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Abstract
This article presents an introduction to the field of law and literature in Denmark and a legal and literary reading of one of the Western world's first crime stories, “The Pastor of Vejlbye,” written by the Danish writer Steen Steensen Blicher in 1829. This is a story based on a true case of a possible miscarriage of justice from the seventeenth century. The reading focuses on Blicher's story, the role of the judge, the nature of false confessions, the issue of the death penalty, and the whole narrative and diaristic setting that establishes a strong tension between the epic self-explanation of the pastor and the weak and hesitant diaristic prose of the judge.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Part of this article has been printed in an early and different version in Karen-Margrethe Simonsen (ed.), Law and Justice in Literature, Film and Theater: Nordic Perspectives on Law and Humanities (Berlin and Boston: DeGruyter, 2013), 85–102.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. See Karen-Margrethe Simonsen and Ditlev Tamm, Law and Literature – Interdisciplinary Methods of Reading (Copenhagen: Djøf Publishers, 2010). For a discussion of Nordic perspectives on law and literature, see Karen-Margrethe Simonsen, ed., Law and Justice in Literature, Film and Theater: Nordic Perspectives on Law and Humanities (Berlin and Boston: DeGruyter, 2013).
2. Richard Weisberg, The Failure of the Word: The Protagonist as Lawyer in Modern Fiction (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989); Weisberg, Poethics and Other Strategies of Law and Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992).
3. The book is also sometimes translated as The Stranger.
4. St. St. Blicher and J.M. Elmenhoff, eds., Nordlyset, Vol. XII (1829). In the following, reference is made to this edition: Steen Steensen Blicher, “The Pastor of Vejlbye. A Crime Story,” in The Diary of a Parish Clerk and Other Stories (London: The Athlone Press Ltd., 1996).
5. See the homepage of the Danish Ministry of Culture: http://kum.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/KUM_kulturkanonen_OK2.pdf (accessed June 21, 2016).
6. Among the contributions by lawyers to the understanding of the story are: A.P. Larsen, Sagen mod Præsten i Vejlby. Og de dage der fulgte (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1951); Henrik G. Poulsen, En Criminalhistorie. Blicher og Præsten i Vejlby (Copenhagen: Steen Hasselbalch, 1970); and Peter Garde, Dommerens litteraturhistorie (Copenhagen: Djøf Publishers, 2007). Notable in all three cases is the general interest in the relation between the historical case and the story by Blicher and the question of whether the historical priest was guilty or not. One could also mention here the work by a historian: Severin Kjær, Præsten i Vejlby: Søren Jensen Quist, hans Slægt og Samtid : en gammel Kriminalhistorie (Copenhagen: Pio, 1894). Peter Garde in his study of judges in Danish and Nordic literature considers Blicher's judge to be the first judge who is also described as a human being; see Garde, Dommerens litteraturhistorie, 130.
7. Cf. Weisberg, The Failure of the Word (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 29.
8. Erik Pontoppidan's Annales, 1747. However, there has been some discussion about where Blicher found his original inspiration. For instance, Peter Garde, following a suggestion by Paul Skadhauge in the newspaper Aarhus Stiftstidende from November 22 and 23, 1945, says that it is possible that Blicher was instead inspired by a short story with the title of “Nemesis, eller Sandheden kommer for Dagen” (Nemesis, or the Truth comes to Light) by Louise Hegermann-Lindencrone, printed in Gefion, 1827, a volume that Blicher had probably read since he published three poems in the same volume of the journal. See Garde, Dommerens litteraturhistorie, 132.
9. Ibid., 118.
10. Ibid., 109.
11. At the beginning of his diary, the paragraphs about his job as a judge alternate with paragraphs on his growing involvement with the pastor's daughter, Mette. The paragraphs alternate without any mitigating transitions, so the two “stories” are linked in the mind of the reader.
12. In this sense, Blicher may resemble his contemporary, the German writer Heinrich von Kleist, who had published some of his stunning short stories, including Michael Kohlhaas, only 10 years earlier. In the reception of the work of Kleist, we see the same interest in the biographical issue and in the psychological motives of the characters in addition to a cult of exoticism. Only recently has research focused on the realism of Kleist's works and his interest in the legal foundation of society. A parallel study of Blicher and Kleist would reveal similarities in their approaches to narration and law.
13. A.P. Larsen, a Danish judge who dedicated a study to the case, simply writes that the judge in St. St. Blicher is not a judge from the seventeenth century, the time of Christian IV; he belongs to the end of the eighteenth century; see A.P. Larsen, Sagen mod Præsten i Vejlbye og de sager, der fulgte: fremstillet efter akterne (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1951), 21. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the time of Blicher himself, local bailiffs acquired more power but still there was no separation between the executive and judicial powers vested in them. See Ditlev Tamm, Retshistorie (Copenhagen: Djøf Publishers, 1990–92), 239.
14. Blicher, “The Pastor of Vejlbye,” 117.
15. Ibid., 115.
16. In newer translations of the Bible, this passage sounds differently, for instance in the New American Standard Bible, 1995: “… justice for man comes from the LORD”; see http://bible.cc/proverbs/29-26.htm (accessed March 30, 2011).
