Soren Kierkegaard

logicalaccesstothehardmanbehindallthecordialityandthereforeended
upas“sheerdrivel-heads.”Thisdrivelingincluded,firstandforemost,their
disastrouspropensitytoreplacetheparadoxandtheoffenseoftheIncarna-
tion with “the miraculous-delightful, the delightful, the matchlessly de-
lightful and profound, et cetera, in short, withstraightforwardcategories.”
Butthedrivelingwasalsoattributabletotheirbestialcultivationofprocre-
ationandfamilylife,bywhichtheyreproduced“Jewishvalues.”Andthey
alsogatheredinto“parties,”entertainingoneanotherinthe“freelanguage
ofuniversalgeniusincarnate.”Thisdoesn’tsoundverynice,anditwasn’t:
“AnyonewhoknowssomethingofthefusstheGrundtvigiansmakeabout
LifeandtheLiving,aswellasthenuisancetheycausewiththeseexpressions
willeasilyseethatthesecretofthewholethingistoattaintoachildishness
typical of southern climes.” Theysupplemented this infantilism with their
“nonsense about nationality,” which in Kierkegaard’s view was a “regres-
siontopaganism,”becauseChristianityhad“wantedtoabolishpaganism’s
deificationofnationalities!”
KierkegaarddismissedtheGrundtvigians’nationalist-romanticpreoccu-
pation with Nordicism as “twaddle,” and he was tiresomely untiring in
hismockeryofGrundtvigianyodelingandthe“furrowedbrows,wrinkled
forehead,Norwegianaccent,therollingoftheR,andalltheotherGrundt-
vigian affectations.”And theremark aboutthe Norwegianaccent wasnot
merelyapolemicaladd-on.MichaelRosing,adirectorattheRoyalTheater,
was a Norwegian and did what he could to Norwegianize the language
used on the stage. This was well-received by the Grundtvigians, whose
linguisticarchetypewasofcourseOldNorse,butitwasnotpossibletoget
the nation to speak Old Norse, so they contented themselves with some-
thingthatmightremindoneofOldNorse,namelyNorwegian.Andwhen
onseveraloccasionsKierkegaardcalledthem“open-shirted,”this,too,was
notmerelyabusivelanguage.ForGrundtvigiansinfactlikedtodispensewith
neckties,therebygivingevidenceoftheirOldNorsemanliness!
There were also great expectations among the Grundtvigians on June
23,1845,whenSwedishandNorwegianuniversitystudentsarrivedinCo-
penhagen toparticipatein aScandinavian studentrally.Thenextevening
theycelebratedintheridingschoolofChristiansborgPalace,whereArch-
deaconTrydespoke,andthefollowingdaythefestivitiesoftheScandina-
vian Society continued in the Deer Park with singing and with no fewer
than two addresses by Grundtvig. Kierkegaard read about the merriment
inFædrelandet, which carried evocative sketches both of the dinner at the
riding school and of the festivities at the Deer Park. It was in thinking of
thelatterevent thathe foundthegreatestinspiration:“At the conclusion,
an apotheosis. Grundtvig appears in the surrounding woods on a elevated