Om Grundtvig-bibliografiens tilblivelse

Abstract

How the Grundtvig Bibliography Came Into Existence. By Steen Johansen.

In 1948—54 a “Bibliography of the Writings of N. F. S. Grundtvig”, compiled by Steen Johansen, M. A., was published in four volumes. In March, 1954, Steen Johansen gave a lecture to the Grundtvig-Society about the way in which this work came into existence, and his lecture is reproduced here in a slightly altered form.

The introduction refers to the great usefulness of bibliographies and their importance for the right understanding of poets and authors, but at the same time it stresses the point that bibliographical works, in spite of the apparently objective material which forms their basis, can be fashioned in just as subjective a way as all other products of the intellect. Work on the Grundtvig Bibliography began in 1939, and in the period between 1939 and 1942 two persons were successively engaged in it, but before long these were taken up with other work. After an interregnum of two years the work was continued and completed by the afore-mentioned Steen Johansen. An account is given of the state in which Steen Johansen found the material already collected, and the reasons why it was necessary to begin all over again on a new and wider basis. Detailed information is given about the sources of the bibliography, including the so called Thorkelin collection of Grundtvig’s writings in the Royal Library at Copenhagen, single printings of poems, editions, the study of newspapers and periodicals, etc., etc.. Then there follows a discussion of the difficulties involved in the work of compiling Grundtvig’s literary productions, since these are dispersed in a exceptionally large number og editions, and the task is made more complicated from the bibliographical point of view by reason of the many revisions of his songs and hymns which were undertaken by Grundtvig himself. There is also a great mass of Grundtvig’s Mss. which were left unpublished at his death, and fragments of which have unceasingly been published since that time by students of his work. These publications, too, must naturally be registered in the bibliography. — Certain very rare books written by Grundtvig are mentioned, and attention is called to the great difficulty of providing in our day a complete collection of everything published by Grundtvig.

Finally, there is a discussion of the potential value of the Grundtvig Bibliography from the point of view of research, and also of what it can teach us about Grundtvig himself. His immoderately restless literary vitality must have been ruled by an exceptionally strong will. This can be seen in everything he wrote.