Danish: Påske Morgen Slukker Sorgen
I Corinthians 15:54-55
Text: N. F. S. Grundtvig 1783-1872 Tune: Ludvig Lindemann (1813-1888)
1. Easter morrow stills our sorrow,
Stills our sorrow forevermore.
Light ever glowing,
Life overflowing
Floods from the dawn on the darkest shore.
Easter morrow stills our sorrow,
Stills our sorrow forevermore.
2. From his prison, Christ has risen,
Christ has risen in morning light.
Hell weeps in sadness,
Heav’n sings with gladness,
Heav’n sings with gladness and great delight.
From his prison, Christ has risen,
Christ has risen in morning light.
3. Anthems glorious, joy victorious,
To our great Redeemer rise.
Christ interceding ,
Upward is leading
Leading us home to his Paradise.
Anthems glorious, joy victorious,
To our great Redeemer rise.
4. Angels biding, bring good tidings,
Bring good tidings at break of day.
Sunbeams awaken,
Death is forsaken
Heralds of heaven the news relay
Angels biding, bring good tidings,
Bring good tidings at break of day.
5. Sin confounded, grace abounded,
Grace abounded and set us free.
Death dreads are ended, Jesus ascended,
Jesus ascended, the shadows flee
Sin confounded, grace abounded,
Grace abounded and set us free.
Tr. Carl Døving
MEDITATION
It was one of those perfect Norwegian Easter mornings. The sun brilliant overhead,
the sky a crystalline blue, Tinn lake reflecting back, the snow blinding white, the
woods coming back to life. You could hear the sound of an axe ringing high up on the
mountainside, echoing through the valley. I had just stepped into the church, a
wooden church, where a little more than a century before my mother’s grandfather
and grandmother had been baptized. My great-great grandmother lay buried by the
side of the church. All of them devout; a special time.
The preacher began preaching. He spent much of the sermon castigating the
pleasure seeking skiers for not coming to church. As he described the perfidy of the
skiers, and their love of the beauties of nature, he began to make their choice seem
the better as we looked desperately out the small window into the glorious morning.
He was achieving the exact opposite of his intentions. Finally, he finished his rant
with a few Easter words he regretted the skiers were not hearing. Christ is risen!
Then the cantor/klokker began “Påske Morgen, Slukker Sorgen.” This was a favorite,
without which it is not really Easter for me. However, the tempo was so slow, rather
like a dirge. It was almost funny. In fact it was. It still makes a great story.
Here we were celebrating the most important event in human history and it was
dull as dishwater. In my memory, however, I still see a few gleams of sunlight
glinting off the golden baptismal basin in the dark room.
Grundtvig is describing the death and resurrection of Jesus as a cosmic battle. Christ
redeems all creation to take us up to be with him forever. His angels are bright as
lightning. I have remembered that service vividly for almost the last fifty years.
Maybe I have been wrong about what happened. The preacher, the cantor, despite
themselves, were witnessing to a glory that God gives us in very small earthen
imperfect things: words, hymns, the sacraments—like sunlight breaking through the
cracks in the walls of the church. The absence of the grandeur made me take notice.
Rather like our little home services today may have made us feel more deeply a kind
of glory in the little we had, all of which gleamed with rays of God’s grace.
Could it be, that even in that Easter service, what I felt was absent, made it present?
What I heard, no matter how poorly or well done, made me yearn for something
more, something Grundtvig is giving us in this hymn. We know it by faith and want
what the hymn shows us: his Paradise. We can behold it quite fully in the risen
Savior now, but will always want more until we see him face to face.
HYMN INFO
This hymn by N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783-1872) became very popular in Norway,
maybe because of the tune by Ludvig Lindemann (1812-1887), the organist at the
cathedral in Oslo and church composer of Norway. It is not so popular in Denmark.
And the text is not as rich as many of Grundtvig’s hymns. The rhyme scheme makes
for fun singing, however, with its repetitions and tight rhymes—impossible to
translate. The tune catches it. The translation misses some of Grundtvig’s richer
images, but it is what we have.
LINKS
Brunstad Christian Church (This is truly remarkable. Done Easter Sunday 2020, a virtual choir, combining singers from all over Norway and the world! The translation is better.)
SKRUK
Kirsten Flagstad’s version shows how important the hymn was for her.
Oslo DomKor
Iver Kleive, Poul Dissing, Knut Reiersrud (Wild!)