# Fear and Trembling, Preface

Frygt og Bæven · Søren Kierkegaard · Preface, Exordium, Eulogy

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/kierkegaard/forord. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/kierkegaard/forord.json.


Ikke blot i Handelens, men ogsaa i Ideernes Verden foranstalter vor Tid ein wirklicher Ausverkauf.  
Not only in the world of commerce but also in the world of ideas, our age is staging a veritable clearance sale.
> «ein wirklicher Ausverkauf» — German: a real clearance sale: Kierkegaard drops into German for the punchline: «ein wirklicher Ausverkauf» = 'a real clearance sale (going-out-of-business sale).' The shift in language is deliberate satire — the marketplace metaphor for modern philosophy is sharpened by quoting the language of German speculative thought (Hegel). Note the period spelling «ogsaa» (modern «også») and capitalized nouns «Handelens», «Ideernes», «Verden».

Alt faaes for en saadan Spot-Priis, at det bliver et Spørgsmaal, om der tilsidst er Nogen, der vil byde.  
Everything can be had at such a bargain price that it becomes a question whether in the end there is anyone who will make a bid.
> «faaes» — passive 's'-form: «faaes» is the passive of «faae» (modern «få», to get/obtain): 'is to be had, can be obtained.' Danish forms the passive by adding «-s» to the verb. Period orthography doubles the vowel: «faaes» = modern «fås», «saadan» = «sådan», «Priis» = «Pris».

Enhver spekulativ — Marqueur, der samvittighedsfuldt pointerer den nyere Philosophies betydningsfulde Gang, enhver Privatdocent, Repetent, Student, enhver Udflytter og Indsidder i Philosophien bliver ikke staaende ved at tvivle om Alt, men gaaer videre.  
Every speculative score-keeper who conscientiously tallies the momentous march of recent philosophy, every junior lecturer, tutor, and student, every smallholder and lodger in philosophy, does not stop at doubting everything, but goes further.
> «gaaer videre» — goes further: «gaaer videre» (modern «går videre», 'goes further/beyond') is the refrain Kierkegaard mocks throughout this preface: the modern habit of treating doubt — and later faith — as a stage one quickly leaves behind to 'go further.' Watch for it returning verbatim. «Marqueur» is a billiard-hall score-marker, here a sneer at the philosopher who merely keeps count.

Maaskee vilde det være utidigt og ubetimeligt at spørge dem, hvor de dog egentlig komme hen, men høfligt og beskedent er det vel at ansee det for afgjort, at de have tvivlet om Alt, da det jo ellers var en besynderlig Tale, at de gik videre.  
Perhaps it would be inopportune and untimely to ask them where they actually end up; but it is surely polite and modest to take it as settled that they have doubted everything, since otherwise it would be a strange way of talking to say that they went further.
> «de have» — older plural verb form: «de have tvivlet» uses «have» (not modern «har») as the plural form of the verb to agree with the plural subject «de» (they). 19th-century Danish still inflected verbs for number; modern Danish has dropped this, giving «de har tvivlet». Note also «Maaskee» (modern «måske», perhaps).

Denne foreløbige Bevægelse have de da Alle gjort og formodentlig saa let, at de ikke finde det fornødent at lade et Ord falde om, hvorledes; thi end ikke den, der ængstelig og bekymret søgte en lille Oplysning, fandt en saadan, et veiledende Vink, en lille diætetisk Forskrift om, hvorledes man forholder sig under denne uhyre Opgave.  
This preliminary movement they have all made, then, and presumably so easily that they do not find it necessary to let fall a single word about how; for not even the one who, anxious and troubled, sought a little instruction found any such thing — a guiding hint, a little dietary prescription about how one is to conduct oneself under this enormous task.
> «thi» — for, because: «thi» is an archaic causal conjunction ('for, because'), now wholly replaced by «for». Kierkegaard uses it for its weighty, almost biblical register. The semicolon before it links the two halves of a long periodic sentence — a hallmark of his prose rhythm.
> Subordinate-clause order: In the subordinate clause «at de ikke finde det fornødent», the sentence adverb «ikke» stands BEFORE the finite verb «finde» — the diagnostic of bisætning order (a main clause would be «de finde ikke»).

