![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
-... I Riden Så Varligt...-
Nov. 8th, 2009 08:42 pmOkay, I'm a bit better now.
You know, I was planning on making this... Huge epic post with Swedish myths and legends; one from each province. But then I got so impatient that I decided to post the two I've translated so far. >3>;
In Swedish there is a word called sägen, which roughly translates to myth or legend, although I personally feel that those words are too ambiguous to properly express what sägen means. To put it really simply, a sägen is something that was thought to have happened a long time ago that was true; the events are often trivial and might explain a name, a place, a phenomenon; but it could also simply be a story. They're the urban legends of the old farmers' society (urban legend in Swedish is vandringssägen, wandering myth). You recognize the traits; the story is attributed to a special place and the characters have names and might even be historical people, amongst others.
I work from the south to the north. These two first ones are from Skåne and Småland; map of the Swedish provinces here. The source is Svenska folksägner by Herman Hofberg, 1882, with annotations.
I've only translated the annotations if I felt that they were worth adding...
( Skåne )
( Småland )
This one might also duly note that "Ebbe Skammelsson" is indeed a medieval ballads as well, although the content differs quite a bit from the tales presented here.
You know, I was planning on making this... Huge epic post with Swedish myths and legends; one from each province. But then I got so impatient that I decided to post the two I've translated so far. >3>;
In Swedish there is a word called sägen, which roughly translates to myth or legend, although I personally feel that those words are too ambiguous to properly express what sägen means. To put it really simply, a sägen is something that was thought to have happened a long time ago that was true; the events are often trivial and might explain a name, a place, a phenomenon; but it could also simply be a story. They're the urban legends of the old farmers' society (urban legend in Swedish is vandringssägen, wandering myth). You recognize the traits; the story is attributed to a special place and the characters have names and might even be historical people, amongst others.
I work from the south to the north. These two first ones are from Skåne and Småland; map of the Swedish provinces here. The source is Svenska folksägner by Herman Hofberg, 1882, with annotations.
I've only translated the annotations if I felt that they were worth adding...
( Skåne )
( Småland )
This one might also duly note that "Ebbe Skammelsson" is indeed a medieval ballads as well, although the content differs quite a bit from the tales presented here.
