DENMARK. – A state in northern Europe, consisting of a continental part, the Jutland peninsula, which is joined to Germany, and an archipelago of about 500 islands.
I. GEOGRAPHY
The country is entirely flat or only slightly undulating (maximum elevation 172 m.), with the islands and the eastern regions of Jutland, characterized by the fertility of the fine glacial clays that cover them, contrasting with the sector open to the North Sea, where barren sandy heaths prevail. The climate is temperate maritime, but with marked continental influences (very cold winters and hot summers) and scant precipitation. There are no notable rivers.The economy of Denmark is based on specialized agriculture (barley, oats, wheat, potatoes, forage) and livestock farming (cattle, pigs, poultry) intended for the export of products (butter, cheese, meat, lard, cured meats, and eggs) demanded by neighboring markets (England, Germany, Sweden, Norway, etc.). With these countries Denmark maintains an extremely active trade, which secures for it the raw materials it lacks and which are necessary for its industries.
The population, much denser on the islands, numbers 4.2 million inhabitants, ethnically very homogeneous (96.5% Danish) and almost entirely Protestant (98.8%). Only three cities exceed 100,000 inhabitants. The capital, Copenhagen, on the island of Zealand (over 1 million inhabitants), is one of the most active ports in northern Europe; Aarhus (110,000 inhabitants), the most important city and the main port of Jutland. Frederiksberg (115,000 inhabitants) is part of the urban agglomeration of Copenhagen.
Denmark is a hereditary constitutional monarchy with a bicameral representation elected by universal suffrage extended to women. A Danish possession is Greenland. The Faroe Islands, an archipelago of 22 islands with 29,000 inhabitants, were formerly governed by a Danish prefect. Since March 30, 1948, they have been self-governing.
DENMARK – 1) State boundaries; 2) Ecclesiastical district boundaries; 3) Railways.
Under his successor Jens Grand, the archbishop Jakob Erlandson (1254-74) was involved in a dispute over the rights of the Church. It was only with the advent of King Valdemar Atterdag (1340-75) that the situation could be said to have been resolved. His daughter, the wise and pious Queen Margaret (1375-1412), united the three northern kingdoms through the so-called Union of Kalmar (1397) and created the conditions for Church reforms. In 1523, Sweden, under the leadership of Gustav Vasa, became independent, while Norway remained united with Denmark until 1814. In 1479, Christian I founded the University of Copenhagen with the approval of the Pope. During this period, despite no small external difficulties, religious life experienced a new, albeit brief, flourishing in literature and art. In the Middle Ages, Denmark had about 24 Benedictine monasteries, 15 Cistercian, 7 Premonstratensian, 26 Dominican, 30 Franciscan, 11 Carmelite, 9 Augustinian, and 2 Brigittine convents. Among the Danish saints worthy of special mention are King Knud (d. 1086), Duke Knud (d. 1131), Kjeld of Viborg (d. 1150), and Abbot William (d. 1203).
2. From the Reformation of 1536 to the law of 1849. During the reign of Frederick I (1523-33), the German Reformation began to spread in Denmark, gaining ever greater influence. In 1527, the Lutherans obtained parity with Catholics. The Catholic reform movement led by the Carmelite provincial, Paul Helgesen, did not have the strength to contain the political-religious revolution. In 1536, King Christian III carried out a coup d'état and proclaimed Lutheranism the national religion: bishops were arrested, Church property was confiscated, and monasteries were abolished. The German reformer J. Bugenhagen appointed the first Protestant bishops, and apostolic succession was interrupted.
In the following period, Catholicism was entirely uprooted through a series of violent measures. The Danish law of 1683 prohibited Catholic priests from residing in the country under penalty of death; conversion to Catholicism was punished with exile and confiscation of property. Only foreign ambassadors and their staff, as well as foreign Catholics and their staff, were permitted private worship. Foreign Catholics obtained limited freedom of worship in the free city of Fredericia. Mission stations thus arose in Copenhagen and Fredericia, and their care was entrusted to the Jesuits. The Apostolic Vicariate of the Northern Missions was established, and in 1678 it was extended to Denmark under the Danish bishop Niels Stensen, who had converted to Catholicism in Florence in 1667.
3. The modern age. The law of 1849 granted Catholics full freedom of worship. On August 7, 1868, an Apostolic Prefecture was established in Denmark under H. Grunder. Under his successor, Bishop Johannes von Euch, and precisely on March 15, 1892, the Prefecture was transformed into an Apostolic Vicariate, and from then on the young mission began to develop.
