Pontoppidan

Pontoppidan, ERIK, Danish writer, born at Aarhus on 24th August 1698, was appointed professor of Theology at Copenhagen in 1738 and bishop of Bergen in Norway in 1747; there he died on 20th December 1764. His writings are principally historical and theological; amongst them must be mentioned Annales Ecclesie Danicæ Diplomaticæ (4 vols. 1741–52), written in German, and still of use as a book of reference; Det Danske Atlas (1781), an unfinished historical and topographical account of Denmark; Glossarium Norvegicum (1749), a work on Norwegian dialect words; Explanations to Luther's Catechism, used as a text-book down to the present day; Marmora Danica (2 vols. 1739–41), a collection of Danish inscriptions; and Norges Naturlige Historie (2 vols. 1752–54; Eng. trans. Natural History of Norway, 1755), containing accounts of the Kraken, the sea-serpent, and other marvels.