GRUNDTVIG AND DURING 'S GOLDEN AGE FLEMMING LUNDGREEN-NIELSEN BY

Did Grundtvig really belong in Copenhagen during analysis and self-projection that fo rmed the basis of the Golden Age? In a literal sense, of course yes. He his authorship. did the lived in the capital throughout his professionally same, though to a less deliberate extent. But this was active life, spending a total of 65 years at 24 different not how Grundtvig used Copenhagen. When Grundt­ addresses. But in a figurative sense, virtually no. He vig walked in the streets of the capital it was not just 1 differs in important respects from the other great to be seen but because he had to go somewhere, fo r personalities of the age. example to a meeting in the Rigsdag (Parliament), or S0ren Kierkegaard was able to play upon the city's to call on friends. Sometimes - though perhaps not possibilities like a virtuoso on his instrument, trans­ so very often - he sought solitude, inspiration or a fo rming streets, squares, cafes, the theatre and the little fresh air by walking in Rosenborg Park (fig. 56) churches into catalysts for the tireless process of self- or on the city ramparts at Ve sterport? He made one

56. Henrik Gottfred Beenfeldt (1767-1829): The Gardens ofRo senborg Palace 1810. Tempera. 240 332 mm. K0benhavns . X BFIG.ymuseum, Copenhagen. lnv. no. 1932. 143. Rosenborg Gardens were opened to the public in 1771, offering the pleasant possibility of taking a country walk within the ramparts of the confined and overcrowded capital. Here, nurses tending small children had a chance of meeting soldiers from the barracks of the Royal Guards close to Rosenborg Palace, and even outside the summer season people such as Grundtvig and later the young Georg Brandes could find a place of solitude for quiet reflection.

' GRUNDTVIG AND COPENHAGEN DURING DENMARK S GOLDEN AGE 73 brief and heartless reference to the amusement park title was the name also used by Copenhageners for Sander's unfounded yet self-assured criticism of had only recently been initiated and few people were in Gardens (which had opened in 1843) dis­ the carillon (destroyed during the bombardment of Adam Oehlenschlager, the Danish poet much in a position to go travelling abroad. missing it as "a fleetingwhim of fashion" - one of his 1807) in the University's neighbouring building, Frue admired by young people at the time. Grundtvig's relations with the monarchs of his prophecies that was wide of the mark! However, he Kirke? For the rest of his life Grundtvig regarded the In a famous - and notorious - conversation that time were good: professional with Frederik VI, but certainly went there fo ur times between 1856 and as a 'black school', a took place at some time between 1857 and 1863, more cordial with Christian VIII, whose queen, Car­ 1860 - not to ride on the switchback, but to make phrase used at the time to denote a barren, or dead Grundtvig is said to have discussed the theatre with oline Amalie, must be reckoned among the first real speeches to students and about the Constitution.3 seat of learning, and he mocked it repeatedly on no less an authority than 's leading Grundtvigians. Already as crown princess she had At this time the loyal citizens of Copenhagen had account of what he regarded as its Byzantine, boyish Danish actress, , at the home summoned Grundtvig in 1839 to give private lectures fo ur fixedpoints on which to take their bearings: the scholasticism, elite Latin culture and unnecessarily of the prime minister, C. C. Hall. Alreadyduring din­ on history at Palace for the benefit of University, Frue Kirke (the Church of Our Lady), complicated examination system. He was not a ner Madame Heiberg was disturbed by Grundtvig's herself and her ladies-in-waiting, a regular practice both in Frue Plads (Our Lady's Square), the Royal member of the scholarly associations based on secret forthright statements about all manner of things. until Grundtvig's fit of madness in March 1844, after Theatre in Kongens (the King's New Square) election, such as Det Kongelige Danske Videnska­ Afterwards their officious hostess had shown them which it was discontinued. He never cultivated the and lastly the King and the Court, who had taken up bernes Selskab (The Royal Danish Academy of Sci­ into a small room and placed them together on a court and its circles as an institution. He did partici­ residence in the Amalienborg mansions after the ences and Letters) and Det Kongelige Danske Selskab sofa with the aim of creating a 'historic situation'. It pate, however, in the Reformation festivities in destruction of by fire in 1794· for F(edrelandets Historie (The Royal Danish Society was unfortunate. Grundtvig admittedly acknowl­ Copenhagen in 1836. Afterwards he wrote to Inge­ Grundtvig did not have a cordial relationship with for the History of the Fatherland) but in 1839 he edged an actor's first performance of a role with an mann: any of these points on the map of Copenhagen, nor joined the newly fo rmed, more liberally organized ''All right, I'll let that pass", but insisted that the sec­ did he wish to. Dansk historisk Forening (Danish Historical Associa­ ond and subsequent performances amounted to pure For the firsttime, and probably also for the last, I The University had pronounced him unqualified tion). At the same time he himself fo unded a Copen­ affectation. Madame Heiberg declared that the same sat recently with so many, indeed with all the oth­ fo r a professorship in history and mythology, not just hagen debating society, the Danske Samfund (Danish applied to a clergyman who preached the same ser­ ers, chewing and drinking heavily in the King's once but twice (in 1816 and again in 1817)4 after Society), along very different and democratic princi­ mon in two different churches. Grundtvig replied antechamber, where I doubtless fo und it less tedi­ which he gave up applying. As a chaplain at Vartov ples, although during these last years of Frederik VI's that that was a very different matter, because the ous than normally, especially as one received Hospital (an institution fo r the old and infirm) from life he still regarded democracy as an unnecessary preacher used his own words. Madame Heiberg con­ money fo r it into the bargain [a commemorative 1839 onwards it was his duty to supervise university import from France and for the most part main­ cluded that Grundtvig did not want to understand medal], yet I had to leave the table hungry while examinations in theology, but as a rule he failed to tained a satirically scornful attitude towards it. 8 that a good actor identifies himself with the drama­ observing my neighbours smacking their lips, turn up, omitted to send an excuse and in this way It is unlikely that Grundtvig frequented Frue Kirke tist.lO wreaked havoc in the examination system, with the after its reconstruction in 1811-29, fo r he had his own The dissonance which existed between Grundtvig result that after a complaint case in 1849 he was offi­ churches, as a guest preacher in general and also as and the theatre and acting emerges very clearly in his cially relieved of his duties. He did, however, act as an an appointed clergyman at Vo r Frelsers Kirke (Church treatment of the subject in his writings on the histo­ examiner of probationary sermons right up to 1855.5 of Our Saviour) and - for the most protracted peri­ ry of the world, although curiously enough, in May His youthful plans of writing a doctoral dissertation od - at the church attached to the Vartov Founda­ 1841, he was seriously tempted to go to the Royal 6 (in Latin, of course) never materialized. During the tion. Moreover, after the affair of the publication of Theatre to see Sille Beyer's saga drama Ingolf and Val­ Reformation festivities in the jubilee year of 1836, a his probationary sermon in 1810-11, he was at logger­ gerd. At this time Grundtvig was absorbed in his fo rtnight after the inauguration of the new university heads with the majority of Copenhagen's clergymen campaign to establish a Danish Folk High School building in Frue Plads, doctorates were granted to 33 and theologians. The estrangement between himself and had drawn attention in several pamphlets to Ice­ persons, but Grundtvig was not one of them. He and his highly cultured and esteemed distant relative land during the Middle Ages, when stories were told himself admitted that his performance on the same Bishop J. P Mynster, for example, was permanent. . in the mother tongue about anything and everything occasion as unofficial opponent to a doctoral candi­ The post Grundtvig was finally given after applying in the form of sagas. He believed it was a unique date (who had called the supranaturalism of the at the age of 56 was not one that lent prestige in the example in European history of an entire country period unreasonably simple-minded) had been less capital. Right up to his burial in 1872, educated peo­ more or less fu nctioning as a university in the than successful because he no longer mastered Latin ple could still be heard referring to him as "that cler­ national language. This is why he was most interested well enough to be able to hold his own in an oral dis­ gyman for the old women at Vartov".9 in seeing the scenery: the interior of an Icelandic FIG. 57. Johan Vilhelm Gertner (1818-1871): The Anointing ofKing Christian 1846. Pencil 256 283 mm. Rosen­ cussion - the confounded mumbo-jumbo weighed Grundtvig probably never visited the Royal Thea­ house. x But nothing came of itY Nevertheless, the fact borg Slot. Royal DanishVIII. Collections, Copenhagen. Inv. no. him down and had a paralysing effect. On the other tre after the occasion in January 1809 when he was that the notion occurred to him at all may also dem­ 16-51a. hand he marked the jubilee - or at all events his pub­ the chief instigator behind the booing of L. C. San­ onstrate that the Royal Theatre, with its costumes, Although Grundtvig did not participate in the ceremony of lishers did - by issuing the first instalment of his der's history play about Knud Lavard - not so much scenery and backcloths, provided audiences with his­ the anointing of King Christian VIII, he has been included Sang-Vcerk (Collection of Hymns), whose Danish because of any indignation at the play itself as at torical and geographical enlightenment at a time as being present among the Danish intellectual elite in this later drawing. He can be seen in the second row, as the sec­ When the practice of opening museums to the public ond face to the right above the head of the kneeling king.

