Horace Oscar Axel Engdahl is a Swedish literary historian and critic, and has been a member of the Swedish Academy since 1997. He was the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy from 1999 to June 2009, when he was succeeded by Swedish author and historian Peter Englund.
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children: his stories express themes that transcend age and nationality.
Tollund Man is a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 4th century BC, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was found in 1950, preserved as a bog body, on the Jutland peninsula. The man's physical features were so well-preserved that he was mistaken at the time of discovery for a recent murder victim. Twelve years before Tollund Man's discovery, another bog body, Elling Woman, had been found in the same bog.
Charles Julius Bertram (1723–1765) was an English expatriate in Denmark who "discovered"—and presumably wrote—The Description of Britain, an 18th-century literary forgery purporting to be a mediaeval work on history that remained undetected for over a century. In that time, it was highly influential for the reconstruction of the history of Roman Britain and contemporary Scotland, to the extent of appearing in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and being used to direct William Roy's initial Ordnance Survey maps. Bertram "discovered" the manuscript around the age of 24 and spent the rest of his life a successful academic and author. Scholars contested various aspects of the Description, but it was not recognized as an unquestionable forgery until 1846.
Rasmus Kristian Rask was a Danish linguist and philologist. He wrote several grammars and worked on comparative phonology and morphology. Rask traveled extensively to study languages, first to Iceland, where he wrote the first grammar of Icelandic, and later to Russia, Persia, India, and Ceylon. Shortly before his death, he was hired as professor of Eastern languages at the University of Copenhagen. Rask is especially known for his contributions to comparative linguistics, including an early formulation of what would later be known as Grimm's Law.
Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin was a French, Dutch or Flemish writer best known as the author of one of the most important sourcebooks of 17th-century piracy, first published in Dutch as De Americaensche Zee-Roovers, in Amsterdam, by Jan ten Hoorn, in 1678.
The Shadow is a fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The tale was first published in 1847.
Arnaldur Indriðason is an Icelandic writer of crime fiction; most of his books feature the protagonist Detective Erlendur.
Antonio Muñoz Molina is a Spanish writer and, since 8 June 1995, a full member of the Royal Spanish Academy. In 2013 he received the Prince of Asturias Award for literature.
Danish literature, a subset of Scandinavian literature, stretches back to the Middle Ages. The earliest preserved texts from Denmark are runic inscriptions on memorial stones and other objects, some of which contain short poems in alliterative verse. In the late 12th century Saxo Grammaticus wrote Gesta Danorum. During the 16th century, the Lutheran Reformation came to Denmark. During this era, Christiern Pedersen translated the New Testament into Danish and Thomas Kingo composed hymns. Fine poetry was created in the early 17th century by Anders Arrebo (1587–1637). The challenges faced during Denmark's absolute monarchy in 1660 are chronicled in Jammersminde by Leonora Christina of the Blue Tower. Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754), influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and Humanism, is considered the founder of modern Danish and Norwegian literature. Neoclassical poetry, drama, and the essay flourished during the 18th century influenced by French and English trends. German influence is seen in the verse of the leading poets of the late 18th century such as Johannes Ewald and Jens Baggesen. Other 18th century writers include the hymn writer Hans Adolph Brorson and the satirical poet Johan Herman Wessel.
Anthea Bell OBE was an English translator of numerous literary works, especially children's literature, from French, German and Danish. These include Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald, the Inkworld trilogy by Cornelia Funke and the French Asterix comics along with co-translator Derek Hockridge.
Stig Dalager is a Danish writer. He is the author of 58 literary works of all kinds, mostly novels and plays, of which several have been translated or staged internationally. His works include I Count the Hours, a monologue for a woman in Sarajevo (1993), staged in 12 countries; The Dream, play ; Two Days in July, Journey in Blue; a biographical novel about Hans Christian Andersen ; The Labyrinth "Land of shadows" ; and "Slowly Comes the Light". In 2012 the novel "The blue light" about Marie Curie was published and in 2013 "Eternity of the Moment", a novel about Søren Kierkegaard. 2015 his novel about Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg "Journey without End" was published and in 2017 his novel "Woman in a Century" about Elisabeth of Bohemia and his tale "The last days of the Rabby", also there was a worldpremiere of his play "Journey in light and Shadow" in New York. All in all published and staged in 30 countries, among them Great Britain, USA, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Russia, China and Japan.
Klaus Rifbjerg was a Danish writer. He authored more than 170 novels, books and essays. In 1965 he co-produced the film 4x4 which was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival.
Anders Bodelsen is a prolific Danish writer primarily associated with the 1960 new-realism wave in Danish literature, along with Christian Kampmann and Henrik Stangerup. Bodelsen prefers the social-realistic style of writing, often thrillers about middle-class people who face the consequences of materialism, which often clashes with their human values. His thrillers also experiment with ordinary persons tempted by e.g. theft and border-morale issues.
Censorship in Denmark has been prohibited since 1849 by the Constitution:
§ 77: Any person shall be at liberty to publish his ideas in print, in writing, and in speech, subject to his being held responsible in a court of law. Censorship and other preventive measures shall never again be introduced.
The Mildred L. Batchelder Award, or Batchelder Award, is an American Library Association literary award that annually recognizes the publisher of the year's "most outstanding" children's book translated into English and published in the U.S.
Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), also known as Stop the Islamification of Europe, is a group with the stated goal of "preventing Islam from becoming a dominant political force in Europe". It is a political interest group which has been active in Denmark and has conducted anti-Islamic protests in the United Kingdom. The group originated out of the joining of the Danish group Stop Islamisation of Denmark with English anti-Islam activists.
Carl Valdemar Jussi Henry Adler-Olsen is a Danish writer of crime fiction, as well as a publisher, editor and entrepreneur.
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards was a literary award for science fiction and fantasy works translated into English. The first award was presented in 2011 for works published in 2010. Two awards were given, one for long form and one for short form. Both the author and translator receive a trophy and a cash prize of $350. The award was supported a number of ways including direct donations from the public, the Speculative Literature Foundation, prominent academics in particular staff at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), home of the Eaton Collection, one of the world’s largest collections of science fiction and fantasy literature. The last award was for 2013, and the award officially closed in October 2014.
