numbers of clubs, and--in some instances--worked
zealously for the social and economic uplift of the depressed classes.

In this latter endeavor many pastors assumed a commendable part. Having
lost the old Gospel, the men of the cloth became eager exponents of the
"social gospel" of that day. While we may not approve their Christmas
sermons "on improved methods of stable feeding," or their Easter sermons
"on the profitable cultivation of buckwheat," we cannot but recognize
their devoted labor for the educational and economic uplift, especially
of the hard-pressed peasants.

Their well-meant efforts, however, bore little fruit. The great majority
of the people had sunk into a slough of spiritual apathy from which
neither the work of the Rationalists nor the stirring events of the time
could arouse them.

The nineteenth century began threateningly for Denmark, heaping calamity
after calamity upon her. England attacked her in 1801 and 1807, robbing
her of her fine fleet and forcing her to enter the European war on the
side of Napoleon. The war wrecked her trade, bankrupted her finances and
ended with the severance of her long union with Norway in 1814. But
through it all Holger Danske slept peacefully, apparently unaware that
the very existence of the nation was threatened.

It is against this background of spiritual and national indifference that
the towering figure of Grundtvig must be seen. For it was he, more than
any other, who awakened his people from their lethargic indifference and
started them upon the road toward a happier day spiritually and
nationally.

Nicolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig, like so many of Denmark's greatest
men, was the son of a parson. He was born September 8, 1783, at Udby, a
country parish in the south-eastern part of Sjaelland. His father, Johan
Ottesen Grundtvig, was a pastor of the old school, an upright, earnest
and staunch supporter of the Evangelical Lutheran faith. His mother,
Catherine Marie Bang, was a high-minded, finely educated woman with an
ardent love for her country, its history, traditions and culture. Her son
claimed that he had inherited his love of "song and saga" from her.

The Grundtvigs on both sides of the family were descendants of a long
line of distinguished forebears, the most famous of whom was Archbishop
Absalon, the founder of Copenhagen and one of the most powerful figures
in 13th Century Denmark. And they still had relatives in high places.
Thus Johan Ed