Ballads of the North, Medieval to Modern : : Essays Inspired by Larry Syndergaard / / ed. by Richard Firth Green, Sandra Ballif Straubhaar.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2019 Part 1
• MitwirkendeR: Ballif Straubhaar, Sandra,; Firth Green, Richard,; Goodman Wollock, Jennifer,; Gregory, David,; Harlan-Haughey, Sarah,; Hughes, Shaun F. D.,; Kuhn, Hans,; Massengale, James,; Moreira, James,; Pettitt, Tom,; Schutz, Sally Ann,; Taylor, Lynda,
• HerausgeberIn: Green, Richard Firth,; Straubhaar, Sandra Ballif,
• Place / Publishing House: Kalamazoo, MI : : Medieval Institute Publications, , [2019]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Festschriften, Occasional Papers, and Lectures
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (270 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments and Tabula Commemorativa -- “Both Me and Mine He Causd to Dine” -- Bibliographical Note -- Part I: The Ballad Genre -- 1. Swedish Ballad Authenticity and Its Gatekeepers -- 2. The Relationship of the Anomalous Ballad Þorgeirs rímur [Stjakarhöfða] to Áns rímur bogsveigis -- 3. Hervör, Hervard, Hervik: The Metamorphosis of a Shieldmaiden -- Part II a: Traditional Ballads in Context: Motifs and Themes -- 4. Uncanny Cetology in the Sagas and Later West-Scandinavian Balladry -- 5. If You Go Down to the Woods Today … Fateful Locations in the Ballad Landscapes of Three Kingdoms -- 6. “His Hawk, His Hound, and Lady Fair”: Social Symbols and Ballad Metaphors -- 7. Balladry and Social Mores: An Exploration of Attitudes to Sexual Relations in Songsters, Broadsides, and Oral Tradition -- Part II b: The Traditional Ballad in Context: Individual Ballads -- 8. The Agnete Ballad of Denmark: Cultural Tool or Protest Song? -- 9. From Sir Eglamour to “Old Bangum”: The Travels of a Ballad Hero -- Part III: The Afterlife of the Traditional Ballad -- 10. Writing Romances for Amateur Singers: A Nineteenth-Century Danish Example -- 11. The Secret Lives of Ballads: Fan Fiction as Folk Space -- 12. A Game of Crows: Poe, Plagiarism, and the Ballad Tradition -- Notes on the Contributors -- Index