74 FLEMMING LUNDGREEN-NIELSEN ' GRUNDTVIG AND COPENHAGEN DURING DENMARK S GOLDEN AGE 75 include the most famous personages of the period central figure in the city scene. When Thorvaldsen amongst the spectators, and Grundtvig agreed to sit returned to Denmark on 17 September 1838 Grundt­ for Gertner post festum in the artist's studio in Chris­ vig sat (as can be seen on the frieze by J0rgen Sonne tiansborg Palace. Grundtvig was not actually in that decorates the outside of the walls of the Thor­ Hiller0d on the day of the anointment: he was valdsen Museum) in a boat together with other writ­ preaching at Vartov and in the evening arranged a ers: Oehlenschhiger, Heiberg, Hertz, Winther and friendly get-together in the Danske Samfund outside Hans Christian Andersen (fig. 58). The succession in the normal season for the society's meetings. In both December 1839 also brought about a change in public cases he brought along a leaflet with some of his attitudes and values, and Grundtvig was to benefit in recent poems: on the first occasion two hymns and unpredictable ways as a newly established popular on the second three toasting songs (to the king, the orator and politician (a matter that deserved closer queen and Ogier the Dane).12 examination). Whereas formerly he had been regard­ Compared with other intellectual personages of ed as a frightening - albeit fascinating - eccentric, he the day, Grundtvig was a stay-at-home. The grand was now recognized for his qualities. At the queen's tours through Germany, France, Austria and request he thus acted as interpreter when Elisabeth financed by the royal purse for so many applicants Fry, the British prison reformer and Quaker, visited had no appeal to him. On the basis of his knowledge Copenhagen's prisons in August 1841. In September of the history of the world and of the Church he was that same year the queen also appointed him as

FIG. 58. J0rgen Sonne (180l-1890): Nikolaj Frederik Severin sceptical towards Germany, which he regarded as director (for life) of her new orphanage in #rtb. Grundtvig in the Poets' Boat. 1847 (reconstructed in the persistently troubled and fermenting, and he pre­ N 0rregade (today the address of the present Folke­ 1Itik. :in. erunbbts. 1950S). Part of the frieze round Thorvaldsens Museum, ferred to disassociate himself from the Catholic teater), which was moreover, as from 1842, exempted Copenhagen. south of Europe, which he regarded as degenerate. by special decree from supervision by the Copenhag­ FIG. 59. Claudius Rosenhoffi (1804-1869): Profile of Nikolaj Grundtvig spent most of his life in his study, reading, Frederik Severin Grundtvig. From the satirical magazine Characteristically, his four visits to England - in the en School Board. In addition to his popular activities thinking, writing and smoking his pipe, all of which is said Corsaren. 71 42 mm. The Royal Library, Copenhagen. x to have given him a permanently pale complexion. He summers of 1829, 1830, 1831 and 1843 - were made in the Danske Samfund he received and accepted Grundtvig was a poet, philologist, historian and education­ seldom ventured far afield, but on Thorvaldsen's return to specifically for the purposes of research and in order invitations to speak in connection with discussions ist as well as clergyman, but in the popular imagination he Copenhagen, he joined the poets in a boat to greet the to visit libraries. Grundtvig's only holiday (a concept on Scandinavian, national-liberal and national was primarily thought of as a person attired in a Danish famous sculptor along with the rest of the citizens of unknown in the labour market of the times!) was a Protestant cleric's ruffand gown. He is immediately recog­ Copenhagen. affairs. At a celebration at Skydebanen (the Shooting nizable even in this silhouette from Corsaren on the occa­ fortnight spent in in the summer of 1851 - a Range, a Copenhagen clubhouse) on 14 November sion of his 70th birthday in 1853. veritable triumphal skaldic progress. He retained a 1849, Oehlenschlager's 70th birthday, Grundtvig pre­ partly with oysters, in which I was not interested, life-long coolness towards ; despite earnest sented a song and made three speeches, and it was and partly with other rarities which no-one requests in his later years he never even crossed the also he who, when requested to do so by the arrang­ offered me and I could not be bothered to exert Sound, nor did he ever visit the first Folk High ers, crowned the old poet with a laurel wreath on The 50th anniversary of Grundtvig's ordination myself to reach. School, founded at R0dding in North Slesvig, though behalf of the women of Denmark. Even those who was celebrated in 1861 by a special service at Vartov, he had of course frequently been invited to do so. felt offended by Grundtvig's manners and opinions and later that day D. G. Monrad, minister for Eccle­ The tone of the letter is revealing: court life held Grundtvig's travels took place in his smoke-filled were overwhelmed by his charisma. This is evidenced siastical Affairs and Public Instruction, gave him a no interest for him whatsoever, and the same applied study through his reading, and he paid more atten­ by a profile of him in the satirical magazine Corsaren rank on a level with the Bishop of (and, con­ to the good things of life, such as luxury foods. On tion to phases in time than stations in space. He (The Corsair) on 9 September 1853 (fig. 59). Its trary to the wording of the royal commission, also the occasion of Christian VIII's silver wedding on 22 adopted what he called - in another context - (Ca author, Claudius Rosenhoff, admittedly suggests at the title of bishop). During the last nine years of May 1840 Grundtvig was made a knight of the hawk's-eye view" of the world around him. first that Grundtvig should be locked up in Bistrup Grundtvig's life his supporters arranged so-called Dannebrog - which in view of his wide reputation as As an elderly man, Grundtvig himself became to (a lunatic asylum near Roskilde) but concluded by Friends' Meetings, which were held during the days a know-all who regularly contradicted everyone else an increasing extent one of the sights of Copenhag­ regretting his evaluation: around his birthday, 8 September. His Vartov congre­ was regarded by some students in the new liberal en. He won wide acclamation for the first time from gation and its loud, staccato hymn-singing at a par­ reading society, Academicum, as both comical and two successive younger generations with his Mands­ . " when I saw him tiptoe forward on a festive ticularly fast tempo (known as "Vartov gallopades"), alarming. It was to be his only decoration. Grundt­ Minde (Living Memory) lectures on the previous 50 occasion, crown Oehlenschlager with a laurel was also brought to the attention of tourists. The vig's presence at Christian VIII's anointment on Sun­ years of European history, given at Borch College in wreath, kiss him and proceed to declare his max­ young English poet Edmund Gosse has related that day, 28 June 1840, in the Chapel of Frederiksborg Store Kannikestrrede (Great Canon Street) in the ims, then it seemed to me that we were more or in the summer of 1872, a few months before Grundt­ Castle, apparent from J. Gertner's drawing from autumn of 1838. As far as popularity was concerned, less clever pygmies compared with this half-crazy v. vig's death, he was recommended to attend a service 1846, is a fabrication (fig. 57). The artist wished to this was the turning-point in his life. He became a giant. at Vartov. He received an unforgettable, though no

