Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig (; 8 September 1783 – 2 September 1872), most often referred to as N. F. S. Grundtvig, was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher and politician. He was one of the most influential people in Danish history, as his philosophy gave rise to a new form of nationalism in the last half of the 19th century. It was steeped in the national literature and supported by deep spirituality. Grundtvig holds a unique position in the

cultural history Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...

of his country. Grundtvig and his followers are credited with being very influential in the formulation of modern Danish national consciousness. He was active during the

Danish Golden Age The Danish Golden Age ( da, Den danske guldalder) covers a period of exceptional creative production in Denmark, especially during the first half of the 19th century.Kulturnet DanmarkGuide to the Danish Golden Age Although Copenhagen had suffered ...

, but his style of writing and fields of reference are not immediately accessible to a foreigner, thus his international importance does not match that of his contemporaries Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard.

Early life and education

Called Frederik rather than Nikolaj by those close to him. N. F. S. Grundtvig was the son of a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

pastor in Udby, Johan Ottosen Grundtvig (1734–1813) and was born there. 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 also influenced by German

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

and the ancient history of the Nordic countries. In 1791 he was sent to Thyregod in Sydjylland to live and study with pastor Laurids Svindt Feld (1750–1803). He subsequently studied at the Aarhus Katedralskole, the

cathedral school Cathedral schools began in the Early Middle Ages as centers of advanced education, some of them ultimately evolving into medieval universities. Throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, they were complemented by the monastic schools. Some of these ...

of Aarhus, from 1798 until graduation. He left for

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in 1800 to study theology and was accepted to the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public research university in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia after Uppsala Unive ...

in 1801. At the close of his university life, Grundtvig began to study Icelandic and the

Icelandic Sagas The sagas of Icelanders ( is, Íslendingasögur, ), also known as family sagas, are one genre of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early el ...

Career

In 1805, Grundtvig took a position as tutor in a house on the island of

Langeland Langeland (, ) is a Danish island located between the Great Belt and Bay of Kiel. The island measures 285 km2 (c. 110 square miles) and, as of 1 January 2018, has a population of 12,446.

. The next three years he used his free time to study writers

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, Schiller, and

Fichte Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Ka ...

. In 1802, his cousin, the philosopher

Henrich Steffens Henrik Steffens (2 May 1773 – 13 February 1845), was a Norwegian philosopher, scientist, and poet. Early life, education, and lectures He was born at Stavanger. At the age of fourteen he went with his parents to Copenhagen, where he studied ...

, returned to

full of the teaching of

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (; 27 January 1775 – 20 August 1854), later (after 1812) von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him ...

. His lectures and the early poetry of Adam Oehlenschläger opened Grundtvig's eyes to the new era in literature. His first work, ''On the Songs in the Edda'', attracted no attention. Returning to Copenhagen in 1808, Grundtvig achieved greater success with his ''Northern Mythology'', and again in 1809 with a long drama, ''The Fall of the Heroic Life in the North''. Grundtvig boldly denounced the clergy of the city in his first sermon in 1810. When Grundtvig published the sermon three weeks later it offended the ecclesiastical authorities, and they demanded him punished. In 1810, Grundtvig underwent a religious crisis and converted to a strongly held

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

. He retired to his father's country parish in Udby as his chaplain. His new-found conviction was expressed in his ''The First World Chronicle'' () of 1812, a presentation of European history in which he attempted to explain how belief in God has been viewed throughout human history and in which he criticized the ideology of many prominent Danes. It won him notoriety among his peers and cost him several friends, notably the historian

Christian Molbech Christian Molbech (8 October 1783 – 23 June 1857) was a Danish historian, literary critic, writer, and theater director. He was a professor of literature at the University of Copenhagen and was the founding editor of ''Historisk Tidsskrift ...

