The Christmas hymn that touches everyone

When everyone in the church stands up and begins to sing Inngilerpassuit, which is the intro to the Christmas hymn Guuterput qutsinnermiu, there is always a solemn and moving atmosphere, with many being moved and shedding a small tear.

Why the hymn means so much to Greenlanders, and why it touches all hearts, we have sought to find the answer from pastor Aviaja Rohmann Pedersen from Nuuk.

– The text itself came to Rasmus Berthelsen in a dream while he was preparing for the Christmas services. The story goes that he was sitting and writing when he dozed off and dreamed that the angels came and sang to him with a text that later became Guuterput qutsinnermiu.

– It means a lot to us Greenlanders because the hymn is built on the Greenlandic mentality and made for us who speak the Greenlandic language. But also because it is sung in Inukkooq, which was the Greenlanders' way of singing in the old days, says Aviaja Rohmann Pedersen.

The hymn was composed in 1858, when Christianity in Greenland was only a little over 100 years old. Most hymns sung at that time were translated from European languages.

– When Guuterput Qutsinnermiu was created, it must have been very difficult to explain a message that was created almost 2000 years ago, when Jesus was born. But with Guuterput Qutsinnermiu, God and Jesus suddenly became present to the Greenlanders. Jesus was also born and died for us Greenlanders. The text says: “inungaa” and “inunni”, which is the term we Greenlanders use for ourselves, and which in translation reads “children of the earth”.

– It appeals to us. In this way, the hymn becomes present, it speaks to us Inuit, and we become part of the divine. The hymn must have made a big impression back then. Not least because it is also sung slowly, like an inukkooq, as was done in the old days, says Aviaja Rohmann Pedersen.

Plain text

Guuterput qutsinnermiu has always been perceived as particularly Greenlandic, also because it breaks the European tradition of ending rhymes in hymns.

– In the old Greenlandic songs there was no end rhyme, and although Christianity was already well integrated in Greenland when Rasmus Berthelsen lived, people still sang inukkooq. And that is why the hymn is still very much loved to this day and means so much to Greenlanders, precisely because it is Greenlandic in both the text, which speaks to the Greenlander, and in the melody, which is the way it was sung in the past, says Aviaja Rohmann Pedersen.

The text is short and very simple, yet it says it all.

– There are only two verses, but it tells very simply about the birth of Jesus, and that with his birth we are saved and given eternal life in heaven. It tells us that we are a part of the divine. That is why the hymn means so much to us, says Aviaja Rohmann Pedersen.

In the Danish translation/rewriting below by Mathias Stork and Christian Ludwig from 1910 (Fredensborg, 2000, pp. 290-1), several end rhymes are included in the song, which are not found in the Greenlandic version.

Danish - Our God

Introduction

A large angelic host

Stood down to earth on Christmas Eve,

Singing for the shepherds of the field sweetly in chorus.

1.

You, God, our God, in the helmet of heaven,

Praise be to God forever!

Now peace descends to the earth

And joy in the hearts of the Gem!

Children of the Earth!

Today a Savior is born to you.

2.

That Jesus Christ, God the Lord great,

Our Christmas present good,

For us his Hemmersal left,

May there be peace and joy on earth!

Children of the Earth,

For salvation brings praise and thanksgiving.