76 FLEMMING LUNDGREEN-NIELSEN ' GRUNDTVIG AND COPENHAGEN DURING DENMARK S GOLDEN AGE 77 doubt somewhat exaggerated impression of Grundt­ clash with both Classicism and Neo-classicism, vig as an ancient heathen sacrificialpriest with a son­ because precisely when the art praised in refinedcir­ orous, ghostly voice (fig. 60).13 cles appeared to be most spiritual it was "painted, ugly idolatry"; in Grundtvig's view, Classicism �on­ sisted in permitting the lust of the flesh to turn Itself 2. GRUNDTVIG AND THE GOLDEN AGE into a religion under the pretext of being true spiri­ Grundtvig's relationship with most of what is cele­ tuality. brated nowadays as Copenhagen's Golden Age was Nevertheless, Grundtvig developed what amount­ not particularly cordial. In 1838 he said bluntly: "My ed almost to a love for the great Danish sculptor writings as well as my speeches prove that few can be Thorvaldsen, who was famed throughout Europe, more critical than I of present conditions in Den­ due to the fact that the latter had contributed, as a mark and elsewhere." human being and historical figure, to a new and sig­ 14 In general, the artistic manifestations of the Gold­ nificant breakthrough around the turn of the centu­ en Age left him cold. IS His lack of interest in t e ry. It was certainly not on account of his "Pictures in � . theatre has already been mentioned. He was devOId ecclesiastical taste" - as Grundtvig, in a memonal of musicality and never attended concerts, one of the poem at Thorvaldsen's death in 1844 (printed belat­ period's favourite forms of public performance. But edly in conjunction with the opening of the museum of course people sang in his churches. It was more­ in 1848) coldly called Thorvaldsen's Christian statues. over in his auditorium at Borch College on 17 Octo­ ber 1838 that a crowd of supporters burst out singing his national ballad about the naval hero Peter Wille­ moes "Kommer hid, I Piger smaae" (Come hither, you little girls) in unison. Thus was founded the spe­ cifically Danish tradition of singing a song before FIG. 61. (1819-1903): The Church and after a public lecture. But even though the finest at Udby, 1853. Oil on canvas. 78.5 109.5 Inv. no. A 7232. x cm. Frederiksborgmuseet, Hillef0d. composers of the Golden Age, such as Weyse, Berg­ In general, Grundtvig preferred history to nature, although in a small green, Hartmann, Rung and Niels W. Gade, set and number of autobiographical poems muse upon the scenic beauty of his he did recollect native soil of South Zealand. On his presented with 70th birthday he was probably pleased Grundtvig's words to music, no evidence has come to this postcard-likepainting of the church to be and parsonage in Udby, where he spent his light of any contact between them and him. childhood. and painting were regarded by Grundt­ vig as the lowest and most materialistic art forms on At the inauguration of Thorvaldsen's studio at Nys0 of these athletesP in This evaluation on Grundtvig's a scale headed by "the art of the word", or poetry. 1839 Grundtvig had already stated bluntly in print part was to affect in the later Folk High Schools' atti­ Behind this evaluation lay undoubtedly the Old the magazine Brage og fdun (Brage and Idun) that tude to the matter. Testament's commandment against making images he had never admired any of the master's works, for He expressed his views on painting even of God. In his poem "Ki�rminde-Bladet" (The For­ he regarded God as the more only competent sculptor.16 sparingly - on Danish national painting probably get -me-not Leaf) written as a farewell greeting to the In his Haandbog i Verdens-Historien (Handbook not at all. of Even though Grundtvig, through his poet B. S. Ingemann in April 1818 on his departure for World History), I, 1833, Grundtvig per­ expressed his sonality, attracted prefer the best of the Golden Age's young a two-year tour of the south of Europe (printed in ence for that part of the history of ancient painters and Gree draughtsmen - P. C. Skovgaard, Chris­ October that same year) Grundtvig earnestly warned ce when the written and spok en word and spiri­ ten K0bke and tuality J. Th. Lundbye - he was probably nev­ his slightly younger friend against 's refined art, dominated, as in Homer, the historian Hero­ er interested in dot, the their landscapes, though he did actu­ heathen as well as Catholic (stanza 64): "No Christ tragedian Aeschylus, the philosopher Plato ally prompt one of them: Vilhelm with colours can be painted / Nor carving made of and the orator Demosthenes. Kyhn's neat, some­ In his view, the circum­ what impersonal stance tha painting of Udby Church was com­ Him in stone". In stanza 66 he acknowledges deviat­ t the Greeks, through the Olympic Games, missioned by Danish women ing in this way from the outlook on art held by the FIG. 60. Adolph L0nborg (1835-1916): Portrait of Nikolaj gradually attribute as a gift on Grundtvig's d greater importance to the Frederik Severin Grundtvig. 27 August 1872. Photo. The hu 70th birthday in 1853 (fig. 61), but academic world, according to which those who have man body and physical it is by no means Royal Library, Copenhagen. activities than to artistic among disCipl the classics of the Golden Age. Tw no appreciation of music, painting and statues are to ines was already a sign ice in his This is how Grundtvig looked in the last picture taken of of decline, and matters life Grundtvig deteriora let himself be painted by two be reckoned as barbarians and pious blockheads. � he ted even more seriously artists at him by a Copenhagen photographer seven days bef re when the Classical once art of in order to save time sitting as a model: Stanza 68, the last in the poem, represents a harsh died peacefully at home while sitting in his easy chaIr. sculpture started producing in 1847- petrified versions 48 by P. C. Skovgaard and , then in

FLEMMING LUNDGREEN-NIELSEN GRUNDTVIG AND COPENHAGEN ' DURING DENMARK 78 S GOLDEN AGE 79 1862 by Constantin Hansen and because it gave an adequate impression of the pas­ (fig. 62). It made matters unpleasant for the artists, sage of the Danish national character through heath­ who had to keep side-stepping round each other to en as well as Christian times. The others, whom we portray him, and furthermore, at least in 1862, had to now regard as the great writers of the Danish Golden submit to being entertained by his low opinions - in Age, such as Steen Steensen Blicher, Heiberg, Hertz, principle - of their art. IS Hans Christian Andersen, M. Goldschmidt, Kierke­ Grundtvig's warmest appreciation was of course gaard and Frederik Paludan-Muller, are touched on reserved for the writers of the period. His beloved by Grundtvig in the form of references to titles, but king, Frederik VI, although lacking the ability to without revealing any real standpoint or assessment. understand the fine arts, nevertheless supported It was thus not Grundtvig's opinion that the first throughout his life such writers as could be trained half of the nineteenth century represented a cultural to benefit and please the fatherland. Golden Age at all. On the contrary, he complained The great breakthrough at the turn of the century time and again, from the bombardment of Copen­ - the stroke of lightning that flashed from Grundt­ hagen in 1807 onwards, about the apathy and somno­ vig's older cousin, the philosopher , lence of the period, its cultivation of the material and and the latter's eager pupil, the newly aroused the comfortable, its inane masquerades and illumi­ Romantic poet Adam Oehlenschlager, which virtual­ nations, its oyster and turtle parties, in short, its serv­ ly represented a follow-up in intellectual life to the ing of "tasty pork sausages" as he bluntly expressed patriotic revival sparked off by the thundering guns it?I At the beginning of the 1820S he wrote to Steffens of the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 - was a fixed about his own times, asserting that they represented starting-point throughout Grundtvig's life for his a deathly quiet graveyard where some people collect hopes for the development of the nineteenth century. worms, others dig vainly for treasures and yet others However, the moment he saw the individual works put all sorts of things together to form monstrous his criticism was harsh. He regarded Oehlenschla­ skeletons. At the time, the period itself was referred ger's writings after Nordiske Digte (Nordic Poems), to as a 'golden age' only on a few occasions - the as a decline into materialism and sensuality - term was not to be widely used until after the 1890s. 1807, later, in 1818, he declared him to be "a masterful flesh In 1894 the leading Danish critic of modern litera­ sculptor, the artist idolized by all youth: an idol-mak­ ture, Georg Brandes, was still grumbling in a literary er", which was a harsh way of putting things, espe­ review: cially coming from Grundtvig.I9 Even Grundtvig's loyal friend Ingemann, who was a senior master at Vilhelm Andersen likes to use the tedious, insipid the academy (a branch university) in the small but term 'golden age' about the period in literature venerable historic town of SO[0, had to make do with when Poul M011er lived. Not all that glittered in it temperate praise - Grundtvig did not care for was gold, and it was certainly no gold mine.22 Ingemann's famous historical novels, which were best -sellers in their day, because he found the novel, Grundtvig was actually one of those who used the as a literary genre, worthless. He regarded Inge­ term most frequently - first as historian and after­ mann's hymns as blessed little cherubs, not grown­ wards as Christian preacher and public educator. up saints, and passed over his morning songs for When and why did Grundtvig change his mind chil dren in a letter with a brief note of acknowledge­ about his own times? men 20 t. Most frequently mentioned by Grundtvig are t , 105 83 cm, wo of his g, 1862, on canvas X friend's youthful publications, which Frederik Sevenn, Grundtvt' 1 2. GRUNDTVIG'S VIEW OF THE GOLDEN AGE , H ansen (1804-1880): Portrait of Nikolaj 0 '1 nobody rea FIG. 62. Constantm ds any more: the epic poem De sorte Rid­ Hiller0d. lnv, no. A 5839· the , " aracterize (The Frederiksborgmuseet, ' second attempt to ch great Black Knights), 1814, and the closet drama , � , 8 - 8 4 and 1862. Thls lS th e artlst s , , ' fatherly dere In Grundtvig's view, the epoch-making New Ye ar's pain�e� Gr ndtv ' UI�an quahtles ° h Constantin Hansen � � tried to capture the gentle � lectual Underbarnet (Reinald Miracle stu le . t er painters e 0 h intel Reinald the Child), Day heralding the nineteenth century consisted of writer, whose works he dihgent � in his own hfetlme becaus :: y , ���� � wh 0 h a d become a legend I He took genume' rather deplCted the man 1816. p Ieasure m' Ingemann'I s cyc e the contributions made by Steffens, Oehlenschlager figure, Constantin Hansen of poems o ger Danske (Ogier the Dane), 1837, and Thorvaldsen. struggle. H I

