HISTORISKA INSTITUTIONEN

“Pale her cheeks they ought to be, it was only yesterday that she had been a tree.”

Gender, Power, and Hybridity in the Swedish Medieval Supernatural Ballads

Form of Thesis: Master Thesis (45), Spring 2020 Author’s Name: Rachel Bott Name of Supervisor: Christine Ekholst Seminar Chair: Louise Berglund Defence Date: 26 May 2020

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Abstract

This thesis analyzes eight specific Swedish medieval ballads that contain supernatural

transformation and hybridity for how they depict gender in late medieval and early modern

contexts. Using literature as a historical resource and a micro-historical approach, this thesis applies

gender theory, intersectional approaches, and monster theory to its reading of these ballads.

Through this analysis, this thesis has found that transformation in these ballads highlights what it

meant to be human in the late medieval and early modern periods, by contrasting and defining

humanness through the tension of being a hybrid. And inevitably, discussions of the body during

these periods involved having a gendered body. While these stories define what was human and

what was not, they discuss and negotiate late medieval and early modern conceptions of masculinity

and femininity. Additionally, the conflicts in these stories introduce real-life issues such as power,

violence, and social roles. Characters in these ballads negotiate gender and social roles by subverting

and upholding societal power structures. A woman acts independently and marries a snake against

her family’s wishes. Wives use magic to upend the social hierarchy usurp their husbands’ authority.

Father’s roles as protectors are both questioned and underlined in stories of their failures. This

thesis concludes that late medieval and early modern audiences had many different understandings

of gender, and these audiences used supernatural transformation ballads as a means of

communicating complex and contradictory elements of identity and gender during this period.

Keywords: Sveriges medeltida ballader, Early modern, Late medieval, Gender, Power, Transformation,

Hybridity

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Table of Contents

Abstract .......................................................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3

Previous Research ....................................................................................................................................... 5

Studies on the Ballad Genre ................................................................................................................... 5

Transformation and the Body in Literature ......................................................................................... 8

Historical Background ............................................................................................................................... 11

Primary Sources .......................................................................................................................................... 16

Sveriges medeltida ballader: Sweden’s Medieval Ballads ......................................................................... 16

Methodologies ........................................................................................................................................ 17

Theory .......................................................................................................................................................... 22

Gender, Patriarchy, and the Square of Opposition .......................................................................... 22

Monster Theory, Transformation, and Literature ............................................................................. 24

Operational Questions and Hypothesis .................................................................................................. 27

Empirical Analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 28

Negotiating Power and Transgression to Restore Order ..................................................................... 28

Upending the Social Order, through Magic ....................................................................................... 39

Violence by Accident or by a Stranger .................................................................................................... 45

Restraint, Desire, and Positive Masculinity ........................................................................................ 45

Emotional Vulnerability and Masculinity ........................................................................................... 49

Relationships, Responsibility, and Guardianship ................................................................................... 52

Mothers and Children ........................................................................................................................... 53

Male Guardians ...................................................................................................................................... 55

Hybridity’s inherent Polyphony ............................................................................................................... 60

Conclusions and Summary ........................................................................................................................ 63

Transgression, Violence, and Evil Women ........................................................................................ 63

Intersections of Social Roles and Responsibilities ............................................................................ 64

Appendix: .................................................................................................................................................... 67

1. Ballads with Catalog Number, Title, Summary, and Versions ................................................ 67

Sources and Literature ............................................................................................................................... 69

Published Primary Sources ................................................................................................................... 69

Published Sources .................................................................................................................................. 69

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Introduction

A young woman strolls through a meadow, smiling at the sun’s warm promises of summer and the

openness of the pale blue sky. A brisk gust whistles through the reeds and dances through the trees.

That is when the woman notices a tree that stands out from all the rest. Its leaves shine as if they

are pure gold. Its branches are delicate as if made of lace. The woman wonders how a tree could

be so beautiful, yet so strange. She stands before it, and without thinking asks:

“Why do you stand here with your golden leaves, which are so beautiful, and so rare?”1 There

is no answer, but suddenly, the tree no longer looks like a glimmering, golden beacon. Its delicate

branches are gnarled. Its golden leaves are sickly and brittle. There is a crack and a groan. From

somewhere within the linden tree, a familiar voice emanates. It sounds muffled, as if it is coming

from inside of a heavy box, “Happiness is far greater for you, than it is for me.”2 The young woman,

in her shock, can only think: Has my stepsister become… a tree?

The Swedish medieval supernatural ballads hold rich, strange, and terrifying stories. Some of

the most fascinating of these stories are tales of supernatural transformation. Stepmothers turn

stepchildren into wolves or trees, a snake struggles to find a wife, a girl drowns her sister so her

sister comes back as a harp to exact revenge: while these stories may seem strange and fantastic,

they can inform researchers on core aspects of late medieval and early modern culture. These

stories can reveal how minds from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries imagined and negotiated

gender, power, and human relationships. Tales of transformation are of special interest because

they explore changing and hybrid bodies. Because these hybrids are neither fully part of nature nor

fully human, they violate God’s intended image of mankind: they are monstrous.3 According to

Jeffery Jerome Cohen, monsters are “an embodiment of a certain cultural moment”, that “must be

examined within the intricate matrix of relations (social, cultural, and literary-historical) that

generate them.”4 Tales of transformation explore not just humanness in changing bodies, but also

power, conflicts, relationships, and complex social codes. Monstrosity, hybridity, and the social

ramifications of inhumanness illustrate aspects of humanness that writers and singers of a cultural

moment have impressed upon their work. Furthermore, transformation allowed people to behave

in otherwise prohibited ways which allowed them to question or even confirm and uphold social

boundaries, depending on how the ballad ended.

1 “Hvi står du här med dina förgyllande blad./Som äro på dig både sköna och rar.” Bengt R. Jonsson et al.,

Sveriges medeltida ballader: Bd 1 Naturmytiska visor: (nr 1–36) (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International,

1983), 89. Translations of Swedish quotes into English in this thesis are by the author. 2 “Ty lyckan är väl större för dig än för mig” Jonsson et al., 89. 3 Lena Liepe, Den medeltida kroppen: kroppens och könets ikonografi i nordisk medeltid (Lund: Nordic

Academic Press, 2003), 76–77. 4 Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, “Monster Culture (Seven Theses),” in Monster Theory: Reading Culture (Minneapolis:

University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 4–5.

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The purpose of this thesis is to explore how certain ballads about supernatural transformation

depict gender. In order to examine how the ballads depicted gender, this thesis will focus on three

main themes: humans in hybrid and liminal states, violence, and social roles and relationships

between closely tied people. Within these themes, this thesis will analyze how characters in the

ballads uphold, subvert, or negotiate late medieval and early modern conceptions of gender and

power. These themes are present in all the ballads selected for this thesis and provide underlying

discussions of gender in late medieval and early modern context. By exploring these themes, this

thesis aims to highlight the many different and simultaneous ways in which late medieval and early

modern minds interpreted what it meant to be a man or a woman, and the ultimately polyphonic

nature of gender and power in these ballads.

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Previous Research

This thesis explores the medieval ballads, a complex but interesting source material for historians.

The “medieval ballads” are early modern records, written in medieval style.5 The material for this

thesis, printed ballads from the collection Sveriges medeltida ballader, was likely written and recorded

during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. So, this thesis will focus roughly on the period

1500—1650 in Sweden, when the content of these ballads was still culturally relevant.6

Furthermore, this selected period predates the peak of dramatic ideological and cultural shifts of

the late seventeenth century, such as the witch trials and the enlightenment, which scholars have

suggested resulted in distancing audiences from the cultural environment the ballads were created.

This thesis will refer to this period as “early modern” or “late medieval”, though it is not quite one

or the other.

