Steen Steensen Blicher (11 October 1782, Vium – 26 March 1848 in Spentrup) was a writer and poet born in Vium near Viborg, Denmark.
Blicher was the son of a literarily inclined Jutlandic parson whose family was distantly related to Martin Luther.
He grew up in close contact with nature and peasant life in the moor areas of central Jutland. After trying his hand as a teacher and a tenant farmer, he at last became a parson like his father and from 1825 to 1847 served in the parish of Spentrup.
As a clergyman, Blicher is said to have been less than inspired. His main interests were hunting and writing. In 1842, he was accused of alcoholism and abandoned from a Cooperation of Danish writers. Many struggles with his superiors the following years led to his dismissal shortly before his death.
He had ten children, seven sons and three daughters, with his wife Ernestine Juliane Berg, whom he married on 11 June 1810.
Blicher is known as the pioneer of the short story in Danish. From the 1820s until his death he wrote several tales that were published in local periodicals (mostly dealing with his home region), as well as historical and amateur scientific sketches. Much of this work is entertainment but as many as twenty or thirty pieces have been called literary masterpieces.
In his prose, Blicher describes human fate in his home region in Jutland. Blicher is often called a tragic and melancholic writer, but he is not without wit and humour.
Blicher is one of the first novelists to make significant use of the unreliable narrator theme in literature. Four notable examples are:
The Diary of a Parish Clerk, his break-through story, tells of a poor peasant boy’s troubled life with unhappy love, war and exile. Years after the main plot occurred, he discovers that the woman he was in love with for years, ended up as a poor, pathetic alcoholic. He spent his old age in resignation and distrust.
His sombre story The Hosier and his Daughter (twice filmed) that describes the mental breakdown of a girl because of unhappy love is a classic prose tragedy.
The Parson of Veilbye, written in the first person, is the first Danish crime novel. The narrator makes fatal wrong conclusions resulting in a wrongful conviction. It too has been filmed.
Tardy Awakening, a tragedy of adultery and suicide, is perhaps influenced by the fact, that he in 1828 found out that his wife had a love affair.
He had additional talents, too: E Bindstouw is a mixture of tales and poetry on the model of the Decameron, written in the Jutlandic dialect. Here he turns loose his humorous side.
Earlier reviews noted that Blicher’s literary skill lies in his descriptions of scenery, especially the Jutlandic moor landscape and its inhabitants: the long-suffering peasantry and “free” moor gypsies. Later some biographies pointed out his skills in describing tragedy and psychology.
Stylistically, Blicher alternates between his own detailed intellectual narrative style and the colloquial speech of peasants, squires and robbers.
Blicher wrote poetry from the years of the Napoleonic Wars until his death. Among his most important poems are the melancholic Til Glæden (“To Joy”) from 1814, his interesting local patriotic song "Kærest du Fødeland" (Dearest You Birthland) that shows his love for his home region, and his impressive winter poem "Det er hvidt herude" (It is white out here), published in his notable poetry collection "Trækfuglene" (Birds of Passage) in 1838.
The whole collection "Trækfuglene" was inspired by a serious extended illness. In this uncharacteristic poetry work, he let a range of symbolic birds express his own personal situation.
The bluff and cheerful dialect poem Jyden han æ stærk å sej ("The Jutlander he is strong and tough") is from 1841.