Danish literature - Middle Ages, The 16th and 17th Centuries, 18th century, 19th century, 20th century

The first written evidence of Danish may be found in runic transcriptions dating from 800 to 1100. The important Gesta Danorum (Deeds of the Danes) was written in Latin by Saxo Grammaticus in the 12th-c. There was an oral tradition of epic balladry (13th–15th-c) but Danish literature begins with the translation of the Bible in 1550. Classical imitations marked the 17th-c, and the influence of English and French literature was strongly felt in the 18th-c, while the Norwegian-born dramatist Ludwig Holberg was the first significant Danish writer. The 19th-c brought radicals and Romantics, including the poets Adam Oehlenschläger, Steensen Blicher, and Henrik Hertz (1798–1870). The early existentialist Søren Kierkegaard wrote at this time, as did Hans Christian Andersen, whose fairy tales appeared from 1835. The critic Georg Brandes (1842–1927) led the ‘modern breakthrough’ of the 1870s, when Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847–85) introduced naturalist fiction (Niels Lyhne, 1880), and Holger Drachmann (1846–1908) became Denmark's finest poet. The 20th-c saw a peasant movement, Expressionism, and inter-war restlessness, notably the fantasies of Karen Blixen, eg Six Gothic Tales 1934), and the novels and plays of Hans Christian Branner and Martin Hansen, which are much concerned with World War 2. One of Denmark's internationally best-known modern authors, Henrik Stangerup (1937–98), wrote eloquently of late-20th-c society's feeling of alienation in novels such as Forføreren eller det er svaert at dø í Dieppe (1985, The Seducer: it is hard to die in Dieppe, 1988).

Danish literature is, for the purposes of this article, the subset of Scandinavian literature composed in Denmark or by Danish people.

Middle Ages

The earliest preserved texts from Denmark are runic inscriptions on memorial stones and other objects. The advent of Christianity in the 10th century brought Denmark into contact with European learning, including the Latin alphabet and the Latin language, but it wasn't until the late 12th century that this was to bear significant literary fruit in Gesta Danorum an ambitious historical work by Saxo Grammaticus.

The 16th and 17th Centuries

The 16th century brought the Lutheran Reformation to Denmark and a new period in the nation's literature. The 16th century also saw Denmark's earliest plays, including the works of Hieronymus Justesen Ranch. External struggles with Sweden and internal rivalries among the nobility leading to Denmark's absolute monarchy in 1660 are chronicled from a royal prisoner's redemptive perspective in Jammersminde (Remembered Woes), in the heartfelt prose of Leonora Christina of the Blue Tower, written 1673–1698, but first published in 1869.

18th century

Ludvig Holberg H. Brorson Johan Herman Wessel Johannes Ewald Jens Baggesen

19th century

Hans Christian Andersen Herman Bang Søren Kierkegaard Adam Oehlenschläger

20th century

Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) Peter Høeg Johannes Vilhelm Jensen Svend Aage Madsen Martin Andersen Nexø Dan Turèll