Studies on the Ballad Genre

Structural analysis and musicology dominated much of Swedish and Scandinavian ballad

scholarship from the latter half of the twentieth century.7 These studies sought to solidify the

concept of the “ballad genre” as separate from other types of narrative songs and establish the

“medieval ballad” as late medieval texts rooted in medieval style conventions and thematic

discussions.8 They also sought to further establish the ballads as a historical resource, by

contextualizing both the different ballad genres and the numerous historical and cultural processes

that influenced scholars and enthusiasts who collected ballads during the early modern and modern

periods.9 For instance, Bengt R. Jonsson’s well-known doctoral dissertation Svensk balladtradition: 1,

Balladkällor och balladtyper surveys the Swedish ballad corpus, and materials spanning from the early

5 David William Colbert, The Birth of the Ballad: The Scandinavian Medieval Genre, vol. 10, Skrifter Utgivna

Av Svenskt Visarkiv (Stockholm: Svenskt visarkiv, 1989), 13; Lars Elleström, ed., Intermediala perspektiv på

medeltida ballader (Möklinta: Gidlund, 2011), 16–17. 6 Elleström, Intermediala perspektiv på medeltida ballader, 16–17. 7 Jan Ling, “Levin Christian Wiedes vissamling: en studie i 1800-talets folkliga vissång” (Uppsala, Univ., 1965);

Bengt R. Jonsson, “Svensk balladtradition: 1, Balladkällor och balladtyper” (Stockholm, Svenskt visarkiv,

1967); Margareta Jersild, “Skillingtryck: studier i svensk folklig vissång före 1800” (Stockholm, 1975); Otto

Holzapfel, Det Balladeske: Fortællemåden i Den Ældre Episke Folkevise (Odense: Univ.-forl, 1980); Karl-Ivar

Hildeman, Tillbaka till Balladen: Uppsatser Och Essäer, vol. 9 (Stockholm: Svenskt visarkiv, 1985); Colbert,

The Birth of the Ballad: The Scandinavian Medieval Genre; Joseph Harris, ed., The Ballad and Oral Literature,

vol. 17, Havard English Studies (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1991); Owe Ronström and

Gunnar Ternhag, eds., Texter om svensk folkmusik: från Haeffner till Ling, Kungl. Musikaliska akademiens

skriftserie 81 (Stockholm: Kungl. Musikaliska akad, 1994); Sigurd Kværndrup, Den østnordiske ballade - oral

teori og tekstanalyse: studier i Danmarks gamle folkeviser (København: Museum Tusculanums forlag, 2006).

This list is by no means exhaustive, and mainly includes Swedish sources. 8 Holzapfel, Det Balladeske: Fortællemåden i Den Ældre Episke Folkevise; Colbert, The Birth of the Ballad: The

Scandinavian Medieval Genre; Harris, The Ballad and Oral Literature. 9 Ling, “Levin Christian Wiedes vissamling: en studie i 1800-talets folkliga vissång”; Jonsson, “Svensk

balladtradition: 1, Balladkällor och balladtyper.”

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medieval period to the modern period.10 At the time, his work aimed to address the lack of analysis

on Swedish ballad collections in contemporary scholarship.11 His work has been important to many

scholars in defining and analyzing the Swedish medieval ballad. Sven-Bertil Jansson also surveys

the Swedish ballad corpus and focuses on the thematic and stylistic conventions of the Swedish

ballad.12 He points out that the supernatural ballads focus on meetings between humans and

supernatural creatures, and the ramifications these meetings have on human lives.13 Jansson also

notes that the Swedish supernatural ballads often include themes such as motherhood, marriage,

and forbidden love.14

This earlier ballad scholarship is important to understand the context in which the Swedish

medieval ballads were collected. However, many recent scholars have criticized the focus of earlier

ballad research. While these wide-ranging research projects have been important to the discipline,

many cultural and theoretical questions remained unanswered. Scholars of the last few decades

have thus narrowed their focus and motivated more multidisciplinary and qualitative approaches

to study of the ballads. For instance, scholars of Scandinavian ballads have sought to examine

cross-genre communication of the ballad through art historical, literary, musical, and linguistic

approaches.15 Other Scandinavian ballad scholars have also connected the ballads to cultural

conceptions of folklore and the supernatural.16

Studies most relevant to this thesis are studies exploring questions of gender, power, and

violence in the Scandinavian medieval ballads.17 This thesis does not cover all research on the

