Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/350

332 Christina a number of foreign scholars were invited to the country, such as Cartesius, Hugo Grotius, Loccenius and others. The nobility also distinguished themselves in the sciences and counted many eminent and learned men in their ranks. In brief the intellectual industry corresponded well to the position which Sweden occupied in other respects during this century.

, the father of Swedish poetry, was the central figure of the intellectual life during this epoch. He was born in 1598, and was the son of a poor miner in Dalarne. At an early age he distinguished himself by his talents and application, and after completing his education during a protracted sojourn abroad Gustav Adolph appointed him a lecturer in the Vesterås college, where he had received his elementary training. But his extensive knowledge soon opened to him a wider field of activity in various eminent positions. Gustav Adolph raised him to the peerage, on which occasion he abandoned the name Göran Lilje, which he had inherited from the noble family of his great grandmother, and he now assumed the name which he rendered so famous. For some time he was the court poet of Queen Christina, and as such enjoyed great favor, but he fell into disgrace on the well-founded suspicion that he belonged to the opposition. This did not, however, diminish his great reputation among the people, by whom he was regarded as Sweden's first poet, as one of her great scholars, and as the leader in intellectual circles, but still he died poor in the year 1672.

Stjernhjelm was a splendid example of the humane culture of his time. As linguist, historian, scientist, jurist, mathematician and philosopher he was equally distinguished, and in several of these branches he broke entirely new ground. But he attained the highest rank as a poet. In the history of Swedish poetry he occupies the same place as Martin Opitz in Germany, being the first to apply the new principles growing out of the renaissance. These he adapted to the character of the Swedish language and people, and thus he laid the founda-