Paper short abstract:

Svend Grundtvig's edition of Danish popular ballads brought on the so-called "Ballad War" ("Kæmpevisestriden"), a polemic in newspapers and journals involving Denmark's most prominent literati. At the heart of the Ballad War was the question of who was entitled to speak with the voice of the folk.

Paper long abstract:

Grundtvig's edition of Danish popular ballads (Danmarks gamle Folkeviser) brought on the so-called "Ballad War" ("Kæmpevisestriden"), a polemic in 1847-1848 in newspapers and journals, which involved Denmark's most prominent literati and several other European intellectuals. A comprehensive edition of all known texts and recordings of the Danish popular ballads, folklorist Svend Grundtvig began this megaproject in 1853 and the last volume was published in 1973.

The most contested aspect of Grundtvig's editorial policy was his unyielding (and as others saw it, bizarre and irrational) commitment to publishing verbatim all variants of every ballad, rather than a standardized and sanitized selection (as had been customary). Subsequently, Grundtvig's policy became the scientific standard in ballad editions in Europe and America.

The polemical writings of the "Ballad War" open up to scrutiny the relationship between authorship and its outside in the mid-19th century, and they provide unique testimony to the politics of voice involved in the making of the folk, the editor, and the author. At the heart of the "Ballad War" was the question of who was entitled to speak with the voice of the folk and in its name in a year (1848) that saw revolutions across Europe and the end of absolute monarchy in Denmark.