Romantic Norths: Anglo-Nordic Exchanges, 1770-1842

283 Pages·2017·14.45 MB·English

by  Cian Duffy (eds.)

Romantic Norths
CianDuffy
Editor
Romantic Norths
–
Anglo-Nordic Exchanges, 1770 1842
Editor
CianDuffy
LundUniversity
Lund,Sweden
ISBN978-3-319-51245-7 ISBN978-3-319-51246-4(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-51246-4
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A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This volume began life at a conference held at St Mary’s University,
Strawberry Hill, in November 2014, jointly organised by the
Department of English literature at St Mary’s and The Nordic
Association for Romantic Studies. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to
Peter Howell, my friend and then colleague at St Mary’s, without whose
initiativethatconferencewouldneverhavetakenplace.Wewouldliketo
take this opportunity also to thank the Danish Embassy in London, and
the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation, both of which gave generous
financial support to the conference. To Ben Doyle, Eva Hodgkin, Milly
Davies, andall the team at Palgrave,our thanks fortheir professionalism,
enthusiasm,and supportthroughout allstages of theproject. Andto our
anonymous reader at Palgrave, thanks are due for some really cogent
feedback which helped considerably to bring the book to its final shape.
Forkindpermissiontoquotefrommanuscriptmaterialandtoreproduce
illustrations, we would like to thank: the Hirschprung Collection,
Copenhagen; the Linnean Society, London; the National Gallery of
Denmark; and the National Library of Scotland. Some material from the
Coda appeared in earlier form in ‘“There was a time”: William
Wordsworth and Jens Baggesen recollecting childhood’, ANQ 28 (May
2016), pp. 170–173. Every effort has been made to trace rights holders,
but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be
pleasedto makethe necessary arrangementsat the first opportunity.
v
C
ONTENTS
Introduction:‘the lessknown,but equallyromantic,
regions ofthe north’ 1
Cian Duffy
‘Imaginary circles roundthe human mind’: Bias andOpenness
in MaryWollstonecraft’sLettersWritten During
a ShortResidenceinSweden,Norway, andDenmark(1796) 29
Christoph Bode
British TravellersVisiting Finland:from‘Enlightened’
Expectations to‘Romantic’ Fulfilment 53
LeenaEilittä
Constructing andClassifying ‘the North’:Linnaeus
andLapland 75
AnnikaLindskog
InventingJutland for the‘GoldenAge’: Danish
Artists Guidedby SirWalter Scott 101
GertrudOelsner
‘Theydance allunder the greenwood tree’: British
andDanish Romantic-PeriodAdaptations of Two Danish
‘Elf Ballads’ 129
LisMøller
vii
viii CONTENTS
‘The North’ and‘the East’: The OdinMigration Theory 153
Robert Rix
‘These childrenofnature’: CulturalExchange
in Nineteenth-CenturyDanish Imaginingsof Greenland 181
Lone KølleMartinsen
Locating Norwayin ‘the North’: the CulturalGeography
of Norwayin Strickland’s‘ArthurRidley; or, aVoyage
toNorway’ (1826)andAndersen’s ‘Elverhøi’ (1845) 203
ElettraCarbone
A‘remote andcheerless possession’: Early
Nineteenth-Century BritishImaginingsof Newfoundland 231
Pam Perkins
Coda: Comparingthe Literatureof ‘the North’ –William
Wordsworthand JensBaggesen 251
Cian Duffy
Bibliography 259
Index 277
L F
IST OF IGURES
Fig.1 HendrikHollander,CarolusLinnaeusinLaponianCostume
(1853).ReproducedbykindpermissionofTheLinnean
Society,London 79
Fig.2 SketchbyLinnaeusof‘theLaplandAlps’,reproducedinJames
EdwardSmith,ed.andtransl.LachesisLapponica:ATour
inLapland,2vols.(London,1811),vol.1,p.268.Reproduced
bykindpermissionofTheLinneanSociety,London 92
Fig.3 ‘Frontispiece’toLinnaeus,FloraLapponica(1737).
ReproducedbykindpermissionofTheLinneanSociety,
London 94
Fig.4 MartinusRørbye,Udsigtudoverhede–ellerklitlandskab.
Iforgrundennoglestorebakker;påenafdemstårenmand
ogserudoversletten(1830).Reproducedbykindpermission
