Pilegrimen og pilegrimen fra Zante. Grundtvigs udkast til en apologetisk fortælling

Abstract

"The Pilgrim“ and ” The Pilgrim from Zacynthos“. By Henning Høirup.

Among the papers left by Grundtvig are these two characteristic fragments, the text of which is printed here in full, with notes. Svend Grundtvig regarded them both as dating from 1821—22, because of the reference in “ The Pilgrim” to the Greek revolt of that year. Svend Grundtvig refers to the first fragment as “ autobiographical” . The second appears to be an attempt at writing a historical novel based upon “ The Pilgrim”n—1 an attempt which Grundtvig speedily abandoned, perhaps because he realized the impossibility of combining in this form his distinctly Scandinavian ideas with a Greek setting. The choice of such a setting would seem strange if the fragments were really autobiographical; but the true explanation seems to be that they represent Grundtvig’s first attempt to write a “ Defence of Christianity” , a task with which he was much concerned at this period, as we see from other drafts and MSS., e. g. “ Brevveksling mellem Norrejylland og Christianshavn” , 1824. A passage from the “ Brevveksling” shows that Grundtvig considered that “ as true and clear a picture as possible” of the period and of his own spiritual pilgrimage might suitably form part of his proposed essay in Christian apologetics; and this doubtless accounts for the “ autobiographical” character of “ The Pilgrim”. The “youth” who is its hero is temporarily misled by “Mahomed’s pale crescent” (typifying the rationalism of the period), but the memory of his ancestors leads him back, first to the spirit and power expressed in Scandinavian mythology, and afterwards to the still greater spirit and power of Christianity. Svend Grundtvig’s description of “ The Pilgrim” as autobiographical seems surprising, for would his father have thought of writing his autobiography as early as 1821—22? It is, however, not impossible, in view of Grundtvig’s own statement

in “ Conversations-Lexikon der Gegenwart” (1839) that a picture of his Langeland period, “when every chord of my being was touched, all my powers awakened, and the ancient Northern and the Christian conceptions of life fermented together within me” , would be “ the most poetic that I could produce” . Certainly it is the autobiographical element in “ The Pilgrim” , its interpretation of Grundtvig’s own development, which gives it its chief value for a modern reader, even though it was primarily intended as Christian apologetics. Grundtvig makes use of his own diaries in “ The Pilgrim” , which augments our knowledge of the missing first eleven pages of his 1806 Diary. Here he seems to have looked back on the preceding critical year when his “ naturalism” was shaken by his realisation that the voice of conscience, the holiest thing in man, cannot give us power to obey its commands, and (as we know from an extract which he quoted in 1815), he thought of the help which “ the beautiful teaching of Jesus” might give him in his need. Similarly, the “ youth” in “ The Pilgrim” decides in his despair to seek strength and peace in the “ despised way which Jesus Christ has opened” . Not only Grundtvig’s crisis at the age of 22, but all his “mythological period” (1806—10), is vividly recalled in “ The Pilgrim” ; its whole tone and atmosphere are brought to life again, without the excessive self-criticism which marks his references to it in the years immediately after his conversion. The whole fragment can be read as a deeper interpretation of the passage in the Preface to “Nordens Mytologi” (1808), where he speaks of his sense of the grandeur of the ancient Northern gods and of their significance for his own life. In “ The Pilgrim” this passage is seen in the light both of his Christian conversion and of his later studies of Saxo & Snorro. It combines the poetic style of the Scandinavian myths with the prophetic style of the Old Testament. The dominant theme in the apologetics both of “ The Pilgrim” and of the “ Brevveksling” is the principle of cause and effect seen in the light of history. This principle, Grundtvig believes, will lead all who are of the truth to Christianity as “ the light that outshines all other lights on earth” ; it is the link between his mythological & his historical-Christian attitudes. As “ The Pilgrim” expresses it, the whole of Northern mythology is a living spiritual expression of history’s unalterable royal law, of the principle of cause and effect; and therefore his sojourn in “ the Edda’s mystic forest” prepares him to see that “ the word of Christianity has had a greater effect than all other words together” . In his mythological period Grundtvig did not fully realise this, for “ his heart was more in Asgard than in Bethlehem” ; but truth eventually wins the victory in him whose heart is set on finding the way to the land of the living. In “ The Pilgrim” Grundtvig is on the threshold of his adult valuation of “ the lovely days” (of youth) “ whose storms are over” , which he later expressed in “Mands Minde” . That he chose to recall the struggles of his youthful years through the allegory of the “ pilgrim” may be explained by the prominence of the Crusades in his mind in the autumn of 1810, when he planned to write a drama about them. Thus when in the 1820’s he was starting a modern Crusade against rationalism, it was natural for him to begin with an allegory based on the “ pilgrim” theme. Abandoning this, he tried many other forms (homily, dialogue, letters, etc.), but left all the drafts unpublished in his desk, since he found that when he had at last achieved clarity of form the life had gone out of it. But at the same time he found “ that I myself had come to life again, and was filled with a living hope of seeing God work the same miracle on many thousands in the North” (Preface to “ Nyaars-Morgen” ). That hope was fulfilled, not through apologetic and dogmatic writings, which for Grundtvig were an “ alien work” , but when he entered in earnest upon his “ own work” as choir-leader of the Christian community in the North.