' GRUNDTVIG AND COPENHAGEN DURING DENMARK S GOLDEN AGE 81 FLEMMING LUNDGREEN-NIELSEN 80 ry of Denmark, Norway and Holstein in Two poem in the Elder Edda called the Voluspa. Here he p. 9), in his seventh introduc­ Steffens (see fig. 1, Extracts), 1776, was changed in later editions (1781 refuted the idea that the creative activities of the the great past when the gods tory lecture, described and 1802) in order to "make young people believe Aesir on the Ida Plain represented a 'golden period'.27 when words and actions were walked on earth and that our age is the golden instead of the poisonous", The delight of the gods was a disappointing illusion He concluded his historical one and the same thing. and the general outlook was thoroughly materialis­ in a vain dream of freedom - fo r they themselves had . . lecture by prophesying a second survey m h'IS eIghth tic: thrown away the golden tablets of wisdom and to of the more splendid age with reference coming . would not find them again until after Ragnarok, the Goethe. The romantlC and . .. great wealth had flowed into individual homes, end of the world . Oehlenschlager made his debut, poem with which sumptuousness and voluptuousness grew on the In the academic dissertation of his youth "Om Golden Horns), 1802, made ref­ "Guldhornene" (The gold-midden, selfishness thrived. People com­ Religion og Liturgie" (On Religion and Liturgy) writ­ style to precisely the time "when erence in the same pletely fo rgot that it is God who gives them their ten in that same year he emphasized that the Greeks, , the point being that the two H eaven was on Earth" daily bread and thought only of reaping and the Jews and the Norsemen all had a history that fad­ doomed to be lost, because t e golden horns were � enjoyment. ed away in "a golden age when the gods walked about their value as metal, not theIr present day only saw on earth, and the celestial and the terrestrial merged message about the divine. The poetic and intellectual The tightening up of the Printing Act in 1799 had in a single idea". He failed to see the interesting point have vanished, but on the oth r golden horns may � unfo rtunately silenced the "intellectual stock ex­ about a common notion of this kind in the epic poem about them became, m hand Oehlenschlager's change", but it also prevented "ungodliness, defama­ reflection of this golden age or in recent philosophy's a third golden horn,23 an inspira­ a figurative sense, tion of character and rebellious talk. Everything eternal idea. The important thing, he felt, was its r th rest of the tion for poetry and intellectual life fo � . seemed about to fall into a sleep of intoxication or reality as imposed by conditions of the period, that is up to and includmg ilhel century, at all events � � stupor" - until God's voice of thunder spoke through in history, most clearly discernible in the Bible's dissertation on the subject m Andersen's doctoral the guns in 1801 and aroused the nation.25 accounts of Paradise and the Fall of Man. The golden Thorvaldsen's statue of "Jason 1896. At the same time Rahbek's academic respect fo r the culture of the age was tantamount to innocence, which in turn per­ Fleece" in Rome represented a with the Golden Classical Roman Empire was certainly not shared by mitted an unimpeded confluence with the celestial. (fig.63) · rebirth of Greek antiquity Grundtvig either. Writers in those days, he wrote in The Fall was the loss of innocence, expressed past generation therefore not only had a This new Verdensknmiken, 1812, were often "despisers of God, through knowledge, which gave life an intrinsic value fo r. Included in its outlook was golden age to yearn immersed themselves in life on earth and abused and man living conditions of his own choice. And fo r new golden age that possibly lay the prospect of a their art to gild vice, or to win the favour of the pow­ this reason, death was set "as a cherub with a shining moreover Christian: fr om Par­ ah ead . The model was erful by flattery". In Grundtvig's view, the empire of sword between the everlasting and the finite". These Fall of Man to the new Jerusalem. adise through the Augustus stood as a large, dead tree, its branches two worlds could be reconciled only through Christ's ing it kindled optimism and the In spite of everyth withered, with the result that his rule was only death. In a similar fashion, the 1812 chronicle con­ ements. energy fo r new achiev "Rome's golden era, just as the glow of the evening cluded that a phoenix rising fr om its own ashes like Professor Knud Lyne Rah- Older humanists, sun sometimes seems to us to gild with a more deli­ might cause the people to be reborn to new spiritual­ home outside Copenhagen near bek in his rural cious lustre than the blush of dawn" - but it was fol­ ity, "and the name of this wondrous bird is Christen­ a different outlook. Rah­ Palace, had lowed by night, not by day, and its flowers produced dom".28 Denmark's Golden Age lay irrev- bek always felt that seeds that could not germinate. Grundtvig warned This view reappeared in Grundtvig's schoolbook in the eighteenth century, in the Hol- oubly behind , against the attempts made by the eighteenth Grcesk og Nordisk Mythologi for Ungdommen (Greek 1750, in Ewald's and Wessel s berg era up to about century's schoolmasters (it could be Rousseau and and Nordic Mythology fo r Yo ung People), 1847, (1770-1844): Jason with the 1770S and the prosperous decade FIG. 63. period during the Pestalozzi) as well as Napoleon's empire, each in their although this time incorporating the national aspect. 1803-1828. H: 242 cm. Thorvaldsens of Copenhagen in 1801. At the 20t Golden Fleece, prior to the Battle � lnv. no. A 822. Own way, to revive these so-called golden days. In his Through the resurrection of Balder, the golden age . l­ Museum, Copenhagen. Norske Selskab (the NorwegIan SOC jubilee of the as the petrifaction of the Haandbog i Verdens-Historien, I, 1833, he declared lost by the Aesir on the Ida Plain was to be replaced the Grundtvig regarded sculpture Rahbek spoke specifically about as a carefully ety) in 1792, st of the flesh and detested that we must on no account confuse "the golden age by a 'golden year' (fig. 64). Grundtvig explained this the fact that the He accepted splendid days of yore, conscious of 1 olished monument to human imperfection. and of the golden mean of 'tyranny' with that of the human. to school pupils as a renewed fo rm of modern Chris­ to the past than ; Jason only as one of several symbols jubilee was more of a loving farewell Thorvaldsen's 6 at the beginning of the spirit".2 tianity in which each nation and people would arise For the mat re spiritual awakening of the a joyful welcome to what lay ahead. � . Grundtvig fo und a more positive notion of the in a clarified, that is to say purified, reinforced and truly Golden Age was the penod Rahbek Denmark's golden age in Nordic heathendom and also in Chris­ transilluminated fo rm in order to become part of opinion coincided with public 1784-9 , when public (World Chronicle), tendom. In a little paper entitled "On Norse mythol­ ordinary human life. The order was: first a member ; was concerned Grundtvig in his Verdensknmike spirit - when the whole population an­ o historical work, Historien af gy", 1807, he examines the main course of events in of a nation, then a human being, and thereafter a of a golden age 1812: Suhm's best � with renewal and reform.24 This idea tO- Nor udi tvende Udtog (The HIS dic mythology, especially with the help of the Christian.29 differently by mark, Norge og Holsten as held by Rahbek is described very

