''Danmarks gamle Folkeviser'' is a collection of (in principle) all known texts and recordings of the old Danish popular ballads. It drew both on early modern manuscripts, such as
Karen Brahes Folio
Karen Brahes Folio (Odense, Landsarkivet for Fyn, Karen Brahe E I,1, also known as Karen Brahes Foliohåndskrift) is a manuscript collection of Danish ballads dating from c. 1583. The manuscript contains the following names, presumed to be of its o ...
, and much more recent folk-song collecting activity.
It was started in 1853 by
Svend Grundtvig
Svend Hersleb Grundtvig (9 September 1824, Copenhagen – 14 July 1883, Frederiksberg) was a Danish literary historian and ethnographer. He was one of the first systematic collectors of Danish traditional music, and he was especially interested ...
. During the nineteenth century,
Axel Olrik
Axel Olrik (3 July 1864 – 17 February 1917) was a Danish folklorist and scholar of mediaeval historiography, and a pioneer in the methodical study of oral narrative.
Olrik was born in Frederiksberg, the son of the artist Henrik Olrik. Art ...
was also heavily involved, editing volumes 6-8. The work was continued in the twentieth century by new generations of
folklorist
Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...
s, and in 1976 comprised 12 volumes, containing 539 ballad types, often with many variants of each type.
Grundtvig's division of the ballad types into categories has mostly been adopted in later ballad collections, e.g. by
F. J. Child, and by modern researchers in the field. However, many of the ballads he classed as 'historic' now have been reclassified. Grundtvig's classifications were:
* Kæmpeviser (heroic songs) (vol. 1)
* Trylleviser (magical songs) (vol. 2)
* Historiske viser (historical songs) (vol. 3)
* Ridderviser (romances) (vols 4-5)
* Danske ridderviser (Danish romances) (vols 6-9)
It is now standard practice to refer to the Danish ballad type by its assigned a DgF number. Variants (or variant groups) are indicated by an alphabet following the DgF number. Thus "Tord af Havsgaard" (DgF 1A) for the version taken down from manuscripts, and DgF 1B for the version printed in
Vedel's book. Also it is commonplace to refer to ballad titles by Grundtvig's normalized orthography rather than actual spellings occurring in the texts.
Many of the ballads are Danish examples from a family of cognate ballads disseminated throughout Scandinavia. The TSB or
The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad
''The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad: A Descriptive Catalogue'' (TSB) is the designation for a cataloguing system for Scandinavian ballads.
It is also the title of the underlying reference book: ''The Types of the Scandinavian Medieva ...
sigla are used to catalog the pan-Scandinavian cognate type to which a ballad may belong. Some of the ballads have cognates in English, and have been cross-referenced against
Child Ballad
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...
by Larry Syndergaard, ''English Translations of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballads'' (1995) (SMB).
English translations of a number of Danish ballads can be found in
R. C. Alexander Prior, ''Ancient Danish Ballads'' in 3 vols. (1860);
George Borrow
George Henry Borrow (5 July 1803 – 26 July 1881) was an English writer of novels and of travel based on personal experiences in Europe. His travels gave him a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe, who figure strongly in his work. Hi ...
, ''Works'';
E. M. Smith-Dampier's various publications.
The ballads
See also
*
List of folk song collections
This is a list of folk song collections including pioneer and notable work in collecting folk songs.
Many such collections were made in the 19th century. The earlier ones are often considered to be parts of the National Romanticist interests in fo ...
Footnotes
Explanatory notes
;Table notes on additional variants in later DgF volumes
;Additional notes
Citations
References
;texts
*
**Vol.1:
internet archive
**Vol.2:
internet archiveo
here
**Vol.3:
internet archive
**Vol.4:
internet archiveo
here
**Vol.5: (2 vols.)
**Vol.6:
internet archive
**Vol.7:
internet archive
**Vol.8:
Part 1: 467-474 1905)
**Vol.9:
**Vol.10:
**Vol.10:
**Vol.11:
**Vol.12:
;translations
*
Vol. 1;studies
*
*''
The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad
''The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad: A Descriptive Catalogue'' (TSB) is the designation for a cataloguing system for Scandinavian ballads.
It is also the title of the underlying reference book: ''The Types of the Scandinavian Medieva ...
'' (1978) ()
{{Refend
Ballad collections