Table Of ContentThe London Research Series in Geography
Chairman: David Lowenthal (University College London)
Secretary: Philip Stott (School of Oriental and African Studies)
Institutions represented on the Editorial Committee: Bedford College, Birk-
bcck College, City of London Polytechnic, King's College London,
London School of Economics, Middlesex Polytechnic, North London
Polytechnic, Queen Mary College, School of Oriental and African
Studies, University College London.
Geography is a wide-ranging field of knowledge, embracing all aspects of
the relations between people and environments. This series makes avail-
able work of the highest quality by scholars who are, or have been,
associated with the various university and polytechnic departments of
geography in the London area.
One of geography's most salient characteristics is its close relationships
with virtually all the sciences, arts and humanities. Drawing strength from
other fields of knowledge, it also adds to their insights. This series high-
lights these linkages. Besides being a vehicle for advances within geo-
graphy itself, the series is designed to excite the attention of the wider
communiry of scholars and students. To this end, each volume is chosen,
assessed and edited by a committee drawn from alJ the London colleges
and the whole range of the discipline, human and physical.
Tiu land of France 1815-1914
Hugh Clout
2 Living tmder apartheid
David Smith (editor)
3 London's Grew Belt
Richard Muncon
4 Urban hospital location
Leslie Mayhew
5 Nature's ideological landscape
Kenneth Olwig
6 Optimal control of spatial systems
K. C. Tan and R. J. Benne tc
Geomorphological hazards in Los Angeles
R. U. Cooke
Land use and prehistory in south-east Spain
john Thornes and Antonio Gilman
©K.R.Olwig,1984
This book iscopynght underthe Berne Convenrion.
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First published in 1984
ISSN 026Hl485
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Olw1g, Kenneth Robert
Nature·s ideological land sea pc. - (London
research series m geography; 5)
l. Landscapepro1ccrion- Dcnmark-
Jutland-His1ory 2. Moors and heachs-
Dcnmark- Judand- His1ory
I. Title I I. Series
719'.09489'5 QH77.D4
Library ofC ongress Cataloging in Publication Data
Olwig, Kenneth Robert.
Na tu re's ideo Io gical landscape.
{The London research series in geography, ISSN 0261-0485 ;5)
Bibliography: p. 104
Includes index.
I. Landscape protection-Denmark-Jutland-History.
2. Reclarnationonand-Denmark- Jutland- History.
3. Land use-Denmark-Jurland-Plarming- History.
4. Moorsandhtaths-Dcnmark-Jutland. 5.Jutland
(Denmark)-History. I. Title. II. Series.
QH77.D4-048 1984 333.73'16'094895 84-2788
ISBN0-04-710002-8(pbk.)
Sec in I0/12poinr Dembo by In forum Ltd, Portsmouth
and printed in Great Brito in by Butler & Tanner Ltd, Fromeand London
5
Preface and acknowledgments
This study traces the common ideological roots ofrwo apparently contra-
dictory activities: environmental reclamation and nature preservation.
Taking its point of departure in the general context of European, British
and American historical experience, it focuses on the case of the reclama-
tion and preservation of the Jutland heaths of Denmark. This concrete
example provides a basis for a general critique ofE uropean and American
policy concerning the use of landscape. It is especially directed to the
ideological and practical contradictions between development and preser-
vation, particularly in underdeveloped regions, and the contradictions
between scientific, historic, aesthetic and recreational motivations for
preservation.
The basis for this book is an historical geographical study of the Jutland
heaths from c.1750 to the present, which focuses on the Danish perception
of the area as expressed both in literary art and in non-artistic sources such
as economic journals, topographies and government reports. The devel-
opment of the modern conception of nature, its ideological implications
and its consequences for planning is traced against this background. The
book might be termed "applied humanistic geography", because it com-
bines an analysis of art as a vehicle bearing and shaping ideas and attitudes
concerning nature and landscape with a study of the practical policy
making which transforms landscape and provides the parameters for its
development, thus providing an empirical reference for a critique of
modern landscape development and planning practice.
I would like to thank those who have commented at length on the
manuscript at different stages in its development: Denis Cosgrove for his
loyal, yet critical editorship; Clarence Glacken for his eye for the strengths
in a manuscript; David Lowenthal and Karen Fog Olwig for their con-
structive criticism; Yi-Fu Tuan for being an academic catalyse who is
always open to the ideas of others and never imposes his own.
