Henrik Wergeland was a nationalistic poet and author who fought for the Norwegian language and culture. He wanted to promote the use of Norwegian in writing and speech and worked to revitalize and modernize the Norwegian language. Wergeland argued that Norwegian was a separate language and that having a literary language of its own was important for national self-esteem, as it could more authentically express Norwegian thoughts and feelings than Danish.
    
On the other hand, we had Peter Andreas Munch, a historian and philologist who was also involved in the language debate. Munch was more conservative and believed that the Norwegian language was too young and underdeveloped to function as a fully-fledged written language. He feared that a transition to Norwegian as a written language could lead to linguistic chaos and loss of understanding between the Nordic countries.

The conflict between Wergeland and Munch represented two opposing views on national identity and linguistic expression. Wergeland wanted to create a Norwegian cultural identity through language, while Munch argued for maintaining Danish as the official written language to preserve a degree of cultural and linguistic continuity.

In the long term, Wergeland's views gradually prevailed. The Norwegian language and national identity were strengthened through nation-building in the 19th century, and in 1885 it was decided that Norwegian should be the official written language in Norway. This period marks an important milestone in the development of the modern Norwegian language and nation.