Meanwhile the political union be tween Denmark and Norway (concluded in 138o) gradually brought Danish nobles and officials to the front in this country, with the result that the Old Norse language was replaced by Danish. This development which constitutes perhaps the most remarkable event in the cultural history of the nation, may be considered as completed by the middle of the 16th century. Ac cordingly, when about the same time the literary revival set in, which to some extent is due to the introduction into Norway of the Lutheran Reformation, the new literature came to be com posed in the Danish language, which for nearly three centuries was to hold an unchallenged position as the official language of Norway.
The first outcome of the revival of literary interest in Norway was the appearance of the first book ever printed in Norway, an almanac, printed in Christiania in 1643. During the following years Christen Bang (158o-1678) published a number of re ligious tracts and also a Description of Christiania (1651), which at that time had only recently completed the 25th anniversary of its foundation. These curiosities have, however, nothing to do with literature in the true sense of the word, and the first name of importance in Norwegian literature after the spiritual revival in the Reformation century was Peder Clausson (1545-1614), a clergyman by profession and at the same time a highly gifted author who by his translation of Snorre Sturlasson (q.v.) as well as by his independent works on Norway, has got a lasting reputation. The next strikirig personality in Norwegian literature is Petter Dass (1647-1708) whose Nordlands Trompet (Clarion) with its lyric-topographical description of the scenery and life of north Norway is still considered one of the gems of Nor wegian literature. On the other hand, Dorothea Engelbrechts datter (1635-1716), who among her contemporaries enjoyed a great reputation as an author of religious poetry, is now prac tically forgotten owing to the melancholy tone of her work.
Contrasted with these authors, who all spent their life in Norway, Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754) (q.v.) early found his way not only out of Norway, but out of Denmark. Leaving Norway for ever at the age of 21, after having taken his degrees at the University of Copenhagen, he went to England, where he studied for more than 18 months at Oxford, from which he carried with him an indelible impression of England and the English. Later travels brought him to France, Germany and Italy, but wherever he went he lived in the English world of thought and reasoned on the basis of his Oxford experiences. In this way, thanks to his inborn genius and his unbiased mind, he prepared himself for the lifework by which he became the founder of modern Norwegian and modern Danish literature. He revolu tionized the conception of life in two kingdoms and paved the way for the intellectual and political liberty of the future. His most famous works next to his Comedies (see DRAMA : Norway) are Peder Pears (1719), a heroic poem, the humour and satire of which has stood the test of two centuries ; Niels Klim's Under ground Travel (1741), originally written in Latin, a classic evi dence of his mental independence, and finally from the closing years of his life his Epistles and Moral Reflections, which are the best source of information for Holberg students. Holberg
restored the cultural connection between Norway, England and western Europe in general, which had been broken off since the end of the saga period. This fact cannot be emphasized too strongly, for it constitutes the connecting link between the Old Norse literature and the literature of modern Norway, and gives the clue to some of the most outstanding features of the latter, e.g., its independent conception of life and its absolute acceptance of facts, however disagreeable.
English native poets, like James Thomson and Edward Young, had their counterpart in Norway in Christian Tullin (1728-65), a manufacturer and merchant of importance in the business com munity of Christiania, and a central figure in the extremely sociable life of the city. By his famous poem, The May-Day (1758), composed on the occasion of a wedding among "the upper ten" of Christiania, Tullin became the first interpreter in Nor wegian literature of the long pent-up love of nature which three quarters of a century later should find such splendid expression in the poetry of Wergeland.
Meanwhile, the importance of Hol berg's work, along with a number of other factors, among them a constantly growing awareness of being an individual nation with historical traditions and cultural and economic possibilities, gradually began to prevail. The centre of this movement was Copenhagen, where the Norwegian students, partly graduates stay ing there in search of employment, felt themselves aliens in the midst of a display of public sympathy which made the name of Norway and the Norwegians resound in a way bearing promise for the future. In 1772, to mention a particular year of lasting impor tance in Norwegian literature, the Norwegian poets and other men of letters were so strong in Copenhagen that they formed a society which was to become famous under the name of Det Norske Sels kab (the Norwegian Society). The two most conspicuous members of this society with whom its name has for ever been associated were Johan Herman Wessel (1742-85) and Johan Nordahl Brun (1745-1816) ; besides them should be mentioned Claus Fasting (1746-91), Claus Frimann (1746-1829), and his brother Peter Harboe Frimann (1752-1839), as also their younger contempo raries, Jonas Rein (176o-1821) and Jens Zetlitz (1761-1821). No student of Norwegian literature who wants to understand the un der-currents in the Norwegian nation in the last 4o years prior to the dissolution (1814), should pass by these poets, among whom Claus Frimann still lives in a few songs of popular reputation. The sovereign talent among them is, holkever, Wessel (see DRAMA : Norway), the spiritual inheritor of Holberg, a champion in the fight against pedantry and prejudices, a gamin spirit full of irony and good humour in the midst of adversities.