,Men Cartesius har jo gjort det?"  
"But surely Descartes did it?"
> «jo» — modal particle ('surely, as you know'): «jo» is an untranslatable Danish modal particle that appeals to shared knowledge: 'surely, as we both know, after all.' It puts the imagined objector on confident footing. «Cartesius» is the Latinized name of René Descartes, whom Kierkegaard is about to defend against his careless imitators. The «,…"» marks are the period's quotation style.

Cartesius, en ærværdig, ydmyg, redelig Tænker, hvis Skrifter vist Ingen kan læse uden den dybeste Rørelse, han har gjort, hvad han har sagt, og sagt, hvad han har gjort.  
Descartes, a venerable, humble, honest thinker whose writings surely no one can read without the deepest emotion, did what he said and said what he did.
> «gjort» — period spelling of 'done': «gjort» (past participle of «gjøre», modern «gøre», to do/make) keeps the silent «gj-» of the older orthography; modern Danish writes «gjort» still but spelled «gøre» for the infinitive. The chiastic praise — 'did what he said, and said what he did' — is Kierkegaard's measure of integrity, set against the modern boasters.
> Present perfect with «har»: «han har gjort, hvad han har sagt» ('he has done what he has said'): the perfect joins present-tense «har» to the past participle «gjort/sagt». Verbs of motion/change instead take «er» (er kommet).

Ak!  
Alas!

Ak!  
Alas!

Ak!  
Alas!
> «Ak!» — alas!: «Ak!» is an exclamation of lament ('alas! oh!'), cognate to German «Ach» and English archaic 'ah.' The threefold repetition — three separate sentences — is a rhetorical sigh, mourning that intellectual honesty has become rare.

det er en stor Sjeldenhed i vor Tid!  
that is a great rarity in our age!

Cartesius har, som han selv ofte nok gjentager, ikke tvivlet i Forhold til Troen.  
Descartes did not — as he himself often enough repeats — doubt in relation to faith.
> «Tro» — faith: «Troen» = 'the faith' (definite form of «Tro»), the book's central concept. Kierkegaard's point: Descartes carefully exempted faith from his method of universal doubt — unlike the moderns who claim to doubt and then 'go further' than faith itself. «gjentager» = modern «gentager», repeats.

(,Memores tamen, ut jam dictum est, huic lumint naturali tamdiu tantum esse credendum, quamdiu nihil contrarium a Deo ipso revelatur ..... Præter cætera autem, memoriæ nostræ pro summa regula est infigendum, ea quæ nobis a Deo revelata sunt, ut omnium certissima esse credenda; et quamvis forte lumen rationis, quam maxime clarum et evidens, aliud quid nobis suggerere videretur, soli tamen auctoritati divinæ -potius quam proprio nostro judicio fidem esse adhibendam. Cfr. Principia philosophiæ, pars prima $ 28 og $ 76).  
("Remembering, however, as has already been said, that this natural light is to be trusted only so long as nothing contrary is revealed by God himself ..... Besides everything else, moreover, it must be fixed in our memory as a supreme rule that the things which have been revealed to us by God are to be believed as the most certain of all; and although perhaps the light of reason, however clear and evident, might seem to suggest something else, faith is nevertheless to be given to divine authority alone rather than to our own judgment. Cf. Principles of Philosophy, Part One, §§ 28 and 76).

Han har ikke raabt Brand og gjort det til Pligt for Alle at tvivle, thi Cartesius var en stille eensom Tænker, ikke en brølende Gadevægter; han har beskedent bekjendt, at hans Methode kun havde Betydning for ham selv og havde " tildeels sin Grund i hans tidligere forqvaklede Viden.  
He did not cry fire and make it everyone's duty to doubt, for Descartes was a quiet, solitary thinker, not a bellowing night-watchman; he modestly confessed that his method had significance only for himself and had its ground partly in his own earlier muddled learning.
> «eensom» — doubled-vowel spelling: «eensom» (modern «ensom», lonely/solitary) shows the older doubled vowel «ee». The same archaism appears in «raabt» (modern «råbt», cried), «tildeels» (modern «til dels», partly), and «forqvaklede» with «qv-» for modern «kv-» (forkvaklede, botched/muddled). «Gadevægter» = a street night-watchman.

