He was one of the most influential people in Danish history, as his philosophy gave rise to a new form of nationalism in the last half of the 19th century.

He was active during the Danish Golden Age, but his style of writing and fields of reference are not immediately accessible to a foreigner, thus his international importance does not match that of his contemporaries Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard.

He was schooled in the tradition of the European Enlightenment, but his faith in reason was also influenced by German romanticism and the ancient history of the Nordic countries.

[9] In 1802, his cousin, the philosopher Henrich Steffens, returned to Copenhagen full of the teaching of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling.

Returning to Copenhagen in 1808, Grundtvig achieved greater success with his Northern Mythology, and again in 1809 with a long drama, The Fall of the Heroic Life in the North.

[13] His new-found conviction was expressed in his The First World Chronicle (Kort Begreb af Verdens Krønike i Sammenhæng) of 1812, a presentation of European history in which he attempted to explain how belief in God has been viewed throughout human history and in which he criticized the ideology of many prominent Danes.

[16] In the following years his rate of publication was staggering: aside from a continuing stream of articles and poems, he wrote a number of books, including two more histories of the world (1814 and 1817); the long historical poem Roskilde-Riim (Rhyme of Roskilde; 1813); and a book-sized commentary, Roskilde Saga.

In 1825, Grundtvig published a pamphlet, The Church's Rejoinder (Kirkens Gienmæle), a response to Henrik Nicolai Clausen's work on the doctrines, rites, and constitutions of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.

A professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen, Clausen argued that although the Bible was the principal foundation of Christianity, it was in itself an inadequate expression of its full meaning.

[19] In his reply, Grundtvig denounced Clausen as an anti-Christian teacher and argued that Christianity was not a theory to be derived from the Holy Bible and elaborated by scholars.

Between 1837 and 1841 he published Sang-Værk til den Danske Kirke (Song Work for the Danish Church), a rich collection of sacred poetry; in 1838 he brought out a selection of early Scandinavian verse; in 1840 he edited the Anglo-Saxon poem "The Phoenix", with a Danish translation.

In all Grundtvig wrote or translated about 1500 hymns, including "God's Word Is Our Great Heritage" and "Det kimer nu til julefest".

[citation needed] Grundtvig's theological development continued over his lifetime, and took a number of important turns.

[citation needed] Even though he was a staunch Christian, Grundtvig's obsession with the pre-Christian Scandinavian faith lasted throughout his life.

[citation needed] Grundtvig is the ideological father of the folk high school, though his own ideas on education had another focus.

He advocated reforming the ailing Sorø Academy into a popular school aiming at another form of higher education than what was common at the university.

This idea came very close to implementation during the reign of King Christian VIII, whose wife Caroline Amalie was an ardent supporter of Grundtvig.

The death of the monarch in 1848 and the dramatic political development in Denmark during this and the following years put an end to these plans.

He also dreamed of forming a Great Nordic University (the School for Passion) to be situated at the symbolic point of intersection between the three Scandinavian countries in Gothenburg, Sweden.

[24] The common denominator of all Grundtvig's pedagogical efforts was to promote a spirit of freedom, poetry and disciplined creativity, within all branches of educational life.

[25] In 1815, Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin published the first edition of the Epic of Beowulf titled De Danorum rebus gestis secul.

Despite his lack of knowledge of Anglo-Saxon literature, Grundtvig quickly discovered a number of flaws in Thorkelin's rendering of the poems.

Grundtvig was very influenced by these ancient models of Christian and historical thought (notably the 8th-century Bede's Ecclesiastical History, written in Latin).