‘Tre store højtider’: Et strukturelement i en salme af Grundtvig

Resumé

‘De store højtider’: Et strukturelement i en salme af Grundtvig

[‘The great solemnities ’: A structural element in a hymn by Grundtvig]

By Aage Schiøler

Two characteristic quotations from Grundtvig serve as guidelines in an analysis of the original, unpublished form of the Pentecostal hymn Blossom now, ye fields of the Church [Opblomstrer nu Guds kirkevange] from the early 1840s, and of its development through a second form (1843) to the hymn from 1853 now in use: The sun now shines in all its splendour [I al sin glans nu stråler solen]. The first quotation, from a Whitsun sermon of 1862, mentions the three fundamental manifestations of Christian faith (proclamation of the Gospel, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper) which Grundtvig calls ‘The three great solemnities’ and links with two other triads both taken from Paul’s epistles: righteousness, peace, and joy; and faith, hope, and love. The second quotation, two stanzas from a short hymn of 1837 on Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension, states three unavoidable conditions in human life: dependencies upon time, upon place, and upon human fellowship.

As a precondition for understanding the Pentecostal hymn as a statement of faith, it is also necessary to discuss Grundtvig’s acceptance of the two doctrines: Original Sin (which is expressed in terms of “natural man” suffering “an early accident” which cannot “be repaired in a natural way”) and Redemption exclusively in Christ.

Each of the three unavoidable conditions is aligned with one of ‘the three great solemnities’ and their associated triads, and thus the ‘solemnities’ serve to clarify the structure of the hymn’s three successive forms. It is found that, although the hymn grows by two stanzas in two stages, the main structure is preserved because the enlargements occur as additions of, first, joy, and, secondly, love - both of which are seen by Grundtvig as aspects of the third ‘great solemnity’, the Lord’s Supper, and both of which are connected with human fellowship. In the process, the hymn’s language is changed into a more homogeneous metaphorical style, emphasising the personal, existential aspect of Christian faith in contradistinction to its institutional appearance; and the original mood of wish and expectation is altered into the hopeful conviction that a new, revived future has already taken foothold within the Danish Church.

The outcome is a spectacular integration of original theological thought and convincing poetic expression that reveals the redeeming and relieving effect of a Christian view of life vis-a-vis the basic conditions of human existence; and it places the hymn as an all but prescribed part of the main service in the Danish Church on Whitsunday.