Karl Gjellerup (June 2, 1857 – October 13, 1919) was a
DanishDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
poetPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and novelist who together with his compatriot
Henrik PontoppidanHenrik Pontoppidan was a realist writer who shared with Karl Gjellerup the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1917 for "his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark." Pontoppidan's novels and short stories — informed with a desire for social progress but despairing, later in his...
won the
Nobel Prize in LiteratureThe Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
in 1917. He belonged to the Modern Break-Through. He occasionally used the
pseudonymA pseudonym is a fictitious name used by a person, or sometimes, a group.Pseudonyms are often used to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre and computer hackers' handles. Actors, musicians, and other...
Epigonos.
Gjellerup was the son of a vicar in Zealand and grew up in a national and romantic idealistic atmosphere. In the 1870s he broke with his background and at first he became an enthusiastic supporter of the
naturalistNaturalism refer to various topics within philosophy and science, environmental movements, and other areas.In the arts, naturalism may refer to:...
movement and
Georg BrandesGeorg Morris Cohen Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who had great influence on Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Break-through" of Scandinavian culture...
, writing audacious novels about
free loveThe term free love has been used since at least the 19th century to describe a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage, especially for women. Much of the free-love tradition is an offshoot of anarchism, and reflects a civil libertarian philosophy that seeks...
and
atheismAtheism can be either the rejection of theism,or the position that deities do not exist.In the broadest sense, it is the absence of belief in the existence of deities....
.
Karl Gjellerup (June 2, 1857 – October 13, 1919) was a
DanishDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
poetPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and novelist who together with his compatriot
Henrik PontoppidanHenrik Pontoppidan was a realist writer who shared with Karl Gjellerup the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1917 for "his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark." Pontoppidan's novels and short stories — informed with a desire for social progress but despairing, later in his...
won the
Nobel Prize in LiteratureThe Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
in 1917. He belonged to the Modern Break-Through. He occasionally used the
pseudonymA pseudonym is a fictitious name used by a person, or sometimes, a group.Pseudonyms are often used to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre and computer hackers' handles. Actors, musicians, and other...
Epigonos.
Gjellerup was the son of a vicar in Zealand and grew up in a national and romantic idealistic atmosphere. In the 1870s he broke with his background and at first he became an enthusiastic supporter of the
naturalistNaturalism refer to various topics within philosophy and science, environmental movements, and other areas.In the arts, naturalism may refer to:...
movement and
Georg BrandesGeorg Morris Cohen Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who had great influence on Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Break-through" of Scandinavian culture...
, writing audacious novels about
free loveThe term free love has been used since at least the 19th century to describe a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage, especially for women. Much of the free-love tradition is an offshoot of anarchism, and reflects a civil libertarian philosophy that seeks...
and
atheismAtheism can be either the rejection of theism,or the position that deities do not exist.In the broadest sense, it is the absence of belief in the existence of deities....
. Strongly influenced by his origin he gradually left the Brandes line and 1885 he broke totally with the naturalists, becoming a new romanticist. A central trace of his life was his
GermanophileA Germanophile is a person who is fond of German culture, and Germany in general, exhibiting as it were German nationalism in spite of not being an ethnic German. The term was especially in use in the 19th to 20th centuries after the creation of the German nation state and the rise of the German...
attitude, he felt himself strongly attracted to
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
culture (his wife was a German) and 1892 he finally settled in Germany, which made him unpopular in Denmark on both the right and left wing. As years passed he totally identified with the German Empire, including its war aims 1914-18.
Among the works of Gjellerup must be mentioned his most important novel
Germanernes Lærling (1882, i.e.
The German Student), a partly autobiographic tale of the development of a young man from being a conformist theologian to a pro-German atheist and intellectual. Some Wagnerian dramas show his growing romanticist interests. An important work is the novel
Møllen (1896, i. e.
The Mill), a sinister
melodramaThe theatrical genre of melodrama uses theme-music to manipulate the spectator's emotional response and to denote character types. The term combines "melody" and "drama" . While the use of music is nearly ubiquitous in modern film, in most cases it is used within a fairly rigid structure...
of love and jealousy.
Late years
In his last years he was clearly influenced by
BuddhismBuddhism, as traditionally conceived, is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. It encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha...
and Oriental culture. His work
Der Pilger Kamanita/
Pilgrimen Kamanita (1906, i.e.
The Pilgrim Kamanita) has been called 'one of the oddest novels written in Danish'. It features the journey of Kamanita, an Indian merchant's son, from earthly prosperity and carnal romance through death and reincarnation towards
nirvanaIn sramanic thought, Nirvana is the state of being free from suffering. It is an important concept in Buddhism and Jainism....
.
Den fuldendtes hustru (1907, i.e.
The wife of the perfect) is a versified drama, inspired by
DanteDANTE is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various National Research and Education Networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
's
Divine Comedy, about
BuddhaIn Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a ....
's earthly life as Siddharta, being inhibited in his spiritual efforts by his wife, Yacodhara. The giant novel
Verdensvandrerne (1910, i.e.
The world roamers) takes its contemporary starting point in a German female academic on a study tour in India, but evolves across chronological levels, in which characters re-experience what has happened in former
eonEon is the US English variant of the traditional aeon, which means "age" or "forever".A geologic eon is the largest division of time in geology, and is generally considered to be around a billion years.Eon or EON may also refer to:...
s, thus featuring souls roaming from one incarnation to another.
Rudolph Stens Landpraksis (1913, i.e.
The country practice of [physician] Rudolph Sten) is set in the rural Zealand of Gjellerup's youth. The main character develops from a liberal, superficial outlook on life, including youthful romantical conflicts, through years of reflection and asketic devotion to duty towards a more mature standpoint, hinting at the author's own course of life.
Das heiligste Tier (1919, i.e.
The holiest animal) was Gjellerup's last work. Having elements of self-parody, it is regarded his only attempt of humour. It is a peculiar mythological satire in which animals arrive at their own Elysium after death. These include the snake that killed Cleopatra,
OdysseusOdysseus or Ulysses , in Greek mythology , was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey...
' dog Argos, Wisvamitra (the holy cow of India), the donkey of
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
and the horses of various historical commanders in field. The assembly select, after discussion, Buddha's horse Kantaka as the holiest of animals, but it has left without a trace to follow its master to nirvana.
Aftermath
In Denmark, Gjellerup's Nobel award was received with little enthusiasm. He had long been regarded as a German writer. During various stages of his career, he had made himself impopular with both the naturalist left surrounding
Georg BrandesGeorg Morris Cohen Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who had great influence on Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Break-through" of Scandinavian culture...
and the conservative right. His nomination for the Nobel award was, however, supported from Danish side for several times. Because
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
was neutral during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, the divided prize did not arouse political speculations about partial decision, but showed on the other hand allegiance between the Nordic neighbors.
Today Gjellerup is almost forgotten in Denmark. In spite of this, however, literary historians normally regard him as an honest seeker after truth.
Gjellerup's works have been translated into several languages, including German (often translated by himself), Swedish, English, Dutch, Polish and others.
The Pilgrim Kamanita is his most widely translated book, having been published in several European countries, the United States, as well as in Thailand where excerpts of it have been used in
secondary schoolSecondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of compulsory schooling, known as secondary education, takes place. It follows on from elementary or primary education....
textbooks.
Biographies
- Georg Nørregård: Karl Gjellerup - en biografi, 1988 (in Danish)
- Olaf C. Nybo: Karl Gjellerup - ein literarischer Grenzgänger des Fin-de-siècle, 2002 (in German)
- Article in Vilhelm Andersen: Illustreret dansk Litteraturhistorie, 1924-34 (in Danish)
- Article in Hakon Stangerup: Dansk litteraturhistorie, 1964-66 (in Danish)
External links