. Upon his father's death in 1813, Grundtvig applied to be his successor in the parish but was rejected. In the following years his rate of publication was staggering: aside from a continuing stream of articles and poems, he wrote 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 commentary, ''Roskilde Saga''. From 1816 to 1819 he was editor of and almost sole contributor to a philosophical and polemical journal entitled ''Danne-Virke'', which also published poetry. From 1813 to 1815, he attempted to form a movement to support the

Norwegians Norwegians ( no, nordmenn) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nation native to Norway, where they form the vast majority of the population. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegians are descended from the N ...

against the Swedish government. Later he preached on how the weakness of the Danish faith was the cause of the loss of

Norway in 1814 In 1814, the Kingdom of Norway made a brief and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to regain its independence. While Norway had always legally been a separate kingdom, since the 16th century it had shared a monarch with Denmark; Norway was a subo ...

. His sermon was met by an enthusiastic congregation in Copenhagen. Grundtvig withdrew from the pulpit because he did not have a parish of his own and was being barred by other churches. In 1821, he resumed preaching briefly when granted the country living of

Præstø Præstø () is a town with a population of 3,857 (1 January 2022) in Vordingborg Municipality in Region Sjælland on the east coast of the island of Zealand (''Sjælland''). The islands of '' Maderne'', ''Storeholm'', and ''Lilleholm'' are part ...

, and returned to the capital the year after. GrundtvigByHansen

In 1825, Grundtvig published a pamphlet, ''The Church's Rejoinder'' (), a response to Henrik Nicolai Clausen's work on the doctrines, rites, and constitutions of

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

and Roman Catholicism. A professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen, Clausen argued that although the Bible was the principal foundation of Christianity, it was in itself an inadequate expression of its full meaning. He described the church as a "community for the purpose of advancing general religiousness". In his reply, Grundtvig denounced Clausen as an anti-Christian teacher and argued that Christianity was not a theory to be derived from the Holy Bible and elaborated by scholars. He questioned the right of theologians to interpret the Bible. Grundtvig was publicly prosecuted for libel and fined. The

Church of Denmark The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark or National Church, sometimes called the Church of Denmark ( da, Folkekirken, literally: "The People's Church" or unofficially da, Den danske folkekirke, literally: "The Danish People's Church"; kl, ...

forbade him to preach for seven years. During this time he published a collection of theological works, visited

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

three times (1829–31), and studied Anglo-Saxon. In 1832, Grundtvig obtained permission to again enter active ministry. In 1839, he was called as pastor of the workhouse church of Vartov hospital in Copenhagen, a post he held 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 " The Phoenix", with a Danish translation. In 1843 he visited England for a fourth time. From 1844 until after the

First Schleswig War The First Schleswig War (german: Schleswig-Holsteinischer Krieg) was a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question, contesting the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswi ...

, Grundtvig took a prominent part in politics, developing from a conservative into an absolute liberal. In 1848 he was part of the Danish Constituent Assembly that wrote the first

constitution of Denmark The Constitutional Act of the Realm of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Riges Grundlov), also known as the Constitutional Act of the Kingdom of Denmark, or simply the Constitution ( da, Grundloven, fo, Grundlógin, kl, Tunngaviusumik inatsit), is the c ...

. In 1861 he received the titular rank of Bishop in the

, but without a see. He continued to write and publish until his death. He spoke from the pulpit at Vartov Church 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

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hy ...

s of the national poets for the slow measures of the

orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

s. In all Grundtvig wrote or translated about 1500 hymns, including " God's Word Is Our Great Heritage" and " Det kimer nu til julefest".

Christian thinking

Grundtvig's theological development continued over his lifetime, and took a number of important turns. He moved from his "Christian awakening" of 1810 to believing in a congregational and sacramental Christianity in later years. He was most notable for the latter thinking. He always called himself a pastor, not a theologian, reflecting the distance between his ideas and academic theology. The chief characteristic of his

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

was the substitution of the authority of the "living word" for the apostolic commentaries. He desired to see each congregation act as a practically independent community. Eventhough he was a staunch Christian, Grundtvig's obsession with the pre-Christian Scandinavian faith lasted throughout his life. At the time this faith had no official name, but were merely known as "Forn Siðr" - "the old customs". Therefore as part of his studies and works on this old faith, he coined the name "Asatro" or "Asetro", a name which holds a double meaning. The meaning can either be interpretated as "the Aesir faith" or "loyal to the Aesir".

