Soren Kierkegaard

She remained silent.” Regine remained silent, even “essentially silent,”
which perhaps is not difficult to understand. And Kierkegaard did not have
anythin gmore to say about it either. So, after havin gtossed the music book
about in the above-mentioned manner, he left the room in great haste and
in “frightful anxiety” and immediately went to see Regine’s father, who
was apparently just as dumbfounded by the commotion as the youn gpianist
had been. Kierkegaard presented his case to him. This gave rise to additional
silence: “The father said neither yes nor no, but was nonetheless quite will-
ing, as I could easily understand....Ididnotsayonesingle word to charm
her—she said yes.”
With this begins one the great love stories of world literature. Søren and
Regine inscribe themselves in the series of unhappy lovers—Pyramus and
Thisbe, Dante and Beatrice, Abelard and Heloı ̈se, Petrarch and Laura,
Romeo and Juliet, Werther and Lotte—who are together in eternity be-
cause they never could be together in earthly life. The situation up there in
the apartment around the piano that Tuesday afternoon reveals in itself
how little the two actually knew one another. Later on, Regine supposedly
confided to Sibbern that “the first times she saw him, she felt for him a sort
of respect mixed with dread.”
All that we know of Regine prior to her fateful encounter with Søren
Aabye adds up to only the most elementary sort of information: She was
born January 23, 1822, and like Søren Aabye was the last in a flock of
seven children. Ahead of Regine came Marie, Olivia, Oluf Christian, Jonas
Christian, Cornelia, and little Regner, who, however, died shortly after
birth. Regine’s father, Terkild Olsen, was Councillor of State and director
of an office in the Finance Ministry; her mother was named Regine Freder-
ikke. Her family lived in 66 Børsgade, one in a row of three double-gabled
houses dubbed “The Six Sisters.” The Olsens passed the time by reading
the poets and authors of the day, edifyin gwritin gs, a bit of embroidery;
later on, Regine also took up painting miniatures. On Sundays they went
to Holmens Church, just opposite the Olsens’ home, but they also attended
the meetings of the Moravian Congregation of Brethren, which were fre-
quented by the Kierkegaard family as well. Neither these meetings nor
Thomas a`Kempis’sImitation of Christ, which Regine claimed to have stud-
ied quite assiduously, left long-lasting traces on her cheerful personality,
however. She was just a lovely girl of the upper bourgeoisie who wanted
to be happy, like everybody.
The first time that Søren Aabye saw the girl who was now his fiance ́e
was on a sprin gday in 1837 out in Frederiksber gwhere he was visitin ghis
friend, the theologian Peter Rørdam, who still resided at the home of
his mother, Cathrine Georgia, widow of the late Dean Thomas Schatt