17. The Old Testament continued to be a valued reference in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including for the secular power and the legal institutions. A clear sign of this is the fact that the Danish law from 1683, apart from initial references to the fear and justice of God, lets the penal code be structured according to the 10 Commandments of the Pentateuch; see Kong Christian Den Femtis danske Lov, VI Bog: “Om Misgjierninger” (Copenhagen: Joachim Schmedtgen, 1683).
18. Blicher, “The Pastor of Vejlbye,” 116.
19. Ibid., 118.
20. Ibid., 122.
21. Ibid., 124.
22. Peter Brooks, Troubling Confessions. Speaking Guilt in Law and Literature (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 9; Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison (London and New York: Penguin, 1977), 37–8; Helle Vogt, “Likewise No One Shall Be Tortured'. The Use of Judicial Torture in Early Modern Denmark,” Scandinavian Journal of History 39, no. 1 (2014): 78–99.
23. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 38.
24. See Tyge Krogh, Oplysningstiden og det magiske: henrettelser og korporlige straffe i 1700-tallets første halvdel (Copenhagen: Samleren, 2000), 284–99.
25. Brooks, Troubling Confessions, 9.
26. Ibid., 21.
27. Blicher, “The Pastor of Vejlbye,” 127.
28. Ibid., 107, 110, 103.
29. Henrik Skov Nielsen sees the miscarriage of justice as a result of the meeting between the accuser, Morten Bruus, who is ingenuity without morality, and the narrator and judge who is morality without ingenuity”; see Henrik Skov Nielsen, “Narrativ Etik?” K&K. Kultur og Klasse 36, no. 106 (2008): 65.
30. Weisberg, The Failure of the Word, 3.
31. The death penalty was officially abolished in Denmark in 1930. The last civilian execution in times of peace took place in 1892. The death penalty was temporarily reintroduced after the Second World War. The last execution took place in 1950.
32. Blicher, “The Pastor of Vejlbye,” 133. See Søren Baggesen: “Who dares say to his brother, ‘Thou art deserving of death?’ The human being is such a dangerous being, relations between human beings are so complicated and the humanity of human beings so limited that humans cannot see the basis of their own reality. Therefore, a human being never dares to pass a death sentence on anybody” (“Ak! Hvad er dog et Menneske, at det tør opkaste sig til Bloddommer over sin Lige?ʼ Mennesket er et så farligt væsen, dets indbyrdes relationer er så komplicerede, og dets menneskelighed er så begrænsende, at det ikke kan se til bunds i sin egen virkelighed. Derfor tør det heller aldrig dømme noget menneske fra livet.”). See Søren Baggesen, Den blicherske novelle (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1962), 308.
33. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 48.
34. Blicher, “The Pastor of Vejlbye,” 128.
35. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 63.
36. “Blandt Tilskuerne [til henrettelsen] modnes nye Candidater til Retterstedet: den dræbende Oxe udkaarer sig friske Offere. … For Mange have de offentlige Henrettelser – som i og for sig selv ere oprørende og barbariske – en Slags rædsom Tillokkelse, en Fortryllelse, lig Klapperslangens: det Højtidelige, Religieuse i Samme har en frygtelig virkning på mystisk stemte Gemytter; hvor mange ere ikke blevne Mordere alene for at døe en saadan festlig, og – efter sværmende Sjæles Formening – salig Død?” (orig. 1827); see: “Om Dødsstraffe,” Arkiv for Dansk litteratur, http://www.adl.dk/adl_pub/pg/cv/ShowPgImg.xsql?p_udg_id=196& p_sidenr=264&hist=O&nnoc=adl_pub., 264–8, 265–6. From: St. St. Blicher, Udvalgte Værker 1–4, Copenhagen. 1982–83. Noveller, notes by Esther Kielberg, epilogue by Henrik Ljungberg. Vol. 4. (Danske Klassikere, Copenhagen: DSL/Borgen, 2001).
37. According to Jesper Langballe, the story shows that “God's verdict alone can break the stick over man”; Jesper Langballe, Anlangendes et menneske. Blichers forfatterskab – selvopgør og tidsopgør (Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2004), 286–7.
38. First in 1922, a silent film by August Blom; in 1931 by George Schnéevoigt; in 1960 for television by Palle Kjærulff-Schmidt; and in 1972 by Claus Ørsted.
39. See the homepage of the Ministry of Culture: http://kulturkanon.kum.dk/da/Litteratur/praesten_i_vejlbye/ (accessed June 21, 2016) [my translation]. The official English translation is different: http://kulturkanon.kum.dk/en/Literature/The-Pastor-of-Vejlbye/ (accessed June 21, 2016).
40. S.M. Philips, Famous Cases of Circumstantial Evidence, Vol. 1–2 (orig. 1874) (Charleston: Gale, 2010–11).
41. See Henry G. Leach, “Was ‘Tom Sawyer’ Danish or American?” The New York Times, February 6, 1910.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Karen-Margrethe Simonsen
Karen-Margrethe Simonsen is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Aarhus University. She is the author and editor of several books and articles on law and literature, human rights and literature, aesthetics and politics, literary history of slavery, world literature, and literary historiography.
Ditlev Tamm
Ditlev Tamm has been Professor of Legal History at the University of Copenhagen since 1978. He is the author of several books and articles on Danish and European legal history, comparative law and Roman law, political history and legal culture. He has also written on ballet, literature, and general history. He is director of the Centre for Studies of Legal Culture.