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This article deals with recent Danish literature in the light of the discussion about canons occasioned by the publication of the two ministerial canons: Undervisningskanon (Educational Canon, 2004) and Kulturkanon (Cultural Canon, 2006). The article argues that recent Danish literature challenges traditional work categories and the concept of the author on which the two canons are based, and discusses which works and texts in recent Danish literature ought to belong to a future canon.

Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754) and Charlotta Dorothea Biehl (1731-1788) are two key figures of the Nordic Enlightenment. The Norwegian Holberg took his philosophical and theological degrees from the University of Copenhagen at an early age and travelled around Europe accumulating knowledge for his historical writings. Holberg made a splendid career at the University of Copenhagen both as a professor and vice-chancellor and published historical works, satires, comedies, essays, fables, and autobiographical letters. As a woman, Biehl was barred from university education and public office. Her world was confined to her childhood home, and she never had the opportunity to travel. In return, she immersed herself in studies of language and theatre, reading with great enthusiasm Holberg's writings. She became a comedy writer and a novelist, and also wrote historical works and historical letters. The paper discusses how Biehl and Holberg made performing arts and historiography inspire each other. History is in their depictions not only a royal chronology, but a vivid narrative. Holberg's and Biehl's approaches to historical study drew on different traditions: Holberg was influenced by ancient historiography while Biehl was inspired by the French chronicle; therefore, their historical writings have very different contents and designs.

One of the most interesting compilers of ballad-books in Danish Renaissance was the noblewoman Anne Krabbe. During the Danish Renaissance a number of noblewomen collected ballads and their ballad-books are particularly intriguing, as they reveal the context within which ballads were committed to paper. While Svend Grundtvig divides ballads and their variants on the basis of a particular typology, in the Renaissance ballad-books the present-day reader or researcher sees the ballad as part of a fi ne artefact: the ballad-book itself. Anne Krabbe and the other aristocratic male and female compilers of ballad-books are not taken into acount in traditional, national literary histories. A large proportion of the eighty-eight ballads in Anne Krabbe's book deal with female culture and sexuality. Anne Krabbe's ballads have a Christian set of values as their framework and the Lutheran persuasion is part of her construction of place. Keywords: Anne Krabbe's ballad works; Danish Renaissance; female culture