Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin

Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin. Martin Luther* (1483-1546). This is Luther’s version of the ‘Nunc dimittis’*, the prayer of Simeon (Luke 2: 29-32). It was first published in the Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn (Wittenberg, 1524), with the title ‘Nunc dimittis servum tuum do[mine]’, and may have been written during the winter of 1523-24. It is a free translation in four 6-line verses, which has become widely used as a funeral hymn: it is found in the ‘Sterben und Ewiges Leben’ (‘Death and Everlasting Life’) section of EG (EG 519). Luther’s additions to the original text, such as verse 1 line 6, ‘der Tod ist mein Schlaf worden’ (‘death has become my sleep’) and verse 2 line 6, ‘und Heil in...