The Rector of Veilbye

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The Rector of Veilbye (Danish: Præsten i Vejlbye) is a crime mystery written in 1829 by the Danish author Steen Steensen Blicher. The novella is based upon a true murder case from 1626 in the village of Vejlby near Grenå, Denmark, which Blicher knew partly from Erik Pontoppidan's Danish Church History (1741), and partly through oral tradition.^[1] Blicher's tragic tale has been adapted for the screen three times by Danish filmmakers.

In 2006, The Rector of Veilbye was included in the Cultural Canon of Denmark by the Danish Ministry of Culture. The ministry noted that "the style illuminates elegiac pain and discomfort in an eerily intense drama, and the story is difficult to shake off."^[2] Danish literary historian Søren Baggesen stated "Blicher is not just the first of Danish literature's great storytellers, he is one of the few tragic poets Danish literature has ever had."^[3]