Beautiful the radiant sky,
Where the golden stars are shining,
And their rays, to earth inclining,
It was on a Christmas night,
Beamed with radiant light and glory,
When this star so bright and clear
Should illume the midnight drear,
Then, according to tradition,
Should a king of matchless vision
When they saw this wondrous star,
Went to worship and adore Him
And to lay their gifts before Him
-: Who was born that midnight hour :-
Him they found in Bethlehem
With an infant pure and holy
-: Resting in her loving arms :-
Guided by the star they found
Him whose praise the ages sound.
We have still a star to guide us
Whose unsullied rays provide us
-: With the light to find our Lord :-
And this star so fair and bright
Which will ever lead aright,
Is God’s word, divine and holy,
Guiding all His children lowly
-: Unto Christ, our Lord and King :-
This lovely, childlike hymn9, the first to appear from Grundtvig’s pen, was written in the fall of 1810 when its author was still battling with despair and his mind faltering10 on the brink11 of insanity12. [122]Against this background the hymn appears like a ray of sunlight breaking through a clouded sky. And as such it must undoubtedly13 have come to its author. As an indication of Grundtvig’s simple trust in God, it is noteworthy that another of his most childlike hymns14, “God’s Child, Do Now Rest Thee,” was likewise composed during a similar period of distress15 that beset16 him many years later.
For a number of years Grundtvig’s hymn of the Wise Men represented his sole contribution to hymnody. Other interests engaged his attention and absorbed his energy. During his years of intense work with the sagas17 he only occasionally broke his “engagement” with the dead to strike the lyre for the living. In 1815 he translated “In Death’s Strong Bonds Our Savior Lay” from Luther, and “Christ Is Risen from the Dead” from the Latin. The three hundredth anniversary of the Reformation brought his adaptation of Kingo’s “Like the Golden Sun Ascending” and translations of Luther’s “A Mighty18 Fortress19 Is Our God” and “The Bells Ring in the Christmastide.” In 1820 he published his now popular “A Babe Is Born at Bethlehem” from an old Latin-Danish text, and 1824 saw his splendid rendering20 of “The Old Day Song,” “With Gladness We Hail the Blessed Day,” and his original “On Its Rock the Church of Jesus Stood Mongst Us a Thousand Years.”
These songs constitute his whole contribution to hymnody from 1810 to 1825. But the latter year brought a signal increase. In the midst of his fierce battle with the Rationalists he published the first of his really great hymns, a song of comfort to the daughters of Zion, sitting disconsolately21 at the sickbed of their mother, the church. Her present state may appear so hopeless that her children fear to remember her former glory:
Dares the anxious heart envision
Still its morning dream,
View, despite the world’s derision,
Zion’s sunlit height and stream?
Zion with triumphant25 song.
Her condition is not hopeless, however, if her children will gather about her.
Zion’s sons and daughters rally
Now upon her ancient wall!
Have her foemen gained the valley,
Yet her ramparts did not fall.
[123]
Firm, unconquered and unshaken,
Another of his great hymns dates from the same year. Grundtvig was in the habit of remaining up all night when he had to speak on the following day. The Christmas of 1825 was particularly trying to him. He had apparently29 forfeited30 his last vestige31 of honor by publishing his Reply of the Church; the suit started against him by Professor Clausen still dragged its laborious32 way through the court; and his anxiety over the present state of the church was greatly increased by the weight of his personal troubles. He felt very much like the shepherds watching their flocks at night, except that no angels appeared to help him with the message his people would expect him to deliver in the morning. Perhaps he was unworthy of such a favor. He rose, as was his custom, and made a round into the bedrooms to watch his children. How innocently they slept! If the angels could not come to him, they ought at least to visit the children. If they heard the message, their elders might perchance catch it through them.
Some such thought must have passed through the mind of the lonely pastor33 as he sat musing34 upon his sermon throughout the night, for he appeared unusually cheerful as he ascended35 his pulpit Christmas morning, preached a joyful sermon, and said, at its conclusion, that he had that night begotten36 a song which he wished to read to them. That song has since become one of the most beloved Christmas songs in the Danish language. To give an adequate reproduction of its simple, childlike spirit in another language is perhaps impossible, but it is hoped that the translation given below will convey at least an impression of its cheerful welcome to the Christmas angels.
Be welcome again, God’s angels bright
To publish anew this wintry night
The wonderful Christmas story.
New year after winter hoary.
With gladness we hear your sweet refrain
The joy that is pure and holy.
[124]
With light in the windows glowing,
We harbor the babes as sweet and fair
As flowers in meadows growing.
The joy from your message flowing.
Reveal the child in the manger still
With angels around Him singing
The song of God’s glory, peace, good-will
That joy to all hearts is bringing,
While far over mountain, field and hill,
The bells are with gladness ringing.
