Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger (1779–1850) introduced Romanticism to Danish literature and on the basis of his early work is usually heralded as Denmark’s greatest Romantic poet. His oeuvre includes various notable volumes of poems and an impressive variety in dramas, ranging from his adaption of the Arabian Nights tale Aladdin (1805) to his great “national” historical drama Hakon Jarl hin rige (1809); the tragedy Corregio (1811) marked his breakthrough in Germany. Nowadays most Danes will know him as the author of their national anthem Det er et yndigt land (“There is a charming land”).

According to legend, a defining moment in Oehlenschläger’s life was a sixteen-hour discussion with the Norwegian-born philosopher and mineralogist Henrik Steffens in the summer of 1802. Steffens had returned from Jena, where he had been studying Schelling’s natural philosophy, and now introduced his friend to the ideas of the German Romantic philosophers he had become acquainted with. The legend goes on to say that an inspired Oehlenschläger wrote the very first Romantic poem in the Danish language immediately after returning home from this lengthy tête-à-tête. Based on the actual events of the theft and destruction of the two Golden Horns of Gallehus earlier in 1802, this first work, Guldhornene (“The Gold Horns”), already reflects what would arguably become his greatest contribution to Danish National Romanticism, the revival of Old Norse history, mythology and culture, and the revaluation of Scandinavian medieval history. In Oehlenschläger’s eyes his fellow-countrymen, the Danish part, neglected to the point of destruction the Old Norse heritage (as symbolized in the melting-down of the Golden Horns), though it provided modern Denmark with an inexhaustible source for national pride and rejuvenation, and he saw it as his duty as a poet to revive and propagate the national past.

Between 1805 and 1809 Oehlenschläger travelled through Europe, meeting many leading cultural personalities including Fichte, Tieck, Humboldt, the Schlegel brothers and Goethe in Germany, and Madame de Staël in Switzerland. During his eighteen-month stay in Paris he wrote three of his finest plays: Baldur hin gode (1808), Palnatoke (1809) and Axel og Valborg (1810), all of which reflect his fascination with Nordic mythology. Later on, in 1823, while writing his first historical novel Øen i Sydhavet (“The South-Sea Island”), he also maintained an extensive correspondence with Sir Walter Scott. Indeed, during his lectures on European literature at the University of Copenhagen, where he held the chair of aesthetics, he not only introduced his audiences to the works of his literary heroes Goethe and Schiller, but also displayed an impressive knowledge of English literature, including Scott and Byron.

From 1813-14 onwards, Oehlenschläger’s genius was waning. He became the centre of a notorious literary feud which circled around the opposition between the new Romantic school and old Enlightenment-style didacticism, ignited by his most stalwart adversary, the poet Jens Baggesen. Although this so-called Baggesen-fejden was to some extent a mere clash of generations, Oehlenschläger’s later work does show signs of increasing sentimentality and declining spontaneity. Worth noting, however, is the poem-cycle Helge (1814), an important inspiration for Esaias Tegnér in writing Fritjofs saga (1825).

Indeed, in the other Scandinavian countries Oehlenschläger’s star did not fade that rapidly. In 1829 he was crowned “King of Nordic Poetry” in the Cathedral of Lund, Sweden, by Tegnér himself. In Norway, Oehlenschläger’s tragedies dominated the repertoire of theatres and playhouses until the early 1850s. It was only after his death in 1850 that a successful resistance against Danish theatrical hegemony took hold, preparing the way for the rise of a Norwegian national theatre. Only then did Oehlenschläger’s “national” tragedies, based as they were on Snorri’s sagas on the Norwegian kings, come to be the subject of controversy, and Oehlenschläger’s implicit claim that these sagas belonged to a common Nordic heritage was contested in the light of a nationalist project of reclaiming “Norwegian history for the Norwegians”.