, 1872-10-23

long winter nights, heard folk-song after folk
song, and story after story. In 1900 he became
a student, and in 1903 we find him listening to
the philosophical lectures of FL. Stefens, a Nor
wegian by birth, but German in education and
bias. The mystical rationalism of Steffens'
teaching produced a strong effect on the young
mans mind be seized with emotion doctrines
that commended themselves so highly to his
present condition Of mind, and this circumstance
served to direct his energy into the channel of
theoretic theology. The name of Steffens is
almost forgotten now a-days, but 10 the earliest
years of the century he was q power in the
North OF Europe, more by the almost magnetic
attraction of his personal presence than by any
great depth of value in bis words.
In a pretty country-house, in the island of
Langeland, where he was tutor, Grundtvig
now began to throw himself heart and soul into
literature. He studied Icelandic, that be might
make himself master of the ancient sages; Ger
man, that he might revel in Goethe and Tieck
and English, that he might stand face to face
with Shakespeare. But what reused the young
Titan more than all was the publication of
Oehlenschlager's first volume Of poems, which
came to him in his solitude in LangeIand, and
fired him a with new ambition. Henceforth he
was q poet, but his first two works, though pub
lished under the patronage of Rabbek, fell dead
AOh IL plOSS' - lie uAu many SIEIDSS ~ u6
bow. In 1907 he published " On Religion and
Liturgy" in which he stepped forward as a
spiritual reformer, urging the necessity of a
broader spirit in religious matters. The daring
tone OF the book drew peoples attention to its
author. In 1908 he appeared before the public
In yet another guise, as author of 1.-THE Mytho-
logy of the North" a first attempt at a phi
losophico-poetical Interpretation of the Scandi-
navian myths, and this was followed by long epic
poem of similar drift. Litarary work was carried
by him to such an excess that in 1910 the ner-
vous system gave way, and the young poet had
to go home to his fathers house to be nursed.
Here he wrote GA Short Sketch of the Worlds
Chronicle" an extraordinary and violent work,
which reused a good deal Of ill~-feeling against
him. In 1913 his father died, and he came to
live in Copenhagen. There his literary ambi-
tons blossomed out in the most fervid manner.
The seven years Of his stay In the city are filled
with the record Of cea8eless labour be pub
lished in that period q great mass Of ~poetical,
theological, and philosophical works, edited and
wrote a newspaper, and translated into the
best Danish, Snorro Sturleson, Saxo-Gramma-
ticus, and Beowulf. In 1923 he came with his
newly-wedded wife to live at Prnst6, a little
country town in Zealand, of which he had been
made pastor but the provincial life proved un-
b~earable, and 10 a few months he 4ittod back
w Az @PA0'
Hitherto his life had been one ofcon8tant and
well-merited success, but now a hand was in
terposed TO stop the onward course of victory.
1t must be confessed that his own unwisdom
drew it on him. In the University of Copen-
hagen a DR.. Clausen was Professor of Theolo-
gy Grundtvig, who had long thrown over the
rationalism of Stefens, considered Clausen too
much addicted to tho same ideas, and openly,
even violently, charged him with heresy. The
result was o lawsuit for libel, and Clausen was
successful. Grundtvig was heavily fined, and
placed under ecclesiastical censure, a ban which
was not removed for sixteen years, Ho retired
from publicity in consequence, and lived as "a
private man of letters the languages and popu-
lar literature of the peoples of the North con-
tinued to be his constant study. He interested
himself in Anglo-Saxon, and, that he might ex-
plore all the streams Of that language at their
fountain-head, he paid four successive visits to
England. In 1912, especially, when the Trac-
tartan movement at Oxford was beginning to
work SO powerfully in the English Church,
Grundtvig, who had watched the battle from
afar, came over to us again, that he might study
on tbs spot the various currents Of excited re-
ligious opinion then dividing English society.
All this while he was not entirely without pub
lie influence i'll theological matters soon after
his disgrace, be sought and at last obtained per-
mission to preach in a single church in Copen-
hagen, where he, Sunday by Sunday, declaim-
ed and exhorted in his peculiar manner to q Sc