WERGELAND, HENRIK ARNOLD Nor wegian poet and prose writer, was born at Christiansand on June 17, 1808. He was the eldest son of Professor Nikolai Wergeland (178o-1848), who had been a member of the constitutional assembly which proclaimed the independence of Norway in 1814 at Eidsvold. He established libraries, and tried to alleviate the widespread poverty of the Norwegian peasantry. But his numer ous and varied writings were coldly received by the critics, and a monster epic, Skabelsen, Mennesket og Messias (Creation, Man and Messiah), 183o, showed no improvement in style. It was remodelled in 1845 as Mennesket. From 1831 to 1835 Wergeland was submitted to severe satirical attacks from J. S. le Welhaven and others, and his style improved in every respect. His popularity waned as his poetry improved, and in 184o he found himself a really great lyric poet, but an exile from political influence. In
that year he became keeper of the royal archives. He died on July 12, 1845. In 1908 a statue was erected to his memory by his compatriots at Fargo, North Dakota. His Jan van Huysums Blomsterstykke (1840), Svalen (1841), J5den (1842), Jodinden (1844) and Den Engelske Lods (1844), form a series of interest ing narrative poems in short lyrical metres.
Wergeland's Samlede Skrifter (9 vols., Christiania, 1852-1857) were edited by H. Lassen, the author of Henrik Wergeland og hans Samtid (1866), and the editor of his Breve (1867). See also H. Schwanenfliigel, Henrik Wergeland (Copenhagen, 1877) ; and J. G. Kraft, Norsk Forfatter-Lexikon (Christiania, 1857), for a detailed bibliography.