ABSTRACT
The author Steen Steensen Blicher (1782–1848) was a central figure in determining the 19th-century perception of the Jutland heath. A popular vogue for Ossian’s works spread throughout Europe in the last years of the 18th century, culminating in Ossian’s near deification by Napoleon. The poetry of Ossian held an immediate appeal for Blicher. The Ossianic aesthetic, by contrast, regarded development as unnatural; wild untouched landscape was therefore the most natural. Blicher also admired Sir Walter Scott, calling him “the historian of humanity”. The figure of the romantic wanderer in “The hosier” is characterized by the self-irony with which Blicher endowed his literary alter egos. The cultural landscape, however, remains his preoccupation: Narrow roads with deep ruts separated by high ridges indicate less travel and less intercourse between the inhabitants. The Renaissance scientific revolution went hand-in-hand with the exploration and conquest of distant parts of the world for trade and resource exploitation.
