Poets

Blicher was the son of a literarily inclined Jutlandic parson whose family was distantly related to Martin Luther.

He grew up in close contact to nature and peasant life in the moor areas of Jutland. After trying his hand as a teacher and a tenant farmer, he at last became a parson like his father and from 1825-1847 served in the parish at Spentrup.

As a clergyman he is said to have been less than inspired. He was once accused of alcoholism.[citation needed] His main interests were hunting and writing. Many struggles with his superiors 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.

Prose

Blicher is known as the pioneer of the novella 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 masterpieces.

In these works he describes human fate in his home region in Jutland, He is often called a tragic and melancholic writer, but he is not without wit and humour.

The Diary of a Parish Clerk, his break-through story, tells of a poor peasant boy’s troubled life with unhappy love, war, exile and an old age in resignation.

His sombre story The Hosier and his Daughter (twice filmed) that describes the menta..