Livnende stoff, elementers lengsel

Abstract

Musing Matter, Longing Elements: A New-Materialist Approach to Elias Blix’ Baptismal Hymn (145) As the father of Lutheran hymns in the Norwegian Nynorsk language, Elias Blix (1836-1902) looms in the Scandinavian country’s song culture, and his compositions remain popular, both inside and outside the church. Blix lent significant space to the more-than-human in his poetry, expressing the Christian gospel in the changing of seasons or the budding of plants. This article explores a baptismal hymn from a new-materialist perspective. It demonstrates how the poet cast the initiation rite as a dynamic, erotic dance between the two elements of water and spirit/breath/air. With what one might call an ecocentric sensibility, Blix adumbrated a Christian understanding that decenters the human, as baptismal transformation unfolds with the agency of the elements.