The influential N.S.F. Grundtvig, an ardent cultural (if not political) Scandinavist and founder of the Danish Folk High School movement, also had a dream of forming a Great Nordic University which he called “the School for Passion”. It was to be situated conveniently to the three Scandinavian countries in Gothenburg. In the review Brage og Idun, edited by the Scandinavist activist and writer Frederik Barfod (1811–1896), Grundtvig published an article Om Nordens videnskabelige forening (1839, “The unification of scholarship in Scandinavia”), outlining this idea. In Grundtvig’s mind the new university should be a fresh departure, both from the outworn classicist disciplines and from the idea of a training school for state officials, and instead gather the brightest talents from the three countries to work together in a Nordic spirit.

Grundtvig had formulated Scandinavist ideas as early as 1810, in his pamphlet Er Nordens forening ønskelig? Et ord til det svenske folk (“Is Nordic unification desirable? A word to the Swedish people”).