Digital Commons Network^™

A Grundtvig In America, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

Frederik Lange Grundtvig was the third son of Nikolai

Frederik Severin Grundtvig. He came to America in 1881 at

the age of 27, spent less that 19 of his 49 years here, served in

only one pastorate and yet became one of the most controversial

figures among the Danish immigrants. Grundtvig

came to America a budding young scientist; he left as an

accomplished clergyman. He wrote numerous articles,

pamphlets and books, all which are buried in the Danish

language, but none of which have real significance for this

day. Beyond the Danish community his name is little known

today, yet …

The Transformation Of Chris Madsen In 1875-76: From Troubled Young Man In Denmark To Mature Wild West Hero In America, Frans 0rsted Andersen

The Bridge

In October 2018, I pub- lished a book about Chris Madsen with the title Et liv pa kanten. En biografisk fortcel- ling om Chris Madsen's utrolige liv (A life on the edge. A bi- ography about the incredible life of Chris Madsen). The second edition, which I cite in this article, was published in 2019. This book grew out of two separate projects: one aimed at publishing texts that can encourage boys and men to read more books (again), and another focused on Dan- ish emigration to the US in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Three Short Stories By Carl Hansen, J. R. Christianson

The Bridge

Translator's Note. The Danish-American author, Carl Hansen, was born in Jonstrup near Holbcek in 1860, emigrated to America in 1885, taught for a number of years at Danebod Folk School in Tyler, Minnesota, and died in Seattle in 1916. Enok Mortensen once described him as follows:

"[He] had attended university classes in Denmark and studied at the state agricultural school. He knew something about pharmacology, a lot about veterinary medicine, and much about literature and philosophy ... He was a popular teacher. Each Saturday he gave a lecture-often on classics of Danish literature, and the students sat spellbound as he …

Reviews

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The Nordic Sagas provide the background and basis for this novel about three women-Katla, a "thrall" (slave) who is the daughter of an Irish Christian woman captured by Viking Raiders along the Irish Coast before Katla was born, Bibrau, Katla's daughter, who is conceived after a brutal sexual assault, and Thorbjorg, who is a seeress and healer to the Viking settlement in Greenland and a faithful servant to the Nordic God, Odin. Fate brings these three women together and the story is told through their thoughts and feelings about each other, the events which bring them together, life in the …

Immigration: Is It What It Used To Be?, Leland E. Molgaard

The Bridge

I became interested in this topic as I traveled around the country teaching. My wife and I work with teachers and social workers, training them to conduct a "strengthening families program" for parents and young adolescents. Many of these teachers and social workers serve recent immigrant families and, as I heard them tell of their work, they often told me that these families were unique because they were new immigrants. Yet as I listened, I was struck by how similar these immigrant families were to the families in the community where I grew up in northwest Iowa. The scripts were …

A Place Called Dana The Centennial History Of Trinity Seminary And Dana College 1884-1984, Gail Q. Unruh, Reviewer, Peter L. Petersen

The Bridge

Blair, Nebraska, located some twenty miles north of Omaha, is the home of Dana College and Trinity Seminary. Together, these companion institutions formed one of the focal points of Danish immigrant efforts to establish themselves in their new homeland and to preserve elements of their cultural heritage. In the opening pages of his A Place Called Dana, Peter L. Petersen declares his desire to accomplish four interrelated goals: to write a history of the two associated institutions of Dana College and Trinity Seminary; to illuminate some of the accomplishments of Danish-Americans; to highlight the significant contribution to higher education of …

Full Issue

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Egon Bodtker

The Bridge

This short book tells the reader what life was like for one young man in a small village in Denmark in the first two decades of this century. As the author writes in the Foreword: " it is a collection of reminiscences, a mosaic of people and places seen from a long distance, both geographically and chronologically." This sensitive sketch of a childhood and adolescence in the first two decades of the twentieth century will make all readers aware of the monumental changes in the world from then until now. While many of the individual behaviors can be related to …

The Feilberg Letters: A Danish Family's Reflections On Canadian Prairie Life, Jorgen Dahlie

The Bridge

So wrote Aksel Sandemose, noted Danish-Norwegian writer and himself an immigrant to Canada in 1927. When he spoke of iron determination and perseverance, he might well have been describing the Ditlev and Julie Feilberg family, a small part of whose experiences in Canada are recounted in the excerpts which follow. Without making too extravagant a claim for the uniqueness of any one immigrant encounter with a new land, one is nonetheless forced to acknowledge that each individual or family brought with them their own special cultural and intellectual resources. A reading of the Feilberg letters reveals that this family had …