I would then like to thank those who have read and discussed this or
earlier versions of the manuscript with me. They are: S0ren Baggesen,
Viggo Hansen, Orvar Lofgren, A. Karup Mogensen, Robert A. Olwig
and Hans Vejleskov.
This manuscript has undergone many changes en route to the publisher
and so I must take full responsibility for its deficiencies.
Finally, I would like to thank the Danish State Research Council and the
Danish Marshall Fund for helping to make my research possible.
The following have kindly granted permission to quote from published
works:
Vlll NATURE'S IDEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE
]. M. Dent & Sons, from Virgil, Eclogues and Georgics, T. F. Royds
(trans.).
American-Scandinavian Foundation, from Steen Stccnscn Blicher,
Twelve stories, Hanna Astrup Larsen (trans.).
lllustrations arc acknowledged individually.
Contents
Preface and acknowledgme11ts
Vll
List off igures
xi
Introduction
X.111
TheJ utland heath
XIV
The heath
xv
Notes
XIX
of
The morphology the ideological landscape 1
The classical concepcion ofn ature
1
Virgil :md nature's landscape
3
The nature oft he agricultural stage ofs ociety 6
Nature in time and space
9
Nature's ideological landscape 9
Notes
9
2 ThenatureojGothicjutland 11
Councer-gotbicism 17
Gothicism and regional development l 9
Notes 21
3 Nature as wilderness landscape: Ossian's and Blicher's heath 23
Second thoughts on Ossian 26
Natural science and wild landscape 31
Social and economic change and the taste for wilderness 34
Notes 38
4 The politics ofl andscape 40
Blicher and the perception of] utland 45
The national perception oft he heaths 49
Hans Christian Andersen and Meir Goldschmidt 51
The heath and the nation 54
Notes SS
5 The "heath cause" 57
Enrico Dalgas 57
Dalgas, Schouw, and the Heath Society's program 61
The promulgation ofrhe Heath Society program 64
Notes 79
x NATURE'S IDEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE
6 Divergent views oft he heath 84
Jcppe 84
The heath preservation cause 86
The "heath" today 90
The geography of the heath 91
Notes 93
7 Conclusion: nature's ideological landscape today 95
The ideology of modern reclamation 96
Nature as esthctic and recreative resource 99
International parallels 100
finjs 102
Nor es 103
Bibliography 104
Index 113
List off igures
0.1 Heathscape fromBa>.rentzens Danmark, 1855 page xv
0.2 The extent oft he Jutland heath about 1800
XVI
0.3 The extent oft he Jutland heath about 1950
XVll
2.1 An illustration from Justus Moser's Osnabri.ickische Geschichte,
1768, showing Gothic family life 14
2.2 A tree trunk found in a bog on the heath 16
3.1 Ossian, painted about 1785 by the Danish painter Nicolai
Abraham Abildgaard 25
3.2 The heath in an Ossian fog 27
3.3 A house on the Alheath, painted in 1912 by Hans Smidth 32
3.4 A road on the Alheath 33
4.1 A view from the Himmelbjerg on a foggy day 44
4.2 The frontispiece fromBlicher's early collection ofnational
romantic poetry, Bautastene, or "monobths", which
memoralized Danish heroes 47
4.3 A map ofJutland showing location of place names mentioned
in the next two chapters 50
5.1 A map fro1n Dallmark's geogrwstic conditions showing western
Jutland as an unbroken hardpan formation 60
5.2 "Sketch of the heaths in Jutland, 1866," fromDalgas (1866) 66
5.3 A map from Geographical pictures from the heath showing a
variegated terrain of flats and "hill islands" 69
5.4 A choropleth map by Dalgas (1844) showing the number of
place names indicating forested conditions per square mile 71
5.5 A choroplcch map by Dalgas (1884) showing the
number ofbarrows (an indication ofe arly human settlement)
per square mile 72
5.6 A plan for a farm garden by Dalgas (1875) 75
5.7 An 1883 map by Dalgas (1884) showing areas ofn ew
afforestation, brush, established forest, heath flats, hill
islands, and dunes 76
5.8 An afforested area on the Alheath 77
5.9 A present-day view from a barrow at Finderup in the snow 78
5.10 The garden and farm dwelling at Ole Vestergaardjcnsen's
farm, Drongstrup, Semder Felding 78
5.11 The 1894 Dalgas memorial 79
\NOSCAPE
x NATURE'S IDEOLC'
lvicmorial Park on
6 Divergent views oft he Jieatf'
ysgaard with verse
Jeppe Aakja:r
80
The heath preservation'
\caths 81
The "heath" today
81
The geography
a cover of
Notes
1g covered by
92
7 Conclusion: r
ucd stream
Theideolor
97
Nature as
by Gerda
-0 1
Intemax
99
Finis f
100
No• "/.,
.,.,. ....
a--
}
Introduction
It is common today to think of nature as wilderness landscape such as we
find in the Yellowstone or Yosemite national parks in the United States.
