Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig

Grundtvig, Nikolai Fredrik Severin (1783–1872), Danish religious leader. From 1839 until his death he was preacher at the Vartov Hospital in Copenhagen; in 1861 he was given the title and rank of a ‘Bishop’. In 1824 he started a reforming movement in Danish Lutheranism (‘Grundtvigianism’), attacking the rationalism and State domination of religion.

Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig , 1783-1872, Danish educator, minister, and writer, founder of the Danish folk high school . He came into doctrinal conflict with church authorities and was forbidden to preach but was reinstated (1832) and became titular bishop (1861). In education Grundtvig stressed national history and literature. A champion of mass education, he was responsible for evolving a system of folk high schools that has aroused international interest. Grundtvig's many literary works include his epoch-making Northern Mythology (1808, rev. ed. 1832), which loosely retells the Old Norse myths. His poems and songs treat historical, mythological, and religious subjects. He was influential in reviving interest in Anglo-Saxon literature, and he translated Beowulf into Danish (1820). Svend Grundtvig, the folklorist, was his son.

Bibliography: See studies by H. Koch (tr. 1952), J. Knudsen (1955), and E. D. Nielsen (1955).