and became its patriotic leader in the first strug- gles against the union with Sweden. A contem- porary of Wergeland was J. S. Welhaven (1807- 1873), whose poems are marked by national romance and a strong love of nature. He exercised a great influence on the rising art-loving genera- tion. A sister of Henrik Wergeland, Camilla Collett, was a prominent authoress. Her novels gave the first impetus to a determined movement for the emancipation of women in Norway. The detachment from Denmark and Danish literature led to the initiation of a national move- ment for the reinstatement of the Norwegian language. From the time of the Reformation and during the period of joint-literature, Danish had become the language of literature and of the governing authorities in Norway. But the old Norwegian language still lived among the rural population and among the middle and lower classes in towns; although it was naturally influ- enced in great measure by the changes that were occurring in neighbouring languages and by the more local dialects. Jvar Aasen (1913-1896), a self-taught linguist and poet, wrote a grammar of the Neo-Norse language based in the main on western dialects; in addition, he wrote a number of poems and a few small plays. A. O. Vinje, poet and essayist (1818-1870), also wrote in neo- Norwegian. These two poets, with other prominent nationally-minded personalities, initiated a deter- mined movement in favour of neo-Norwegian 60