' GRUNDTVIG AND COPENHAGEN DURING DENMARK S GOLDEN AGE

GREEN-NIELSEN FLEMMING LUND 83 82 quotation from Isaiah 61:2) "the new era as a golden declares: "Hier, oder nirgend ist Amerika!" (Here, or year for the whole of mankind". 31 nowhere, is America!). In the same style, Grundtvig The term 'golden year' was undoubtedly used now began to say, time and again: "Here, or nowhere, many times in Grundtvig's sermons and theological the Golden Ye ar will come." 34 writings, but a comprehensive investigation has not Under Frederik VI the king's person became a been madeY The Sang-V cerk has 40 instances of the symbol of a golden age to a degree unparalleled use of the term in his hymns. It is used in "Vidunder­ under any earlier or later absolute monarch in Den­ ligst af Alt paa Jord" (Most wonderful of all on earth) mark. This was due to a combination of his person­ about life after death, "Evighedens Gylden-Aar" ality, his long reign (55 years) and the tremendous (Eternity's Golden Ye ar), but can also designate the expansion of printed literature, particularly newspa­ pleasure derived by earthly life from faith in, and pers and periodicals. His life gradually took on the hope fo', eternal life or the Church's vocation and character of a modern , at all events in public work on earth under rather problematic condi­ ceremonials and apparently also in the minds of the tions.33 people as a whole. Grundtvig also used the term in a worldly context This is exemplified by his triumphal return on 1 to designate a phase in history. The background for June 1815 from the Congress of , when it was �======balder.======understanding it in this sense is his feeling of being a widely felt that he had saved the nation's indepen­ Frederik Severin . Illustration from Nikolaj Jacobsen (1821-1871). Th eo G d Balder . for the dence. After finallyhaving let himself be anointed as FIG. 64. David . (Greek and Nordic Mythology symbol himself, a prophecy of a renewal of Danish Mythologt fo r Ung d ommen Grundtvig's book Grcesk og Nordisk spiritual, ecclesiastical and social life. It was launched king on 31 July that same year (rather conveniently, 1847. The RoyalLibrary, Copenhagen. Young). ., god BaId er IS. seen . ed for use in schools - the Norse in the prologue and epilogue of his poem "Paaske­ from the point of view of the royal household, on his e us r ted book - c m s ust In Grundtvig's sol l11 � � wanted to show him having j �o:� ��: artist probably Lilien" (The Daffodil) of 1817 and repeated with silver wedding day), Frederik VI declined expensive youth reclmmg on a soft as a beardless . h" death , as related in Snorri Sturluson's forebodmg IS Impend' mg greater force and breadth in his prophetic lay festivities in his own honour for the rest of his life. awakened from ominous dreams Edda from C.1220. Nyaars-Morgen (New Year's Morning), 1824. With Despite his lofty view of the hereditary monarchy he hindsight we can easily recognize the trait, but his was sufficiently straightforward and down to earth contemporaries barely understood his words and not to believe in flattery, preferring to spend money could not accept even what they did understand. As a on helping the poor and other deserving causes. The GOLDEN YEAR GRUNDTVIG'S new approach, he rejected the strategic error of his public feeling that his reign was a golden age there­ "Jerusalem", he 3. appended note to his poem most freque t start­ newly � youth: fore found few possibilities of being displayed in are­ In his younger days, Grundtvig's Year is the Damsh � last in the book: "The Golden everlasting and the fimtewere 0 as outside the obligatory occasional poems and the mg-pom. . t was that the il .lear"3 . to expression for Jub ee v . From around 1815 he began . the fundamental delusion which I shared with all Royal Theatre, whose rear stalls represented a usable opposites. year occurnng III diametrical The biblical concept of a golden years later it emerged as historical scholars of the post-medieval period, - and much used - safety valve for public opinion modifythis outlook, and ten of a century is explained the middle and at the end . who believe, a 'golden namely that by immersing oneself in antiquity prior to the June Constitution's abolition of censor­ a conVICt' lOn that tor those Historien, by Grundtvig in his Haandbog i Verdens- 1, , this world. Throughout e one would be able to - and should - bring about ship of printed matter. By his own account the king year can be here and now in , Pentate ch an d th 1833, with references to the the phrases 'golden age � t a rebirth of its splendour. What I tried to do was actually experienced the best evening of his life at the the rest of his life he used as bemg the res ancient Jewish historian Josephus, � stently: 'golden age' des­ ic termed folly, because I endeavoured to invoke, theatre on 7 October 1830, when the audience and 'golden year' quite consi policy: all domest of a kind of social distribution and 'golden year' the near d not the so-called 'Classical Era' and especially the demonstratively applauded him after the perfor­ ignated the vanished part inherited land that h debt was remitted, and The actual term 'gol en � 'Golden Age' of Augustus, but the heathen times mance of Den Stumme i Portici (The Mute Girl of future or even the present. � restored to it. Grundtvl passed out of a family was � Jewish year of jubilee, whlCh year and dIiddles Ages of the North. Portici, or Masaniello), the opera by D. Auber that year' is derived from the purpose of the 'golden term believed that the main F. years (Leviticus 25 · The enry had provoked a rebellion in Brussels on 25 August occurred every fifty point of view of the citiz ) 6:4 institution from the as a reproduction of Joshua event the Instead - especially after his visits to England - that same year and subsequently the formation of appeared in Danish . pnvate. propert y a nd pr BIble, from was to safeguard . Grundtvig Danish translation of the bme' d WIth explored his own society in order to the state of . Copenhagen's civil servants and m. the oldest the big landowners. Com for a <£- dominance of examine of the fifteenth century: a " I d I year, when its organization and influence its develop­ purveyors by appointment to the royal court were the second half year of rest every seventh forgiv - the law about a ment In <£ll<£r gyllins aar" (a year of d that the . Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre obviously anxious to uphold the Danish absolute ses <£ll<£r gledins . � thralls were set free, It· ensure . pubhshed m all Hebrew (Wilhelm Meister's Apprentice Ye ars), which monarchy, but the existence during this period of a . It had J' ust been doubt, as ness or JOY or gold) . "a country where no edI- Jews would live in Grundtv In the second, expanded even few­ ig read in May-June 1803 in Rahbek's trans- genuine affection for the king and his family should 1828 after a manuscript. few became very rich and everywhere, only 1a tl . on of Levende Skolebrug (Chronicle concludes 1801-02, Lothario, who has returned from not be disregarded. tion of Knmike-Riim til r". The weIg. h ty vo Iume ru dt­ er were very poo an ab ortlv. e in Schools), 1842, 1 a attempt to become an American, A final major manifestation of this affection Rhymes for Practical Use � to Luke 4: 9, � with Christ proclaiming (according no-Iexical meamng m a vig drew attention to this Da

' GRUNDTVIG AND COPENHAGEN DURING DENMARK S GOLDEN AGE 8s FLEMMING LUNDGREEN-NIELSEN 84 occurred in 1833 and inspired Grundtvig to a 'golden Then gentlemen could be seen embracing and And then a voice was raised , year' poem six months later. In July the king had shaking hands with those nearest to them, sailors A word was heard on high, been very seriously ill at Louisenlund Palace on the in their blouses, working men and simple citizens. That no better could belong Schlei Fiord, but had returned in August, apparently It was a scene that should have been immortalized In any place on earth. fully recovered, to Copenhagen. Details of the mood by the greatest painters The king, most deeply moved, that prevailed have been preserved in a few commen­ Now felt himself revived , taries. The king had left Louisenlund at 7 o'clock in had these, at the sight, been able to do anything but And born anew a king! the morning of Friday, 2 August, and been accompa­ weep: nied to Schleimunde by the Duke and Duchess of Later in the po em, usmg. a Glucksborg and their children. The weather was As the sloop now approached, the emotions of . typographically emphaSIzed play on words Grundtv· "beautiful and agreeable fo r steamship travel", but many dissolved into joyful shouts of happiness; ' Ig asserte d that "Det var en deilig Scene, / Men intet the small, not particularly comfortable royal yacht but thousands of the best lips fell silent, tears were Skue-Spil" (It was a lovely scene, / But not an acted Kiel nevertheless anchored up fo r the night off Ulfs­ violently restrained, until the little blue cap, play" (stan za 37 )). hale (the northern tip of the island of M0n). On swung by his own hand, appeared outside the On the very day of the royal Saturday morning the voyage continued towards sloop's tent curtains. arrival the event prompted in the press a public subscription fo r a Copenhagen, encountering stormy weather and commemo rative medal which desp't heavy seas in the Bay of K0ge. The arrival of the royal When the royal couple had assumed their places ' 1 e a num b er of accidents in the course . of produc t" IOn, It was pOSSIble yacht had been awaited excitedly in Copenhagen. At in the royal carriage the king permitted the horses to to present to the royal couple on th e anmversary. of half-past fo ur in the afternoon the Kiel was able to be taken out of the shafts so that people might pull it . theIr return (fig. 65). The obverse showed cast anchor in the roads under a cloudless sky. The to Amalienborg Palace "amidst cheers and shouts of the king in profile, the reverse the city of Copenhagen queen came out to meet her husband in a barge. joy and the swinging of hats", or, as Adresseavisen in the hape of a woman with a � brick crown making offer­ All that Saturday the people of Copenhagen had (the Advertisement Paper) expressed it more poeti­ mgs to a statue of Hygeia, the goddess set aside their work and business and excitedly "kept cally in a front page column before the advertise­ of health placed on a high pedestal in front of a look-out, from the houses, towers and embank­ ments, "he was borne safely to the Royal Castle on . a burning alta WIth an Aesculapian ; staff (Hygeia was the daughter ments, from the Customs House, from mast-tops, the hands of the [capital's] inhabitants". The king of the Greek god of medicine, Asklepio had to step fo rward on the balcony in order to s). and from the coasts of Amager and Zealand". When Not only Grundtvig himself but acknowledge the ovations. In the evening it pleased . also his three the cry was finally heard "The steamship is now vis­ child en were among the almost 1,700 Copenhagen ible in the sea!" everybody rushed down to the har­ him and his family to drive through the main streets � cont Ibutors to the project; � but perhaps he was dis­ bour of the city to see his subjects' illuminations. The fe s­ appomted at the use of Greek instead tivities continued during the fo llowing days, includ­ of Nor d' lC mythology. as if the whole crowd fo rmed but one body, with ing student processions and military parades. Under This was certainly not the case with Grundtvi thousands upon thousands of heads. But when the pseudonym "A Vo ice from the People", one writer o g 's wn monumeno t t t h e ng, a . ki poem of 73 solid stan- the royal yacht was finally espied, advancing assured readers that a king should be like a father for zas pnnte d in D en nord' k e Kir IS ketidende (The Nor · proudly behind Nyholm's bastions, when it sped "the big national family", and that the people, "the Ch d1C FIG. 65. Memorial Me urch T"Imes ) on 26 January 1834 under dal. 1834. Frederiksborgmuseet, the Hillef0d. past [the naval fortresses of] Lunette and Tre­ naturally thinking, least corrupted mass", should :I � title d n-Aaret" (The "G Golden Ye ar). Its The m� kroner as if fate once more would threaten Den­ cling to him, thereby demonstrating a love that sur­ rec ll purpose, dal commemorating the i g the commemora return of the Danish King tive medal, was to Fred en k to Copenh . mark with the loss of its Palladium, but now passed every other human emotion. "The world has n m ar k agen m August 1833 was ot only the kin .. result VI issued as the g 's 50th JubIlee on 14 of a subscription among the loy­ April but also . loyal ' h a b'Itants turned inwards again, into the country's and the never seen anything more beautiful", claimed the h· bIr' cap'ta III of the IS thday 0 1 an d remamed strictly days later. It includes many details a matter for Copenhagen. nation's open embrace, the whole world should al eye-witness: the people, impelled by "the most sin­ fro m . tw 1 NordIC myth 0 1 ogy and n­ the history of Danish then have witnessed the fe elings they expressed, cere, completely voluntary, child-like and yet so co legend s, b ut no figure s . . ti­ £rom antIqUIty apart fr which rose to what I cannot describe, to quiet scious fe eling of loving affection, loyalty and gra nine m . om the yea , and the uses m sta nza qualities which made Frederik e of 50, wh' lCh are identified � VI's rule worship, when "The King! The King himself1" tude" held "a great divine service in the Te mpl Heimdal with praIseworthy were "s DIne moth the principal themes of ig, ers, the 'wave maidens'. the year could be seen descending into the barge. the Lord on the coast of the Sound!!!" Grundtv th IS' and the poem. n poem Grun Grundtvig touched on nt of I dtvIg' a dd ressed the new the anticipated who was no doubt also present, gave an accou , as a . year, medal commemorating 18 lIt' tle child the ki nza 34 m' ItS cradle who . ng ' s recent cure and People stared, "for the rumour had even spread the interplay between monarch and people in sta WOuld in middle age tnumphal cr own th return (stanzas e kin g an d finally 6-7, cf. 35-36) , whlCo h was go to its Father _ that the king was dead", and their eyes were filled 37 of a poem from 1834 as follows: , that ' - th en b'emg 183 . IS in worked on. But apparent O 3 rens H0ie-Loft" (th ly he did not ur) (st "£ e hall of hon- know the with tears: anza 3 ) . 183 details of the plan 4 was th erefo re a . fo r the medal's decora- national golden tIon. He imagined that on the one side it would por-

