Tegnér, ESAIAS, one of the most prominent of Swedish poets, was born at Kyrkerud, in the province of Värmland, on 13th November 1782, the son of a country pastor of peasant descent. The boy lost his father when only ten years of age, and owed his education as well as his support to the good-will of kind patrons. At seventeen he enrolled himself a student at Lund University, and graduated, as first student of his year, in 1802; a few months later he was appointed a lecturer in the faculty of philosophy. It was not until 1808 that he attracted any attention as a poet; but the stirring War-song for the Militia of Scania made his name known, and the patriotic appeal, Svea (1811), made it famous. In the following year he was chosen professor of Greek. The best creations of his poetic genius all belong to a comparatively short period of time (1817-25)—Song to the Sun (1817), Epilogue on the Degree Day at Lund (1820), The Candidate for Confirmation (1820), Axel (1821), and Frithiof's Saga (1825). After this he only wrote occasional pieces and a couple of incomplete poems of a more ambitious cast. In 1824, however, he had been called to undertake the onerous duties of the bishopric of Vexiö, and to those duties he gave his strength, until symptoms of mental disease showed themselves (1840); he died 2d November 1846 (see SWEDEN, p. 9). His work is distinguished by much of the transparent clearness, tranquil ease, and artistic finish that he admired so greatly in the ancient Greeks. At the same time he writes with the warm enthusiasm, the quick poetic feeling, the freshness and vigour of a modern over whom the inspirations of romanticism had passed. And, what has contributed not the least to make him a favourite, his verse is full of melody, rich in imagery, and moves with stately grace and dignity. Frithiof's Saga, a cycle of epics treating of old Scandinavian days, is his masterpiece; and notwithstanding certain obvious faults, it is a noble production, one of the most popular poems in Swedish, and a welcome addition to the translated poetry of every literature in Europe. Axel, a romance in verse of the time of Charles XII., is more unequal in execution; the other three poems mentioned rank higher than Axel in technique, but do not surpass its best passages in poetic insight and inspiration. Tegnér's collected works were published in 1847-50 (7 vols.
Stockholm), and again in 1882-85 (8 vols.). The best life is that by his son-in-law, Böttiger, prefixed to the first edition of his collected works. See also the interesting monograph (in Danish) by Georg Brandes (1878).