Karen Brahes Folio (Odense, Landsarkivet for Fyn, Karen Brahe E I,1, also known as Karen Brahes Foliohåndskrift) is a manuscript collection of Danish

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

s dating from c. 1583. The manuscript contains the following names, presumed to be of its owners: E Mett Lange, Knud Brahe 1583; Ellen Giøe, Otto Giøe, Torpegaard 17 September 1628. The manuscript's modern name relates to its later owner, the Danish noblewoman and book-collector Karen Brahe (1657-1736). With around two hundred ballads, the manuscript is one of the largest early collections of Danish folksongs (and indeed Scandinavian folk-songs generally), offering some of the earliest texts of ballads like

Elveskud "Elveskud" or "Elverskud" (; Danish for "Elf-shot") is the Danish, and most widely used, name for one of the most popular ballads in Scandinavia (''The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad'' A 63 'Elveskud — Elf maid causes man's sicknes ...

, Herr Bøsmer i elvehjem, and Harpens kraft. Around the time of its creation, or shortly after, it seems to have belonged to the noblewoman Margrethe Lange, who came from

Engelsholm Engelsholm Castle, overlooking Engelsholm Lake, is located 14 km west of Vejle in south-western Denmark. Originally a manor house which traces its history back to the 15th century, it now houses a folk high school. History Little is known about En ...

Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality ('' kommune'') and th ...

. This is consistent with the heavy influence in the texts from the Jutlandic dialect. The manuscript is held today in the regional archive of

Fyn Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as ...

. Svend Grundtvig characterized the manuscript as "the richest and in every way most significant folk song manuscript that any country has to offer", while noting that it has a consistent tendency of embellishment of its traditional material.

Sources

* 'Karen Brahes Folio', ''Den store danske: Gyldendals åbne encyclopædi'', http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Livsstil,_sport_og_fritid/Folketro_og_folkemindevidenskab/Karen_Brahes_Folio, accessed 11 July 2013. * http://duds.nordisk.ku.dk/tekstresurser/aeldste_danske_viseoverlevering/viseboegerne/karen_brahes_folio_aeldre/ * http://www.karenbrahe.dk/

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