Hymns and Hymnwriters of DenmarkAaberg, J. C. (Jens Christian)
History
Hymns and Hymnwriters of Denmark
Aaberg, J. C. (Jens Christian)
Hymns, Danish -- History and criticism; Hymns, Danish -- Translations into English
Thus duty and inclination alike brought him in contact with people of
very different stations and conditions in life. His position and high
personal endowments made him a notable figure wherever he went. But he
had his enemies and detractors as well as his friends. It was not
everyone who could see why a poor weaver's son should be raised to such a
high position. Kingo was accused of being greedy, vain, over-ambitious
and self-seeking, all of which probably contained at least a grain of
truth. We should have missed some of his greatest hymns, if he had been a
saint, and not a man of flesh and blood, of passionate feelings and
desires, a man who knew from his own experiences that without Christ he
could do nothing.
Despite certain peculiar complications, Kingo's private life was quite
happy. Four years after the death of his first wife, he entered into
marriage with Johanne Lund, a widow many years older than he. She brought
with her a daughter from her former marriage. And Kingo thus had the
exceptional experience of being stepfather to three sets of children, the
daughter of his second wife and the children and stepchildren of his
first. To be the head of such a family must inevitably have presented
confusing problems to a man who had no children of his own. But with the
exception of his stepson, all the children appear to have loved him and
maintained their relation to him as long as he lived.
His second wife died in 1694, when she was seventy-six and he sixty years
old. During the later years of her life she had been a helpless invalid,
demanding a great deal of patience and care of her busy husband.
Contemporaries comment on the frequent sight of the famous bishop
good-humoredly carrying his wife about like a helpless child. Less than a
year after her death, Kingo entered into a new marriage, this time with
an attractive young lady of the nobility, Birgitte Balslev, his junior by
more than thirty years. This new marriage provoked a great deal of gossip
and many predictions of disaster on account of the great disparity in
years of the contracting parties. But the predictions proved wholly
unfounded, and the marriage singularly happy. Kingo and Birgitte, a
contemporary tells us, were "inseparable as heart and soul." She was an
accomplished and highly intelligent woman, and Kingo found in her,
perhaps for the first time in his life, a woman with whom he could share
fully the rich treasure of his own heart and mind. He is credited with
the remark that he had done what all ought to do: married an elderly
woman in his young days, whom he could care for when she grew old, and a
young woman in his later years, who could comfort him in his old age.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account