10 Jonsson, “Svensk balladtradition: 1, Balladkällor och balladtyper.” 11 Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 4. 12 Sven-Bertil Jansson, Den levande balladen: medeltida ballad i svensk tradition (Stockholm: Prisma, 1999). 13 S. Jansson, 37. 14 S. Jansson, 166. 15 Gunilla Byrman, En värld för sig själv: nya studier i medeltida ballader, vol. 1 (Växjö: Växjö University

Press, 2008); Elleström, Intermediala perspektiv på medeltida ballader; Sigurd Kvaerndrup and Tommy

Olofsson, Medeltiden i Ord Och Bild: Folkligt Och Groteskt i Nordiska Kyrkmålningar Och Ballader

(Stockholm: Atlantis, 2013); Tommy Olofsson, “The Lost Shoe: A Symbol in Scandinavian Medieval Ballads

and Church Paintings,” 2015; Lynda Taylor, “The Agnete Ballad of Denmark Cultural Tool or Protest Song?,”

in Ballads of the North, Medieval to Modern (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2019), 159–73;

Sandra Ballif Straubhaar, “Hervör, Hervard, Hervik: The Metamorphosis of a Shieldmaiden,” in Ballads of the

North, Medieval to Modern (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2019), 55–70. 16 Mikael Häll, “Den övernaturliga älskarinnan: Erotiska naturväsen och äktenskapet i 1600-talets Sverige,” in

Dygder och laster: förmoderna perspektiv på tillvaron (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2010), 143–44; Nadja

Sand, “Gränser och gränstillstånd: Möten med det övernaturliga i den naturmytiska balladen” (Bachelor Thesis,

Uppsala University, 2011); Ella Odstedt, Varulven i svensk folktradition (Täby: Malört, 2012), 42–59. 17 Lise Praestgaard Andersen, “Kvindeskildringen i de Danske Ridderviser - to Tenderser,” Sumlen, 1978, 9;

Michèle Simonsen, “Gender and Power in Danish Traditional Ballads,” in Ballads and Diversity: Perspectives

on Gender, Ethos, Power, and Play (Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier (WVT), 2004), 242; Gunilla Byrman and

Tommy Olofsson, Om kvinnligt och manligt och annat konstigt i medeltida skämtballader (Stockholm: Atlantis,

2011); Ingrid Åkesson, “Mord och hor i medeltidsballaderna – en fråga om könsmakt och familjevåld.,” Noterat

21 (2014); Ingrid Åkesson, “Talande harpa och betvingande sång: Musicerande, makt och genus i några

medeltidsballader,” in Lekstugan: Festskrift till Magnus Gustafsson (Smålands musikarkiv, 2015), 131–43;

Elisabet Ryd, “Moody Men and Malicious Maidens: Gender in the Swedish Medieval Ballad” (Master Thesis,

Stockholm, Stockholm University, 2017); Karin Strand, En botfärdig synderskas svanesång: barnamord i

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Scandinavian ballads but includes much recent research examining gender in medieval

Scandinavian ballads. Ingrid Åkesson connects violence against women in the ballads with honor

culture in medieval Sweden.18 Using gender theory and intersectional perspectives, Åkesson

emphasizes the multidimensionality of family, violence, gender, and struggles for power in ballad

narratives.19 She claims that violence in the family, and violence against women, was culturally

embedded within expressions of masculinity and authority.20 Elizabeth Ryd’s master’s thesis also

discusses gender and violence in the Swedish medieval ballads.21 She concludes the ballads both

contested and upheld medieval gender norms and showed a complex and negotiated image of

masculinity and femininity. Michèle Simonsen gives an overview of the ways the Danish ballads

negotiate gender and power.22 She suggests that women could negotiate masculine images of gender

more freely than male characters could negotiate feminine images of gender.23 More recently, Karin

