N. F. S. Grundtvig
The Danish poet, priest, historian, politician, educator and philologist, N. F. S. Grundtvig is often viewed as one of the most important influences on modern Denmark. Born in 1783 and living for almost 90 years he came to be the most influential person in Danish intellectual life in the nineteenth century, besides the Philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.
His legacy include the Danish folkehøjskole ( folk high-school, a free school-form for adults who want to develop intellectually and spiritually), the very moderate and modern Danish State Church, the consensus minded Danish democracy, and much more. But to me he is first and foremost a poet.
The poetry of Grundtvig is characterised by a violent, colourful reinvention of the Danish language. Many old norse words were reintroduced via his psalms and poems. Words like snekke (a small vikings ship) or æt (kin) found their way back into his national-romantic verses, and thereby back into the Danish language after being 1000 years dormant. The poet Højholt described his lyrics as a rumbling church bell.
Most of Grundsvigs poetry has music added to it or is written with music in mind (a lot of it is psalms) and he is still sung in Denmark, not only at Christmas, but in schools, church family gatherings etc.
Sadly poetry is very hard to translate, and convey to people who does not speak the language. Below I have translated the beautiful, but strange, last verse of the psalm: Den Signede Dag (the blessed day). In the opening line we hear about the sun rising, in the last verse we hear about it sinking (death).
We journey unto our motherland,
Where day is never night
We see a fortress fair and grand,
With halls of golden might.
So joyously there, for evermore,
With friends we talk in light!
The strange fortress (Grundtvigs way of describing the afterlife) is no doubt inspired by Gimle in the last few verses in the ancient norse text Völuspá.
She a hall standing than the sun brighter, with gold bedecked, in Gimill: there shall be righteous people dwell, and for evermore happiness enjoy.
Så rejse vi til vort fædreland,
der ligger ej dag i dvale,
der stander en borg så prud og grand
med gammen i gyldne sale,
så frydelig dér til evig tid
med venner i lys vi tale!
Is this it? It's beautiful and - a layman's impression - it seems so familiar, like Piers Ploughman, perhaps. I mean, in terms of the rhythm.
It is exactly that , yes. I am not sure about what it's metric compares to, as far as I can gather it is jambic or Anapestic or a compination (probably the last), but it is beautiful in all its majesty. As a child I imagined this place of the friends that for evermore sits and talk in the light, just like a summer evening in Denmark where the the sun never really goes down. (due to the curvature of the earth and the Northern position)
Thanks for sharing the beautiful music. And what an impressive picture of that old sage !
You are welcome, I'm just glad to be able to introduce others to this. And music is, contrary to poetry, something that can transcend language and borders.