The happy Christmas comes once more

The happy Christmas comes once more. Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig*, translated by Charles Porterfield Krauth* (1823-1883). This Christmas hymn,‘Det kimer nu til Julefest’, is from Grundtvig’s Nyeste Skilderie af Kjøbenhagen (1817). It was translated by Krauth for the Lutheran Church Book (Philadelphia, 1867), and almost immediately included in Christ in Song, edited by his fellow Lutheran Philip Schaff* (New York, 1869). It has become Krauth’s best known work in hymnals. It had nine 4-line stanzas, beginning with the good tidings of peace and goodwill told to the shepherds, and with the Christmas prayer that we too may go in heart and mind ‘even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing...