in the sixteenth century, Copenhagen, which during the union with Denmark was the capital of the twin kingdoms, became the _ intellectual centre also of Norway, and this country had its literature jointly with Denmark for a period which lasted until the dissolution of the union with Denmark in 1814. The greatest name in this <joint- literature» period is Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754). He was born in Norway (Bergen), but left this country in his youth and settled at Copenhagen. Holberg was a historian and the author of epistles on morals, but it was as a writer of comedies that he became famous and exercised an influence on his own and succeeding generations. Johan Herman Wessel was also a Norwegian poet of the Dano-Norwegian literary period. To this period belongs also Peder Dass, the priest (1647-1708), a very productive poet who lived in Nordland and gained great popularity with his poems and songs, whose theme was the daily life and work of: the people. The year of independence, 1814, marked the beginning of the last and — in point of both quantity and quality — the greatest literary period in Norway, a period dominated by the names of Henrik Wergeland, Henrik Ibsen, and Bjgrnstjerne Bjgrnson. The first great name of this period is Henrik Wergeland (1808-1845), alyrical genius of brilliant imaginative power, who also roused the nation 59