At the death of von Euch in 1922, Denmark had 29 Catholic communities with 19,750 faithful. In 1849, there were no more than 500. Von Euch was succeeded by Bishop Josef Brems, a Premonstratensian, and between 1922 and 1938 about 30 churches and chapels were built. In 1931, the mission was resumed in the Faroe Islands, while in Iceland an Apostolic Prefecture was established in 1923. Since 1938, the Danish Vicariate has been held by Bishop G. Theodor Suhr, a Danish Benedictine, who, despite the difficulties of the war, managed to maintain the position achieved by the Church. In 1942, the Vicariate had under its jurisdiction: 37 parishes, of which 9 in Copenhagen, 30 Catholic schools, and 19 hospitals. Of the parishes, 14 were served by secular clergy and 23 by religious orders. The Church counted 22,000 souls, of which 7,000 in the capital. It is estimated that conversions proceed at an average of 150-200 per year. The communities are therefore largely made up of converts. A. Otto
III. LITERATURE — References to a Danish people, clearly differentiated from other Germanic and Scandinavian populations, can be found as early as the 4th century, but no work from this period survives in its original form. Runic inscriptions contain echoes of oral songs in honor of gods and heroes, and some of the latter remain in the Latin translation by Saxo Grammaticus.
The first literary documents, mostly in Latin, bear the imprint of Christianity, introduced into Denmark around the year 1000. For several centuries, the Church would be the repository of culture, introducing Denmark to European culture.
Among the works of religious edification in Latin, mention should be made of the *Hexaemeron* by Anders Sunesen, a narrative of the creation of the world and a 'summa' of the Christian doctrine of the time; in Danish, there are some legends of saints (see the life of St. Knud), prayers, psalms (notably *Den signede Dag*), and hymns to the Virgin.
Of literary and historical interest are the collections of laws compiled in the 13th century: the science of law reached its peak in the Jutland Code (*Jyske Lov*), drawn up by Bishop Gunner of Viborg. Many Latin-Danish dictionaries and works of popularization were also the work of priests. Historiography, originally confined to monastic chronicles (with the exception of the Roskilde Chronicle, which spans from 826 to 940), boasts at the beginning of the 13th century a fundamental work for the knowledge of the earliest Danish history (from the mythical King Dan to 1185) in the *Gesta Danorum* by the cleric Saxo Grammaticus.
With the rise of Christianity, the Danish nobility, drawn into the international orbit of the chivalric world, took part in the Crusades, became acquainted—at least in poetry—with courtly love, and delighted in chivalric tales and romances of French origin (Eufemia Viserne).
More original in tone and content are the numerous ballad songs (Folkeviserne), which likewise emerged within the aristocratic milieu and were transmitted orally for centuries across all strata of the population; first collected and published by Anders Sørensen Vedel in 1591, they would later inspire the Danish Romantic poets. It is noteworthy that their melodies are linked to the rhythm of Gregorian chant.
The influence of the Church on culture weakened with Humanism and the Renaissance, when biblical scholarship undertaken by laypeople and a new stance toward ecclesiastical authority prepared the ground in Denmark as well for the Reformation, which by 1536 was an accomplished fact: in place of Catholic texts, a new religious literature of Protestant inspiration, originating in Germany, soon appeared in translation and was assimilated. The last voice of Danish Catholicism was that of the Carmelite Poul Helgesen, who defended the Church of Rome despite censuring the corruption of some of its members.
On the Protestant side, besides the theological writings of Niels Hemmingsen, one recalls the two collections of psalms by Hans Tausen and Claus Mortensen, and the so-called Christian III Bible, largely the work of the humanist Christian Pedersen, which proved fundamental for the history of the Danish language. Indeed, as in Germany, so too in Denmark the proliferation of religious translations and writings in the early years of the Reformation greatly contributed to the development of the language. A valuable ally of the new religious order was the theater, then in its infancy: suffice it to mention the biblical dramas of Hieronymus Justesen Ranch (d. 1603).
Among historians, less bound by the rigid chronological criteria of their predecessors, Anders Sørensen Vedel and Arild Huitfeldt stand out, the latter author of a chronicle of the Danish kingdom (Danmarks Riges Kronike).
After the invention of printing, adventurous tales—mostly translations of German Volksbücher—about Charlemagne, Ogier the Dane, and other popular heroes enjoyed wide circulation among the people.
The seventeenth century represents for Denmark the age of erudition: poetry is almost entirely silent; monarchs reign supreme—Protestant orthodoxy, the strictest religious formalism, and scientific studies now emancipated from theology and superstition.
In both scientific and historical writings, Latin continued to dominate: the first grammar of the Danish language in Latin was published by Erik Pontoppidan in 1658. The only true poet was Bishop Thomas Kingo (1634–1703), whose psalms, powerful despite their exuberant Baroque form, are still sung in Danish Protestant churches. The other poetic works of the century, marked by a cold classicizing taste or by a spurious French pastoral tone, have been forgotten. In alexandrine verse appeared the first Danish newspaper (Den danske Mercurius, 1666–77). Outside the world of science and literature stand the vivid prison memoirs (Jammers Minde) of Leonora Christina Ulfeldt, the unhappy daughter of Christian IV.
