Martin Andersen Nexø Museum

Does Pelle the Conqueror ring a bell? It’s the Danish film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1989. The story is set on the island of Bornholm, and the author of the original novel grew up here.

Arguably Bornholm’s most famous historical literary export, Martin Andersen Nexø adopted the name of the town his family lived in–Nexø–as his own. Born in Copenhagen in 1869, he came from an extremely poor working-class background, and his early experiences of poverty and labour shaped both his politics and writing.

He wrote the four-volume novel Pelle the Conqueror between 1906 and 1910. It follows Pelle Karlsson, who emigrates from Sweden to Denmark at age eight in search of a better life, and eventually becomes a leader in the country's labour movement.

Knowing who Martin Andersen Nexø is is something every Dane is expected to know. In fact, one recent Danish citizenship test even asked: “Who wrote the novels Pelle the Conqueror and Ditte, Child of Man, at the start of the 1900s?”

His childhood home, where he lived from around age 13 to 15, is now a museum. Though small, it’s hugely informative and marks the start of a signposted literary walk through the surrounding landscape.