Georg Stiernhielm


Stiernhielm, Georg

 

Born Aug. 7, 1598, in Svartskär, Da-lama; died Apr. 22, 1672, in Stockholm. Swedish poet; scholar of encyclopedic scope.

Stiernhielm studied in Germany and Holland. In the allegorical-didactic narrative poem Hercules (1648, published 1658) he affirmed the ideas of Renaissance humanism and moral stoicism. Stiernhielm was the first in Swedish literature to use classical and Renaissance plots; he introduced accentual versification, the hexameter line, the alexandrine, the sonnet, and other verse forms and meters into Swedish poetry. Stiernhielm was the compiler of an unfinished dictionary entitled Treasury of the Language of the Svear and Götar (1643).

WORKS

Samlade skrifter [parts 1–3]. Stockholm, 1924[-57],
In Russian translation:
“Gerkules (fragmenty).” In Evropeiskaia poeziia XVII veka. Moscow, 1977.

REFERENCE

Wieselgren, P. Georg Stiernhielm. Stockholm, 1948.