The archive contains a wealth of previously unknown material that might potentially open numerous new questions in Grundtvig research, such as:

• How Grundtvig used of Old English literature and imagery,
• What societal-oriented content appears in his sermons,
• How Grundtvig became involved in the Schleswig question and minority discussions,
• How Grundtvig viewed the relationship between the folk high school as a ”school for life” and teaching practical skills.

The platform goes beyond scholarly research. Using GMO, students at all levels can examine unknown material beyond the questions above. And the everyday, curious “detective” will be empowered to conduct investigations according to their interests.

A series of grants from the L. Zeuthen Memorial Fund and the Danish National Research Foundation enabled a collaboration between the Grundtvig Society of September 8, 1947, and the Danish Language and Literature Society to compile the 30 volume Registry of N.F.S. Grundtvig’s Papers. This work, which took place between 1957 and 1964, reviews the contents of the archive.

In 2012, at the request of the Center for Grundtvig Studies, the registry was digitized and OCR-processed by the Royal Danish Library for use in the Center’s online publication of Grundtvig’s Works. By agreement with the Center, the Royal Danish Library was permitted to retain the files for its own use; this agreement was solidified in September 2020, when the Center generously donated an updated and corrected copy of the files for use in the library’s forthcoming digitization of the archive.

The digitized registry has since been further updated and expanded by the Royal Danish Library, serving as a management tool in connection with the digitization of the archive.

The registry and archive correspond on a 1:1 basis: The fascicles are thus presented in the registry in accordance with their location in the archive, and each fascicle is described using a pre-printed form containing the following 12 metadata fields:

1. Title (or brief summary of contents)
2. Paper type (color and any watermarks)
3. Markings (“I.J.N.” etc.)
4. Orthography
5. Other external criteria
6. Internal criteria (allusions, quotations, etc.)
7. First line of the manuscript
8. Last line of the manuscript
9. Printing or use
10. Previous researchers’ estimated dating(s)
11. Number in the bibliography
12. Content summary

The registry thus covers several aspects of each individual text:

• Content and subject area (items 1, 6, 12)
• Identification (items 3, 7, 8)
• Dating (items 2, 4, 5, 6, 10)
• Legacy and significance (items 9, 11)

The registry has been compiled by multiple researchers over an extended period and, as a result, there are natural variations in how, and how precisely, the forms have been filled out.