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GODFATHER'S PICTURE-BOOK 965
1 The time of change has heavy clouds, but also sunshine ; it shone now in the hall of learning, in the student's home, and names shine out from it right on to our time. Hans Tausen, the son of a poor smith in Fyn :
It was the little lad from Birkende who came, His name flew over Denmark, so widely spread his fame ; A Danish Martin Luther, who drew the Gospel sword, And gained a victory for truth and for the Word.
1 There also shines the name of Petrus Palladius ; so it is in Latin, but in Danish it is Peter Plade, the Bishop of Roskilde, also the son of a poor smith in Jutland. Among the names of noblemen shines that of Hans Friis, the Chancellor of the kingdom. He seated the students at his table, and looked after their wants, and those of the schoolboys too. And one name before all others is greeted with hurrahs and song:
While but a single student hero
At learning's desk is seated, So long shall good King Christian's name
With loud Hurrahs be greeted.
' Sunbeams came amongst the heavy clouds in that time of change.
' Now we turn the page.
' What whistles and sings in " The Great Belt " under the coast of Samso ? From the sea rises a mermaid, with sea-green hair; she tells the future to the peasant. A prince shall be born, who will become a king, great and powerful.
' In the fields, under the blossoming white-thorn, he was born. His name now blooms in song and story, in the knightly halls and castles round about. The exchange sprang up with tower and spire ; Rosenborg lifted itself and looked far out over the ramparts ; the students themselves got a house of their own, and close beside it stood and still points to Heaven the " Round Tower ", which looks toward the island of Hveen where Uranienborg once stood. Its golden domes glittered in the moonlight, and mermaids sang of the master there whom kings and sages visited, the sage of noble blood, Tycho Brahe. He raised the name of Denmark so high, that along with the stars |
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