Grundtvig and the Descent into Hell

Abstract

The following special section on Grundtvig’s poem I Kveld blev der banket
paa Helvedes Port [This Night came a Knocking on Hell’s Fortress-Gate]
includes a new unrhymed metrical English translation of the poem with
select commentary by S.A.J. Bradley, followed by two articles, the first
by K.E. Bugge about the genesis of the poem and the Descent theme in
Grundtvig’s thinking; and the second by S.A.J. Bradley concerning the
Anglo-Saxon poems which Grundtvig indicates were his inspiration to I
Kveld and a small cluster of other hymns which he wrote for the Danish
Church.