oftheNationalGalleryofDenmark 114
Fig.5 JohanThomasLundbye,Hedelandskab(1836).Reproducedby
kindpermissionoftheHirschprungCollection,Copenhagen 117
Fig.6 JohanThomasLundbye,ErindringfraHelvede(1836).
ReproducedbykindpermissionoftheHirschprungCollection,
Copenhagen 117
ix
B N C
RITAIN AND THE ORDIC OUNTRIES
R P : S
IN THE OMANTIC ERIOD A ELECT
C
HRONOLOGY
1770 Publication of Thomas Percy’s Northern Antiquities: or, A
Description of the Manners, Customs, Religion and Laws of the
AncientDanes,andotherNorthernNations(2vols.).Atranslation
of earlier work by Paul Henri Mallet, professor of belles lettres at
Copenhagen University, Northern Antiquities was one of the key
stimuli of British ‘antiquarian’ interest during the late eighteenth
centuryandromanticperiodinclassicalScandinavianculture.
1796 PublicationofMaryWollstonecraft’sLettersWrittenDuringaShort
Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, arguably the most
influentialBritishromantic-periodtravelogueabout‘theNorth’.
1798 SamuelTaylorColeridgereadscontemporaryDanishauthorswhilst
in Goslar with William and Dorothy Wordsworth in the winter of
1798–1799.
1801 TheBattleofCopenhagen(2April).InMarch1801,Britainsenta
naval expeditionary force under the command of Admiral Hyde
Parker and Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson to break the League of
Armed Neutrality – an alliance of Denmark-Norway, Sweden,
Prussia, and Russia which openly flouted the British blockade on
Frenchports–andtoseizetheDanishfleettopreventitfromfalling
intoFrenchhands.Afterfourhoursoffighting,atrucewasdeclared
andnegotiationsbegantoendtheLeagueandtransfertheDanish
fleet.
xi
xii BRITAINANDTHENORDICCOUNTRIESINTHEROMANTICPERIOD…
1807 Fearing that Napoleon would either persuade or compel neutral
Denmark-Norway to join the war against Britain and close the
Baltic to British ships, Britain sent a second expeditionary force to
Copenhagen,withinstructionstotakepossessionbynegotiationor
forceoftheDanishfleet,whichhadbeenrebuiltinpartsince1801.
When Denmark refused Britain’s terms, the British force attacked.
Copenhagenwasbombardedfromtheseaon2–5September,caus-
ingmanyciviliancasualties.AfterthedepartureoftheBritishforce,
DenmarkallieditselfwithFrance.
1807–1818 Publication at Copenhagen of Peter Foersom’s Danish-language
editionoftheplaysofShakespeare.
1808–1809 TheFinnishWar,foughtbetweenRussiaandSweden.Theculmina-
tion of decades of intermittent conflict between the two countries
overcontrolofthenortheasternpartofSweden,thewarof1808–
1809 saw the Grand Duchy of Finland established as an autono-
mouspartoftheRussianEmpire.
1811 FirstpublicationofthejournalmadebyLinnaeusduringhisexpedi-
tion to Swedish Lapland in 1732, in English translation by James
EdwardSmithasLachesisLapponica.
1814 Britain,Sweden,andDenmark-NorwaysigntheTreatyofKiel,thus
formally ending the hostilities which had been ongoing since the
outbreakoftheRevolutionaryWars.Underthetermsofthetreaty,
Denmark was granted possession of Greenland but forced to cede
NorwaytoSweden.
1815 PublicationatCopenhagenofthefirsteditionoftheMSofBeowulf,
bytheIcelandicscholarandprofessorofantiquitiesatCopenhagen
University,GrímurJónssonThorkelín.AnearliereditionoftheMS
byThorkelínhadbeendestroyedshortlybeforepublicationin1807
duringtheBritishbombardmentofCopenhagen.
1817 ThefirstDanishtranslationsofpoemsbyLordByronpublishedby
thewriterandeditorKnudLyneRahbek.
1818 Sweden adopts a new constitution and establishes the House of
Bernadotte as the new royal household of Sweden and Norway.
Jean Bernadotte, a former general in Napoleon’s army, becomes
KingKarlJohanofSwedenandNorway.
1819 Thomas De Quincey publishes a series of articles in The
Westmoreland Gazette arguing that the dialect of the English Lake
DistrictwasDanishinorigin.
1820s Works by Lord Byron and Walter Scott increasingly available in
translationacrossScandinavia.