaeger has observed on a similar occasion, there appeared two skies and two suns, one above and one below.
And in his course, as in Thortsen's History of Literature, literature which might be regarded as historic stopped with the year 1814. The order in which in my private reading I became acquainted with Danish authors was as follows: Ingemann, Oehlenschlaeger, Grundtvig, Poul Moeller, many books by these authors having been given me at Christmas and on birthdays.
I am quite sure that I resemble Oehlenschlaeger in one thing, namely, that the defects of my book are open to all, and are not glossed over with any sort or kind of lie; anything unclear must for the moment have seemed clear to me, as in his case. My motto has always been: "Be faithful in small things, and God shall make you ruler over great things."
Protestantism carried it against Roman Catholicism, the young Oehlenschlaeger against Baggesen, Romanticism against Rationalism; Oehlenschlaeger as the Northern poet of human nature against a certain Bjoernson, who, it was said, claimed to be more truly Norse than he. In Mr. Driebein's presentment, no recognised great name was ever attacked.
The dramas of Oehlenschlaeger are his masterpieces, but they form only a small portion of his works. His prose stories and romances fill several volumes, and his smaller poems would of themselves have established almost a greater reputation than that of any Danish poet who went before him.
He had once been apprentice to the widow of Moeller the dyer, when Oehlenschlaeger and the Oersteds used to dine at the house.
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