Sunday’s Hymn of the Day, A Multitude Comes
from the East and the West (LSB #510), uses the imagery of the feast from
the Gospel reading. Partaking of the unending feast in the kingdom of heaven
will be the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, along with all the faithful
from the East and the West, people from every nation under heaven. What they
have in common is their trust in the goodness of the Lord.
This hymn about unity was based on "Der mange
skal komme fra øst og fra vest" by Norwegian priest Magnus Brostrup Landstad
(1802-1880), It was translated from Norwegian by Peer O. Strömme (1856-1921)
and first published in English in 1909. The first line is sometimes given as
"Full many shall come ..." or "There many shall come ..."
The author was a Norwegian minister, psalmist and poet
who published the first collection of authentic Norwegian traditional ballads
in 1853. This work was criticized for unscientific methods, but today it is
commonly accepted that he contributed significantly to the preservation of the
traditional ballads. Landstad lived with his father Hans Landstad (1771–1838)
who was also a minister, first in 1806 to Øksnes, to Vinje in 1811 and to
Seljord in 1819. He took a theological degree (cand. theol) in 1827, and worked
after that as the resident chaplain in Gausdal for six years. After that he
worked in different parishes in Telemark, Østfold before he became minister of
Sandar in Vestfold in 1859. He married Wilhelmine Margrete Marie Lassen, in
1828. He is well known for introducing popular, contemporary Norwegian language
into the hymns he wrote, contributing significantly to the spirit of Norwegian
romantic nationalism which grew in Norway in this period.
His greatest single achievement was the Landstad
Hymnbook (Kirkepsalmebog), which with later revisions was used in Norwegian
(bokmål) parishes from 1869 until 1985. The current official church hymnbook
contains a lot of his hymns and his translations of foreign hymns.
With meter 11.9.11.9.9, tunes it has been set to
include STOCKHOLM, Riddarholmskyrkan handskrivna Koralbok, 1694 - which is
sometimes known as "Der Mange Skal Komme". [2]
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