Power from on high descended

Power from on high descended. Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig* (1783-1872), translated by Alan Gaunt* (1935- ). This is an original Grundtvig hymn for Pentecost, ‘Kraften far den hoje’, but its form is intensely traditional. It is based on a pre-Reformation vernacular hymn for Easter, and it follows its metrical pattern and uses its familiar tune. By its very form it tells us something of the way in which Grundtvig believed that the Church’s hymns echo back and forth across the centuries, and are a vital element in the Church’s tradition, maintaining the continuity of the shared experience of God’s people, no less significant than the regular succession of the Church’s ministry, and...