In the 18th century, the repertoire for communal singing consisted more or less exclusively of hymns and ballads. There was no call for other kinds of singable verse, because communal singing was not found outside churches, schools and certain Copenhagen clubs, where men gathered to sing merry ballads with erudite references to the cradle of European civilization in Greece and Rome. The need for patriotic poetry and verse arose conjointly with the emergence of a Danish feeling of national identity.

In 1808, Laurids Engelstoft, a prominent Danish historian, recommended the use of patriotic poems in schools when teaching the history of the fatherland, which in this way would become more lively and make a deeper impression. But the idea would only take hold several decades later. In 1818, a competition was launched for the writing of a Danish national anthem. The idea came from Prince Frederick, brother-in-law to the Danish king and commander of the Danish troops who took part in the occupation of parts of France after the Napoleonic Wars. A Danish anthem was needed to match those of the English and French to “express that deep love of their fatherland and devotion to their king for which the Danish people since ancient times have been renowned”.

The winning submission never gained popularity, unlike a song written at the same time: Adam Oehlenschläger’s Der er et yndigt land (“There is a lovely land”, 1819). Oehlenschläger was of mixed Danish-German origin and wrote in both languages, but regarded himself as a true Danish poet; his verse evocation of the Golden Horns, an ancient heirloom stolen and destroyed (1802), is generally held to mark the beginning of Romantic Nationalism in Danish literature. “There is a lovely land” encompassed old patriotism – loyalty to the prince – and the new nationalist feeling, linked to landscape, history and people. The original twelve verses of the song intone the praises of the landscape, Denmark’s heroic past (albeit only briefly), its inhabitants, their mother tongue and loyalty to the King, the flag, the capital city and the mainland (that is, Jutland). The last verse pays homage equally to prince, fatherland and the common Danish man, “who works as best he can”, and the song ends with the wish that “old Denmark shall endure”.

Popular communal singing developed from the 1840s onwards; songs about the fatherland, its history, landscape and people were part of a common convivial repertoire. The origins of this trend are often linked to a lecture series held in 1838 by N.F.S. Grundtvig in Copenhagen entitled Mands minde (“Living memory”) and recounting the post-1780 period from personal experience. One of the lectures was about the English Wars and the young naval officer Peter Willemoes, who gained renown for his courage and audacity, the very incarnation of love of his country. Following Grundtvig’s evocation, the audience spontaneously intoned Grundtvig’s song about Willemoes, Kommer hid, i piger smaa (“Come hither all young maidens”); the event was effusively reported in the press.

The communal singing of patriotic songs would doubtless have established itself as a tradition without this episode, but there is no reason to doubt the central importance of Grundtvig in the development of a Danish tradition of breaking into patriotic song in connection with lectures and revivalist speeches. At the first Danish Folk High School, founded at Rødding in Schleswig in 1844, patriotic songs became a fixed item in the daily round of teaching, strengthening students’ sense of community. The songs involved often expressed energy and the readiness to fight. From the Folk High Schools, communal singing spread to other areas of education and into wider social circles. The process was accelerated during the First Schleswig War (1848-51), when numerous songs were written to bolster the fighting spirit both at the front and in the home.

In more mundane circles, popular and entertaining songs were often sung as well. However, patriotic songs were deemed by pastors and educationalists to serve a better moral and pedagogic purpose and were used preferentially in teaching situations and along with speeches at popular gatherings. Several Folk High Schools began to print their own songbooks for communal singing, thus laying the foundation for the present Højskolesangbogen (“Folk High School songbook”), still a widely shared and common repertory. It was first published in 1894, containing 506 songs arranged thematically (spiritual songs and hymns; daily life and the mother tongue; historical songs; songs about Denmark; songs from other Scandinavian countries; folk songs). It has remained in print in repeatedly revised versions, and is still the most widely-used songbook in Denmark. The most recent edition is the 18th, from 2006. Grundtvig is far and away the best represented poet, with a total of 86 songs and hymns. Other poets from the age of Romantic Nationalism represented in its selection are B.S. Ingemann (23 songs) and Steen Stensen Blicher (10 songs). The Højskolesangbogen, widely recognized as a canonical benchmark, has maintained that position by adjusting to the development of society from agrarian to industrial to the present state of liquid modernity; but it has not abandoned the most important patriotic songs and poems from the 19th century.