The Pilgrim.

The Crusades were long over, and enlightened Europe regarded them as a most irrational undertaking, beneficial only in so far as they had unintentionally contributed to the overthrow of the superstition which produced them. Gradually, however, some came to disagree with this view, holding that the undertaking which produced such deeds of heroism could not have been irrational, and ranking them side by side with the heroic deeds of the Greeks and the last great Crusade with Martin Luther at its head. But their admiration was cold and empty ; the Turk reigned unchallenged in the Holy Land and fewer and fewer pilgrims ventured thither; and it was regarded as a crime against reason and enlightenment if anyone hinted that the sun of Christ, which had set in the world-ocean, gave light and life far beyond that of Mahomed’s pale crescent with its borrowed ray.There was at this time a youth who had once thought the crescent the best light, and yet had to own that it only revealed the darkness, and who felt inexplicably drawn away from the present to the past, to wander among the sftades of his ancestors in Denmark’s thick woods and on the cliffs of Norway and Iceland. The world mocked at him, and he was inclined to mock himself, until he found that the voice of conscience gave no strength to fulfil its commands, and that it was vain to look for help to the pale crescent, which vanished when storms arose. It was the life and strength of ancient times that drew him to them. He felt that he stood at the foot of a cliff which he could not climb in his own strength, and so he cried in his despair, “ I will try to climb by the old despised way opened by Jesus Christ, Who was surely more than man, the way trodden by His worshippers and by my own noble forefathers! I cannot lose what I have not, and, if I fail to win strength and peace by this way, I shall at least have tried.” Thus the youth wrote in his diary at the end of an unquiet year. It was a turning-point in his thought, and now, as he wandered in the past, he dreamed of the connection between cause and effect, between the unknown light that had shone over the ancient heathen times and the heroic deeds it had produced. The ancient woods were no longer dark to him, but streaming with wondrous light and full of nightingales. “ Here shall I dwell,” said he, “ I have found my fatherland.

Rough and cold though it be, it is far better than the soft, corrupted world of the South. I care nothing for the abuse of you blind dwarfs who fear the light; if you were Christians, you would have a right to criticise the heroes of the heathen past; but you are neither Christian nor heathen; you are without God in the world. If a ‘No’, a nameless negative, is all that you have, spiritually speaking, to set against the thousands of the past, what are you? Is anyone, spiritually speaking, more or less than what he can do and can achieve ?”

Thus the youth spoke to the men of his period, and he was undoubtedly right, except in so far as he forgot the greater in the less, and Christ in Odin. His only excuse for this is that youth and wisdom, strength and humility, are seldom found together among men. The right of the strongest, to which he appealed, is a barbaric thing in the world of the body; but in the world of the spirit it is the fundamental law, for there the battle is with words and reasons, not with swords, and truth is the mightiest and must prevail. And in human history the word of Christianity has achieved more than all other words together, and has brought to life again the words of Greece and Rome and the North which, next to itself, are the most powerful, but which once lay buried deep; and thus it has put to shame all those who dare to mock at it. Yet though the youth bade Odin bow to Christ, his heart was more in Asgard than in Bethlehem; and it was the world of poetry, especially in its newly revealed Northern form, that he defended rather than Christianity. But he who has the love of truth in his heart will

eventually find the way to his real fatherland, though he may linger by the way . . .

[Here the fragment breaks off, and is followed by the text of two shorter fragments of “ The Pilgrim” . The unfinished fragment of “ The Pilgrim from Zacynthos” corresponds fairly closely to the opening pages of “ The Pilgrim” , but contains more details of the rule of the Turks over the Holy Land and the Ionian Islands, gives the name of “ the youth” as Niketas, and describes him as living in Zacynthos.]