The Danish Royal Court has announced the creation of a new poetry prize in memory of the late Prince Henrik, husband to Queen Margrethe.
The prize will be handed out to one winner each year and will consist of a statue based on a design by Prince Henrik and 300000 danish Crowns (equivalent to 403000 euros or 43813 US dollars), making it the highest paying literature prize in Denmark.
The first prize will be presented on 11 June, on what would have been Prince Henrik’s 87th birthday, by Her Majesty the Queen.
The prize was instituted to commemorate the Prince, who, throughout his life, has carried out various artistic projects, including the publication of several poetry collections between 1982 and 2014.
Another one of the Prince’s interests was sculpture, and several of his works are still present on the grounds of various royal residences scattered around Denmark, including Marselisborg and Fredensborg Palaces.
The poetry in the contest will be centred around “Fabeldyr,” or fantastical creatures, of which the late Prince devised many in his works.
Prince Henrik was born Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat in 1934 in France. He met Queen Margrethe in London while he was stationed at the French Embassy in the UK as Secretary, and she was attending the London School of Economics.
The pair secretly dated for one year before Henri proposed. They seem to have hit it off also based on a common love for the arts, including sculpture, painting, and literature.
Queen Margrethe is a keen artist herself, with her work having been featured both in independent exhibitions at royal palaces and also in different productions of ballets and theatre, as well as being the costume designer for a Danish Netflix show.
