42 Facts About Henrik Wergeland

Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist.

Henrik Wergeland is often described as a leading pioneer in the development of a distinctly Norwegian literary heritage and of modern Norwegian culture.

Henrik Wergeland's views were controversial in his time, and his literary style was variously denounced as subversive.

Henrik Wergeland was the oldest son of Nicolai Wergeland, who had been a member of the constituent assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814.

Henrik Wergeland entered The Royal Frederick University in 1825 to study for the church and graduated in 1829.

Henrik Wergeland became a public hero after the infamous "battle of the Square" in Christiania, which came to pass because any celebration of the national day was forbidden by royal decree.

Henrik Wergeland was, of course, present and became renowned for standing up against the local governors.

Stella is in fact based on four girls, whom Henrik Wergeland fell in love with, and never got really close to.

Henrik Wergeland established popular libraries, and tried to alleviate the widespread poverty of the Norwegian peasantry.

Henrik Wergeland preached the simple life, denounced foreign luxuries, and set an example by wearing Norwegian homespun clothes.

Henrik Wergeland strove for enlightenment and greater understanding of the constitutional rights his people had been given.

Henrik Wergeland was full of imagination, but without taste or knowledge.

Therefore, from 1830 to 1835 Henrik Wergeland was subjected to severe attacks from Welhaven and others.

Henrik Wergeland had a hot temper and fought willingly for social justice.

Henrik Wergeland was generally suspicious of lawyers because of their attitude towards farmers, especially poor ones, and often fought lawyers and jurists in the courts, who could legally take hold of small homesteads.

Henrik Wergeland made great enemies for this, and in one case, the judicial problem lasted for years and nearly left him bankrupt.

Henrik Wergeland was tall, reckoned by the average Norwegian height at the time.

Henrik Wergeland stood a head taller than most of his contemporaries.

Later, it has been said that the high-ranking gentlemen acted like schoolboys, and one of them, an attorney in the high court, broke into the lounge of Nicolai Henrik Wergeland, bellowing straight in his ear.

Later, after the play, the ladies in the first and second row acted on behalf of Henrik Wergeland, throwing rotten tomatoes at the offenders, and then fights erupted, inside and outside the theater building, and in the streets nearby.

One might conclude that the followers of Henrik Wergeland won the day, but the men in position might have taken some revenge by slandering Henrik Wergeland's reputation after his death.

Henrik Wergeland quickly fell in love, and proposed the same autumn.

The marriage produced no children, but the couple adopted Olaf, an illegitimate son Henrik Wergeland had fathered in 1835, and Henrik Wergeland secured an education for the boy.

Henrik Wergeland had tried to get employment as a chaplain or priest for many years up to this point.

Henrik Wergeland was always turned down, mostly because the employers found his way of living "irresponsible" and "unpredictable".

Meanwhile, Henrik Wergeland worked as a librarian at the University Library for a small wage, from January 1836.

Henrik Wergeland accepted this as a payment for his work as a "public teacher".

One of his best known poems was written at this time, a response to the paper's statement that Henrik Wergeland was "irritable and in a bad mood".

Henrik Wergeland had to bail himself out, and he felt humiliated.

Henrik Wergeland had to sell his house, and Grotten was purchased the following winter by a good friend of his, who understood his plight.

Henrik Wergeland had to stay inside, and the illness turned out to be terminal.

Henrik Wergeland died at his home early morning 12 July 1845.

Henrik Wergeland's coffin was carried by the Norwegian students, while the appointed wagon went in front of them empty.

Henrik Wergeland's grave was left open during the afternoon, and all day, people revered him by spreading flowers on his coffin, until evening came.

Henrik Wergeland's father wrote his thanks for this in Morgenbladet three days later, stating that his son had gotten his honour at last:.

Henrik Wergeland's life was not strewn with roses, but his death and grave the more -.

Henrik Wergeland was in fact laid in a humble section of the churchyard, and soon his friends began to write in the newspapers, claiming a better site for him.

Henrik Wergeland was eventually moved to his present grave in 1848.

Henrik Wergeland's statue stands between the Royal Palace and Storting by Oslo's main street, his back turned to Nationalteateret.

Henrik Wergeland became a symbol for the Norwegian Left-wing movement, and was embraced by many later Norwegian poets, right up until today.

Henrik Wergeland started the traditional "flower-parade", and celebrated his memory with recitation and song, and often performing his plays.

Henrik Wergeland's great-grandfather, Andrew Chrystie, was born in Dunbar, and belonged to the Scottish Clan Christie.