Ludvig Holbergs spejlkabinet

De fiktive udgiverapparater: satire, parodi og mystifikation

Resumé

In 1719-1720 Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754) published the mocking epic Peder Paars which with its 6.249 rhymed iambic verses formed a comical Danish parallel to Virgil ́s Aeneid. The book became the first regular Danish best-seller. In his text Holberg imitated the set-up of traditional editions of the poetical masterpieces from Greek and Roman antiquity. He pretended his poem to have been composed by a brewer called Hans Mickelsen, a jovial fellow, fairly reasonable but also rather naïve. Supplementing him, an academic by the name of Just Justesen was commissioned to write learned introductions and no less than 334 sagacious footnotes, some supporting Mickelsen, others correcting him. The readers as well as later Holberg scholars accepted the idea of two fictitious originators. Yet it tended to be overlooked in favour of the much more obvious travesty of the famous classical epics. However Mickelsen and Justesen still deserve to be discussed as an integrated part of the presentation. Their opinions actually constitute a mirror room enhancing the jocular mood of the action. Also later poetical works by Holberg utilizing the same or a similar formula are dealt with. Holberg did not seem to tire of this device.