Thomas Kingo is generally considered the earliest of the four most important hymn writers in Denmark: Kingo, Hans Adolph Brorson, N. F. S. Grundtvig, and B. S. Ingemann. A century before Kingo's time, however, a teacher and clergyman lived in Helsingør and Malmø who, with his obvious poetic talents, left such a lasting legacy as a hymn writer that the quartet must be considered a quintet, with Hans Christensen Sthen in fifth place, or actually in first place, as the earliest of this distinguished group of poets. The first verses of Danish hymnody are found in Sthen's work. His morning song initiates an unusual Danish hymn tradition praising nature and birds.

Sthen's fate has been to be forgotten since some of the well-known hymns he wrote were designated as "anonymous." In Kingo's hymnal from 1699, Sthen is represented by twelve hymns, but the hymnal indicates the...