FLEMMING LUNDGREEN-NIELSEN

GRUNDTV 86 IG AN D COPENHAGEN DURING DENMARK' S GOLDEN AGE za 6). They were personified by the goddess Idun ituality regained its voice, and this waveless sea, Scandinavian spir tray the ship of fo rtune on a stormless, 63), a with the golden apples that could uphold and restore more than an "after-blast" (stanza rely", by "the power voice was all sails set, being propelled "leisu In ancient uth (fig. 66). In Nordic mythology these two were superficial echo of the olden days. �� other steam-propelled mere of heat" (stanza 10). Like all thinking mdeed a lovely man and wife'". - he th e b' ram an d - and here Grundtvig is probably also carried sails. The writings ships of the day, the royal yacht Snorri, Saxo she the heart (stanza 9) . Grundtvig stressed that the own translations from 1815-23 of on the one hand to the of his heat could obviously apply found its best Nordic and the masculine should be united with the and Beowulf, Scandinavian spirituality but on the other also to the Da i h and the feminine (stanza 36) : the war-god steam from its engine, the heart / May still way of expressing "What deepin � � ruler - and furthermore there is Odm s dwelling, Valhalla, and the goddess of love Danes' love for their 63)· The noble thoughts king rouse joy and pain" (stanza reference to the legendary little Freyja's abode, Folkvang, were both to be re-created probably a poems were echoed on the fo rtune and resonances of the (Shield), who brought Denmark royal in the same way that fields in the springtime become Skjold the king's breast: "It was a tonal meet­ the other side throne and in the country needed a regent. On green again. The combination of rose-bloom and when living and the dead, / As in a Golden the king with a ing / Of the of the medal Grundtvig imagined in stanza 68 heroic lay promised a new Nordic Golden Ye ar.37 Ye ar!" (stanza 67) . Grundtvig continued of corn on his silver-white hair. These blasts from Grundtvig's pen have little to wreath of golden ears of the writers of the with an unspecified description (13-15, cf. 17) show, this plays As the following stanzas and some were do with the Danish capital's cultivation of an inti­ Golden Age, for some were strong, Singspiel H0st-Gildet (The mate and refined mood in subdued poetry and art. on Thomas Thaarup's / One clear as gold mild: "One hard, another tender, on the occasion of the To his way of thinking, 'golden age' and 'golden year' Harvest Festival) performed dark and deep, / and amber, / One like the ocean, prince's wedding in 1790. were solid elements that concerned the whole popu­ crown as the eagle's flight!". poem Grundtvig One soaring In the main section of the the lation, in the past, the present and in the future. They end of the poem Grundtvig expressed as he himself had At the looked back on Frederik VI's life have God's embraced energy that should be invoked and uti­ that the golden year 1834 might young regent's assump­ wish seen it, starting with thewise of the Danish lized. In this respect he differedfr om the majority of blessing in order to reveal the richness on to the wedding festiv­ his colleagues. tion of rule (1784) , moving king and his peo­ heart in an interplay between the popular songs heralded Grundtvig's poem "0nske-M0en" (The Wish ities (1790), when Thaarup's of the people at ple. Peace abroad, enlightenment tongue and renewed respect a revival of the mother aiden) from February 1850 describes the mytholog­ home, a period of flowering for the � language, and thence to the present, Ical Nordic goddess Fylla. She was the friend of for the Danish these were the elements from sown. and - was to reap what had then been Balder's mother Frigg, and her task was to arouse the when the king Ye ar would grow fo rth. 35 the which the secular Golden . emphasized the contrast between wish "Until in Denmark's Golden Ye ar / It blissfully b Grundtvig Frederik VI's funeral, 15 January �======/d UTb. ======� 1784-88 and On the day of social and economic reforms of laid to rest" - because by then it would have been ful peaceful the Danske Sam­ IG. 1840, Grundtvig made a speech in 66. avid Jacobsen (1821-1871): The Goddess Idun. : Revolution of 1789. He compared F filled. He followed it up in May that same year with the bloody French the king's era to have IllustratlOn? from N olaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig's cre­ fund in which he proclaimed of Copenhagen in 180l to the book Grce k og Nordtsk� My th logi fo r Ungdo en (Greek the poem "Danmarks Gyldenaar" (Denmark's Gold­ the heroic Battle our midst although : 0 m m been a golden age "that was in Nordic god Balder, and emphasized a�d NordIC Mythology for the Young). 1847. The Royal n Ye ar) in which he saw the beechwoods that had mation of the is an allusion to the words � 30), we did not recognize it". It Library, Copenhagen. event bore a "son of pain" (stanza Just burst into leaf as a sign that God would send that this about Christ (John 1:26) and � century. This of John the Baptist The Nor e goddess Idun with the apples of eternal youth is the intellectual life of the new diate Denmark a long, golden year as beautifulas the mid­ namely suggests a reappraisal of the imme another Illustration from Grundtvig's textbook on myth­ term fr om Norse apparently 8 culture was called, with yet another regarded ology. summer.3 present, which Grundtvig until then had who smooths out all quarrels" after-effect of Oehlenschlager's death and mythology, a "Forsete ion. On the king's with both criticism and revuls An known god, whose name means burial in January 1850 can be noted in an article in (stanza 32); this little Grundtvig remembered of birthday a fo rtnight later the Aesir's conciliator. The son worked with stylized concepts in order to express the Danskeren (The Dane) of 2 March entitled "Guld­ 'chairman', was Samfund, for what he had of age him, again in the Danske fo under of peace had now come g content of a Golden Ye ar. In his poem ''Asa-Maalet og Alderen og Grotte-Sangen i Danmark" (The Golden pain and the language, communal singin done for the Danish K . and would establish good conditions for the ning �mpe -V'lsen "(Th e Aeslf To ngue and Medieval Bal- Age and the Grotta Song [an old Icelandic lay] in in 1834 looked forward to a strengthe and history, and lad) fro Danes. as "a popular m Novem b er 1849 he suggested that the Denmark). By way of introduction Grundtvig wrote of the king's posthumous reputation poem proceeded to request the Dan s once more should give the old Nordic lays and ironically about the laments of the time over the loss At this point the m Grundtvig referred � king". In an accompanying poe at 50r0 - a regular Damsh fo lk ballads "a warm home". The Edda la s of the prince of poets. He fo und Oehlenschlager as a king to fo und a Folk High School a cock in the morn­ Y to himself as a bard crowing like writings from the 1830S and represented the common Nordic heritage with a an nd producer of books less interesting than the feature in Grundtvig's the dawn of a Gold- ing: "Loudly I flap my wings / In � � drew attention to the combi­ m-born undertone consisting of the struggle fo r hlstoncal place he occupied. In the course of history 40s. Further, Grundtvig 6 � Frederik VI en Ye ar".3 l fe an . deed and poem: for 50 years ional l d a I ongmg lorC peace. Their symbol was Bragi the great prince of poets was, he claimed, the ver nation of the enormity of the nat ' of skalds in a Notwithstanding god o : his praises sung by a choir ig inter­ f poetry and eloquence, with his golden harp. "human spirit" whose childhood and youth lay in th had had he had experienced, Grundtv history since Hjarne catastrophes The £olk fashion unparalleled in Danish death throes. ballads represented a paean from the golden and silver ages of grey antiquity. With them as birth pains rather than d (an episode men-. preted epths , a "sorro sang the praises of Frode Fredegod the two Slesvig w WI'th JO' Y'', Just' as when mermaids Oehlenschlager this human sprit enjoyed a resur­ applies to a marked extent to This sang "ha lfw tioned in the 6th Book of Saxo's universe he ay between their smiles and fears!" (stan- gence in an age of iron - or rather, of paper; he 1848-50 and 1864. In his poetic under Frederik VI, wars, in from around 1200). In short, ' GRUNDTVIG AND COPENHAGEN DURING DENMARK S GOLDEN AGE

