1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pontoppidan, Erik

PONTOPPIDAN, ERIK (1698-1764), Danish author, was born at Aarhus on the 24th of August 1698. He studied divinity at the university of Copenhagen, and for some time acted as a travelling tutor. In 1735 he became one of the chaplains of the king. In 1738 he was made professor extraordinary of theology at Copenhagen, and in 1745 bishop of Bergen, Norway, where he died on the 20th of December 1764.

His principal works are: Theatrum Daniae veteris et modernae (4to, 1730), a description of the geography, natural history, antiquities, &c., of Denmark; Gesta et vestigia danorum extra Daniam (3 vols. 8vo, 1740), a laborious but uncritical work; Annales ecclesiae danicae (3 vols., 1741-1747); Marmora danica selectiora (2 vols. fol., 1739-1741); Glossarium norvegicum (1749); Det förste forsög Norges naturlige historie (4to, 1752-1754); Eng. trans., Natural History of Norway (2 vols., 1755), containing curious accounts, often referred to, of the Kraaken, sea-serpent, and the like; Origines hafnienses (1760); Menoza (3 vols., 1742-1743), a religious novel. His Danske Atlas (7 vols. 4to), an historical and topographical account of Denmark, was mostly posthumous.

See an article by S. M. Gjellerup in Danish Biografisk Lexikon (vol, xiii., 1899).