Troels Frederik Lund

Troels Lund September 1920

Troels Frederik Troels-Lund (September 5, 1840 - February 12, 1921) was a Danish historian.

Life

He was born in Copenhagen. He was the youngest son of Henrik Ferdinand Lund, Søren Kierkegaard’s brother in law. Henrik Ferdinand was the brother of the naturalist Peter Wilhelm Lund.

Troels Lund as a historian

Troels-Lund was appointed historiographer-royal to the king of Denmark and Comptroller of the Order of the Dannebrog. He entered the University of Copenhagen in 1858. His first important work, Historiske Skitser, did not appear until 1876, but after that time his activity was stupendous. In 1879 the first volume of his Danmarks og Norges Historie i Slutningen of det Xvi. Aarhundrede, a history of daily life in Denmark and Norway at the close of the 16th century, was published. His work said little about kings, armies and governments, but instead concentrated attention on the lives of the ordinary men and women of the age with which he deals. He used these common people to illustrate a vast body of documents previously neglected by the official historians.

Information Quarterly had this short article about him, "Treols Frederick, Troels-Lund, the well-known apostle of “Kulturgeschichte,” and one of the three Scandinavians to receive the Nobel prize. The editor has been unable to find the award on Nobel's site, but it seems to be on Google Books for literature was born in Copenhagen in 1830. After studying theology for awhile he abandoned it for the study of history. His first work, which appeared in 1871, an erudite biography of Socrates, gave him a great reputation among continental scholars. From 1870-1875 he was assistant at the Danish “Geheimarchiv.” And after that an instructor in history at the military school at Copenhagen. In 1888 he was made full professor of history, and from that day to the present has been producing many profound volumes mostly devoted to the subject of Scandinavian history during the sixteenth century." Kierkegaard also wrote much about Socrates. It seems the available sources have a conflict as to date of birth.

Lund nominated Georg Brandes for the Nobel Prize several times. In 1913 a bust of Soren Kierkegaard was proposed. When the sculptor, Rikard Magnussen, proposed the idea to Lund, then in his eighties, he didn't support the proposal, he is quoted as saying, "But didn't you know what he was like? Soren Kierkegaard was a hunchback." In the early 1900s biographers were interested in finding out what Kierkegaard was like on the outside.

Troels Lund and Kierkegaard

Petrea Kierkegaard. The first wife of Troels Lunds father, Henrik Ferdinand Lund, and mother to four of his siblings.

He related different stories about Kierkegaard to him. One instance was of Kierkegaard's playfulness, “He [Kierkegaard] was an unseen witness to a conversation between two poorhouse inmates. The first said: “It’s the devil that one never is happy." The other: “Nonsense! What’s happiness?” The first: “It would be if an angel dropped down from heaven and gave me a ‘blue one.’” This Kierkegaard could not resist. Ho took a five-dollar note (a “blue one”) from his purse, stepped up, presented it with a deep bow, and disappeared without saying a word.” In 1854 he sat in on discussions between his mother, Anna Kathrine, and Kierkegaard about whether or not Mynster was a "real Christian or not", he was 16 years old at the time. He visited Kierkegaard in the hospital and was a witness to his burial.

According to Lund, Kierkegaard spent half of his fortune on publishing his own works, he refused to accept interest on his money “on Old Testament grounds”, and he also gave much of his money to the poor. Kierkegaard says the same: "I almost never made a visit, and at home the rule was strictly observed to receive no one except the poor who came to seek help."

Works

• "Paa Vandring", 1867 (under pseudonym Poul Vedel)
• "Historiske Skitser - Efter utrykte Kilder", 1876
• "Mogens Heinesøn - Et tidsbillede fra det 16 Aarhundrede", 1877
• "Dagligt Liv i Norden i det sekstende Aarhundrede I-XIV", 1879-1901 (First edition under title "Danmark og Norges Historie i Slutningen af det 16de Aarhundrede")
• "Om Danmarks Forsvar", 1880
• "Preussens fald og Genoprejsning", 1883
• "Om Danmarks Neutralitet", 1886
• "Christian den Fjerdes Skib paa Skanderborg Sø I-II", 1893
• "Livsbelysning", 1899
• "Sundhedsbegreber i Norden i det 16de Aarhundrede", 1900
• "Peder Oxe", 1906
• "De tre Nordiske Brødrefolk", 1906
• "Nye Tanker i det 16de Aarhundrede", 1909
• "Historiske Fortællinger - Tider og Tanker I-IV", 1910–1912
• "Bakkehus og Solbjerg - Træk af et nyt Livssyns Udvikling i Norden I-III", 1920–1922
• "Et Liv - Barndom og Ungdom", 1924

Sources

• Kierkegaard The Cripple, by Theodor Haecker, translated by C. Vasn O. Bruyn, With and Introduction by A. Dru, Published 1950 by the Philosophical Library Inc.
• Soren Kierkegaard, A Biography, by Johannes Hohlenberg, Translated by T.H. Croxall, Pantheon Books 1954
• Kierkegaard, by Josiah Thompson, Alfred A. Knopf, 1973

References

Attribution

 Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Lund, Troels Frederik". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Works of Troels-Lund from Archive.org, all in Danish.