Anonymous (Danish ballads)

The Danish ballads (folkeviser) are anonymous songs of the Middle Ages, sung to a dance with a leader and a chorus that answers with a burden or refrain. They were composed over several centuries, from about the 13th, and were written down chiefly in the 16th century in the manuscript song-books of Danish noble families, which preserve them in great numbers.

This selection of twenty-nine is taken from Danish Ballads, translated by E. M. Smith-Dampier (Cambridge University Press, 1920); thirteen more ballads are in George Borrow's versions from Romantic Ballads (1826). It runs from the historical ballads on Valdemar, Queen Dagmar and the murder of King Erik Klipping, through legendary ballads of heroes and of magic with mermen and elves, to miscellaneous ballads of love and chance. The translator's introduction, head-notes and end-notes are not reproduced; the stanza numbers of the printed edition are omitted.