EWALD, JOHANNES (1743-1781), the greatest lyric poet of Denmark, was born at Copenhagen on Nov. 18, 1743, the son of a chaplain. He studied at Schleswig and Copenhagen. At 15 he fell in love with Arense Hulegaard, and in order to distinguish himself enlisted in the Prussian army. After a series of extraor dinary adventures in the Seven Years' War, he deserted to the Austrians, where from being drummer he rose to being sergeant. In 176o he deserted again, returned to Denmark and in 1762 passed his final examination. About the same time Arense married another man, and Ewald never recovered from the disappointment.
On the death of Frederick V., Ewald published in 1766 three Elegies over the dead king; one of these is a veritable master piece. But his dramatic poem Adam og Eva (Adam and Eve), by far the finest imaginative work produced in Denmark up to that time, was rejected by the Society of Arts in 1767 and was not published until 1769. In 177o Ewald produced Rolf Krage, the first original Danish tragedy. During the next ten years he produced one brilliant work after another :—De brutale Klappers (The Brutal Clappers, 1771), a tragicomedy or parody satirizing the dispute then raging between the critics and the manager of the Royal Theatre; Harlequin Patriot (1772), a comedy satirizing the passion for political scribbling created by Struensee's intro duction of the liberty of the press; Pebersvendene (Old Bache lors, 1773), a prose comedy. In 1771 he had already collected some of his lyrical poems under the title of Adskilligt of Johannes Ewald (Miscellanies). In 1774 appeared the heroic opera of Balder's Dod (Balder's Death), and in 1779 the finest of his works, the lyrical drama Fiskerne (The Fishers), which contains the Danish National Song, "King Christian stood by the high Mast," his most famous lyric. In the two poems last mentioned, however, Ewald passed beyond contemporary taste, and these great works, the pride of Danish literature, were coldly received. In he founded the Danish Literary Society. But the poet's health had broken ; when he was writing Rolf Krage he was already consumptive. He embittered his existence by the reck lessness of his private life, and finally, through a fall from a horse, he became a complete invalid. His last ten years were full of acute suffering, his family neglected him, and few of his friends showed him any kindness. In 1774 he was placed in the house of an inspector of fisheries at Rungsted, where he fell in love with Anna Hedevig Jacobsen, the daughter of the house. Marriage with her was prevented by his family, who removed him to their own rough keeping near Kronborg. He insisted on returning to Copenhagen in 1777, where he wrote Fiskerne with his imagination full of the familiar shore at Hornbaek, near Rung sted. He died on March 17, 1781, recognized at the last as the greatest national poet. Among his papers were found fragments of three dramas, two on old Scandinavian subjects, entitled Frode and Helgo, and the third a tragedy on the story of Hamlet, which he meant to treat in a way wholly distinct from Shakespeare's.
In point of time Ewald preceded all the generations of inno vators in European poetry. He was born six years earlier than Goethe and Alfieri, 16 years before Schiller, nine years before Andre Chenier, and 27 years earlier than Wordsworth, but he did for Denmark what each of these poets did for his own country. Ewald found Danish literature given over to tasteless rhetoric, and without art or vigour. He introduced vivacity of style, fresh ness and brevity of form, and an imaginative study of nature. He was the first to call the attention of the Scandinavian peoples to the treasuries of their ancient history and mythology, and to suggest the use of these in imaginative writing. His dramas, which had an immense influence on the Danish stage, are now chiefly of antiquarian interest, with the exception of "The Fishers," a work that must always live as a great national poem.
The first collected edition of Ewald's works appeared in 4 vols. (178o-84) . The latest edition by K. Brix and V. Kuhr (6 vols., Copenhagen, 1914-24) contains his autobiography, a Danish classic. The best biographies of him are those by C. Molbech (1831) , Hammerich (186o) and Andreas Dolleris (Iwo). See also H. Brix, Johannes Ewald 0913).