ed many of his friends by
marrying Marie Toft, of Rennebeck's Manor, a wealthy widow and his junior
by thirty years. And despite dire predictions to the contrary, the
marriage was very happy. Marie Toft was a highly intelligent and
spiritual-minded woman who wholeheartedly shared her husband's spiritual
views and ideals; and her death in 1854 came, therefore, as an almost
overwhelming blow. In a letter to a friend a few weeks after her death,
Grundtvig writes, "It was wonderful to be loved as unselfishly as Marie
loved me. But she belonged wholly to God. He gave and He took; and
despite all objections by the world and our own selfish flesh, the
believing heart must exclaim, His name be praised. When I consider the
greatness of the treasure that the Lord gave to me by opening this loving
heart to me in my old age, I confess that it probably would have proved
beyond my strength continuously to bear such good days; for had I not
already become critical of all that were not like her, and indifferent to
all things that were not concerned with her?"

The last remark, perhaps, refers to a complaint by his friends that he
had become so absorbed in his wife that he neglected other things. If
this had been the case, he now made amends by throwing himself into a
whirl of activity that would have taxed the strength of a much younger
man. During the following years, he wrote part of his formerly mentioned
books on the church and Christian education, delivered a large number of
lectures, resumed his seat in the Riksdag and, of course, attended to his
growing work as a pastor. As he was also very neglectful of his own
comfort in other ways, it was evident to all that such a strenuous life
must soon exhaust his strength unless someone could be constantly about
him and minister to his need. For this reason a high-minded young widow,
the Baroness Asta Tugendreich Reetz, entered into marriage with him that
she might help to conserve the strength of the man whom she considered
one of the greatest assets her country possessed.

Grundtvig once said of his marriages that the first was an idyl, the
second a romance and the third a fairy-tale. Others said harsher things.
But Asta Grundtvig paid no attention to the scandal mongers. A very
earnest Christian woman herself, she devoted all her energy to create a
real Christian home for her husband and family. As Grundtvig had always
lived much by himself, she wished especially to make their home a