with these affectionate words: “Widower Michael Kiersgaard, hosier, and
Miss Ane Sørensd. Lund, copulated April 26 at Great Kiøbmagergade.”
Ane had been born June 18, 1768, as the youngest daughter of Maren
Larsdatter and her husband Søren Jensen Lund, who was said to have been
a“cheerfulandjocular”man,fromBrandlundincentralJutland.Thefamily
owned a cow and four sheep and were further endowed with two sons and
fourdaughters,ofwhomthefirstwasnamedMetteandtheremainingthree
were named Ane, Ane, and Ane. This choice of names could give rise to
some confusion, so the youngest was simply called “little Ane.” After she
was confirmed she went off to Copenhagen to work as a servant in the
home of her brother, Lars Sørensen Lund, who had married the widow of
a distiller and was thus also wedded to a distillery situated on Landemærket
in Copenhagen. The conditions there were so terrible, however, that Ane
soon left to work instead for Mads Røyen, whose service she then left in
1794 to work in the household of the newly married Michael Kierkegaard.
After thispoint, Anedoes notsee mtohave had much connection withher
own family. Although her brother Lars was one of the godparents when
her first daughter was baptized, her second daughter’s baptismal party two
years later was of a better class, and her brother the distiller was not among
them.Tojudgefromthescantysourcesavailable,shewasapleasant,chubby
little woman with an even and cheerful temperament. She appears to have
been unable to write; when she signed public documents, someone had to
guide her hand. Perhaps she could read a bit, but the reading matter she
owned was not particularly demanding. Two of the very few volumes in
her possession were Hagen’sHistoric Hymns and Rhymes for the Instruction
of Childrenand Lindberg’sZion’s Harp: AChristmas Present to the Christian
Congregation, containing hymns by Kingo, Brorson, Ingemann, Grundtvig,
Lindberghimself, andothers. Herunproblematic spirithas notinspired any
literaryorpoeticportrayalsandperhapscanonlybeglimpsedhereandthere
in Søren Kierkegaard’s writings, where a housewife is depicted as a useful,
quietfactotuminherhusband’shome. Inhisjournals,SørenAabyedidnot
mention her by name one single time, and he never dedicated to her any-
thing he ever wrote—not even an edifying discourse.
Ane and Michael were thus in many respects an odd couple, but as time
went on they probably learned to love one another. And at any rate they
comported themselves like proper married folk. Three girls came along in
the course of the first five years: Maren Kirstine on September 7, 1797;
Nicoline Christine on October 25, 1799; and Petrea Severine (sharing a
birthdaywith hereldestsister) onSeptember7, 1801.Andwhen thepater-
familias wrote his will in 1802, he was far more generous than he had been
at the time of the marriage contract. True, mention is still made of the6 {1813–1834}