1881.
From Germans who were conversant with the Danish language, I have
frequently heard the remark, "Paludan-Müller, not Oehlenschläger, is
the greatest poet Denmark has produced in this century. How strange
this has never been recognized!"
It has never been recognized because it is not the case. Intellectual
superiority has here been confounded with poetic, or personal
maturity preferred to the originality of genius. In Meyer's
"Konversations-Lexikon" we read: "Paludan-Müller is unconditionally the
most important Danish author of our century, quite as much owing to
his wealth of ideas, as to the depth of his moral earnestness and the
beauty of form displayed in his diction." Questionable as the justice
of this assertion appears to me, it is equally unquestionable that
Paludan-Müller (born Feb. 7, 1809, died Dec. 28, 1876) is far more
calculated to interest the foreign reader than any other modern Danish
author, and his deep, inquiring mind is especially in harmony with the
German mind.
[Illustration: FREDERIK PALUDAN-MÜLLER.]