Abraham Viktor Rydberg

Rydberg, Abraham Viktor (ä'brähäm vĭk'tôr rüd'bĕryə), 1828-95, Swedish philosopher and writer. Singoalla (1857), a romantic and mystical story of medieval times, was his first major work. His polemical novel The Last Athenian (1859, tr. 1869) contrasted Hellenic tolerance and humanism with Christian dogmatism and bigotry. In The Teaching of the Bible about Christ (1862), he opposed fundamentalist Christian views. Rydberg's verse is distinguished for its majestic lyricism and for its sense of the mystery of human existence.