Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/252

234 lenschläger wrote some of his most exquisite works. In Halle he completed “Hakon Jarl,” the most excellent of all his plays. In this tragedy the poet wished to extol Christianity as contrasted with heathendom, though the main interest of the play attaches to the representative of the latter, who, in spite of his savage nature, is a grand character, drawn with great dramatic skill. His tragedy, “Palnatoke,” is the counterpart of “Hakon Jarl,” in so far as the former represents one of the noblest characters from the heathen time, with the shady side of Catholicism as a background. Between these two tragedies he wrote “Balder hin Gode” in the antique style, with the compositions of Sophocles fresh in his mind.

From northern antiquities Oehlenschläger passed over to the romantic middle age, borrowing from its ballad literature the materials for his tragedy “Axel og Valborg.” In Rome he wrote the artistic tragedy “Corregio” in the German language, as he was anxious to be acknowledged as a naturalized German author. Although his drama was played in several theaters and was received with great applause, still he neither then nor later accomplished his aim. The reason for this failure must, indeed, largely be sought in his marked northern spirit and feeling, which found no intelligent response in Germany, but want of appreciation among the Germans is mainly attributable to the fact that the whole pantheon of northern gods and heroes, from which Oehlenschläger borrowed the materials for his most charming works, was at the time when he wrote them, almost entirely unknown in Germany, and thus the Germans lacked the most important conditions for a thorough understanding of his compositions. To this must be added that Oehlenschläger himself did a great deal to hinder a correct estimate of him as a poet in Germany. Instead of causing his works to be translated into German by persons thoroughly familiar with the language, he abandoned himself to the illusion that he had mastered German sufficiently to become a German poet in