(Ne quis igitur putet, me hic traditurum aliquam me- thodum, quam unusquisque sequti debeat ad recte regendam rationem; illam enim tantum, quam ipsemet secutus sum, exæponere decrevi... Sed simul ac illud studiorum curriculum absolvi (sc. juventulis, quo decurso mos est in eruditorum numerum cooptari, plane aliud coepi cogitare. Tot enim me dubiis totque erroribus implicatum esse animadverti, ut omnes discendt conatus nihil aliud mihi profuisse judicarem, quam quod ignorantiam meam magis magtisque detexissem. Cfr. Dissertatio de methodo p. 2 og 3).  
("Let no one therefore suppose that I intend here to hand down some method that everyone ought to follow in order to govern reason rightly; for I have resolved to set out only the one that I myself have followed... But as soon as I had completed that course of studies (namely of youth), upon whose finishing it is customary to be admitted into the ranks of the learned, I began to think quite otherwise. For I found myself so entangled in so many doubts and errors that I judged all my efforts at learning had profited me nothing other than that I had discovered my ignorance more and more. Cf. Discourse on Method, pp. 2 and 3).

— Hvad hine gamle Grækere, der dog ogsaa forstode sig lidt paa Philosophien, antog at være en Opgave for hele Livet, fordi den tvivlende Færdighed ” ikke erhverves i Dage og Uger, hvad den gamle udtjente Strider opnaaede, der havde bevaret Tvivlens Ligevægt gjennem alle Besnærelser, uforfærdet negtet Sandsens Vished og Tankens Vished, ubestikkelig trodset Selvkjærlighedens Angst og Medfølelsens Insinuationer — dermed begynder i vor Tid Enhver.  
— What those old Greeks, who after all understood a little something of philosophy too, took to be a task for a whole life, because the skill of doubting is not acquired in days and weeks — what the old, seasoned warrior attained, who had kept doubt's equilibrium through all entanglements, undauntedly denied the certainty of the senses and the certainty of thought, incorruptibly defied the anxiety of self-love and the insinuations of fellow-feeling — with that, in our age, everyone begins.
> «Færdighed» — skill, proficiency: «Færdighed» means an acquired skill or proficiency; «den tvivlende Færdighed» is 'the skill of doubting,' something the ancients trained over a lifetime. Kierkegaard's irony: what cost a lifetime is now where 'everyone begins.' «forstode» is the older plural past of «forstaae» (modern «forstå», to understand); «gjennem» = modern «gennem», through; «negtet» = modern «nægtet», denied.
> «Angst» — anxiety, dread: «Angst» (anxiety, dread) is one of Kierkegaard's signature terms, later the title of «Begrebet Angest» (The Concept of Anxiety, 1844). Here «Selvkjærlighedens Angst» = 'the anxiety of self-love.' «Selvkjærlighed» keeps the «kj-» spelling (modern «selvkærlighed»).

I vor Tid bliver Enhver ikke staaende ved Troen, men gaaer videre.  
In our age no one stops at faith, but goes further.
> «bliver staaende ved» — stops at, remains at: «bliver staaende ved» literally 'remains standing at' = stops/halts at. The whole sentence transfers the earlier mockery of doubt onto «Troen» (faith): just as the moderns wouldn't stop at doubting, now they won't stop at faith either, but 'go further' — the refrain «gaaer videre» again. «staaende» keeps the doubled «aa» (modern «stående»).

Et Spørgsmaal om, hvor de komme hen, vilde maaskee være en Dumdristighed, derimod er det vel et Tegn paa Belevenhed og Dannelse, at jeg antager, at Enhver har Troen, da det ellers bliver en besynderlige Tale: at gaae videre.  
A question about where they end up would perhaps be a piece of foolhardiness; on the contrary, it is surely a sign of urbanity and good breeding that I assume everyone has faith — since otherwise it becomes a strange way of talking: to go further.
> «Dannelse» — cultivation, breeding: «Dannelse» is the Danish for German «Bildung»: formation, cultivation, education of the whole person. Paired with «Belevenhed» (politeness, urbanity), it sets Kierkegaard's polite mask over a sharp irony — it would be 'ill-bred' to ask the moderns where their easy faith actually leads. The colon staging «: at gaae videre» echoes the preface's refrain.

