Ballads of the North, Medieval to Modern: Essays Inspired by Larry Syndergaard

Description

This volume is intended as a belated but heartfelt thank-you and Gedenkschrift to the late Larry Syndergaard (1936-2015), long-time professor of English at Western Michigan University and Fellow of the Kommission für Volksdichtung (International Ballad Commission). Larry's contributions down the decades to ballad studies--particularly Scandinavian and Anglophone—included dozens of papers and articles, as well as his supremely useful book, English Translations of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballads. As David Atkinson and Thomas A. McKean of the Kommission have written (May 2015): "Larry... was a sound scholar with a penetrating mind which he used to support, encourage and befriend others, rather than show off his own knowledge. He will be remembered for his contributions to international balladry, especially for providing a bridge between the English- and Scandinavian-language ballads." Larry's particular fascination with the vernacular ballads of the northern medieval world are reflected in this collection; topics here range from plot elements such as demonic whales, otherworldly antagonists, and mer-people to thematic issues of genre, religion and sexual mores. As a tribute to the global influence of Larry's scholarship and the broad academic interest in medieval ballads, the essays in this volume were contributed by twelve international scholars of narrative song based in Europe, North America and Australia. Contents Acknowledgments and Tabula Commemorativa “Both Me and Mine He Causd to Dine” • Sandra Ballif Straubhaar and Richard Firth Green Bibliographical Note Part I: The Ballad Genre 1 Swedish Ballad Authenticity and Its Gatekeepers • James Massengale 2 The Relationship of the Anomalous Ballad Þorgeirs rímur [Stjakarhöfða] to Áns rímur bogsveigis • Shaun F. D. Hughes 3 Hervör, Hervard, Hervik: The Metamorphosis of a Shieldmaiden • Sandra Ballif Straubhaar Part IIa: Traditional Ballads in Context: Motifs and Themes 4 Uncanny Cetology in the Sagas and Later West-Scandinavian Balladry • Sarah Harlan-Haughey 5 If You Go Down to the Woods Today … Fateful Locations in the Ballad Landscapes of Three Kingdoms • Tom Pettitt 6 “His Hawk, His Hound, and Lady Fair”: Social Symbols and Ballad Metaphors • James Moreira 7 Balladry and Social Mores: An Exploration of Attitudes to Sexual Relations in Songsters, Broadsides, and Oral Tradition • David Gregory Part IIb: The Traditional Ballad in Context: Individual Ballads 8 The Agnete Ballad of Denmark: Cultural Tool or Protest Song? • Lynda Taylor 9 From Sir Eglamour to “Old Bangum”: The Travels of a Ballad Hero • Richard Firth Green Part III: The Afterlife of the Traditional Ballad 10 Writing Romances for Amateur Singers: A Nineteenth-Century Danish Example • Hans Kuhn 11 The Secret Lives of Ballads: Fan Fiction as Folk Space • Sally Ann Schutz 12 A Game of Crows: Poe, Plagiarism, and the Ballad Tradition • Jennifer Goodman Wollock Notes on the Contributors Index