Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/230

212 1776). His best work, the didactic poem "Junkerskilden," betrays, however, unmistakable traces of the influence of English poetry.

The Norwegian, (1728-65), was also a genuine poetical genius, who, unlike the imitators of Klopstock, chose as his models English poets, particularly those who describe natural scenery. He had already gained some reputation by his rather tame cantatas, when, in 1758, he composed the idyllic wedding poem "Maidagen." This poem was received with great favor, and, in spite of its subtle reflections, which seem to us wearisome and heavy, it is a poem characterized by a warmth of feeling and natural freshness that were extremely rare during this period. When the society above mentioned in 1759 offered a prize for the best poem describing "navigation; its origin and results," Tullin, who was engaged in private business in his native town, Christiania, still found time to compete and he won the prize. In his poem he sought, as far as possible, to impart some poetical interest to this matter-of-fact theme; and yet the judges failed to be altogether satisfied with his performance; but found that the poet in his production had been guided too much by his own "fancy" than he had sought to answer adequately the questions propounded. A similar reproach was also expressed in regard to the manner in which Tullin had treated another prize theme proposed by the society "on the excellence of the creation in reference to the order and arrangement of all created things." And yet this was the most grandly conceived and most beautifully executed of all Tullin's works.

In the year 1764 the "Society for the advancement of the beautiful and the useful" published an allegorical narrative in prose called "Lykkens Tempel." It was the first work given