Svend Grundtvig

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Svend Grundtvig

Svend Hersleb Grundtvig [ svɛnʔ ˈgʀondviːʔ ] (born September 9, 1824 in Copenhagen -Christianshavn; †  July 14, 1883 ibid) was a Danish literary scholar and folklorist .

He is considered to be the founder of Danish folklore and the most important scientific collector and editor of Danish folk tunes , sagas , proverbs , riddles , nursery rhymes and fairy tales , i.e. the traditional folk poetry in Danish literature . He was also interested in folk poetry in Icelandic and Faroese literature .

Life

Svend Grundtvig was the second oldest son of Elise and NFS Grundtvig , the great Danish theologian, poet and founder of the adult education center. Svend therefore enjoyed private tuition from his own father, who particularly taught him Greek , English and Danish . At the same time he benefited from his father's poetry and access to sources such as the Bible , Homer , Herodotus and the Edda .

When he was 15 his father gave him a copy of Danish folk tunes from 1812 to 1814. Svend went to the Royal Library on his own to study the older sources. His father did not stop him, and when Svend said that he had devoted himself to a "breadless art" and would rather become an engineer officer, his father affirmed his love for old literature and assured that Svend was exactly on the right path if he continued his studies.

On the great trip to England in 1843, Svend Grundtvig was allowed to accompany his father so that he could continue his education. He attended the libraries in London , Oxford and Edinburgh , where he studied the old English manuscripts of the folk tunes, which had been collected at the end of the 18th century. Back in Denmark, Svend decided to reissue the Danish folk tunes himself. This turned into 40 years of work to the end of his life.

As early as 1842 he began to translate English and Scottish folk tunes into Danish in order to prepare for his Abitur, which he passed in 1846 - only 22 years old. Immediately afterwards he formulated the plan for the publication of the entire traditional Danish folk poetry, which met with great interest from the professional world of the time, especially since his influential father campaigned for him publicly in 1847.

But the outbreak of the Schleswig-Holstein War in 1848 suddenly interrupted this work. Svend Grundtvig volunteered. Right at the beginning he witnessed the tragic death of his childhood friend, the painter Johan Thomas Lundbye , who died after an unintentional shot in his arms. Nevertheless, Svend Grundtvig trained as an officer and took part in the Three Years' War until the end of 1851. In the same year his mother Elise died while he was on duty in Schwansen .

After the war he stayed with the army for the time being, but turned back to his studies on the side. The first volume of his work Danmarks gamle Folkeviser (Denmark's old folk tunes) from 1853 laid the foundation for the systematic collection and publication of folk songs and thus for Danish folklore. On July 1st of that year he retired from active military service and the most productive years of his life began. In 1856 followed the 2nd volume Trylleviserne (magic ways) and 1862 the Historiske Viser (historical ways) as 3rd volume.

Together with the Icelandic national hero Jón Sigurðsson he published the Izlenzk Fornkvæði (Icelandic old folk tunes ) as early as 1854-1858 .

The three-volume work Gamle danske Minder (Old Danish Monuments) 1854–1861 was also of great importance . It was a collection of fairy tales - comparable to what the Brothers Grimm did for Germany. In this context, Svend Grundtvig established the concept of popular belief (folkets tro) in the Danish discourse, which replaced the derogatory term “superstition of the poor”.

In 1860 he became a master at the University of Copenhagen and in 1863 professor. This position slowed his creativity, as he now had to deal with compulsory university work. In addition, there was his deep disappointment with the outcome of the German-Danish War in 1864, in which Denmark had to cede Schleswig. But it went further: Sæmunds Edda was published in 1868–1874. The 4th volume of the Danmarks gamle Folkeviser appeared in 1873 and the first half volume of the 5th volume in 1877-78. An appendix to Volume 1 was published in 1883, the year of his death.

His student Axel Olrik published the second half of the 5th volume from 1877 to 1878 in 1889, and the 6th and last volume from 1895 to 1898. From 1898, the publication was carried out by Danske Ridderviser I-III (Danish knight ways I-III) as a continuation of gamle Danmarks folkeviser I-V . When Olrik died in 1917, Grundtvig's work was far from complete. Grundtvig bequeathed the entire Danish fairy tale research and edition to his successors.

Grundtvig and Jørgen Bloch began collecting Faroese ballads as early as 1880 . Svend Grundtvig was a good friend of VU Hammershaimb , the creator of the New Faroese written language. The work of Napoleon Nolsøe was the basis for the Grundtvig and Bloch collection . The result was Føroya kvæði. Corpus carminum Færoensium in 16 manuscript volumes with 234 folk ballads in 800–900 versions and a total of 70,000 verses - the entire orally transmitted Faroese language legacy . This work was also published in 1941–96, with Christian Matras as editor.

His Lexicon Færoense (1887–1888), a dictionary of the Faroese language that was based on the then unpublished Dictionarium Færoense by Jens Christian Svabo, remained unpublished . This work formed the basis for all other Faroese dictionaries (e.g. by Jakob Jakobsen 1891, Christian Matras 1961, Jóhan Hendrik Winther Poulsen 1998).

Svend Grundtvig died at the age of 58 and found his final resting place on Frederiksberg Ældre Kirkegård in Frederiksberg Municipality on the island of Zealand .

Works

Selection of collections from Svend Grundtvig:

  • Danmarks gamle Folkeviser . Volumes I – VI, 1853–98 (Denmark's old folk tunes)
    • Danmarks Folkeviser . Copenhagen: Philipsen, 1882
  • Gamle danske Minder . Volumes I – III. 1845-1861
    • Danske Folkeæventyr . Copenhagen: Aug. Bang og Lehmann & Stage, 1884 (Danish folk tales)
    • Gamle danske Minder i Folkemunde: Folkeæventyr, Folkeviser, Folkesagn and other Rester af Fortidens Digtning and Æra, som de endnu leve i det danske Folks Erindring . Volumes I – III, 1970 - ISBN 87-500-1012-3
    • Danske Folkeeventyr , Volumes I – II, Charlottenlund: Rosinante, 1984–1985 - ISBN 87-7357-045-1
    • Danske Folkeæventyr , 1988 - ISBN 87-88258-25-4
  • Íslenzk Fornkvæði . Volumes I – II, 1854–85 (Icelandic ballads)
  • Sæmundar edda hins Fróða: the Ældre edda . Copenhagen: Gyldendal , 1868 (The Elder Edda)
  • Danske Ridderviser . Volumes I – IV, 1898–1923 (Danish knightly ways)
  • Føroya kvæði: corpus carminum Færoensium . Volumes I – VII, 1941–96 (Faroese Ballads)

fairy tale

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Svend Grundtvig  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Grave of Svend Grundtvig. knerger.de
  2. ↑ These fairy tales in Nordic folk tales 1st part Denmark / Sweden translated by Klara Stroebe. Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Jena 1922
personal data
SURNAME Grundtvig, Svend
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grundtvig, Svend Hersleb (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish literary scholar and folklorist
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1824
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen -Christianshavn
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1883
Place of death Copenhagen -Christianshavn