Steen Steensen Blicher

Steen Steensen Blicher (11 October, 1782 — 26 March, 1848 in Spentrup) was an author and poet born in Vium near Viborg, Denmark.

Biography

Blicher was the son of an active and literary interested Jutlandic parson whose family was distantly related to Martin Luther. He grew up in close contact to nature and the life of the peasantry of the moor areas of Jutland. After changing careers as a teacher and a tenant he at last became a parson like his father and 1825-1847 he had his living at Spentrup. As a clergyman he seems to have been less than inspired. He was accused of being on the bottle, his main interests were hunting and writing and many struggles with his superiors led to his dismissal shortly before his death. He had ten children, seven sons, three daughters with his wife Ernestine Juliane Berg whom he married on 11 June, 1810.

First of all Blicher is known as the pioneer of the novella in Danish literary history. From the 1820s and until his death he wrote several longer or shorter tales that were published in local periodicals, most of them dealing with his home region, some historical or amateur scientific sketches. Much of this is light literature and entertainment but twenty or thirty are masterpieces. In these he describes human fates in his home region in Jutland, He is often called a tragic and melancholic writer, this fact indisputably marks much of his writings but he is not without wit and humour.

"The Diary of a Parish Clerk", his break-through, tells about a poor peasant boy’s troubled life with unhappy love, war, exile and an old age in resignation – inspired by the same authentic background as "Marie Grubbe" by J. P. Jacobsen. The sombre "The Hosier and his Daughter" (twice filmed) that describes the mental breakdown of a girl because of unhappy love is a Danish classic prose tragedy. "The Parson of Veilbye", the first Danish crime novel, deals with wrongful conviction (most likely it has inspired "Tom Sawyer Detective" by Mark Twain), it too has been filmed. "Tardy Awakening", a tragedy of adultery and suicide, is perhaps influenced by his own matrimonial life. "E Bindstouw" is a mixture of tales and poetry on the model of the Decameron, all written in Jutlandic dialect, here he turns loose his humour. Blicher’s most important literary ability is his description of the scenery, especially the Jutlandic moor landscape and its inhabitants: resigned peasants and “free” moor gypsies. Stylistically he also varies between his own a bit detailed intellectual narrative style and the various expressions of peasants, squires and robbers.

As a lyric Blicher worked from the years of the Napoleonic Wars until his death. Among his most important poems are the resigned and melancholic "Til Glæden" (“To Joy”) from 1814, his interesting local patriotic song "Kærest du Fødeland" (“Dear are You, Fatherland”) that shows his subjective love to 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. Perhaps most artificial is his collection "Trækfuglene" ("Birds of Passage") inspired by a serious illness, in this various birds with overtones express his situation.

Blicher was a man of far-ranging interests. Beginning as a conservative he developed into an eager debater of society, uniting the role of the enlightened and useful citizen of the 1700s with modern liberalism. He tried to arrange national feasts in Jutland, proposing laws and reforms but he was never really accepted by the established liberal politicians. Besides he translated British poetry which always interested him, like Macpherson’s Ossian and Goldsmith’s "The Vicar of Wakefield" – he even tried to write poetry in English.

Though being a contemporary of the first Romanticist generation of Danish writers Blicher is in many ways a loner. He is more of a realist, dealing with broken dreams and with Time as man’s superior opponent and his religion is the old rationalist one. He is a belated Danish pupil of the 18th century English letter-and-diary tales and by his interest of dialect and of peasants he anticipates the regional writers about 1900, like Johannes Vilhelm Jensen. Today he is regarded the pioneer of the Danish short story and the region writing. Many of his verses have been set to music and his best novels have been reprinted. He has never enjoyed an international interest like Hans Christian Andersen but in Denmark he is almost just as well known.

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")
*"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 works in English

*Steen Steensen Blicher: "The Diary of a Parish Clerk and Other Stories". Pref. by Erik Harbo, introd. by Margaret Drabble, transl. by Paula Hostrup-Jessen. 1996.
*Steen Steensen Blicher: "Tardy Awakening and Other Stories", ed. with afterword and comment. by Niels Ingwersen, transl. by Paula Brugge & Faith Ingwersen. 1996.

References

*Knud Sørensen: "Steen Steensen Blicher. Digter og samfundsborger. En illustreret biografi." Cph. 1984.
*Hans Brix: "Steen Steensen Blicher" (in: The American Scandinavian Review Vol. 15. 1928, Number 10 October)

External links

*
* [http://adl.dk/adl_pub/pg/cv/ShowPgImg.xsql?nnoc=adl_pub&p_udg_id=193&p_sidenr=9 S.S. Blicher's Autobiography at The Archive of Danish Literature (Online in Danish)]