Thomas Hansen Kingo (December 15, 1634 – October 14, 1703
OdenseThe city of Odense is the third largest city in Denmark. The name Odense comes from the Norse god Odin.Odense city has a population of 158,678 and is the main city of the island of Funen...
) was a
DanishDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
bishop, poet and hymn-writer born at
SlangerupSlangerup is a town with a population of 6,776 in Frederikssund municipality in Region Hovedstaden in the northern part of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark.-The town of Slangerup:...
, near
CopenhagenCopenhagen ; ) is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban area with a population of 1,167,569 and a metropolitan area with a population of 1,875,179...
. His work marked the high point of Danish
baroqueBaroque is an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious themes in...
poetry.
He belonged to a rather poor family partly of
ScottishThe Scots people and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland.An ethnic group, historically they emerged from an amalgamation of Picts, Gaels and Brythons....
origin and was educated a clergyman. In his youth, Kingo wrote a series of poems picturing humorous scenes in village life and a pastoral love poem,
Chrysillis. He studied
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
at the
University of CopenhagenThe University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
, graduating in 1654, and for some time acted as private tutor. In 1661 he was appointed vicar to the pastor at Kirke Helsinge, and in 1668 he was ordained a minister at his native town, where his poetic activity began.
At first he essayed patriotic poems, but later devoted himself almost entirely to writing hymns, and in 1674 the first part of his
Aandelige Siunge-Koor ("Spiritual Song Choir") appeared; followed in 1681 by a second part. This work consists of a collection of beautiful hymns several of which are still popular in the Danish Church.
In 1677 Kingo was appointed bishop of
FunenFunen , with a size of 2,984 km² , is the third-largest island of Denmark following Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy, and the 163
rd largest island of the world. Funen is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 447,000 people . The main city is Odense, connected...
. Charged by the government with the compilation of a new hymn-book, he edited (1699) the so-called
Kingo's Psalmebog which contains eighty-five of his own compositions, and which is still used is various parts of Denmark and
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
. Some parts of the Danish rural population were firmly sticking to his hymns during the pietist and rationalist period contributing to their survival.
Though not the first Danish hymn writer Kingo must be considered the first real important one and also among the Danish poets of the 17th Century he is generally a leading figure. His hymns are born by a forceful and often Old Testamental wrath and renunciation of the world switching with
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
mildness and confidence. Both elements are thrown in relief by his private thrift and fighting nature. His worldly poems and patriotic songs are often long-winded and marked by outer effects but in short version he is unequalled, as in his both plain and worthy commemorative poem of the naval hero
Niels JuelNiels Juel was a Dano-Norwegian admiral.Brother of diplomat Jens Juel and oldest son of Erik Juel Baron of Juelinge in Denmark. He was born at Christiania in Norway, though his family came from Jutland...
.