In the eighteenth century, the influence of the French grand siècle grew stronger in Denmark. The most notable figure of the century was A. Holberg (1684–1754), a Norwegian by birth, Danish by education, and cosmopolitan in both his Enlightenment formation and his direct knowledge of contemporary Europe. With him, Denmark finally had a writer of European significance. While his historical, philosophical, and satirical prose and verse are known today only to scholars, his comedies (Den politiske Kandestøber [“The Politically Active Tin-founder”], Jean de France, Jeppe på Bjerget, and Erasmus Montanus) are still successfully performed in Scandinavia; they blend rough, rapid popular comedy with the cold, refined rationalism of an aristocratic tone. Holberg’s eighteenth-century Enlightenment is fully embodied in his satirical Latin novel Nicolai Klimii iter subterraneum, inspired by Montesquieu’s Persian Letters and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
Like the seventeenth century, the eighteenth was not favorable to poetry. One recalls the pietistic hymns of H. A. Brorson (1694–1764), largely reworked from German models, and the fresh poetic compositions of Ambrosius Stub (1705–58).
The period of peace and prosperity from 1720 to 1801 fostered the consolidation of a cultivated bourgeoisie, avid readers of newspapers and journals (Den danske Spectator was widely circulated), interested in works of popular science and social reform rather than in poetry or speculative thought, which leaned toward a vaguely deistic religion. In a country peacefully seeking social equilibrium, the ideologies of the French Revolution could find little echo; the only favorable voice was that of the liberal P. A. Heiberg (1758–1841), who also composed notable convivial songs.
Yet many young people, dissatisfied with Enlightenment optimism, stifled by the rigid orthodoxy of the state church, and enthused by readings of Klopstock, Young, and Ossian, embraced the reaction against French literature and theater that had begun in Germany. The rules of classicist drama were especially undermined by the parody Kærlighed uden strømper (“Love without Stockings”) by J. Wessel (1742–85), a Norwegian by birth who died young after a restless and disorderly life; together with J. Ewald (1743–81), a sentimental poet and playwright inspired by “Nordic” themes, he anticipated Danish Romanticism, which would prevail in the following century despite the opposition of K. L. Rahbek.
J. E. Baggesen (1764–1826) is a transitional figure between classicism and Romanticism, reconciling eighteenth-century taste with the new trend toward sentiment and enthusiasm. Of his abundant output—both in Danish and German, including lyric and epic poetry, verse epistles, travel descriptions, and literary polemics—one should especially recall Labyrinthen (1792–93). Torn between attraction and repulsion toward Romanticism, he waged a bitter and unsuccessful six-year polemic against A. Oehlenschläger (1779–1850), the initiator and leading representative of Danish Romanticism. A passionate reader of Goethe, Schiller, Klopstock, and J. Ewald, Baggesen was converted to Romantic ideas in 1802 after a conversation with the Norwegian H. Steffens. His work reveals the main tendency of Danish Romanticism to escape reality, whether in time (toward Nordic antiquity: Guldhornene; dramas and tales inspired by the Edda, or the Middle Ages: ballads, romances, dramas) or in space (toward the Orient: Aladdin; or Italy: Correggio). With Jesu Christi gentagne Liv i det aarlige Natur he brings Christianity back from the world of rationalism into that of poetry, while in Sct. Hansaften Spil he masterfully portrays a Romantic idyll set in contemporary Copenhagen.
This was the golden age of Danish literature, in which A. W. Schack Staffeld (1769–1826), of German origin but Danish by choice, D. S. Ingemann (1789–1862)—author of melancholy elegies, long historical novels, and delicate hymns suffused with love for nature—and Carsten Hauch (1790–1872), a scientist and poet, all flourished.
The most significant figure of the century, however, is perhaps that of N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783–1872), who awakened the Danish popular conscience in national and religious spheres, the soul of Scandinavianism, and herald of a “joyful Christianity,” author of inspired hymns and monumental historical works. The advanced folk high schools, which he conceived and which quickly spread to Sweden and Norway, largely account for the high level of political and social education among the Scandinavian peoples.
Around 1824 Danish literature reached a new turning point: the stabilization of political and economic conditions fostered a fresh interest in reality, though still tinged with escapism. Poul Møller (1794–1838) declared every poetry that did not spring from life to be a lie, and S. S. Blicher (1782–1838) sought no other setting for his romantic tales than his native Jutland. Form, neglected by the early Romantics in favor of content, was now restored to prominence, especially through the efforts of J. L. Heiberg (1791–1860), herald of Hegelian thought, subtle literary critic, and author of vaudevilles and poetic fantasies. The heightened attention to form did not diminish the fundamentally Romantic poetic inspiration of C. Vinter (1796–1876) and E. Aarestrup (1800–56). In the poetry of L. Bødtcher (1793–1874), Italy was no longer a flight of fancy but a sweet memory of lived experience.
