Academic literature on the topic 'Scandinavian Ballads'

This article analyses the universe of the traditional ballad from a perspective that problematizes gender power relations and masculinity. This universe is generally characterised by masculine domination, separation of male and female spheres, and manifest structures of power. Masculine violence, not least sexual violence, tends to be normative, especially in heroic ballads and ballads of chivalry, although other masculinities also exist. Feminine power is usually circumscribed, and feminine violence is accepted only under certain conditions. Several narrative motifs concerning masculinity, femininity, violence and power structures can be traced across different ballad types. The author analyses some of these motifs, and clusters of motifs, using the methods of re-reading, close reading and cross-reading. Examples are taken from the Scandinavian and English-Scottish ballad corpora.

"Mermaids and Other Undines: Medieval Representations of Scandinavian Aquatic Figures. Without claiming to be exhaustive, this article compares the different aquatic figures of Scandinavian imagination, and the representations relating to Scandinavia, taking into account their cosmic aspect. This paper highlights the close connection of these creatures with time, weather and music, and the evolution of the representation of sea creatures that embody geography and climate, real or fantasized. These representations evolve, especially because of the important Christianization process that they undergo. With Christianization, these sea creatures tend towards demonization, and they’re influenced by Occidental representations, especially with those of the sirens of the Nibelungenlied. Scandinavian aquatic figures represent different dangers according to the type of water in which they live: salty, soft or marshy. According to their gender, the marine creatures which embody different risks are put in perspective in a comparative approach that links the Eddas and the stories reported by Xavier Marmier, especially Danish and Swedish. Thanks to the privileged bond these figures, emerging from the Edda, sagas and ballads, maintain with speech and music, their evolutions and their representations survive in the collective imagination related to Scandinavia. Keywords: Middle Age, Scandinavian literature, hybrid representations, mermaid, imaginary of the sea."

Abstract The first Scandinavian mentions of magic folk tales and ballads are by two clergymen-cum-historians, Olavus Petri (the Swedish reformer, 1493–1552), in a generic discussion in the lengthy Introduction to his unpublished Swedish Chronicle), and Anders Foss (1543–1607, Danish-born bishop of Bergen in Norway), who cites ATU 327B & 853 in a discussion of the reliability of Saxo’s late twelfth-century Gesta Danorum). Both discuss the value of traditional oral tales (and ballads) as historical sources: Anders Foss rejects them, whereas Olavus Petri emphasizes their value as expressions of demotic attitudes towards the rich and mighty. This was heavily censured by King Gustaf I Vasa, who forbade the publication of Olavus’ Chronicle. Note on terminology: Olavus Petri’s preface, a large part of which is here translated for the first time, seems to be the first evidence of the Swedish word “sagor” (plural of “saga”) being used to denote a specific narrative genre (= wonder tales?). Similarly, Anders Foss’s “euentyrer” (archaic plural form of “eventyr” = Märchen, sg. & pl.) is probably the first example of the word being used in this sense in Danish (other than in the still current meaning “adventure” or “quest”).

In this article, the Old Icelandic poem Þrymskviða, which depicts an ancient myth about the theft and retrieval of Thor’s hammer, is compared with a number of later texts describing the same story – a late medieval Icelandic rhyme Þrymlur and a number of ballads from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, – in order to find out if it is possible to reconstruct an earlier, common Scandinavian version of this myth. While such a reconstruction appears to be plausible, none of the extant sources reflects the proto-myth in its complete form: although the oldest source Þrymskviða generally appears to be the most conservative among the different versions of this story, some of the scenes from the proto-myth have been preserved better in the later sources.

This article discusses skilling ballads as a news medium in the early modern period, and it suggests that in Scandinavia the news ballad was the most important journalistic genre for a broad public. Through a reading of ballads conveying news of fantastical creatures, the article considers how skilling ballads negotiated the borders between the true and the false, and how some of our contemporary mechanisms for revealing fake news can be detected in the early modern news ballads.

