FOLK NARRATIVE AND THE HISTORY OF CULTURE REFLECTIONS OF DIFFERENT ERAS IN THE TEXTS AND PERCEPTIONS OF THE OLD FOLK BALLADS OF DENMARK EXEMPLIFIED THROUGH BALLADS ABOUT THE MEDIEVAL KING VALDEMAR II AND HIS QUEENS DAGMAR AND BENGERD

Abstract: The article illustrates that the texts and perceptions of The Old Folk Ballads of Denmark reflect traces of different eras. Ballads about the medieval King Valdemar II and his queens Dagmar and Bengerd (Infanta Berengária of Portugal) exemplify this. The formations of the narrated figures are medieval but the formations of the narrated plots are from the Renaissance and concern the arrangement of marriage. Their references concern both the traditional nar-ration of the Middle Ages and the social realities of the Renaissance. The public attention to the ballads increased in the Romantic era. Folk narrative research-ers launched the master-narrative about the formation and transmission of the ballads from the medieval time of their figures to the Renaissance telling-time of their plots. However, this master-narrative about the ballads as a phenom-enon covers for the recognition of their narratives. Today, the ballads are receiv-ing new attention through a canon for the primary school and in other ways. The master-narrative is reused and renewed in order to respond to the cultural conflict caused by the process of globalisation. The aim is to shape a new unity of the population that now includes both the “old ” and “new ” Danes. This con-tradicts with differentiated experiences of one of the two main groups within the population, introducing new alternatives for recognising and identifying with the narrated figures and plots in account. Key words: ballads about Dronning Dagmar, ballads about Valdemar II, cog-nition of folklore, the old folk ballads of Denmark, traditional historical narra-tives The formation and transmission of traditional narratives from the perspective of time and space is a central subject within the science of folklore. Further-more, folk narrative plays an essential part in social and cultural life. An effort of the science of folklore is to uncover how traditional narration reflects and affects the spiritual life and conduct of human beings. The reason for my com