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, and much more recent folk-song collecting activity.
It was started in 1853 by Svend Grundtvig. During the nineteenth century, Axel Olrik was also heavily involved, editing volumes 6-8. The work was continued in the twentieth century by new generations of folklorists, and in 1976 comprised 12 volumes, containing 539 ballad types, often with many variants of each type.[1]
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 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 by Larry Syndergaard, English Translations of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballads (1995) (SMB).[2]
"Tord of Hafsborough" (Borrow); "Thor of Asgard" (Prior)
Tord loses hammer, sends Lokke Leyemand on quest; The Tosse- or "Fool" Count (or Thusser "Turkish" king) demands damsel Fridleifsborg in exchange, but her father Tord dressed in maiden's garb goes instead. A rendition of Þrymskviða.
"The End of Sivard Snarenswayne" (Borrow); "Siward the Hasty Swain" (Prior)
Sivard slays stepfather, and rides off on fine horse named Graamand "Grayman" that his mother provides; he approaches maternal uncle, the Danish king, but in an awesome leap gone awry, both horse and rider perish.
Princess has many suitors but accepts none because a dwarf has forced her to come nightly to his hill by inscribing magic runes en route to her evening prayer. When she divulges truth, seven children she had by dwarf reproach her and she dies.
TSB "A1 Venderland-Grevens Søn— Maiden's love gained by runic spell" Count of Venderland's son proposes to Isolt but he is rebuffed by the girl's mother.
Mourning girl's dead fiancé visits, piggybacking his coffin, tries to convince her to stop her weeping which causes coffin to bleed. She still prays for death and illness carries her away a month after.
Maidservant Roselille knifes Hr. Peder bent on rape. Lady Lilje, in order to save herself from her brother Peder's incestuous lust, had delivered up her maid to the man despite being her friend.
Peder (Iver) boasts he can seduce any lady, and wagers life (property) and neckbone against Lange that he can succeed with the virtuous Ingelil, only to fail.
Child I, 65. "Sir Peter as riding away from home about a month after his marriage, and meeting a woman who informs him that there is a birth in his house. He returns, and asks who is the father. Sir Peters satisfies [he himself was rapist] by identifying the gifts, in ABCD"
Ebbe Galt gets drunken, and in the woods asks farmer's wife to conduct him to town, but brutally ravishes her in her home. Farmer gains king's promises to make villain pay with his life. Ebbe turns out to be king's nephew, and ransom is offered, but Ebbe is carried off to die.
Herr Truels's three daughters heading for mass are waylaid and killed by thee thieves, who lodge with the herr and are discovered to be not only the killers, the sisters' lost brothers. The thieves refuse to flee, and face punishment by beheading.
Herr Karl fakes death to win beloved's heart. She is tricked and keeps vigil, and weepingly whispers she loved him, at which Karl wakes laughing. Despite suspicions of his being mere seducer, he honorably asks parents for her hand in marriage.
^In Child II, 297, the Danish referred to as Ung Villum or "Young William", with A-variant's protagonist named as Svend of Voldesløv
^It is not Child himself but Gruntivg, VI, p.374 who pairs it with Child 58. Elsewhere, both Child 57 & 58 are coupled to DgF 376 according to David Buchan (1985), "Traditional Patterns and the Religious Ballads, cited by Sigurd Kværndrup (2006), Den østnordiske ballade
^Danish ballad title given as "Jon Rimaardssøns Skriftemaal"
^Child's index gives Danish ballad title as Klosterranet
^Child's index gives Danish ballad title as Jomfruens Brødre. B is Jomfruen i Skoven, Tragica, No. 15.
^Child gives Danish analogue by the title Den elskedes Død = Kristensen II, No. 20 = DgF 446B. A-B has Herr Peder, L-M has Hr. Magnus
^Child gives DgF No 472, but identifies it as Kristenson X, 82 which is this ballad.
^Not identified by Child, but equivalence given in Sigurd Kværndrup (2006), Den østnordiske ballade, p.330n, citing David Buchan (1985), "Traditional Patterns and the Religious Ballads.
Citations
^Sven Grundtvig, Danmarks gamle folkeviser, 12 vols in 13 (Copenhagen: Samfundet til den danske literaturs fremme [vols 6-12 issued by Universitetsjubilæets danske Samfund], 1853-1976).
^Syndergaard 1995, Appendix B: Scandinavian Ballads with Cognates in English, p. 241-242
References
Texts
Grundtvig, Svend, ed. (1853–1976), Danmarks gamle folkeviser, Kjøbenhavn: Samfundet til den danske literaturs fremme