Novel
Niels Klim's Journey Under the Ground
Nicolai Klimii iter subterraneum
Ludvig Holberg · 1741
Synopsis
Back in Bergen in 1664, a graduate of Copenhagen but without money, Niels Klim goes down to explore a cave in the mountain; the rope breaks, he falls and finds himself floating in an inner sky, around a small planet, Nazar. He ends up in the kingdom of Potu, whose inhabitants are trees that think and regard slowness as a virtue. Judged too lively for serious posts, he becomes a courier of the court, his legs being swift, travels across the planet, then proposes removing women from public office: he is banished to the inner vault of the Earth, populated by monkeys.
Context
The novel appeared in Latin and without the author's name in 1741, from Jacob Preuss, in Copenhagen and Leipzig, presented as a manuscript taken from the library of a certain Abelin; the author had had it printed abroad for fear of religious objections, since the story mocks justice, theological quarrels and the lot made of women. Éléazar de Mauvillon's French translation came out the same year from the same publisher, the Danish and English versions in 1742, then came the German, Swedish, Dutch, Russian and Hungarian. In 1789 appeared Jens Baggesen's Danish version, with plates drawn by Nicolai Abildgaard and Jens Juel and engraved by Johan Frederik Clemens.
Who it is for
About two hundred and fifty pages in French, in a clear prose that requires no knowledge of Denmark. Potu is Utop read backwards.
Prizes and reception
One of the first fictions to use the hollow earth proposed by Edmond Halley in 1692; its success earned it the nickname of the Danish Gulliver.
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