Hvorfor kom N. F. S. Grundtvig ikke i Viborg Latinskole?

Abstract

Why did N. F. S. Grundtvig not go to the Grammar School in Viborg? By F. Paludan-Miiller.

N. F. S. Grundtvig had three elder brothers, who all became clergymen like himself. These brothers were: 1) Otto Grundtvig (1772—1833), who entered the University in 1789 from Herlufsholm boarding-school in South Sjaelland and afterwards was a clergyman on the island of Falster and subsequently in the vicinity of Copenhagen; 2) Jacob Ulrich Hansen Grundtvig (1775—1800), who entered the University from Viborg Grammar School in 1795 and died as a clergyman in the Danish colony on the Guinea Coast; 3) Niels Christian Bang Grundtvig (1777—1803), who also entered the University from Viborg, in 1796, and also died as a clergyman on the Guinea Coast. Both these elder brothers who were nearest in age to N. F. S. Gr. were prepared as private pupils for some years by Pastor L. Feld before they were sent to the Grammar School in Viborg. N. F. S. Grundtvig, too, was taught as a private pupil, from his ninth to his fifteenth year, by Pastor Feld (who at that time was a clergyman at Thyregod in the middle of Jutland). Strangely enough, he was afterwards sent to the Latin School in Aarhus, and not to Viborg as one would naturally have expected. The reason for this may perhaps be found in the behaviour of his elder brothers as students at Viborg Grammar School, for its records show that their careers at the school were not very successful. Jacob was a stubborn character and not a very diligent student. In 1794 he and another boy attacked some of their fellow-pupils during a game of ball, and he was subsequently reprimanded in front of the whole school, and very nearly sent down. But he promised to turn over a new leaf, and remained at the school, which he left in 1795 after doing badly in his final examination. Niels also showed a lack of diligence, and, in consequence of this, was a »private pupil« during his last two years at school, which at that time meant, among other things, that the school took no responsibility for him as a student. However, he did very well in his final examination in 1796. — Presumably it was these circumstances which caused the family to decide to send the youngest brother (N. F. S. Grundtvig) to Aarhus.