O. T., A Danish Romance

“A swarm of colors, noise and screaming, Music and sights, past any dreaming, The rattle of wheels going late and early,-- All draw the looker-on into the hurly-burly.” TH. OVER...

Early the following morning, whilst Wilhelm still slept and dreamed of his beloved sisters, well-known footsteps sounded on the stairs, the door opened, and Otto stepped into th...

In the former chapter we heard mention made of a young student, Otto Thostrup, a clever fellow, with nine prae caeteris, as his comrades said, but also of a proud spirit, of whi...

The physician from Nyborg, who had been on a visit to a sick person in the neighborhood, took this opportunity of calling on the family and inquiring after Eva’s health. They ha...

“Look at the calming sea. The waves still tremble in the depths, and stem to fear the gale.--Over my head is hovering the shadowy mist.--My curls are wet with the filling dew.”...

Lemvig lies, as is well known, on an arm of the Limfjord. The legend relates, that in the Swedish war a troop of the enemy’s cavalry compelled a peasant here to mount his horse...

“Were the pease not tender, and the vegetables fresh and sweet as sugar What was the matter with the hams, the smoked goose-breasts, and the herrings? What with the roasted lamb...

We again find ourselves in Copenhagen, where we meet with Otto, and may every day expect Wilhelm, Miss Sophie, and the excellent mamma; they would only stay a few weeks. To lear...

“L’Angleterre jalouse et la Grèce homérique, Toute l’Europe admire, et la jeune Amérique Se lève et bat des mains du bord des océans. Trois jours vous ont suffi pour briser vos...

We will not accompany the friends, but will remain behind in Funen, where we will make a bolder journey than they, namely, we will go back one-and-twenty years. We will allow th...

The next morning Wilhelm related his evening adventure at the breakfast-table; the sisters laughed at it. The mother, on the contrary, was silent, left the room, and after some...

We will not follow the principal characters of our story step for step, but merely present the prominent moments of their lives to our readers, be these great or small; we seize...

Describe to an inhabitant of the south a country where the earth appears covered with the purest Carrara marble, where the tree twigs resemble white branches of coral sprinkled...

“At last we separate: To Jutland one, to Fünen others go; And still the quick thought comes, --A day so bright, so full of fun, Never again on us shall rise.”--CARL BAGGER.

The peninsula of Jutland possesses nothing of the natural beauty which Zealand and Funen present--splendid beeches and odoriferous clover-fields in the neighborhood of the salt...

“The hill on which he awoke, comforted by sleep, is still called ‘Hvile höi’ (the hill of rest). A cross having a Latin inscription, half-effaced, marks the spot.”--J. L. HEIBERG.

“Alas, I am no sturdy oak! Alas, I’m but the flower That wakes the kiss of May! And when has fled its little hour, Will voice of Death obey.”--RUCKERT.

Wilhelm’s cousin, Joachim, had arrived from Paris. We remember the young officer, out of whose letters Wilhelm had sent Otto a description of the struggle of the July days. As a...

“These poetical letters are so similar to those of Baggesen, that we could be almost tempted to consider the news of his death as false, although so well affirmed that we must a...

Not until after breakfast did the preacher pass over to Otto’s affairs. His grandfather’s will made him the sole heir to the large property; a man in Copenhagen, the merchant Be...

With us the students form no Burschenschafts, have no colors. The professors do not alone in the chair come into connection with them; the only difference is that which exists b...

The nakedness which the last aspect of Zealand presents occasions one to be doubly struck by the affluent abundance and luxuriance with which Funen steps forth. Green woods, ric...

“Does it not sound beautifully? It is Italian! Now then, I am in that so-often-sung-of Paradise, but of the so much-talked-about blue air, I have as yet seen nothing of conseque...

Close beside St. Knud’s Church, where once the convent stood, is now the dwelling of a private man. [Author’s Note: See Oehlenschläger’s Jorney to Funen.] The excellent hostess...

“Love is a childish disease and like the small-pox. Some die, some become deformed, others are more or less scarred, while upon others the disease does not leave any visible tra...

We now return to the hall in Funen, to the family which we left there; but autumn and winter are gone whilst we have been lingering on the past. Otto and Wilhelm have been two m...

A withered bouquet of stocks had been found by Louise, with the certificate of Eva’s birth and her hymn-book. These were the flowers which Wilhelm had given her that evening at...

“It is so sweet when friendly hands bid you a hearty welcome, so dear to behold well-known features, wherever you turn your eyes. Everything seems so home-like and quiet about y...

“...Wie entzückend Und süss es ist, in einer schönen Seele, Verherrlicht uns zu fühlen, es zu wissen, Das uns’re Fruede fremde Wangen röthet, Und uns’re Angst in fremdem Busen z...

Several days passed; the fine crimson again returned to Eva’s cheeks. The first occasion of her going out with the others was to see the rape-stalks burned. These were piled tog...

“A man only gains importance by a poet’s fancy, when his genius vividly represents to our imagination a clearer, but not an ennobled image of men and objects which have an exist...

It was not until toward morning that Otto fell into sleep. Wilhelm and he were allowed to take their own time in rising, and thus it was late in the day before these two gentlem...

On the following day should the much-talked-of mowing-festival take place. It was the hay-harvest which occasioned all this merriment. [Author’s Note: It is true that serfdom is...

“Modest she is, although you know She makes the whole of the place; And in she slips in the evening glow, To light the room with her merry face “--OEHLENSCHLÄGER

“My father!” said Otto, and glanced toward the ground. “Yes,” continued he, “there is truth in the words of Scripture,--the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unt...

Our tale is no creation of fancy; it is the reality in which we live; bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. Our own time and the men of our own age we shall see. But not alo...

The following day, the last before Otto’s departure, whilst he and Wilhelm were walking in the garden, Sophie approached them with a garland made of oak-leaves: this was intende...

The parting with Rosalie, the hospitality of the family, and their sincere sympathy, touched Otto; he thought upon the last days, upon his whole sojourn in his home. The death o...

When the buds burst forth we will burst forth also! had Otto and Wilhelm often said. Their plan was, in the spring to travel immediately to Paris, but on their way to visit the...

“I shall get to know!” thought Otto. “This violent love cannot be evaporated.” He paid attention to every little occurrence. Eva was the same quiet, modest creature as formerly-...

“A maiden stood musing, gentle and mild. I grasped the hand of the friendly child, but the lovely fawn shyly disappeared.... From the Rhine to the Danish Belt, beautiful and lov...

“And you wish to make me believe that? She is really pretty, and has something so unspeakably refined, that a young gentleman might well be attracted by her. With my brother it...

Latterly Otto had been but seldom at Mr. Berger’s. He had no interest about the merchant’s home. The family showed him every politeness and mark of confidence; but his visits be...

Not half an hour after this adventure a carriage rolled toward the city--a large carriage, containing three seats, but, beside the coachman, there was only one person within. Th...

“His coal was coarse, its fashion old; He asked no dress of greater worth Than that which kept from storm and cold The Baptist when he preached on earth.” C. J. BORE.

There is a happiness which no poet has yet properly sung, which no lady-reader, let her be ever so amiable, has experienced or ever will experience in this world. This is a cond...

“Man seems to me a foolish being; he drives along over the waves of time, endlessly thrown up and down, and descrying a little verdant spot, formed of mud and stagnant moor and...