one of the most widely read Danish authors of his day.

Hansen first was a farm worker and then became a teacher in the 1930s. From two early novels of social consciousness, Nu opgiver han (1935; “Now He Gives Up”) and Kolonien (1937; “The Colony”), he went on to write a tale of extravagant imagery, Jonatans rejse (1941; “Jonathan's Journey”), and a historical novel, Lykkelige Kristoffer (1945; Lucky Kristoffer, 1974). After World War II he turned to the psychological novel with Løgneren (1950; The Liar), and finally to an attempt to arrive at the metaphysical through use of reason, a kind of supra-rationalism, in Orm og tyr (1952; “Serpent and Bull”). A somewhat conservative strain, a preoccupation with myth, and an awareness of the roots of culture are found in all his works.