God’s angels with joy to earth descend
When hymns to His praise are chanted;
His comfort and peace our Lord will lend
To all who for peace have panted;
The portals of heaven open stand;
The Kingdom to us is granted.
In 1826 Grundtvig, as already related, published his hymns for the thousand years’ festival of his church. But a few months later he again buried himself in his study, putting aside the lyre, which for a little while he had played so beautifully. Many had already noticed his hymns, however, and continued to plead with him for more. The new Evangelical revival47, which he had largely inspired, intensified48 the general dissatisfaction with the rationalistic Evangelical Christian49 Hymnal, and called for hymns embodying50 the spirit of the new movement. And who could better furnish these than Grundtvig? Of those who pleaded with him for new hymns, none was more persistent51 than his friend, Pastor Gunni Busck. When Grundtvig wrote to him in 1832 that his Northern Mythology52 was nearing completion, Busck at once answered: “Do not forget your more important work; do not forget our old hymns! I know no one else with your ability to brush the dust off our old songs.” But Grundtvig was still too busy with other things to comply with the wish of his most faithful and helpful friend.
During the ensuing years, however, a few hymns occasionally appeared from his pen. A theological student, L. C. Hagen, secured a few adapted and original hymns from him for a small collection of Historical Hymns and Rhymes for Children, which was published in 1832. But the adaptations were not successful. Despite the good opinion of Gunni Busck, Grundtvig was too independent a spirit to adjust himself to the style and mode of others. His originals were much more successful. Among these we find such gems53 as “Mongst [125]His Brothers Called the Little,” “Move the Signs of Grief and Mourning from the Garden of the Dead,” and “O Land of Our King,” hymns that rank with the finest he has written.
In 1835 Grundtvig at last wrote to Gunni Busck that he was now ready to commence the long deferred54 attempt to renew the hymnody of his church. Busck received the information joyfully55 and at once sent him a thousand dollars to support him during his work. Others contributed their mite56, making Grundtvig richer financially than he had been for many years. He rented a small home on the shores of the Sound and began to prepare himself for the work before him by an extensive study of Christian hymnody, both ancient and modern.
“The old hymns sound beautiful to me out here under the sunny sky and with the blue water of the Sound before me,” he wrote to Busck. He did not spend his days day-dreaming, however, but worked with such intensity57 that only a year later he was able to invite subscriptions58 on the first part of his work. The complete collection was published in 1837 under the title: Songs of the Danish Church. It contains in all 401 hymns and songs composed of originals, translations and adaptations from Greek, Latin, German, Icelandic, Anglo-Saxon, English and Scandinavian sources. The material is of very unequal merit, ranging from the superior to the commonplace. As originally composed, the collection could not be used as a hymnal. But many of the finest hymns now used in the Danish church have been selected or adapted from it.
Although Songs for the Danish Church is now counted among the great books in Danish, its appearance attracted little attention outside the circle of Grundtvig’s friends. It was not even reviewed in the press. The literati, both inside and outside the church, still publicly ignored Grundtvig. But privately59 a few of them expressed their opinion about the work. Thus a Pastor P. Hjort wrote to Bishop60 Mynster, “Have you read Grundtvig’s Songs of the Danish Church? It is a typical Grundtvigian book, wordy, ingenious, mystical, poetical61 and full of half digested ideas. His language is rich and wonderfully expressive62. But he is not humble enough to write hymns.”
Meanwhile the demand for a new hymnal or at least for a supplement to the old had become so insistent63 that something had to be done. J. P. Mynster who, shortly before, had been appointed Bishop of Sjælland, favored a supplement and obtained an authorization64 from the king for the appointment of a committee to prepare [126]it. The only logical man to head such a committee was, of course, Grundtvig. But Mynster’s dislike of his volcanic65 relative was so deep-rooted that he was incapable66 of giving any recognition to him. And so in order to avoid a too obvious slight to his country’s best known hymnwriter, he assigned the work to an already existing committee on liturgy67, of which he himself was president. Thus Grundtvig was forced to sit idly by while the work naturally belonging to him was being executed by a man with no special ability for the task. The supplement appeared in 1843. It contained thirty-six hymns of which six were written by Kingo, seven by Brorson, and one by Grundtvig, the latter being, as Grundtvig humorously remarked, set to the tune68 of the hymn, “Lord, I Have Done Wrong.”
Mynster’s influence was great enough to secure the supplement a wide circulation. The collection, nevertheless, failed to satisfy the need of the church. Dissatisfaction with it was so general that the pastors69’ conference of Copenhagen appointed a committee consisting of Grundtvig, Prof. Martensen, Mynster’s own son-in-law, Rev46. Pauli, his successor as Provost of the Church of Our Lady, and two other pastors to prepare and present a proposal for a new hymnal. It was an able committee from which a meritorious70 work might reasonably be expected.
