Poetry
Sang-Værk til den Danske Kirke
Nikolai Grundtvig · 1837
Synopsis
A vast collection of more than four hundred hymns, either new or reworked from older songs. Following a plan that lets the “seven Churches” of Christendom be heard, the author freely adapts into Danish songs from the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Anglo-Saxon and English, German and Nordic traditions, alongside his own hymns for the great feasts, from Christmas to Pentecost.
Context
The first instalment appears in the last days of October 1836, during the jubilee of the Reformation, and the volume is complete on 13 September 1837, from the Wahl bookshop in Copenhagen. It is dedicated to Gunni Busck, the friend who had financed this work. The title plays on the carillon of Our Lady's Church in Copenhagen, which played hymn tunes before it was destroyed by a bombardment. The collection was meant to supply the material for a new hymnbook to replace that of 1798; the author himself revises a new edition of it in 1868.
Who it is for
A collection of hymns to be read in pieces; many are still sung in Danish churches. No French translation; in English, a selection of his hymns in Living Wellsprings, 2015.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the breakthrough of his hymn work; the author now accounts for close to a third of the hymns in the official hymnal of the Church of Denmark.
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The pages consulted to check this page.