''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
folklorist
Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...
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 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 List of the Child Ballads, 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 ...
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, ''Works'';
E. M. Smith-Dampier's various publications.
The ballads
See also
*
List of folk song collections
Footnotes
Explanatory notes
;Table notes on additional variants in later DgF volumes
;Additional notes
Citations
References
Texts
*
**
internet archive
**
internet archiveo
here
**
internet archive
**
internet archiveo
here
** (2 vols.)
**
internet archive
**
internet archive
**
Part 1: 467-474 1905)
**
**
**
**
**
Translations
*
Vol. 1Studies
*
*''
The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad'' (1978) ()
{{Refend
Ballad collections
Danish song books