Cover not available

In:Nordic Literature: A comparative history: Volume II: Figural nodes
Edited by Steven P. Sondrup, Mark B. Sandberg, Nathaniel Kramer, Christopher Oscarson, Linda Haverty Rugg and Karin Sanders
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages 38] 2026
► pp. 845–869

Folklore, community, and the individual

This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Article outline
  • Folklore, legend, the individual and community
  • Understanding legend, legend performance and tradition dynamics
  • Stories of threat: Individuals, community and the negotiation of cultural ideology
    • Plague
    • Witches and Cunning Folk
    • Interacting with the Hidden Folk
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Works cited
References (53)
Works cited
Anderson, Walter. Eine neue Arbeit zur experimentellen Volkskunde. FF Communications 168. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1956.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blicher, Steen Steensen. E Bindstouw: Fortællinger og Digte i jydske Mundarter. Randers: J. M. Elmenhoff, 1842.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blixen, Karen [Isak Dinesen]. “Sorg-Agre.” Vinter-Eventyr; Karen Blixen værker. Ed. Nicolas Reinecke-Wilkendorff, Peter Olivarius, and Henrik Blicher. Vol. 2. København: Gyldendal & Det Danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab, 2010. 217–51.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
]. “Sorrow-Acre.” Winter’s Tales. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. 27–67.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boole, George. An Investigation into the Laws of Thought, On Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities; George Boole’s Collected Logical Works. Vol. 2. Chicago and London: Open Court Publishing Company, 1916.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brandt, Margit, Ed. Registrant over Evald Tang Kristensens samling af eventyr. NIF Rapporter 1. Åbo: NIF, 1974.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Broadwell, Peter M. and Timothy R. Tangherlini. “WitchHunter: Tools for the geo-semantic exploration of a Danish Folklore Corpus.” Journal of American Folklore 129.511 (2016): 14–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chesnutt, Michael. “The Many Abodes of Olrik’s Epic Laws.” Copenhagen Folklore Notes 4 (1999): 7–11.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Christiansen, Reidar, Ed. Folktales of Norway. Trans. Pat Shaw Iversen and Richard M. Dorson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Christiansen, Reidar Th. Norske sagn. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1938.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Conroy, Patricia. “Oral composition in Faroese ballads.” Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung 25 (1980): 34–50. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Danske sagn, som de har lydt i folkemunde, udelukkende efter utrykte kilder saml. og tildels optegnede af Evald Tang Kristensen. Ny Række. 7 vols. København: Woels Forlag, 1928–39.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Certeau, Michel. L’invention du quotidien. 2 vols. Paris: Union générale d’éditions, 1980.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. The Practice of Everyday Life. Trans. Steven Rendall. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dundes, Alan. The Morphology of North American Indian folktales. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1964.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eskeröd, Albert. Årets äring: Etnologiska studier i skördens och julens tro och sed. Nordiska Museets Handlingar 26. Lund: Håkan Ohlsson, 1947.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fine, Gary Alan. “Folklore Diffusion Through Interactive Social Networks: Conduits in a Preadolescent Community.” New York Folklore 5.1 (1979): 87–126.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foster, George. “Interpersonal Relations in Peasant Society.” Human Organization 19.4 (1960–61): 174–78. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. “Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good.” American Anthropologist 67.2 (1965): 293–315. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hansen, Hans Peter. Kloge folk: Folkemedicin og overtro i Vestjylland. 2 vols. København: Rosenkilde og Bagger, 1960–61.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holbek, Bengt. Interpretation of Fairy Tales: Danish Folklore in a European Perspective. FF Communications 239. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1987.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ingwersen, Niels. “The need for narrative: The folktale as response to history.” Scandinavian Studies 67.1 (1995): 77–90.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kristensen, Evald Tang. Danske sagn, som de har lydt i Folkemunde: udelukkende efter utrykte Kilder. 7 vols. Århus: Århus folkeblads bogtrykkeri, 1892–1901.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Danske sagn, som de har lydt i folkemunde, udelukkende efter utrykte kilder saml. og tildels optegnede af Evald Tang Kristensen. Ny Række. 7 vols. København: Woels Forlag, 1928–39.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Danish Folklore: The Evald Tang Kristensen Collection. [URL]. Accessed 2 February 2023.