I hine gamle Dage var det anderledes, da var Troen en Opgave for hele Livet, fordi man antog, at den troende Færdighed ikke erhverves hverken i Dage eller Uger.  
In those old days it was otherwise; then faith was a task for a whole life, because it was assumed that the skill of believing is acquired neither in days nor in weeks.
> «den troende Færdighed» — the skill of believing: Kierkegaard now mirrors the earlier «den tvivlende Færdighed» (the skill of doubting) with «den troende Færdighed» (the skill of believing): faith, like doubt for the ancients, was once a lifelong task, not a starting point. «hine gamle Dage» = 'those old days' («hine» is an archaic distal demonstrative, 'those yonder').
> The indefinite «man»: «fordi man antog, at …» ('because one supposed that …'): «man» is the impersonal subject — 'one, people, they' — always with a singular verb «antog».

Naar da den prøvede Olding nærmede sig sit Endeligt, havde stridt den gode Strid og bevaret Troen, da var hans Hjerte ungt nok til ikke at have glemt hiin Angst og Bævelse, der tugtede Ynglingen, som Manden vel beherskede, men som intet Menneske ganske voxer fra — uden forsaavidt det skulde lykkes ved saa tidlig som mulig at gaae videre.  
When the tested old man then drew near to his end, had fought the good fight and kept the faith, then his heart was young enough not to have forgotten that fear and trembling which chastened the youth, which the man indeed mastered, but which no human being ever quite outgrows — except insofar as he might manage, as early as possible, to go further.
> «Angest og Bævelse» — fear and trembling: «hiin Angst og Bævelse» — 'that fear and trembling' — names the book's title «Frygt og Bæven» (echoing Philippians 2:12, 'work out your salvation with fear and trembling'). 'Kept the faith… fought the good fight' deliberately quotes 2 Timothy 4:7. «hiin» = archaic 'that (yonder)'; «voxer» = modern «vokser», grows.

Hvor da hine ærværdige Skikkelser naaede hen, der begynder i vor Tid Enhver for at gaae videre.  
Where, then, those venerable figures arrived — there, in our age, everyone begins, in order to go further.

Nærværende Forfatter er ingenlunde Philosoph, han har ikke forstaaet Systemet, om det er til, om det er færdigt, han har allerede nok for sit svage Hoved i den Tanke, hvilket uhyre Hoved Enhver i vor Tid maa have, da Enhver har en saadan uhyre Tanke.  
The present author is by no means a philosopher; he has not understood the System — whether it exists, whether it is finished — he already has quite enough for his weak head in the thought of what an enormous head everyone in our age must have, since everyone has such an enormous thought.

Om man end var istand til at omsætte hele Troens Indhold i Begrebets Form, saa følger deraf ikke, at man har begrebet Troen, begrebet, hvorledes man kom ind i den, eller hvorledes "den kom ind i Een.  
Even if one were able to translate the whole content of faith into the form of the concept, it does not follow from this that one has grasped faith — grasped how one entered into it, or how it entered into one.
> «Begreb» — concept; the pun on 'grasp': Kierkegaard puns on «Begreb» (concept) and «begrebet» (grasped/comprehended, past participle of «begribe»): to recast faith in «Begrebets Form» (the form of the concept) is not to have «begrebet» (grasped) it. The dig is at Hegelian conceptual mediation. «hvorledes» = 'how' (archaic, modern «hvordan»).

Nærværende Forfatter er ingenlunde Philosoph, han er, poetice et eleganter, en Extra-Skriver, der hverken skriver Systemet eller Løfter om Systemet, der hverken forskriver sig paa Systemet. eller til Systemet.  
The present author is by no means a philosopher; he is, poetically and elegantly speaking, a supernumerary scribe who neither writes the System nor promises about the System, who neither pledges himself upon the System nor to the System.

Han skriver, fordi det er ham en Luxus, der vinder i Behagelighed og Evidents, jo Færre der kjøbe og læse, hvad han skriver.  
He writes because it is a luxury for him — one that grows in agreeableness and evidence the fewer there are who buy and read what he writes.
> «jo … desto» comparative correlation: «jo Færre der kjøbe…» uses the «jo …» correlative ('the fewer … the more'), here with the second clause implied by «vinder i». The luxury increases in proportion as readers decrease — a wry inversion of the marketplace opening. «kjøbe» keeps the «kj-» spelling (modern «købe», to buy) and the older plural verb form.

Han forudseer let sin Skjæbne i en Tid, da man har slaaet en Streg over Lidenskaben for at tjene Videnskaben, i en Tid, da en Forfatter, der vil have Læsere, maa passe paa at skrive saaledes, at det beqvemt lader sig gjennemblade under Middagssøvnen, og passe paa at danne sin ydre Optræden i Lighed med hiin høflige Gartnersvends i Adresseavisen, der med Hatten i Haanden og gode Recommendationer fra det Sted, hvor han har tjent sidst, anbefaler sig til et høistæret Publikum.  
He easily foresees his fate in an age that has struck a line through passion in order to serve science — an age in which an author who wants readers must take care to write in such a way that it can comfortably be leafed through during the afternoon nap, and take care to model his outward bearing on that polite gardener's lad in the classifieds, who, hat in hand and with good references from the place where he last served, recommends himself to a most honored public.
> «Skjæbne» — fate; «skj-» spelling: «Skjæbne» (modern «skæbne», fate/destiny) keeps the older «skj-» cluster, like «Skjæbne» again below. «Lidenskab» (passion) set against «Videnskab» (science/scholarship) is a near-rhyme Kierkegaard exploits — the age trades passion for science. «beqvemt» = «bekvemt» (comfortably), «gjennemblade» = «gennemblade» (leaf through).

Han forudseer sin Skjæbne, at blive aldeles ignoreret, han aner det Forfærdelige, at den nidkjære Kritik vil lade ham flere Gange staae Skoleret; han gruer for det endnu Forfærdeligere, at en eller anden driftig Registrator, en Paragraphsluger, (der, for at frelse Videnskaben, altid er villig til at gjøre ved Andres Skrifter, hvad Trop for ,at redde Smagen" høimodigen gjorde ved »Menneskeslægtens Ødelæggelse") — skal skære ham over i $8, og gjøre det med samme Ubøielighed som den Mand, der for at tjene Interpunctions-Videnskaben inddeelte sin Tale ved at tælle Ordene, saa der gik 50 Ord paa et Punktum og 35 paa et Semikolon.  
He foresees his fate, to be wholly ignored; he senses the dreadful thing, that zealous criticism will several times make him stand in the corner like a schoolboy; he dreads the still more dreadful thing, that some enterprising registrar or other — a paragraph-swallower (who, in order to rescue science, is always willing to do to other people's writings what Trop, 'to save taste,' magnanimously did to 'The Destruction of the Human Race') — will carve him up into sections, and do it with the same inflexibility as the man who, in order to serve the science of punctuation, divided up his speech by counting the words, so that fifty words went to a full stop and thirty-five to a semicolon.
> «staae» — doubled-vowel infinitive: «staae» (modern «stå», to stand) shows the period's tripled-looking «aae» where the stem vowel doubles before the «-e» ending. Likewise «skære» (cut), «gjøre» (do), «inddeelte» (divided, modern «inddelte»). «$8» and «$» throughout render the section sign § as printed in this edition.

— Jeg falder i dybeste Underdanighed ned for enhver systematisk Posekigger: »Det er ikke Systemet, det har ikke det Mindste med Systemet at gjøre.  
— I fall down in deepest submission before every systematic bag-peerer: "This is not the System; it has not the slightest thing to do with the System.
> «Posekigger» — bag-peerer: «Posekigger» is Kierkegaard's coinage: literally one who peers into bags/sacks («Pose» = bag) — a snooping inspector, here the 'systematic' critic who roots through a text for its place in the System. Note the switch to the «»…«» guillemets opening the author's mock-deferential closing speech, which runs to the end of the preface.

Jeg nedbeder alt Godt over Systemet og over de danske Interessenter i denne Omnibus; thi et Taarn bliver det nok neppe.  
I call down all good upon the System and upon the Danish shareholders in this omnibus; for a tower it will hardly become.

Jeg ønsker dem alle samtlige og hver især til Lykke og Velsignelse.”  
I wish them all, one and all and each in particular, luck and blessing."

Ærbødigst Johannes de silentio.  
Most respectfully, Johannes de silentio.
---

Source text: public domain (Søren Kierkegaard, d. 1855; first published 1843, under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio). English translation: © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC — original draft, pending editorial review. NOTE: minimal seed excerpt; the 1843 Danish should be verified against Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter (SKS) before shipping, and full content is authored through the content pipeline.