Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/278

260 seemed so easy and natural, but which in reality were the result of the consummate skill of the artist. The fairy tales are unquestionably the flower of Andersen’s poetical compositions, and in this field he certainly has no peer. No other poet can be compared with him in this style of literature. He is always the same Andersen, whether he invents the story himself or borrows it from popular traditions or old ballads, as for instance, in the splendid tale, "Den uartige Dreng" ("The naughty boy"), the materials of which are taken from Anacreon. Even in his last collections, which were published in his old age, we still find the same grace and freshness which had been admired in his earliest works of this kind. A unique kind of literature are his fairy comedies "Mer end Perler og Guld" and "Ole Luköie," which were played in Copenhagen with extraordinary success, and which are very amusing on account of the rapid succession of attractive situations that pass before the spectators. On the other hand he made decided failures in several of his dramatic works, as for instance in "Ahasuerus," and "Agnete og Havmanden," in which he lost all control of his imagination. In many of his other works he has also shown a striking lack of self-criticism, and of artistic command of his materials. Some of his descriptions of travel are very interesting, as for instance, "En Digters Bazar," "I Sverrig," etc. He has given us an attractive and faithful autobiography in his "Mit Livs Eventyr" (The story of my life).

(1791-1860), a son of Peder Andreas Heiberg, who was mentioned in the preceding chapter, though he most decidedly must be characterized as a romanticist and was on his first appearance strongly influenced by Oehlenschläger, still is in many respects a sharp contrast to the poets already described. For while the latter on the whole abandoned themselves freely to their poetical inspirations, without criticising their own works, Heiberg was in the highest sense reflective, and he severely criticised all his poet-