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Prof. Dr. Lis Møller (Aarhus University)

Medievalism in Danish Romantic Literature – the Schleswig Connection

Based on the newly published monograph "Middelalderisme i dansk romantisk litteratur", this talk discusses the emergent interest in the second half of the 18th century in Old Norse and medieval vernacular literature paving the way for romantic medievalism, with a special focus on the role played by the German-speaking Dane Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg.

Born in Tønder in 1737 and educated in Schleswig as well as in Germany, Gerstenberg, in 1760, settled in Copenhagen and became a member of the so-called German circle. As part of a cultural elite, Gerstenberg significantly contributed to the new interest among poets and historians in Old Norse and medieval literature.

The talk will look into Gerstenberg’s seminal Gedicht eines Skalden (1766) and, in particular, his literary journal, Schleswiger Literturbriefe (1766-70), which acquainted Danish and German readers with Old Norse topics as well as with Danish ballads from the Middle Ages.