Writing with the Dead - N.F.S. Grundtvig’s Use of Historical Sources

The project investigates how the influential Danish theologian, thinker and poet N.F.S. Grundtvig worked with textual sources from antiquity to his own day. The research objectives are: 1) to identify Grundtvig’s historical sources; 2) to analyse how he worked with historical sources; 3) to discuss how they shaped his ideas; and 4) to reassess his position in international intellectual history. In addition to the analysis of Grundtvig’s published works, the project group will take advantage of a new research infrastructure called Grundtvig’s Manuscripts Online, which uses the AI-software Transkribus to transcribe more than 80,000 unprinted pages from Grundtvig’s hand in his archive at the Royal Danish Library. The shared theoretical foundation for the interdisciplinary research team is modern genre studies and conceptual history. The project will not only result in a new assessment of Grundtvig; it will also change the goals and methodologies of working with his writings.