Johannes Ewald

Johannes Ewald (18 November 1743 – 17 March 1781) was a Danish national dramatist, psalm writer and poet.

Being compelled to join a regiment of artillery at Magdeburg, instead of being attached to the hussars as he had been promised, he deserted the Prussian standard in the Seven Years' War, and entered the Austrian service, where he was made a non-commissioned officer.

[6] The following years were spent living as a bohemian and writing poetry in Copenhagen; there were also a time of alcoholism and conflicts with his mother and step-father.

Ewald wrote some of his best verses during this time, but a conflict with his family led to his removal to the small North Zealand town of Humlebæk (1775–77), which depressed him and worsened his alcoholism.

Finally, friends brought him to Søbækshus, near Helsingør, and where he lived for some years under growing public interest and literary fame.

Johannes Ewald led a short and troubled life, marked by alcoholism and financial problems.

His life darkened by illness, distress and misfortune, Ewald died at age 37 and was buried in the cemetery of Trinitatis Church in Copenhagen.

Violent expressions of feeling (happiness, sorrow and love) are typical in his writing; these elements are apparently spontaneous but, at the same time, deliberately and artificially drawn up.

From the latter play one song is still remembered by most Danes: King Christian stood by the lofty mast that shares the position of being the national anthem of Denmark (the other is Oehlenschläger's "There is a lovely Land").

Ewald's main prose work was the unfinished autobiography Levnet og Meninger ("Life and Opinions", written 1774–78, published 1804–08).