Long under the cultural domination of Denmark and the political hegemony of Sweden, Norway first defined itself through its literature and continues to do so to our day. A History of Norwegian Literature reviews the complex role literature has played in Norway since runic times. Beginning with rock carvings five millennia old, Norwegian literature first came to flower with the Norse poets of the ninth century, who chronicled the heroism of Viking explorers and conquerers. The authors describe the subsequent progression of Norwegian literature through the middle ages and the baroque to Ludvig...

For centuries, Denmark dominated the culture of Scandinavia, and its literature has influenced such English works as Beowulf and Hamlet as well as major philosophical movements: humanism, romanticism, existentialism. With contributions from nine internationally recognized scholars, A History of Danish Literature reaches back as far as the literary record allows, to the ancient runic inscriptions, and thence to medieval Latin, the development of literature in the vernacular, and the flowering of a distinct Danish literary tradition numbering among its luminaries Hans Christian Andersen, Soren...

This volume traces Swedish literature from its beginnings in the Middle Ages to its honored place in world literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A comprehensive reference work, A History of Swedish Literature provides much more than names and dates. Sweden s relative isolation in a remote corner of Europe put special stress on its language and literature to define national identity. In this volume nine scholars from Europe and America identify what is particular about Swedish literary culture as well as what makes it an integral part of European literature.

The...