N-NIELSEN FLEMMING LUNDGREE 88 has long been known, and it is probably the gen­ tened a 'golden year' and placed in the near future. of gilt to the Iron Age in ning, admiration and renown". 39 These characteris­ applied "a genuine layer eral opinion everywhere. However it is only in He did so again in 1864. His poem in commem­ justly be called a 'Golden tics had no place in an approaching Danish 'golden everything so that it could connection with very few things that I have the oration of Frederik VII was called "Danmarks Guld­ year'. In Grundtvig's view the aim should rather be to should repudiate those who Ye ar'''. Therefore one pleasure to share what at present is the 'general Alder og Gylden-Aar" (Denmark's Golden Age and make people's everyday lives golden. He emphasized claimed that opinion', and among them is not the fact that Golden Ye ar) and compared - a month befo re the this in his Haandbog i Verdens-Historien, Ill, 1843( -56). wonders never cease, insofar as what concerns us shocking retreat from Dannevirke - Balder's and the Golden Age was but a foolish, childish dream, In connection with the Italian Renaissance he wrote: in this case is by no means the small everyday Frode's golden age with the golden years under which they thank their good sense and reason for wonders, and by no means merely the fine arts Frederik VI and Frederik VII. In his cycle of poems the correct art of governing consists, with the com­ not having believed in, or taken the slightest created by human hands, but in particular the Nordens Myther ( of the North), written after mon good constantly in mind, in developing a notice of, even as children, adding with a haughty great art of the intellect and the heart to 'beautify the defeat in that same year, when the military and people's energies into the greatest and most bene­ mien that even gold's reputation as the noblest life', thus imitating the peerless Artist who creates political catastrophe weighed heavily upon the whole metal is but a cloud of smoke that vanishes the ficial fo rm of activity to which they are equal 'living beauty'. country, but not published until 1930, he let the Nor­ without wishing on any point whatsoever to fo rce moment it is puffed at, for well-consolidated gov­ dic goddess of love, Freyja, weep tears of longing fo r ernment bonds are at all times just as good at 'the a clarity which is only of value when it comes of Unfortunately, Grundtvig continued, this art has her vanished husband as an image of an amputated its own accord, which it always does when the reddest gold', and, when quoted on the Stock been lost amongst statesmen, but by imitating the Denmark. Characteristically, however, here he was activity lives to the end of its natural span; for Exchange fo r their owners, even better, being ancient Greeks and with the help of poets and wom­ also able to convert the pain of death throes into then it becomes, of insured against the grasping hands of thieves and necessity, aware of itself, en (none of whom are as yet represented in modern birth pains and turn the misfortune into a hope of whilst every other fo rm of so-called clarity is no many other eventualities. politics), it can be recovered so that we learn anew resurrection. For Freyja's tears - according to Snorri's more than empty delusion. Edda - were of gold, her heart wounds smelled of a superficial outlook, Grundtvig Faced with such to work on what can be done, that is, not on re­ and the smile of joy could be seen through the consisted in "creating a free and that because gold has three great The great art had to emphasize creating, or improving, but only on calming and veil of sorrow. 41 of living people", where­ with paper, namely brilliance, beautiful citizen community advantages compared beautifying life! It so happens that the former Grundtvig saw this attitude as being typically stones and colours in a it is "a peerless image of a as handling words, tones, resonance and durability, exceeds, as reason indicates, all human power, rea­ matter. Grundtvig's Danish. He saw Denmark preferably in the figure of superior human sense, beautiful way was a far easier life and a period which, in a son and understanding, so that in this way one a woman - be it the Freyja of Nordic mythology, the . For this reason, those conclusion was therefore possess the same qualities" merely makes matters worse and, as far as pos­ mermaid of the fo lk ballads, or the New Te stament's golden age in the past, nor who neither believe in a sible, what is good, bad, whereas experience widow of Nain - or all in one. He saw Denmark in fine arts are merely wasted on future, behave fo olishly. that whereas all the in a golden year in the teaches us that the latter can be most wondrously the perspective of world history as a historic idyll - hand a beautiful human Ye ar, Grundtvig continued, an ugly life, on the other The Danish Golden achieved. just as Thaarup H0st-Gildet its surroundings and had represented it in - because the Danes had life will in itself beautify might be expected to arrive "indescribably lovely". In the same way that ancient contact with, so that the principal elements in the life everything it comes into still retained the three This applied in particular if one could liberate Greece was the home of the idyll and the idyllic poet­ a difference will only be the same as that which of a nation, these being a sense of patriotism, or oneself from the prejudice that beauty presupposes ry that takes place in nature, Denmark wasthe coun­ engen­ arises between natural and painted rosy cheeks, mother tongue and fr iendly solidarity. This such the very strictest order at the expense of freedom, life try of the historic idyll. It was demonstrated not only in a at any rate between hothouse plants and dered hope fo r a Golden Ye ar, which even but are and the best abilities, fo r by Thaarup but also in the folk ballads: Age. This growths and fruits that develop later nation's old age corresponded to its Golden - longer and are more frequent comparisons much juicier, stronger, last hope lay behind Grundtvig's no work can in any possible way become greater Their soul is hero-love, which brings forth only in "free soil under an open Danish king at any given time suitable for the season between the reigning than the force which produces it, and the experi­ historic, idyllic scenes insofar that a historical Frode Fredegod and some of sky". a�d king Skjold, ence of millennia teaches us that all the noble forc­ event fills the fo reground and breathes signifi­ con­ Denmark's other ancient kings. He therefore regarded part of es of human nature thrive only in freedom and cance into the everyday, quiet, friendly life where­ a new dawn over the plain, Could it be that Grundtvig cluded by prophesying wither away in thraldom.40 by, in conjunction with the heroic life, it becomes culture as an artificially "a dawn of freedom and Denmark's Golden Age that is to say Denmark, deeply poetic. plant? by Frederik VII's accession to the fo rced hothouse deed" aroused - The real issue as far as Grundtvig was concerned art for Grundtvig was a question of arrang but clearly prepared by his predecessors True ) throne, ety, Was the discovery of the true identity of the people, ' Grundtvig wrote these words to Ingemann on 5 own existence and that of others in soci VI and Christian VIII. ing one's Frederik He expressed through a Danish community way of life, October 1823 when the two friends were correspond­ new the worship of enthralling illusions. What Grundtvig wished fo r Denmark was a not 1844 when he plain, cheerful and active - the plain as a counterpart ing about Ingemann's work on his epic poem about peace, justice and expressed this even more directly in Frode Fredegod period marked by to the boastful, the cheerful to the sulky, the active to will never cease' the Danish Middle Ages "Waldemar den Store og which in Denmark's his­ claimed that the proverb 'wonders in particular that happiness the drowsy. This way of life, and not a cultivation of hans Mrend" (Waldemar the Great and His Men), shouted at Thorvaldsen's than reason. Against this (as a sailor is said to have tory had always been better the ac tIVlt··Ies· of a cultural elite, constituted the true which was published the fo llowing year. Instead of that the Danes should funeral) background he fully agreed 'golden age', which Grundtvig nearly always rechris- Valdemar, Absalon and Esbern Snare, Grundtvig and cun- reject worldly "honour and power, wisdom