Thought on education

Grundtvig is the ideological father of the

folk high school Folk high schools (also ''Adult Education Center'', Danish: ''Folkehøjskole;'' Dutch: ''Volkshogeschool;'' Finnish: ''kansanopisto'' and ''työväenopisto'' or ''kansalaisopisto;'' German: ''Volkshochschule'' and (a few) ''Heimvolkshochschule;' ...

, though his own ideas on education had another focus. He advocated reforming the ailing

Sorø Academy Sorø Academy ( Danish, ''Sorø Akademi'') is a boarding school and gymnasium located in the small town of Sorø, Denmark. It traces its history back to the 12th century when Bishop Absalon founded a monastery at the site, which was confiscated b ...

into a popular school aiming at another form of higher education than what was common at the university. Rather than educating learned scholars, he believed the university should 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 King Christian VIII, whose wife Caroline Amalie was an ardent supporter of Grundtvig. 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. However, by that time, one of Grundtvig's supporters, Kristen Kold, had already established the first folk high school. Grundtvig's ambitions for school reform were not limited to the popular folk high school. He also dreamed of forming a Great Nordic University (the School for Passion) to be situated at the symbolic point of intersection between the three Scandinavian countries in Gothenburg, Sweden. The two pillars of his school program, the School for Life (folk high school) and the School for Passion (university) were aimed at quite different horizons of life. The popular education should mainly be taught within a national and patriotic horizon of understanding, yet always keeping an open mind towards a broader cultural and intercultural outlook, while the university should work from a strictly universal, i.e. humane and scientific, outlook. The common denominator of all Grundtvig's

pedagogical Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

efforts was to promote a spirit of freedom, poetry and disciplined creativity, within all branches of educational life. He promoted values such as wisdom, compassion, identification and equality. He opposed all compulsion, including exams, as deadening to the human soul. Instead Grundtvig advocated unleashing human creativity according to the universally creative order of life. Only ''willing hands make light work''. Therefore, a spirit of freedom, cooperation and discovery was to be kindled in individuals, in science, and in the civil society as a whole.

Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon literature

In 1815,

Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin Grímur Jónsson Thorkelín (8 October 1752 – 4 March 1829) was an Icelandic–Danish-Norwegian scholar, who became the National Archivist of Norway and Denmark and Professor of Antiquities at Østfold University College. In 1786 he travelled to ...

published the first edition of the titled in a Latin translation. Despite his lack of knowledge of

Anglo-Saxon literature Old English literature refers to poetry and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. The 7th-century work '' Cædmo ...

, Grundtvig quickly discovered a number of flaws in Thorkelin's rendering of the poems. After his heated debate with Thorkelin, Johan Bülow (1751–1828), who had sponsored Thorkelin's work, offered to support a new translation by Grundtvig — this time into Danish. The result, Bjovulfs Drape (1820), was the first full translation of Beowulf into a modern language ( previously, only selections of the poem had been translated into modern English by Sharon Turner in 1805). Grundtvig went on to explore the extensive literature of the Anglo-Saxons which survived in Old English and Latin. In both poetry and prose, it revealed the spirituality of the early Church in Northern Europe. Grundtvig was very influenced by these ancient models of Christian and historical thought (notably the 8th-century Bede's ''

Ecclesiastical History __NOTOC__ Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritua ...

'', written in Latin). Using the resources of the Royal Library in Copenhagen and of the libraries at the universities of Exeter,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

in three successive summer visits to England (1829–1831), he went on to make transcriptions of two of the four great codices of Anglo-Saxon poetry: the ''

Exeter Book The Exeter Book, also known as the Codex Exoniensis or Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501, is a large codex of Old English poetry, believed to have been produced in the late tenth century AD. It is one of the four major manuscripts of Old Englis ...

'' and the codex designated '' Junius 11'' in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Although he thought to publish them, the project was never realized. ''Beowulf'' and Anglo-Saxon literature continued to be a major source of inspiration to Grundtvig. It had a wide-ranging influence upon his work.

Marriage and family

Grundtvig was married three times, the last time in his 76th year. His first wife, Elisabeth Blicher (1787–1851), was a clergyman's daughter. They were married in 1818 and had three children. His second wife, Marie Toft (1813–1854) was the daughter of a landowner. She died a few months after giving birth to a son. In 1858, he married Asta Reedtz (1826–1890) of an old aristocratic Danish family. His son Svend Grundtvig (1824–1883) collected and edited Danish ballads.

