Gustav Albeck: Omkring Grundtvigs digtsamlinger.

Abstract

Gustav Albeck: Grundtvigs Collections of Poems. Studies of Grundtvig s Lyrical Writings, 1808—1816.

By Morten Borup.

The writings of Danish scholars have hitherto thrown light upon Grundtvig chiefly as a father of the church, a scholar, and the founder of the Folk High- School. It is therefore a cause for great satisfaction that Gustav Albeck, Ph. D., who is a reader at Aarhus University and well known for his research work on Grundtvig’s writings, has in a comprehensive work begun a description of Grundtvig’s earliest published collections of secular poems, which, it is to be hoped, will be continued. Dr. Albeck’s book contains specially interesting information on two points: the surprisingly high opinion which Grundtvig had of the contemporary poet, Jens Baggesen, and his connections with Norway, which until 1814 was united with Denmark. It was a hard blow for Grundtvig when the Union with this closely-related country was repealed. In the years immediately before this happened he had cherised well-founded hopes of obtaining a post in Norway: first as a professor at the newly-established University in Christiania, and, when this hope failed, in a more modest position as a clergyman in a parish just outside the capital. In his published collections of poems dating from these years the oscillations in his feelings toward the Norwegian people are mirrored: his intense glorification of them gives way to deep disappointment, and it is only in a later period that he is in a position to yield full understanding to the neighbouring kingdom.