I recall sitting in my office one day (I think it was a Saturday; I had to work Saturdays at the time) back when I lived in Florida, listening to the local Christian station on my radio. Suddenly I heard the strains of “Behold a Host, Arrayed in White,” (an English translation is at this link) and was astonished. This is not a hymn much known outside Scandinavian Lutheran circles, and down among the gators a lot of people had no idea what a Lutheran was, let alone a Scandinavian Lutheran.
The reason the radio station had that song, I later learned, was that they leased music from the University of Northwestern (St. Paul) radio network’s licensing library, and Scandinavian Lutheranism is pretty well known up in these parts.
In my mind, at least, “Behold a Host” is the preeminent Scandinavian choral hymn. My dad and my grandparents loved it. This recording has the Norwegian lyrics, whose first lines actually go “This great, white host we see, like a thousand mountains full of snow, before the Throne – who are they?”
It’s a reference to Revelation 7:13-17:
13Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” 14I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15“For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. 16“They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; 17for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
The text was written by Hans Adolph Brorson, a much-loved Danish pastor and hymn writer. The tune is, I believe, traditional, but this arrangement is by none other than Edvard Grieg.
This particular recording is of the choir of Augsburg College, Minneapolis, which happens to be my alma mater, though this performance was around 1945, somewhat before my time.
Thank you! This is new to me. What are the range and connotations of “Flok” and “skare” in “Heltesskare”? I seen the Vulgate there in verse 9 has “turbam” and the Septuagint “ochlos”, which seem pretty wide-ranging – though I have not attempted to check them in various Biblical contexts.
“Flokk” is cognate with the English “flock,” and means a group of any size. However, it’s described here as a “great flock.” “Skare” means a group or a crowd, but here it’s a “helteskare,” which means a band of heroes.
Thanks! I was wondering if it was ‘flock’-equivalent: next question, do you think that has likely Good Shepherd (and maybe “all we like sheep”) implications?
In Dutch (if I’m not mistaken) the common “engelenschare” – ‘host of angels’ – can gloss – or have implications of – ‘Sabaoth’. Quickly searching it, I am intrigued to find the plural applied to the traditional Nine Orders of Angels!
The Dutch etymological dictionary I checked for “schaar” among four analogues includes Middle Low German ‘schare’ and Old Norse ‘skor’ as both having the sense ‘troop’.
I would be lying if I said I was sure a sheep implication is intended. Don’t know the history well enough; Norwegian gets by with fewer words than English. Same goes for “skare.” But I believe I’ve seen it used more in connection with military groups than not.