The last of the Romantics was H. C. Andersen (1805–75), known worldwide for his seemingly innocent and childlike fairy tales. Meanwhile, S. Kierkegaard (1813–55) pursued his religious experience in search of a Christianity that was not merely doctrine but the very essence of life; yet his fierce and incisive polemic against Heiberg’s Hegelianism and Grundtvig’s joyful religion went largely unheard. Kierkegaard posited three stages of human life on the path to God: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. For Paludan-Müller (1809–76), author of Adam Homo, a powerful Faustian novel, the decisive moment was the ethical one. Far removed from philosophical speculation yet rooted in everyday reality was the work of M. A. Goldschmidt (1819–87), a successful journalist and author of tales on Jewish themes and lengthy novels.
A less favorable period for literature followed; echoes of the new liberal and Scandinavianist tendencies were heard especially in the poetry of young writers. Notable are the depictions of student life by C. Ploug (1813–94) and J. C. Hostrup (1818–92). Long marginalized from European life, Denmark—sharply awakened from its Scandinavianist dreams by the defeat of 1864 and the loss of Schleswig-Holstein—re-entered the mainstream of European thought when, in 1871, G. Brandes (1842–1927) became the herald of Europe’s latest positivist achievements in aesthetics and literature. Too individualistic to found a school, Brandes nonetheless exerted immense influence on Danish youth. His ideas inspired, at least initially, J. P. Jacobsen (1847–85) and H. Drachmann (1846–1908), the former a pioneer of naturalist fiction (Mogens, Niels Lyhne, Maria Grubbe) and the latter a prolific lyric poet, especially of the sea and of women. Their sensitivity to form greatly influenced the language. Yet the optimism and faith in progress of the naturalists soon gave way—partly for political reasons—to weariness and disillusionment, and writers of the new generations often confined themselves to recording and describing life’s negative aspects without hope of remedy: H. Pontoppidan (1857–1943) thus presented Denmark in his lengthy novels as painfully aware of its status as an unfulfilled genius. Less bitterness appears in the resigned decadence of H. Bang (1857–1912), the greatest Danish impressionist novelist.
Opposition to both naturalism and the minute realism of the impressionists also gave rise in Denmark at the century’s end to a Symbolist current, finding its natural medium in poetry of mystical and abstract tone, often difficult to grasp. Its leading representative was J. Jørgensen (b. 1866): his precious, melodic lyric verse, much influenced by French Symbolism, remains little known here, whereas his hagiographical reconstructions—where historical truth is wedded to deep poetic inspiration (Lives of St. Francis, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Bridget)—are widely admired. After his conversion to Catholicism in 1886, he exerted great influence on Scandinavian Catholic circles. The other poets of the Symbolist circle (Viggo Stuckenberg, Sophus Claussen) stood far from any defined religious faith. Helge Rode, equally distant from reality, poured out his feelings and moods in lyrics tinged with pantheism.
In the years immediately before World War I, social issues and concerns re-emerged as urgent themes in literature, especially through authors of humbler origins. J. Jensen, a prolific and successful writer rich in imagination and linguistic sense, emerged in these years as both interpreter of his time and evoker of the glories of the “Nordic Renaissance” in sweeping novel cycles. Social and ethical problems are ever-present in J. Knudsen (1858–1930), H. Kidde (1878–1918), J. Skjoldborg (1861–1936), and J. Aakjær (1866–1930), an imitator of S. S. Blicher. M. Andersen Nexø, a declared supporter of communism from its outset, authored the successful novel Ditte Menneskebarn.
Scarce were the echoes in neutral Denmark of the 1914–18 war. In the postwar period, lyric poetry rather than prose distinguished itself, notably in the collections of Valdemar Rørdam (1918), suffused with a sense of nature. Against the rising tide of materialistic civilization, J. Paludan upheld an idealism, while Tom Kristensen embodied the corrosive pessimism of the age. Kaj Munk (1898–1944), a Protestant pastor and forthright dramatist executed by the Germans, became known during the Nazi occupation and after liberation both as a writer and as a hero of the resistance. Among his plays, Ordet (The Word) stands out for its assertion of the relevance of miracles in the modern world.
Education is inspired by the doctrines of M. Montessori, F. G. Fröbel, N. F. S. Grundtvig, and H. Ravnholt. Attendance is compulsory from ages 7 to 14 but may be extended to age 15. Particular importance, both educational and political, attaches to the other folk high schools conceived by Grundtvig, who founded the first at Rödding in 1844; these became centers of the Danish cooperative movement, aiming to cultivate a spirit of self-government and Christian solidarity. To promote this movement