Carit Etlar

Born Johan Carl Christian Brosbøll in Fredericia on August 7, 1816, he wrote under the pen name Carit Etlar. As a young man he went to Copenhagen to study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and that early interest in visual art helped shape the lively, scenic quality of his fiction.

He became one of Denmark's most popular authors of adventure and historical fiction in the 19th century. He is especially remembered for Gjøngehøvdingen from 1853, a novel about Svend Poulsen Gønge that stayed widely loved and helped define his reputation.

His writing often drew on Danish history, nature, and the lives of people on society's edges, giving his books both movement and atmosphere. Carit Etlar died on May 9, 1900, but his stories continued to be read and adapted long afterward.