Strandbakken ved Egeløkke og havet

Resumé

“Strandbakken ved Egeløkke” and “Havet”. ( “The Hillock by the Strand of Egeløkke” and “The Sea”.) Studies in textual criticism of two poems written in Grundtvig’s youth By Gustav Albeck.

In “Gads danske Magasin” ,, 1948, Dr. Frederik Nielsen gave an account of the existing manuscript material for Grundtvigs famous poem, “ Strandbakken ved Egeløkke” , which was printed for the first time in “ Saga” , the volume of poems published by Grundtvig for the New Year of 1812 (it appeared on Dec. 23rd, 1811).

Dr. Nielsen has divided the three existing Mss. into two groups: A1 (the oldest draft) and A2 (a slightly revised version of A l) — and B, which radically alters the poem and makes it a completely new poem, the first 17 lines of which, depicting the view from the hillock by the strand of Egeløkke, later came to form the beginning of the completed poem in “ Saga” . The remainder of the B text can be traced in the poem “Havet” in ” Saga“ , a poem, which, in contrast to the A and B texts, is characterised by a strongly Christian and moral message. Dr. Nielsen assumes that “Havet” in its final form came into existence before the printed version of “ Strandbakken ved Egeløkke” took shape, and that “Havet” thus reveals a stage in Grundtvig’s development before the great Egeløkke poem of self-confession received its classic form.

The present essay seeks to probe down towards a surer understanding of the existing material. On the basis of a slight change in Grundtvig’s ortography it can be established that A l must have been composed before July, 1808, and the entire contents of the poem make it probable that it came into existence at Egeløkke not long after the events which it describes had taken place, and therefore presumably in the autumn of 1807.

An investigation of A2 and B gives the result that both must belong to the first half of 1810, when Grundtvig was making preparations for publishing a large collection of poems for the coming New Year, which, however, was never published. The great conflicts which took place in Grundtvig’s mind upset his original plan.

A2 is only an abbreviated version of A l. The abbreviation affect chiefly the direct references to his private personal relations (more especially his love for Fru Constance Leth). Already in A l the poem was divided into a theme of leave-taking and an enthusiastic description of Grundtvig’s friend, P. N. Skovgaard. This division becomes still more conspicious in A2, which is just as much a poem about Skovgaard as one about Egeløkke. Grundtvig himself probably recognised this, and, soon after composing A2, got the idea of writing B. It appears from this Ms, that Grundtvig had the intention of introducing his proposed collection of poems with a series of poems about Egeløkke — presumably ending with the poem of leave-taking (A). B was to be the first of his series of poems and describes first the country around Egeløkke and then — in romantic metaphore drawn from the world of nature — Grundtvig’s own restless state of mind which, like the natural world, alternates between storm and calm.

While formerly only the first part of B was known, its letter part having been written on a sheet of paper which in the archives had got separated from the sheet which contains the introductory part of B, the draft is here brought to light in its entirety, and it is evident that it is a complete poem. The conclusion, which contains a vague reference to the Second Epistle of St. Peter, III, 10, gives utterance to the poet’s wish that “we” , when the warning sounds for the battle of the elements, “ from the deep and silent places” may be able to thank God. This conslusion might seem rather reminiscent of the outbursts of piety with which the nature lyrics of Ewald’s time and the pre-romantic period often end. But it should rather be regarded as evidence of the religious ferment which was already characteristic of Grundtvig while he was at Egeløkke, and which in 1810 developed into an unrest which culminated in the crisis of December in that year. It is emphasised that the B poem is not regarded by Grundtvig as a substitute for A, but as a supplement, an introduction, which should prepare the way for the poem of leave-taking.

Grundtvig’s intellectual crisis in the summer of 1810, his rewakened enthusiasm for history and his newly-wakened vision of the interplay between Christianity and history caused him in the second half of 1810 to thrust into the background his plan for the publication of the personal poems ( “Minder” = “ commemorative poems”) from 1807 and 1808. They were not included in the two small collections, “ Idunna” and “Nytaarsnat” , which he succeeded in getting published at Christmas, 1810. Only in the summer of 1811, when peace had come to him after the hectic crisis in the winter of 1810—11, did Grundtvig arrive at a decision about publishing a volume of poems for the New Year, which received the tittle of “ Saga” , and which consisted in the main of a collection of “ commemorative poems” describing Grundtvig’s developmentin the period from 1807 to 1811 and rounded off by the great retrospective poem, “ Udby Have” . Grundtvig points out in the Preface to “ Saga” that most of the poems have been given a new dress (of Christian character).

This is especially true of “ Strandbakken ved Egeløkke” (and “Havet”). The great middle section of “ Strandbakken” gives a picture of Grundtvig’s spiritual awakening at Egeløkke, viewed from a distance and marked by the calm which he won through returning to the home and faith of his childhood.

On either side of this great confession he introduced remnants from B and A. From B he took the whole introduction (lines 1 to 17), while the 3 last verses of the poem are an assembly of those parts of A which constitute the original leading theme of the poem: Grundtvig’s departure from Egeløkke in the summer of 1807 (when he went to his parents at Udby for a holiday).

With the remnants of the B text which were left when its introduction was transferred to the classic poem, “ Strandbakken ved Egeløkke” , Grundtvig formed — presumably as late as November, 1811 — a completely new poem, whose middle part unfolded the eschatological motif which was only hinted at in the conclusion of B into a great vision of the Day of Judgement and, connected therewith, a philippic directed against the levity and the slack, worldly morality of his contemporaries. This new poem, which received the title “Havet” and was printed as one of the last poems in “ Saga” (far removed from the poems of 1807, with which it was genetically related), cannot, as Dr. Frederik Nielsen supposed, be regarded as an intermediate stage in Grundtvig’s development on his way towards the final shaping of “ Strandbakken ved Egeløkke” , since in all probability the latter poem received its final form in the summer of 1811.