Ibsen (family)

The phenomenon of patronymics becoming frozen started in the 17th century in bourgeois families in Denmark.

After his father died early and his mother Wenche Dishington remarried, Henrik's son Henrik Johan Ibsen (1765–1797) grew up in the household of parish priest Jacob von der Lippe, his stepfather.

After Henrik Johan Ibsen, a ship's captain and merchant in Skien, died at sea outside Hesnes, his widow Johanne Plesner remarried to ship's captain Ole Paus, and their son Knud Ibsen grew up in the Paus household at Rising in Gjerpen.

Henrik Ibsen's ancestry has been a much studied subject, due to his perceived foreignness[1] (leading his biographer Henrik Jæger to famously state that "the ancestral Ibsen was a Dane")[2] and due to the influence of his biography and family on his plays.

Marichen Ibsen is considered the model for "Åse" in Peer Gynt and "Inga of Varteig" in The Pretenders, and she would "echo through her son's work in unremitting portrayals of suffering women.

Ibsen's plays often take place in bourgeois circles in small towns reminiscent of Skien, resembling the social environment of his childhood.

He was the father of eight children, including Henrik Ibsen had no contact with his illegitimate son or grandchildren, who lived in relatively humble conditions.