Grundtvig was assigned to the important work of selecting and revising the old hymns to be included in the collection. He was an inspiring but at times difficult co-worker. Martensen recalls how Grundtvig at times aroused the committee to enthusiasm by an impromptu71 talk on hymnody or a recitation of one of the old hymns, which he loved so well. But he also recalls how he sometimes flared72 up and stormed out of the committee room in anger over some proposed change or correction of his work. When his anger subsided73, however, he always conscientiously74 attempted to effect whatever changes the committee agreed on proposing. Yet excellent as much of his own work was, he possessed75 no particular gift for mending the work of others, and his corrections of one defect often resulted in another.
The committee submitted its work to the judgment76 of the conference in January 1845. The proposal included 109 hymns of which nineteen were by Kingo, seven by Brorson, ten by Ingemann, twenty-five by Grundtvig and the remainder by various other writers, old and new. It appeared to be a well balanced collection, giving due recognition to such newer writers as Boye, Ingemann, Grundtvig [127]and others. But the conference voted to reject it. Admitting its poetical excellence77 and its sound Evangelical tenor78, some of the pastors complained that it contained too many new and too few old hymns; others held that it bore too clearly the imprint79 of one man, a complaint which no doubt expressed the sentiment of Mynster and his friends. A petition to allow such churches as should by a majority vote indicate their wish to use the collection was likewise rejected by the Bishop.
Grundtvig was naturally disappointed by the rejection80 of a work upon which he had spent so much time and energy. The rejection furthermore showed him that he still could expect no consideration from the authorities with Mynster in control. He was soon able, however, to comfort himself with the fact that his hymns were becoming popular in private assemblies throughout the country, and that even a number of churches were beginning to use them at their regular services in defiance81 of official edicts. The demand for granting more liberty to the laymen82 in their church life, a demand Grundtvig long had advocated, was in fact becoming so strong that the authorities at times found it advisable to overlook minor83 infractions of official rulings. Noting this new policy, Grundtvig himself ventured to introduce some of the new hymns into his church. In the fall of 1845, he published a small collection of Christmas hymns to be used at the impending84 Christmas festival. When the innovation passed without objections, a similar collection of Easter hymns was introduced at the Easter services, after which other collections for the various seasons of the church year appeared quite regularly until all special prints were collected into one volume and used as “the hymnal of Vartov.”
The work of preparing a new authorized85 hymnal was finally given to Grundtvig’s closest friend, Ingemann. This hymnal appeared in 1855, under the title, Roskilde Convent’s Psalmbook. This book served as the authorized hymnal of the Danish church until 1899, when it was replaced by Hymnal for Church and Home, the hymnal now used in nearly all Danish churches both at home and abroad. It contains in all 675 hymns of which 96 are by Kingo, 107 by Brorson, 29 by Ingemann and 173 by Grundtvig, showing that the latter at last had been recognized as the foremost hymnwriter of the Danish church.
[128]
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1
beckon
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| v.(以点头或打手势)向...示意，召唤 | |
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starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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hoary
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| adj.古老的；鬓发斑白的 | |
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wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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sages
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| n.圣人( sage的名词复数 )；智者；哲人；鼠尾草（可用作调料） | |
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diadem
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| n.王冠，冕 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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sagas
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| n.萨迦（尤指古代挪威或冰岛讲述冒险经历和英雄业绩的长篇故事）( saga的名词复数 )；（讲述许多年间发生的事情的）长篇故事；一连串的事件（或经历）；一连串经历的讲述（或记述） | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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disconsolately
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| adv.悲伤地，愁闷地；哭丧着脸 | |
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wields
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| 手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的第三人称单数 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响） | |
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anthems
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| n.赞美诗( anthem的名词复数 )；圣歌；赞歌；颂歌 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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forfeited
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| （因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vestige
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| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
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laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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pastor
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| n.牧师，牧人 | |
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musing
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| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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begotten
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| v.为…之生父( beget的过去分词 )；产生，引起 | |
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mansions
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| n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
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herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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yearn
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| v.想念；怀念；渴望 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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deign
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| v. 屈尊, 惠允 ( 做某事) | |
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rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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intensified
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| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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embodying
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| v.表现( embody的现在分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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mythology
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| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
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gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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subscriptions
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| n.（报刊等的）订阅费( subscription的名词复数 )；捐款；（俱乐部的）会员费；捐助 | |
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privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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authorization
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| n.授权，委任状 | |
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volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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liturgy
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| n.礼拜仪式 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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pastors
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| n.（基督教的）牧师( pastor的名词复数 ) | |
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meritorious
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| adj.值得赞赏的 | |
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impromptu
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| adj.即席的，即兴的；adv.即兴的(地)，无准备的(地) | |
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Flared
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| adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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74
conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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imprint
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| n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记 | |
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rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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82
laymen
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| 门外汉，外行人( layman的名词复数 )； 普通教徒（有别于神职人员） | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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authorized
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| a.委任的，许可的 | |
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