


Collected Works

8 July

Receives news that the psalm writer and playwright Pastor C.J. Boye has died of cholera:

"During the past few years he was so very acknowledging and sympathetic towards me that he had become very dear to me" (in Mit Livs Eventyr (The Fairy Tale of My Life).

16 July

Takes the steam-ship from Horsens to Bogense on Funen. Continues to Odense, where Skt. Knuds market is in progress. From here he goes to Glorup Estate, where he stays until 1st August. Here he takes part in the silver anniversary celebration of Count Adam Moltke-Hvidfeldt (large folk celebration).
During the stay at Glorup, Countess Elise Moltke-Hvitfeldt draws a portrait of HCA.
Hears that Oline Thyberg (mother of Edvard Collin's wife, Henriette) and Emilie Hornemann (a niece of Mrs Collin the senior) have died of cholera. HCA feels quite ill and decides to return to Silkeborg rather than go to Copenhagen. Calculates his monthly expenses at this time to 50 rdl.

3 August 1853

Arrival in Silkeborg, where he remains until 6th September. Silkeborg and the area around this developing industrial town gives HCA a characteristic double view, which he mentions to Ingemann in a letter dated 23rd August:
Concerning the blossoming heath he says:

"This peculiar loneliness, which causes ones thoughts both to fly out into space and equally to grasp for strong roots within oneself, could surely create a poet. Few places in Denmark - and with these it is the near-by open sea which makes the difference - appeal to me as does the area around Silkeborg; these mighty knolls of heather lend the whole area a wonderfully moving grandeur"

He then continues the letter - probably inspired by the book Robert Fulton by Hauch, which he had finished reading at Ingemann's:

"As you know, there is a barge-service from here to Randers and back; the other day, the first steam-ship to Silkeborg came from up there, quite small and flat-bottomed, but still powered by steam; it was like a cultural rocket surging through the ancient countryside".

Sitting in the heather on the moor, HCA writes the poem "Dampskibet Gudenaa" (The Steamship Gudenaa). Travels from Silkeborg through Vejle, Middelfart and Odense (overnighting despite rumours of cholera being in the town) and on to Sorø.

1853: Collected Works

8 September

Stays with the Ingemanns for one week.

15 September

Returns to Copenhagen (the almanac: "we then drove into cholera town").

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