Strand published a book comparing depictions of infanticide crimes in eighteenth- and nineteenth-

century Swedish broadside ballads to the realities women faced when standing trial for these

crimes.24 Strand concludes that these ballads were more concerned with the moral questions of

infanticide, rather than accurately depicting the events surrounding the crime.25 Strand states that

broadside ballads about infanticide crimes were part of a larger early modern Swedish discourse on

male hegemony over women’s bodies and reproductive rights.26

These studies positing more theoretical and cultural-historical questions have opened new

avenues of research on medieval and early modern popular culture. They continue to prove that

the ballads often do not depict a single image of gender and power, but rather negotiate and debate

normative structures. Following these approaches would provide a fruitful study of the

supernatural transformation ballads. These ballads have largely been neglected in systematic studies

of gender and power and implementing new approaches could help bring light to the supernatural

transformation ballads as a rich representation of late medieval and early modern culture.

skillingtryck mellan visa och verklighet, Skrifter utgivna av Svenskt visarkiv 47 (Möklinta: Gidlunds förlag,

2019). 18 Åkesson, “Mord och hor i medeltidsballaderna – en fråga om könsmakt och familjevåld.” 19 Åkesson. 20 Åkesson. 21 Ryd, “Moody Men and Malicious Maidens.” 22 Simonsen, “Gender and Power in Danish Traditional Ballads.” 23 Simonsen, 246–47. 24 Strand, En botfärdig synderskas svanesång. 25 Strand, 257. 26 Strand, 257.

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Transformation and the Body in Literature

In order to understand the complexities of hybridity and transformation, understanding how

medieval and early modern minds imagined both the human body and the changing human body

is very important. Many have studied transformation through the cross-cultural image of the

werewolf.27 These studies have provided a foundation for understanding conceptions of changing

bodies in late medieval literature, and show that transformation holds influences from folklore,

popular culture, pre-Christian literature, medieval courtly literature, and theology. Scholars such as

Caroline Bynum Walker have argued that modern conceptions of transformation are very different

from medieval and early modern ideas.28 While modern thinkers examine the self within the

framework of the soul and the body, medieval thinkers examined this within the framework of

distinctions of the soul.29 While modern thinkers would ask Are we the same, in a different body?, to

medieval thinkers this question would be inconceivable.30 The soul could only inhabit one body,

and this body could not be separated from the soul.31 Medieval eschatology considered the soul

and the body as one, thus reliquaries held so much power: they held the power of a person’s soul.32

Transformation and hybridity was, therefore, a highly controversial subject in medieval discourse.

There were many different opinions on how creatures such as werewolves could exist—a human

that could occupy both a human and a non-human body.

There are also many works on shapeshifting and alterity on Nordic pre-Christian literature.33

Some of these studies discuss the distinct processes that shaped alterity in literature from this

27 Caroline Walker Bynum, “Metamorphosis, or Gerald and the Werewolf,” Speculum 73, no. 4 (1998): 987–

1013; Chantal Bourgault du Coudray, The Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within

(London: I. B. Tauris, 2006); Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, “The Werewolf in Medieval Icelandic Literature,”

The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 106, no. 3 (2007): 277–303; Willem de Blécourt, “A Journey to

Hell: Reconsidering the Livonian ‘Werewolf,’” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 2, no. 1 (2007): 49–67; Leslie A.