The Lay of the Nibelungs is a prominent literature work dating back to the early 13th century. It is a result of almost 10 century evolution of the material going back into the early Middle Ages. The material was also used by other Germanic peoples for development of Scandinavian sagas, Faroese and Danish ballads. The texts representing the story of the Nibelungs mark different stages of social and cultural development of the relevant Germanic peoples and are of a special interest for the historians dealing with the social history of Europe. The Lay of the Nibelungs, however, content not only contemporary features, like courteous rituals, but also archaic ones deriving from ancient lays and tales which are left unknown to us. The 19th century saw growing influence of the myth of the Nibelungs on German society with de La Mott Fouquet and Wagner creating the most eminent works updating the ancient lay. In the 20th century the Nibelungs-mentality shaped some aspects of Nazi ideology and was widely discussed by the leaders of the Third Reich.

Hygiene as Ideal and Practice, Johanna Annola, Annelie Drakman & Marie Ulväng (eds.), Med tvål, vatten och flit. Hälsofrämjande renlighet som ideal och praktik ca 1870‒1930, Nordic Academic Press, Lund 2021 Collecting Scrap Cars, Anders Björklund, Skrotbilar – om hängivna samlare och deras fordon, Carlsson Bokförlag, Stockholm2021 Norwegian Studies of Broadside Ballads, Siv Gøril Brandtzæg & Karin Strand (eds.), Skillingsvisene i Norge 1550–1950. Studier i en forsømt kulturarv, Scandinavian Academic Press, Oslo 2021 Robots and Future Working Life, Daniel Bodén & Michael Godhe (eds.), AI, robotar och föreställningar om morgondagens arbetsliv,Nordic Academic Press, Lund 2020 The History of the Future? Henrik Brissman, Framtidens historia, Natur & Kultur, Stockholm 2021 Fashion’s Photographic Market, Anna Dahlgren, (ed.), Fashioned in the North. Nordic Histories, Agents, and Images of Fashion Photography, Nordic Academic Press, Lund 2020 Exhibiting Death at Sea, Simon Ekström, Sjödränkt. Spektakulär materialitet från havet, Makadam förlag, Göteborg/Stockholm 2021 Animals: Touching Encounters and Cultural Pain Points, Simon Ekström & Lars Kaijser (eds.), Djur. Berörande möten och kulturella smärtpunkter, Makadam, Göteborg/Stockholm 2018 Viewpoints on the Use of Alcohol, Anders Gustavsson, Improper Use, Moderation or Total Abstinence of Alcohol. Use of and Opinionon Alcohol Especially in the Western Swedish Countryside and Coastal Regions during the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Strömstad Academy. Nordic Institute of Advanced Studies 2021 Ambulatory Schoolteachers and Literacy in Norway, Gry Heggli, Omgangsskolelæreren i allmueskolen. Leseopplæring mellom tekster og talemål, Scandinavian Academic Press, Oslo 2021 With Camera and Suitcase, Sanna Jylhä & Marika Rosenström (eds.), Med kamera och koffert. Resefotografier före massturismen, SLS Varia nr 7. SLS, Helsingfors/Appell förlag, Stockholm 2021 Mournable Lives, Kim Silow Kallenberg, Sörjbara liv, Universus Academic Press, Malmö 2021 Analysing Father’s Tomfooleries, Barbro Klein, I tosaforornas värld. Gustav berättar, Carlssons Bokförlag, Stockholm 2021 History as a Tourist Attraction, Wiebke Kolbe, Geschichtstourismus. Theorie – Praxis – Berufsfelder, Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, Tübingen 2021 Predators and Humans in Historical- Ethnological Light, Teppo Korhonen, Karhuverkosta susipantaan. Karhunja suden pyynti keskiajalta 2000-luvulle, Suomen Muinaismuistoyhdistys, Helsinki 2020 Cultural Heritage Management in Wartime, Mattias Legnér, Värden att värna. Kulturminnesvård som statsintresse i Norden vid tiden för andra världskriget, Makadam förlag, Göteborg/Stockholm 2021 Fifty Shades of Class, Britta Lundgren, Hildur Kalman, Ann Öhman & Annelie Bränström-Öhman, Möjligheter och mellanrum. Berättelser om genus och akademiska livslopp, Makadam förlag, Göteborg/Stockholm 2020 A Hundred Years of Nordic Ethnology at Åbo Akademi, Finland, Fredrik Nilsson & Anna-Maria Åström (eds.), Nordisk etnologi 1921‒2021. Ett ämne i rörelse, Åbo Akademi Förlag, Åbo 2021 Interior Decoration Culture in Hälsingland, Ingalill Nyström, Anneli Palmsköld & Johan Knutsson (eds.), Hälsinglands inredningskultur, Kriterium vol. 23. Makadam förlag, Göteborg/Stockholm 2021 Collaboration in Arctic Research, Anne Merrild Hansen and Carina Ren (eds.), Collaborative Research Methods in the Arctic. Experiences from Greenland, Routledge Research in Polar Regions, Routledge, Abingdon 2021 Settlers of the Swedish Wilderness, Eero Sappinen, Värmlannin metsäsuomalaiset. Asutushistoriasta, agraarista kulttuurista ja muutoksesta, Siirtolaisinstituutti, Turku 2019 Perspectives on Fashion, Emma Severinsson & Philip Warkander (eds.), Modevetenskap. Perspektiv på mode, stil och estetik, Appell Förlag, Stockholm 2020 The Legacy of Ernst Manker, Eva Silvén, Friktion. Ernst Manker, Nordiska museet och det samiska kulturarvet, Nordic Academic Press,Lund 2021 Everyday Superstition, Fredrik Skott, Vardagsskrock. Från abrakadabra till önskebrunn. Polaris Fakta, Malmö 2021 Animals in the City, Liv Emma Thorsen, Dyrenes by: Hover, klover og klør i Kristiania 1859–1925. Forlaget Press, Oslo 2020 When the Tide Turns, Charlotte Ulmert, När vinden vänder. Adéle Sylvan och Charlotte Rosenkrantz – adelskvinnorna som gick sin egen väg. Ekström & Garay, Lund 2021

