DAHN, Win. FELIX (1834—). An historian, jurist, and novelist. He was born in Hamburg, February 9, 1834. His parents were celebrated actors, his early training classic. He studied history and law in Munich and Berlin, became privat-docent in Munich in 1857 and professor of law there in 1862. He has since occupied the same position in Wfirzburg (1863), Klinigsberg (1872), and Breslau since 1888. To history he has contributed Die lionige der Germanen (1561 97) and Urgesohichte der germanischrm niud ro manischenVolker(1878etseq.); to jurisprudence, Die Vcrnunft in Becht (1S79): to poetry, col lections of Poems, Ballads, and Songs (1857, 1873, 1375, 1878, 1892). He has also written many dramas, of which Markgraf Rfideger von Bcchelaren (1875) is typical. Halm is most widely known, and deservedly, for his historical novels, which deal mainly with the primitive Germanic peoples, from the Vikings of Norway to the Goths of Italy, and from prehistoric times to the Crusades. Of these there are more
than twenty, the chief of which are Odhins Trost (1880) and the longest and best of all, Kin. Aampf ant Rom (1876). This latter work has an epic breadth and an artistic unity that makes it one of the most strik ing historical novels of recent times. It is an epitome of the history of the German invasion of Italy, involving immense learning, borne so lightly by the author that it never oppresses the reader. The period is that. of Justinian and Theodora, of the Gothic kings Theodoric, Totila. Vitiges, and Teja. Through the four volumes the interest never flags, and the dread of im pending fate increases to the tragic close. Dahn's shorter stories of the migration, Fclici tas (1383). Rissula (1884), Fredi•undis (1885), Attila (138S), and St ilicho (1900). are also worthy of mention; but facility of composition has been Dalm's snare.