Legacy

* Grundtvig's Church in the Copenhagen district of

Bispebjerg Bispebjerg, more commonly referred to as Nordvest (English: North-West), is one of the 10 official districts of Copenhagen, Denmark. Located on the northern border of the municipality, it covers an area of 5.39 km² and a population of 40,033 ...

was designed by Danish architect

Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint (21 June 1853 – 1 December 1930) was a Danish architect, designer, painter and architectural theorist, best known for designing Grundtvig's Church in Copenhagen, generally considered to be one of the most importan ...

as a memorial to Grundtvig. Built of yellow brick in a Neo-Gothic expressionist style, it was completed in 1940. * Grundtvig International Secondary School in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

is also named after him, It is an independent co-educational secondary School. * His hymn '' De Levendes Land'' was chosen in 2006 as an item in the ''Lyrikantologi'' which forms part of the Literature section of the

Danish Culture Canon The Danish Culture Canon ( da, Kulturkanonen) consists of 108 works of cultural excellence in eight categories: architecture, visual arts, design and crafts, film, literature, music, performing arts, and children's culture. An initiative of Brian ...

. * Grundtvigian Forum is located at Vartov in central Copenhagen. Founded during 1898, it is a religious movement with a background in Grundtvigianism.

Veneration

Grundtvig is commemorated on 2 September as a renewer of the church in the

Calendar of Saints The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Bibliography

Editions

No comprehensive foreign language edition of his work exists. A three-volume edition in German, however, is under preparation and projects for an English edition are in progress as well. Grundtvig's secular poetical works were published in a nine-volume edition, the first seven volumes by his second son, the philologist Svend Grundtvig. The philological practice 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 the ten-volume edition ''Grundtvigs udvalgte Skrifter'' edited by Holger Begtrup (1859–1937). His enormous oeuvre is presented in Steen Johansen: ''Bibliografi over N.F.S. Grundtvigs Skrifter'' (I-IV, 1948–54). The most important editions are: * ''Grundtvigs Sang-Værk'' 1–6. Magnus Stevns (and others, editors). Copenhagen: Det danske Forlag. 1948–64. * ''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. 1904–09. * ''Værker i Udvalg'' 1–10. Hal Koch and Georg Christensen (editors). Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 1940–46.

English translations

* N.F.S. Grundtvig - A Life Recalled. An Anthology of Biographical Source-Texts.Edited and translated by S.A.J. Bradley. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. 2008. * The School for Life. N.F.S. Grundtvig on Education for the People. Translated by Edward Broadbridge. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. 2011. * Living Wellsprings. The Hymns, songs and Poems of N.F.S. Grundtvig. Translated by Edward Broadbridge. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. 2015. * Human Comes First. The Christian Theology of N.F.S. Grundtvig. Translated by. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. 2018. * The Common Good. N.F.S. Grundtvig as Politician and Contemporary Historian. Translated by Edward Broadbridge. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. 2019

Bibliography

* . * . * . * .

References

External links

Grundtvigsk Forum

Grundtvig-Akademiet

Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig

National-Louis University National Louis University (NLU) is a private university with its main campus in Chicago, Illinois. NLU enrolls undergraduate and graduate students in more than 60 programs across its four colleges. It has locations throughout the Chicago metropo ...

Center for Grundtvigforskning

EU programme for adult education
Bishop Grundtvig and the people's high school in Denmark (1912)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grundtvig, N. F. S. 1783 births 1872 deaths People from Vordingborg Municipality Folk high schools 19th-century Danish historians Danish Lutherans Danish nationalists Danish philosophers Danish male poets Danish Lutheran theologians 19th-century Protestant theologians Danish Lutheran hymnwriters University of Copenhagen alumni Members of the Constituent Assembly of Denmark Members of the Folketing Members of the Landsting (Denmark) Translators from Old English 19th-century Danish poets 19th-century male writers 19th-century translators 19th-century Lutherans

Early life and education

Career

Christian thinking

Thought on education

Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon literature

Marriage and family

Legacy

Veneration

Bibliography

Editions

English translations

Bibliography

References

Further reading

In English

In other languages

External links