the academic debates of his well-educated sons. “The most gifted person I
havemet,”PeterChristianlaterdeemedhim,whilethetheologianFrederik
Hammerich called him “wonderfully gifted”and provided this description:
“TheoldJutlandhosierwasamanwhowasalwaysreading.Hecouldwork
his way through philosophical systems but nonetheless made the family’s
daily purchases at the market himself. I can still see him on his way home
fro mthe market, carrying a fine, fat goose.” His granddaughter Henriette
Lund vividly recalled “the aged, venerable figure of Grandfather in a long
beige coat, his trousers stuffed into the tops of his narrow boots, a sturdy
cane with a gold head in his hand, and, not least interesting to us children,
his pockets filled withpfeffernu ̈sse. His build was powerful, his features firm
and determined; he carried his head bent slightly forward, while his eyes
had an expression as if they were dreaming, still staring out over the moors
of Jutland.” When he showed himself in the street he usually wore a “gray
coat, a vest or tunic, velvet or Manchester cotton knee breeches in black
orwhite,coarsewoolorsilkstockings,shoeswithlargebucklesorHungar-
ian boots with tassels on the front.” Here, as in most other cases, we have
a portrait of the merchant Kierkegaard seen very muchfrom withoutand
devoid of any sort of psychological depth. Our interest in Michael Kierke-
gaard, however, is of course to get an idea of the mental possibilities, the
patterns of behavior, the dispositions that might also have been lurking in
his son.
It is incontestable that it is to his youngest son that the father is indebted
for his formidable posthumous reputation. For example, from the period
whenEither/Orwasnearingcompletion,wehaveapartiallyautobiographi-
cal sketch, entitledDe omnibus dubitandum est, in which a young gentleman
named Johannes Climacus offers a broadbrush and generously immodest
sketchofhisownintellectualdevelopment.Atonepointinthis“narrative,”
as the excursus is called, he provides a picture of his childhood home that
issocarefullyandsuccinctlydrawnthatthepassagehassincebecomeamust
in every biography: “His home did not offer many diversions, and since he
almost never left the house, he early on became accustomed to occupying
himself with himself and with his own thoughts. His father was avery strict
man who was to all appearances dry and prosaic, but his homespun coat
concealed a glowing imagination that not even his advanced age could
dampen. When Johannes occasionally asked for permission to go out, he
was most often refused, although one time his father made up for it by
offering to take hi mby the hand and stroll up and down the floor. At first
glance this was a poor substitute, but like the homespun coat it concealed
something quite different underneath. Johannes accepted the offer, and it
was entirely up to hi mto decide where they would walk. They went out14 {1813–1834}