Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig
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Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig (September 8, 1783, Udby, Sjælland – September 2, 1872, Copenhagen), most often referred to as simply N.F.S. Grundtvig, was a Danish teacher, writer, poet, philosopher, historian, pastor, and even politician. He is one of the most influential people in Danish history, his philosophy giving rise to a new form of non-aggressive nationalism in Denmark in the last half of the 19th century. He was married three times, the last time in his seventy-sixth year.
Grundtvig and his followers, Grundtvigians, are credited with being very influential in the formulation of modern Danish national consciousness. Their attitude is well illustrated in the very different reaction of Danes to their national defeat in 1864 against Prussia versus the national trauma of German defeat in World War I.
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[edit] Biography
Called "Frederik" by those close to him, N.F.S. Grundtvig was the son of a Lutheran pastor. He was brought up in a very religious atmosphere, although his mother also had great respect for old Norse legends and traditions. He was schooled in the tradition of the European Enlightenment, but his faith in reason was shaken by German romanticism and the history of the Nordic countries. From an early age Grundtvig was concerned by the poor situation Danish peasants found themselves in.
In 1791 he was sent to live at the house of a pastor in Jutland, Laurids Feld, and studied at the free school of Aarhus until he went up to the University of Copenhagen in 1800. At the close of his university life he made Icelandic his special study, until in 1805 he took the position of tutor in a house on the island of Langeland. The next three years were spent in the study of Shakespeare, Schiller, Schelling and Fichte. His cousin, the philosopher Henrich Steffens, had returned to Copenhagen in 1802 full of the teaching of Schelling and his lectures and the early poetry of Oehlenschläger opened the eyes of Grundtvig to the new era in literature. His first work, On the Songs in the Edda, attracted no attention.
Returning to Copenhagen in 1808 he achieved greater success with his Northern Mythology, and again in 1809 with a long reading drama, The Fall of the Heroic Life in the North. The boldness of the ecclesiastical views expressed in his first sermon in 1810 offended the ecclesiastical authorities, and he was forced to apologize.
In 1810 a violent religious crisis converted him into a strongly held Lutheranism and he retired to his father's country parish in Udby as his chaplain. His new found conviction was expressed in his first history of the world Kort Begreb af Verdens Krønike i Sammenhæng (1812) which won him notoriety among his peers and lost him several friends, notably the historian Christian Molbech. Upon his Father's death in 1813 he applied to be his successor but was rejected. In the following years his rate of publication is staggering: aside from a continuing stream of articles and poems, a number of books including two more histories of the world (1814 and 1817), the long, historical poem Roskilde-Riim (Rhyme of Roskilde) (1813) and a book sized attempt at writing a commentary to it, Roskilde Saga. From 1816 to 1819 he was editor of and almost sole contributor to a phiosophical, poetical and polemical journal entitled Danne-Virke.
From 1813 to 1815 he was preaching against rationalism to an enthusiastic congregation in Copenhagen, but without his own parish, and as more and more churches barred him from preaching, he withdrew from the pulpit, and only resumed his preaching upon being granted in 1821 the country living of Præstø, only to return to the metropolis the year after. In 1825 he published a pamphlet, The Church's Reply, against HN Clausen, who was professor of theology in the university of Copenhagen. Grundtvig was publicly prosecuted and fined, and for seven years he was forbidden to preach, years which he spent in publishing a collection of his theological works, in paying two visits to England, and in studying Anglo-Saxon.
In 1832 he obtained permission to preach again, and in 1839 he became pastor of the workhouse church of Vartov hospital, Copenhagen, a post he continued to hold until his death. Between 1837 and 1841 he published Sang-Værk til den Danske Kirke (Song Work for the Danish Church), a rich collection of sacred poetry; in 1838 he brought out a selection of early Scandinavian verse; in 1840 he edited the Anglo-Saxon poem of The Phoenix, with a Danish translation. He visited England a third time in 1843.
From 1844 until after the first German war Grundtvig took a very prominent part in politics, developing from a conservative into an absolute liberal position. In 1861 he received the titular rank of bishop, but without a see. He went on writing till his death, and preached in Vartov every Sunday until a few days before his death. His preaching attracted large congregations, and he soon had a following. His hymn-book effected a great change in Danish church services, substituting the hymns of the national poets for the slow measures of the orthodox Lutherans. All in all Grundtvig ended up writing and translating about 1500 hymns.
[edit] Christian thinking
Grundtvigs theological development is long and takes a number of important turns throughout his life from the initial "Christian Awakening" of 1810 to the congregational and sacramental christianity of his later years. He is usually identified with and most famous for the latter. He always calls himself a pastor, not a theologian, reflecting the distance between him and the academic theology. The chief characteristic of his theology, was the substitution of the authority of the "living word" for the apostolic commentaries, and he desired to see each congregation a practically independent community.