. Gamle folks fortællinger om det jyske almueliv. 6 vols. Århus: Forfatterens forlag, 1905.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Larsson, Daniel. “Diseases in Early Modern Sweden: A Parish-level Study 1631–1775.” Scandinavian Journal of History 45.4 (2020): 407–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lindow, John. “Buried Alive to Stop the Plague.” Swedish Legends and Folktales. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. 72–73. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. “Personification and Narrative Structure in Scandinavian Plague Legends.” Arv 29–30 (1973–74): 83–92.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Swedish Legends and Folktales. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. “Swedish Legends of Buried Treasure.” Journal of American Folklore 95.377 (1982): 257–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lizardo, Omar. “Improving Cultural Analysis: Considering Personal Culture in its Declarative and Nondeclarative Modes.” American Sociological Review 82.1 (2017): 88–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mikkelsen, Stella Borne. “Det færøske lægevæsen ca. 1840–60.” “af yderste Vigtighed for det hele Borgersamfunds Tryghed.” Medicinalberetninger og deres anvendelsesmuligheder i historisk forskning. Ed. Gerda Bonderup, Jørgen Mikkelsen, and Lisbeth Skjernov. København: Selskabet til Udgivelse af Kilder til Dansk Historie, 2005. 359–423.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mullen, Patrick B. “The Folk Idea of Unlimited Good in American Buried Treasure Legends.” Journal of the Folklore Institute 15.3 (1978): 209–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pedersen, Ole Staunsbjerg. Kalender for Støvring og Omegn. Skørping: Selskabet til Bevarelse af Årets Kredsløb, 1995.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Plovgaard, Karen. “Møllersvend Peder Johansen Sørensen.” Østjydsk Hjemstavn. Ed. N. P. Østergaard. 21 (1956): 108–13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rørbye, Birgitte. Kloge folk og skidtfolk: Kvaksalveriets epoke i Danmark. København: Politiken, 1976.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandemose, Aksel. En flyktning krysser sitt spor: Espen Arnakkes kommentarer til Janteloven 1955. Oslo: Aschehoug, 1999.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. A Fugitive Crosses his Tracks. Trans. Eugene Gay-Tifft. New York, A. A. Knopf, 1936.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schofield, Philipp. Peasant and community in medieval England, 1200–1500. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simpson, Jacqueline. Icelandic Folktales and Legends. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steensberg, Axel, Ed. Dagligliv i Danmark i det nittende og tyvende århundrede. 2 vols. København: Nyt nordisk forlag, 1963–64.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Sydow, Carl Wilhelm. “Om traditionsspridning.” Scandia 5.2 (1932): 321–44.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. “On the Spread of Tradition.” Selected Papers on Folklore. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1948. 11–43.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tangherlini, Timothy R. “Barter and Games: Economics and the Supernatural in Danish Legendry.” Arv, Nordic Yearbook of Folklore 54 (1998): 41–62.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Danish Folktales, Legends and Other Stories. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
“‘How do you know she’s a witch?’: Witches, Cunning Folk, and Competition in Denmark.” Western Folklore 59.3/4 (2000): 279–303. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Interpreting Legend: Danish Storytellers and their Repertoires. New York: Routledge, 1994.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
“Ships, Fogs, and Traveling Pairs: Plague Legend Migration in Scandinavia.” Journal of American folklore 101.400 (1988): 176–206. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
“Toward a Generative Model of Legend: Pizzas, Bridges, Vaccines and Witches.” Ed. Dan Ben-Amos. “The Challenge of Folklore to the Humanities,” Special Issue, Humanities 7.1 (2018).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taussig, Michael T. The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1980.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tillhagen, Carl-Herman. “Sägner och folktro kring pesten.” Fataburen: Nordiska museets och Skansens årsbok Vol. 1967. Stockholm: Nordiska museets förlag, 1967. 223.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Turner, Stephen P. The Social Theory of Practices: Tradition, Tacit Knowledge and Presuppositions. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue