Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/404

386 was exceedingly beneficial and led to the establishment of the system of "sanitary gymnastics;" but in the latter he made no headway with all his ideas and plans. His greatest service to Swedish literature was probably his influence on Tegnér, with whom he was on very friendly terms in Lund. As a poet Ling was decidedly a lyric, and as such he occasionally achieved excellent things, for instance in his pastoral poem, "Kärleken (Love), and in the lyric epic, "Tirfing." But this did not satisfy him, he also wanted to be both epic poet and dramatist. He desired to present to his countrymen the old world of gods and heroes, in other words, he wanted to be both their Shakespeare and Homer. His first work was the Epopöe "Gylfe," which he did not finish, and his last and chief work was the great poem "Asarne," in thirty songs. But both of these as well as his numerous northern dramas, "Agne," "Eylif den götiska, "Ingjald Illräda," "Engelbrekt," etc, though they contain many lyric passages of great beauty, were on the whole total failures. In him were united an almost endless discursiveness and an inability to produce living characters, with a vivid imagination and a glowing enthusiasm, which at times occasionally was able to produce episodes of startling beauty.

The greatest poet of the Gothic school was, who at last silenced all literary controversies, since he united in his great poetical talent all that which had been aimed at by the different schools, and since in all his works he satisfied not only the national element, but also the requirements of art. In spite of his admiration of foreign masters, all his works bear the stamp of unmistakable originality. Tegnér was born the 13th of November, 1782, in the province of Värmland. He early lost his father, who was a priest, but found patrons who assumed the care of his studies. Already in his twentieth year he became docent in æsthetics, and ten years later he was appointed professor of Greek in Lund. Here he became celebrated as a gifted and efficient