[edit] Thinking on education
Grundtvig is the ideological father of the Folk High School though his own ideas on education had another focus. He advocated reforming the ailing Sorø Academy into a popular school aiming at another form of higher education than what was common at the university. Rather than educating learned scholars it was to educate its students for active participation in society and popular life. Thus practical skills as well as national poetry and history should form an essential part of the instruction. This idea came very close to implementation during the reign of Christian VIII, whose wife Caroline Amalie was an ardent supporter of Grundtvig, but the death of the monarch in 1848 and the dramatic political development in Denmark during this and the following years put an end to these plans. At that time, however, the first Folk High School had already been established by one of his followers, Kristen Kold.
[edit] Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon literature
In 1815 Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin published the first edition ever of the Epic of Beowulf titled De Danorum rebus gestis secul. III & IV : Poëma Danicum dialecto Anglosaxonica with a latin translation. Despite his lack of any prior knowledge of Anglo-Saxon literature Grundtvig quickly discovered a number of flaws in Thorkelin's rendering of the poems. After a heated debate with Thorkelin, Johan Bülow, who had sponsored Thorkelin's work, offered to support a renewed translation by Grundtvig this time into Danish. The result, Bjovulfs Drape (1820), was the first modern language translation of Beowulf ever. Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon literature continued to be a major source of inspiration throughout Grundtvig's life and has a wide ranging influence in his work.
[edit] Position
Grundtvig holds a unique position in the cultural history of his country; he has been styled the Danish Carlyle and he might also be compared to Emerson. But his style of writing and fields of reference are not immediately accessible to a foreigner, thus his international importance does not match his contemporaries Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Editions
Grundtvig's secular poetical works were published in a nine volume edition. The first seven volumes by his second son, the philologist Svend Hersleb Grundtvig. The philological practise of this work, however, is not up to the standards of modern philology. His hymns have been collected in the philologically more stable five volume edition Grundtvigs Sang-Værk. The best overall collection of his writings is Holger Begtrup's 10 volume edition Udvalgte Skrifter. His enormous oeuvre is presented in Steen Johansen: Bibliografi over N.F.S. Grundtvigs Skrifter .
No comprehensive foreign language edition of his work exists. A three volume edition in German, however, is under preparation and projects aiming at an English edition are in progress as well.
The most important editions are:
- Grundtvigs Sang-Værk 1-6. Magnus Stevns (and others, editors). Copenhagen: Det danske Forlag. 1948-1964.
- Poetiske Skrifter 1-9. Udgivet af Svend Grundtvig (and others, editors). Copenhagen: Karl Schönberg og Hyldendal. 1880-1930.
- Udvalgte Skrifter 1-10. Holger Begtrup (editor). Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 1904-1909.
- Værker i Udvalg 1-10. Hal Koch and Georg Christensen (editors). Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 1940-1946.
[edit] Bibliography
- Steen Johansen: Bibliografi over N.F.S. Grundtvigs Skrifter 1-4. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 1948-1954.
[edit] Books on Grundtvig
[edit] In English
- A.M. Allchin: N.F.S. Grundtvig. An Introduction to his Life and Work. 1998. London: Darton, Longman and Todd. ISBN 8772886560. The single most important work on Grundtvig in English.
- A.M. Allchin, ed. Heritage and Prophecy: Grundtvig and the English-Speaking World. ISBN 185311085X
- Source-Texts for a Life of NFS Grundtvig: Grundtvig's Memoirs and Memoirs of Grundtvig, edited by S.A.J. Bradley. ISBN 8772889691.
Important, too, are the numerous articles in English published in the yearbook Grundtvig-Studier (Grundtvig Studies) from 1948 and onwards. Danish is the main language of the journal, but the English articles are prominent and increasing in recent years.
[edit] In other languages
The most important works on Grundtvig are a series of dissertations published since the founding of Grundtvig-selskabet (The Grundtvig Society). All of them contain summaries in major languages, most of them in English. This series includes:
- Henning Høirup: Grundtvigs Syn på Tro og Erkendelse. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 1949.
- Helge Toldberg: Grundtvigs symbolverden. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 1950.
- William Michelsen: Tilblivelsen af Grundtvigs Historiesyn. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 1954.
- Sigurd Aa. Aarnes: Historieskrivning og livssyn hos Grundtvig. Oslo: Universitetforlaget. 1960.
- Kaj Thaning: Menneske først - Grundtvigs opgør med sig selv. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 1963.
- Knud Eyvin Bugge: Skolen for livet. Copenhagen: GAD. 1965.
- Flemming Lundgreen-Nielsen: Det handlende ord. Copenhagen: GAD. 1980.
- Helge Grell: Skaberånd og folkeånd. Copenhagen: Grundtvig-Selskabet. 1980. and Skaberordet og billedordet. Aarhus: Anis. 1987.
- Bent Christensen: Omkring Grundtvigs Vidskab. Copenhagen: GAD. 1998.
- Ole Vind: Grundtvigs historiefilosofi. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 1999.
- Sune Auken: Sagas spejl. Mytologi, historie og kristendom hos N.F.S. Grundtvig. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 2005
- Synnøve Sakura Heggem: Kjærlighetens makt, maskerade og mosaikk. En lesning av N.F.S.Grundtvigs "Sang-Værk til den Danske Kirke".Oslo 2005