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att granska hur genus och genusrelationer uttrycks i svenska, medeltida ballader. Genom att förstå balladkaraktärernas handlingar som performativa, ämnar uppsatsen undersöka hur maskulinitet och femininitet etableras och omförhandlas i balladernas narrativ genom att kartlägga handlingsmönster. Av betydelse är att belysa hur karaktärernas handlingsmöjligheter påverkas av faktorer såsom kön, social status och familjerelationer, men även jämföra hur genusmönster i balladen reflekterar eller utmanar normer och ideal i det senmedeltida samhället. Uppsatsen åskådliggör hur män och kvinnor har möjlighet att utöva och förhandla om makt på olika sätt. Genom detta rör man sig bort från uppfattningen om passivitet och maktlöshet som analogt med femininitet, och aktivitet och makt som synonymt med maskulinitet. Resultaten uppvisar därmed en problematisering och nyansering av genusuttryck i medeltida ballader som saknas i tidigare forskning, och framhäver fördelarna att bedriva ett mer inkluderande synsätt gentemot den här typen av källmaterial inom historievetenskapen.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the distribution of medieval ballads as semiotics of intertextuality in modern Swedish literature, here represented by August Strindberg, Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Kerstin Ekman and Katarina Frostenson. They are famous authors from different epochs, ranging from the period called “the modern breakthrough” in the 1880s until the postmodernism of the present time. My aim is to expose their attraction to medieval balladry, and their different ways of using form, language and style from this old poetry in poems, prose and plays, explicit as well as implicit.