However, the term nature is also used in another sense which does not
appear to be related to landscape, namely to refer to what is natural as
opposed to what is unnatural. In this sense nature refers to human values
rather than to a material entity. The two senses of the word are related,
however. Historically, this relationship is best understood by examining
the transformation which the word nature has undergone since classical
times, from a normative conception of what the process of social and
environmental development ought to be to a positive conception of a
landscape type. 1 Initially it is difficult tO see what the two ends of this
historical transformation have to do with one another. How is nature as
wilderness landscape - something which we protect from development-
related to nature conceived as a cosmological principle of development?
One thing which the classical and modern conceptions ofn ature have in
common is their ideological importance. The classical conception entailed
normative values concerning the process of development through stages
ofi ncreased reciprocity between people in society and between society and
its environment. Its ideological import lay in its expressing the character-
istic assumptions of classical thinkers about the origins and future of their
world. When we use nature to refer to wilderness landscape the connection
between nature and ideology is less obvious, but in fact nature as landscape
is strongly identified with norms and values in our society. The preserva-
tionist Edward Abbey, for example, places wilderness parks in the same
category as other monumental symbols of society's values:
We have agreed not to drive our automobiles into cathedrals, concert
halls, art museums, legislative assemblies, private bedrooms, or other
sanctums of our culture. We should treat our National Parks with the
same deference . 2
In fact, nature often is treated with the same deference as other sanctums of
culture. Human artifacts and natural features are thus protected under the
same legislation as "national monuments" in the United States and as
"nature" in Denmark. But whereas existing religious practices and politi-
cal institutions are directly linked with the values identified, for example,
with cathedrals and legislative assemblies, the precise values associated
with nature's landscape are less apparent. This does not necessarily mean
xiv
INTRODUCTION
that such landscape has no social impact. Indeed the life and economy of
the peripheral regions, where such wilderness is commonly found, can be
substantially affected by the actions aimed at preserving them.
This book examines the relationship between nature's landscape and
ideology, and the impact of an ideology of nature on regional
development. It seeks to do this through hist0rical examination of changes
in Western concepts of nature and their relationship with the use of
environment. The study ofliterature and art plays an important role in this
analysis because the concept of nature is intricately bound up with other
cultural values, particularly our notion of the beautiful. The focus of the
study is the historical geography of a particular region. Grand abstractions
like Western society or the concept of nature are focused and sharpened
when they are seen in the light of actual societies with real landscapes and a
real body of arc and literature.
The Jutland heath
The heathlands ofDanishJutland are used here as a case study to elucidate
the relationship between changes in our concept and our use of nature. A
number of reasons make this a suitably representative area upon which
to concentrate. The Jutland heaths are noteworthy for the intensity of
developmem which they have experienced and the relationship between
that developmem and national ideology. They are, perhaps paradoxically,
noteworthy too for the intensity of the movement of their preservation.
Jutland can be regarded as a model both of regional development and
nature preservation. More generally, heathlands are significant as land-
scape because they have provided a landscape type of great attraction for
European interest in nature. 3 They characterize many peripheral regions of
Europe, for example highland Scotland and parts oflreland. Conclusions
drawn from the Jutland study will therefore be pertinent to other such
areas. Moreover, Denmark provides a manageable microcosm of Euro-
pean society, drawing influence from both the continent and the British
Isles. With a small population and limited political influence Denmark has
been culturally and economically involved with the outside world to a
degree which larger, more self-sufficient, societies have not. Conse-
quently", the story of the Danish heaths must continuously refer to ideas
and developments occurring elsewhere in European and, by extension,
American culture.
The study of literary texts provides a tool for elucidating the ideas and
values attached to wilderness landscape and nature. This extends beyond
the .literature directly identified with Jutland to the wider European heri-
tage in which the local literary tradition is embedded. Further, literature is
not merely illustrative; it provides a point of departure in that much of the
changing meaning of nature is explored and articulated in imaginative
