1. Danish Productions

Before the Reformation the northern countries possessed few hymns in the vernacular outside of translations of Latin originals. The hymns of the Roman Catholic service were rendered into Danish and Swedish prior to the Reformation (G. E. Klemming, Latinska Sånger, 4 vols., Stockholm, 1885,87; the Danish Tidebog is reproduced in C. Pederson, Danske Skrifter, vol. ii., Copenhagen, 1851), and after that event Norway, Denmark, and Sweden developed a hymnology. In Denmark the post-Reformation poetry began with satire and irony. The first Danish hymn-book was by Claus Mortensen Töndebinder, the Reformer of Malmö, and was called the "Malmö Hymnal," issued in 1528, reprinted the next year, enlarged in 1533, with a later edition by Hans Taufer, 1544. A large hymnal, with tunes to each hymn, containing 261 Danish and eight Latin hymns, was issued by Hans Thomissen, pastor of the Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen, in 1569, among the contributors to which were bishops Peter Palladius, Tyge Asmusen, Hans Albertsen, the nobles Knud Gyldenstjerne, Erik Krabbe, Elizabeth Krabbe Skram, the celebrated theologian Niels Hemmingsen, and others, including the editor, who contributed forty-nine hymns to the collection. The principle of arrangement was "the chief articles of the Christian faith." By the beginning of the seventeenth century the issue of hymn-books in Denmark was so frequent as almost to amount to an industry. In 1699 the "Kingo Hymn-book" was prepared by Bishop Thomas Hansen Kingo, and in a few places this is still in use. A rival to this was issued in 1717 by Pastor B. C. Gjödesen, used in some congregations until 1850. Another, by Erik Pontoppidan, appeared 1740, was the first to designate the hymns by numbers, and had the favor of the court. It was Pietistic, and one of its contributors was Hans Adolph Brorson. A third Danish issue was by the minister of state, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, and L. Harboe, bishop of Seeland, was issued in 1778, and was known as the "Guldberg Hymnal." In 1698 a new departure was made in the "Evangelical Christian Hymnbook" under the direction of Nicolai Edinger Balle, bishop of Seeland, marked by a timid supernaturalism and a varied rationalism. A supplement to this was added by a later bishop of Seeland, Jakob Peter Mynster, in 1845. In 1855 appeared the Roskilde Konvents Paalmebog, to which Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, B. S. Ingemann, and C. J. Boye made contributions, and supplements were added in 1873 and 1890. In 1899 the official hymn-book of the Danish Church was issued with the title Psalmebog for Kirke og Hjem.