at
Frederik's Church In 1805, Grundtvig took a position as tutor in a house on the island of
Langeland. The next three years he used his free time to study writers
Shakespeare,
Schiller, and
Fichte. In 1802, his cousin, the philosopher
Henrich Steffens, returned to
Copenhagen full of the teaching of
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. His lectures and the early poetry of
Adam Oehlenschläger opened Grundtvig's eyes to the new era in literature. His first work,
On the Songs in the Edda, attracted no attention. 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. Grundtvig boldly denounced the clergy of the city in his first sermon in 1810. When Grundtvig published the sermon three weeks later it offended the
ecclesiastical authorities, and they demanded him punished. In 1810, Grundtvig underwent a religious crisis and converted to a strongly held
Lutheranism. He retired to his father's country parish in Udby as his chaplain. His new-found conviction was expressed in his
The First World Chronicle () 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. It won him notoriety among his peers and cost him several friends, notably the historian
Christian Molbech. Upon his father's death in 1813, Grundtvig applied to be his successor in the parish but was rejected. 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. From 1816 to 1819 he was editor of and almost sole contributor to a philosophical and polemical journal entitled
Danne-Virke, which also published poetry. From 1813 to 1815, he attempted to form a movement to support the
Norwegians against the
Swedish government. Later he preached on how the weakness of the Danish faith was the cause of the loss of
Norway in 1814. His sermon was met by an enthusiastic congregation in Copenhagen. Grundtvig withdrew from the pulpit because he did not have a parish of his own and was being barred by other churches. In 1821, he resumed preaching briefly when granted the country living of
Præstø, and returned to the capital the year after. In 1825, Grundtvig published a pamphlet, ''The Church's Rejoinder'' (), 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. He described the church as a "community for the purpose of advancing general religiousness". 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. He questioned the right of theologians to interpret the Bible. Grundtvig was publicly prosecuted for libel and fined. The
Church of Denmark forbade him to preach for seven years. During this time he published a collection of theological works, visited
England three times (1829–31), and studied
Anglo-Saxon. From 1844 until after the
First Schleswig War, Grundtvig took a prominent part in politics, developing from a conservative into an absolute liberal. In 1848 he was part of the
Danish Constituent Assembly that wrote the first
constitution of Denmark. In 1861 he received the titular rank of Bishop in the
Church of Denmark, but without a
see. He continued to write and publish until his death. He spoke from the pulpit at Vartov Church every Sunday until a few days before his death. His preaching attracted large congregations, and he soon had a following. His hymn book effected a great change in Danish church services, substituting the
hymns of the national poets for the slow measures of the
orthodox Lutherans. In all Grundtvig wrote or translated about 1500 hymns, including "
God's Word Is Our Great Heritage" and "
Det kimer nu til julefest". == Christian thinking ==