Sconduto, Metamorphoses of the Werewolf: A Literary Study from Antiquity Through the Renaissance

(Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers, 2008); Phillip A. Bernhardt-House, Werewolves,

Magical Hounds, and Dog-Headed Men in Celtic Literature: A Typological Study of Shape-Shifting (New York:

The Edwin Mellen Press, 2010); E. Jane Burns and Peggy McCraken, eds., “Hybridity, Ethics, and Gender in

Two Old French Werewolf Tales,” in From Beasts to Souls: Gender and Embodiment in Medieval Europe

(Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 157–84; Willem de Blécourt, Werewolf Histories

(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015); Peter Bystrický, “The Image of the Werewolf in Medieval Literature,”

Historický Časopis 63, no. 5 (2015): 787–812. 28 Caroline Bynum, “Why All the Fuss about the Body? A Medievalist’s Perspective,” Critical Inquiry 22, no. 1

(1995): 1–33; Bynum, “Metamorphosis, or Gerald and the Werewolf”; Caroline Walker Bynum, Metamorphosis

and Identity (New York: Zone Books, 2001). 29 Bynum, “Why All the Fuss about the Body?,” 13. 30 Bynum, 10–14. 31 Bynum, 14. 32 Bynum, 22–23. 33 K. E. E. Olsen et al., “Introduction: On the Embodiment of Monstrosity in Northwest Medieval Europe,” in

Monsters and the Monstrous in Medieval Northwest Europe, Book, Section vols. (Peeters, 2001), 1–22;

Catharina Raudvere, “Trolldómr in Early Medieval Scandinavia,” in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Vol. 3:

The Middle Ages, vol. 3, The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe (London: Athlone, 2002), 73–

172; Julie1 Passanante, “Oedipus Borealis: The Aberrant Body in Old Icelandic Myth and Saga,” Disability

Studies Quarterly 25, no. 2 (Spring 2005); Guðmundsdóttir, “The Werewolf in Medieval Icelandic Literature”;

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period. For example, Rebecca Merkelbach argues that a character’s transgressive behavior towards

society defines their monstrosity and alterity, rather than their physical state or geographical

placement in a story.34 Many of these scholars also discuss how pre-Christian ideologies permeated

into literature from Christian Scandinavia and how writers and audiences grappled with these

contradictory eschatologies and conceptions of the body. For instance, Catherine Raudvere

discusses how in pre-Christian Scandinavian thought, the soul could occupy other bodies without

having transformed its human body.35 This belief clashed with Christian notions that there was no

way to separate the body and the soul.36 While these notions of the body clashed with each other,

these themes of transformation remained in Scandinavian folklore, including ballads, even into the

latter part of the early modern period.37 Late medieval writers and performers retold stories with

pre-Christian themes, within a Christian context.38 The blending of pre-Christian and Christian

themes provides an even more complicated picture of mutability and hybridity in late medieval and

early modern thought. For example, the werewolf complicates this image because it was a

concoction of folklore, international literary traditions, and pre-Christian Scandinavian storytelling

traditions.39 Understanding this blending of discourses helps put the Swedish medieval ballads into

context. Researchers examining transformation in these ballads must consider that these stories are

a blend of many discourses and beliefs, which were not always compatible with each other. Early

modern Swedish popular culture still held on to certain medieval and pre-Christian themes in the

ballad tradition, and therefore we should not read transformation in the ballads as completely part

of one belief system or another.

There are also studies on early modern Swedish conceptions of changing bodies.40 Most notably,

Mikael Häll discusses the liminal nature of certain supernatural creatures, especially those involved

Michael P. McGlynn, “Bears, Boars, and Other Socially Constructed Bodies in Hrólfs Saga Kraka,” Magic,

Ritual, and Witchcraft 4, no. 2 (2009): 152–75; Marek Oziewicz, “Christian, Norse, and Celtic: Metaphysical

Belief Structures in Nancy Farmer’s The Saxon Saga,” Mythlore 30, no. 115/116 (2011): 107; Christa Agnes

Tuczay, “Into the Wild— Old Norse Stories of Animal Men,” in Werewolf Histories (New York: Palgrave

Macmillan, 2015), 61–81; Santiago Francisco Barreiro and Luciana Mabel Cordo Russo, Shapeshifters in

Medieval North Atlantic Literature (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018); Rebecca Merkelbach,

Monsters in Society: Alterity, Transgression, and the Use of the Past in Medieval Iceland, The Northern