' GRUNDTVIG AND COPENHAGEN DURING DENMARK S GOLDEN AGE

FLEMMING LUNDGREEN-NIELSEN 91 90 such � spirited and bright view of mankind in all Greatness and loveliness must actually merge, life preferred a description of the heroes' would have its national, ecclesiastical and scientific contexts, and innovation unite in the victorious nature homes and seen "the interior at Fjenne­ childhood which throughout Christendom can and surely which must be able to take up the struggle against where Absalon's mother and his siblings slevlille will give to all peoples a Golden Ye ar in which a capital's tastefully concealed and garnished arti­ house where the heroic heart evidently lived, the enlightenment of life will oust all the literary ficiality, and even more against the artificial play belonged".42 jack-o' -lanterns and show the world what peoples of nature's lively shadows, which so easily appear lectures in 1838 he burst out, In his Mands Minde have been created fo r and are capable of. 46 to be both lovelier and richer than nature herself; to be able to mention the Copen­ happily surprised but where greatness and loveliness merge so 67) in the same breath hagen Liberty Memorial (fig. splendidly in our Strandvej, where the sea espous­ "It is FROM GOLDEN AGE TO GOLDEN YEAR French Revolution's Tree of Liberty: as the 4. es the beechwoods, the waves sing bass in the idyllically everything historic manifests strange how During the , as the term is nor­ birds' choir and the ships, which bring novelties itself in Denmark." Both the memorial and unites mally understood nowadays during festive weeks and and inspire activity, at the same time invigorate Singspiel came to express and Thaarup's 'Cultural Capital of Europe' celebrations, Grundtvig and constantly transform the views ... was an outsider. in the most natural way in the world the relation­ The operetta -like Copenhagen one all too easily that was where one could obtain the genuine histori­ ship between the fr ee peasant and the citizenry of associates with the Golden Age was certainly not the cal and idyllic impression. The splendid thing about the capital, indeed it became a lovely omen of the Copenhagen Grundtvig saw. The Tivoli Gardens, Thaarup's old, half-forgotten Singspiel was its very fine yet natural Danish taste that would develop plucky Danish soldiers, public holidays being cele­ combination of "the natural and the historical, the in the Peasant Era in the course of a living inter­ brated on the ramparts, balls, ballets and vaudevilles, real and the dreamed, the everyday and the ceremo­ play between rural areas and the capita1.43 all passed over his head. He lacked the Copen­ nial, the simple and the majestic, the popular and the royal". 47 FIG. 67. Johann Gottlieb Friedrich (C.1742-1809): The Liber­ hageners' lightheartedness and appetite fo r harmless slightly more than halfway through life, In 1838, ty Memorial, c. 1797. Indian ink and sepia. 460 360 mm. diversions. On the strength of this sharp-eyed appraisal of By x himself had changed his approach. Grundtvig Frederiksborgmuseet, Hiller0d. Inv. no. A 4943· The earnestly lofty - Oehlenschlager's preferred the Danish national character Grundtvig perhaps greater emphasis on the farming placing increasingly To Grundtvig, the Copenhagen Liberty Memorial from element in tragedies and occasional poems - held no deserves after all to be acknowledged as part of a the rural population he was approaching 1797, erected outside Vesterport (The Westgate), where city class and appeal fo r him either. As a young man Grundtvig Copenhagen's Golden Age. Many of the writers and that was met countryside, was unique. In the firstplace, it com­ national-cum-Christian cultural synthesis memorated a royal decree from 1788 and thus had its ori­ had been a totally unenthusiastic member of Kron­ artists of the time cultivated interiors, children, a movement of hitherto unknown to grow into gin of an older date than the Liberty Trees of the French prindsens Livcorps (The Crown Prince's Life Corps) domestic animals, gardens, chicken pens and, when Denmark. In the last of these Mands strength in Revolution, and secondly it had been erected voluntarily by during the Battle of Copenhagen, which he had aiming really high, the narrow lane and woods just given on 26 November 1838, he spoke the citizens of the capital to mark the liberation of the pea­ Minde lectures, watched, in Oehlenschlager's company and without outside. Grundtvig provides this intimate and near­ conciliatory santry rather than by an urban mob to celebrate its own of his own endeavours to find a more usurped liberties. poetic exaltation, from a balcony in the aristocratic sighted idyll with a much-needed expansion, supple­ the struggles and conflicts in attitude regarding Bredgade quarter and also from , Copen­ menting it with the big world and interpreting the had hitherto allowed himself to become which he hageners' favourite promenade along the harbour union as a symbol of a secular golden year of peace, embroiled:44 but fo reign justice and above all happiness, the Danes' specific it perhaps failed to see it that clearly, front.On the other hand, in January 1814 he switched this have studied Danish culture regard right over to exaggerated pathos at the Twelfth Night element. And fo r Grundtvig, happiness was above all It so happens that I have abandoned my oid scholars who and inherent in the feminine. It is therefore significant placidity with both wonderment and admiration mobilization of Copenhagen's students, which the claim: the more struggle, the more life. I realize its Grundtvig's contribution as one of king had been unable to make any use of and was that he should have seized the comparatively new now it should be: the more struggle, the more life tend to regard 45 moreover regarded by more dispassionate contem­ understanding at the time fo r the home, the family in danger, which may result in: more death. It explanations. desti- himself believed that Denmark's porary observers as touching on the parodic. and the female sex as the preserves of sincerity, mild­ therefore applies in all respects that a paltry set­ Grundtvig nations. ness and love - in short, the most genuinely human own lifetime could guide all other Grundtvig later sought genuinely Danish and tlement out of court is better than being awarded ny in his prodig­ Cop and at the same time closest to God's finestcreati ons. concluded the publication of his enhagen characteristics in a more peaceful and fat damages in court ... and that the spur which is In 1869 he with a meagre ordinary road, Strandvejen (the Coast Road) north His achievement was having the courage to reformu­ ious Haandbog i Verdens-Historie 15- necessary to peaceful activity is procured by an which of about the period 1715-1866 in Copenhagen. With his penetrating gaze he noted late this understanding so as to apply it to Denmark's open race rather than by hostilities - and one fo r page supplement tle of the sy God-given place in the history of the world. Just as that because of the Danes (the Bat mbolism in the capital's position between the human beings, not a horse-race. he noted against Sound at Kongedybet women were hj erte-ligere (,more heart-like', i.e. Copenhagen) and the Greeks (their rebellion (the Royal Fairway outside the en year arbour, warmer, sincerer) than men, Denmark was a kvind­ ), the nineteenth century was a "gold � where the Battle of Copenhagen took place In this way he created a background for what was the Turks identity". 1801) folk (female people), hj ertefolket (the people of the peoples realized their national m and Charlottenlund with its spreading beech after all, a peaceful political way of life characteristic in which and 1864 trees. H heart), God's own country in the new era. severe trials - in 1807, 1814, 1848 ere was the pledge of a Danish future: of the Danish social and political pattern after the Denmark's

_ all developed and spread June Constitution of 1849. Those who grew up with had after

' GRUN DTVIG AND COPENHAGEN DURING DENMARK S GOLDEN AGE FLEMMING LUNDGREEN -NIELSEN 93 92 In fact this feeling could even be transposed to The local, the intimate and the close are favourite 15· Grundtvig's attitude to the high culture of the . research: Robert Neiiendam, Golden A ge can be surveyed WIth the help of the following the religious. When Grundtvig in 1836 was to com­ categories in culture. This is borne out by little gems "Grundtvig og Teatret", I'n Gennem mange Aar contributions to GrundtvIg' Grun dtV1g' S- tu d'ler 1950, pp. 100-02, and 1954, pp. "c 1950, p.p.131-38, WIth' supplements by SteenJohansen pose fo r his Sang-V cerk a new Danish version of the such as J. L. Heiberg's national drama Elverh0j (Elfin 1952, pp. 7-38; 96-97; Arthur Arnh 0 �� rund gs s lmer in G��tav �beck, "N. S. Grundtvigs forhold I ' �� � og deres melodier': in Grundtvig-Studier konstarter. Den sJ atte mternationeF. til musik 0 g illedkunst m Va.xelverkan mellan skonlitteraturen 85th Psalm of David about the longing fo r God's Hill) and H. Hertz's Copenhagen comedy Sp arekas­ Ua studiekonfe remen over nor t och andra i Billedsalen: Grundtvigs d0ds- .d' lS k l �eratur, 1967, pp. 49-65; Flemming dwellings he first wrote "Munter og rolig" (Cheerful sen (The Savings Bank), Hans Christian Andersen's og mindedigte", II,m·· Grun d tVlg-Stud1er . Lundgreen-Nielsen , "'R 0d og h'VI d 1 6 . US III, pp. 555-56; P S VI, p. 238. 1981 ' pp. 5 5-5 6 ( poem m commemoration of Thorvaldsen) and peaceful), thought better of it and changed it to fairy tales and Ingemann's morning and evening 17. US VI, pp. 271-72. . Povl S. Grundtvig po "Hyggelig, rolig, / Gud! er din Bolig" (Cosy and songs fo r children, H. V. Kaalund's versified animal 18. Eller, rtrcetter 1 96 2, 19. US Ill, pp. N.618-19. F. ' pp. 74-80,91-99. peaceful, / God! is thy dwelling) and then also fables and 's ballets, K0bke's 20. GI, pp. 50 and 100 (the novels)', 21. Grundtvlg. , GI,. p 68 and Fasc. 116.1 4V (the hym�s ) ". GI p. 197 (mornmg. changed the following line from "elskelig" (amiable), paintings and Lundbye's drawings. Grundtvig was s manuscript. "Om Poesie Kun s t og V'd I s

FLEMMING LUNDGREEN- NIELSEN 94 GRUNDTVIG AND COPENHAGEN DURING ' DENMARK S GOLDEN AGE 95