Medieval World: On the Margins of Europe (Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2019). 34 Merkelbach, Monsters in Society: Alterity, Transgression, and the Use of the Past in Medieval Iceland. 35 Raudvere, “Trolldómr in Early Medieval Scandinavia,” 102. 36 Raudvere, 102; Bynum, “Why All the Fuss about the Body?” 37 Raudvere, “Trolldómr in Early Medieval Scandinavia,” 116. 38 Raudvere, 77. 39 Guðmundsdóttir, “The Werewolf in Medieval Icelandic Literature”; Odstedt, Varulven i svensk folktradition;

Michèle Simonsen, “The Werewolf in Nineteenth-Century Denmark,” in Werewolf Histories (New York:

Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 228–37; de Blécourt, Werewolf Histories. 40 Häll, “Den övernaturliga älskarinnan: Erotiska naturväsen och äktenskapet i 1600-talets Sverige”; Odstedt,

Varulven i svensk folktradition; Mikael Häll, Skogsrået, näcken och djävulen: erotiska naturväsen och demonisk

sexualitet i 1600- och 1700-talens Sverige (Stockholm: Malört, 2013); Mikael Häll, “Havsfruns hamn och satans

famn: demonisk sexualitet, liminal kroppslighet och förtrollade naturlandskap i det tidigmoderna Sverige,” in

Rig., vol. 2014:3 (Rig, 2014), 129–44.

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in erotic encounters with humans. Tales of these encounters challenged early modern conceptions

of the human body.41 Häll states that eighteenth-century thought often placed supernatural

creatures in liminal categories based on both “body and behaviour”.42 Non-human creatures that

could speak, reason, and exhibit human behavior, caused people to question how they should

interact with them. This “body and behaviour” put supernatural creatures “in the intersection of

the categories human, animal, monster, and demon or spirit”.43 Liminality and intersections of

humanity, animality, and monstrosity are relevant questions to the supernatural transformation

ballads. Examining hybridity in the supernatural transformation ballads on a framework of

liminality instead of on a binary of human/inhuman opens the analysis to more complex cultural

questions such as negotiation of gender and power.

Other scholars have pointed out that transformation and hybridity also had metaphorical and

symbolic functions.44 These scholars have shown that examining transformation this way can

provide insights into how people imagined alterity and discussed social codes. A recent historical

study in this vein of research is Gwendolyne Knight’s doctoral dissertation.45 Knight examines

medieval English and Irish literature and textual sources to explore the use of transformation and

shapeshifting as a social metaphor. In these materials, shapeshifters were used as a “tool” or an

“illustrative aid” to discuss social and societal changes that may not otherwise be perceptible to the

audience.46 Knight concludes that the alterity of shapeshifters and hybrids can illustrate social

values and be used for “both demonstrating and reifying group adherence.”47 While transformation

seemingly goes against social and religious order, breaking this order is what ultimately “reveal[s]

the divine power of God, and thus reaffirm[s] the divine order.” Knight’s interpretation of

transformation in Irish and English literature is interesting to consider in the context of the Swedish

medieval ballads. In some of these ballads, while transformation may seem to be against the social

order, examining transformation in the context of gender tends to reaffirm or negotiate social codes

as opposed to subverting them. Knight’s methodologies are also important to consider when using

literature as a historical resource. Knight states that writers could use metamorphosis in literature

to “emphasize or engage with particular social, political, or cultural concerns within the world

created by that particular text.”48 That is to say, literature is a representation of culture, and can be

used to illuminate certain discussions prevalent in culture at a given time.

41 Häll, Skogsrået, näcken och djävulen; Häll, “Havsfruns hamn och satans famn.” 42 Häll, Skogsrået, näcken och djävulen, 561. 43 Häll, 561. 44 Camilla With Pedersen, “Metamorphoses: A Comparative Study of Representations of Shape-Shifting in Old

Norse and Medieval Irish Narrative Literature” (2015); Gwendolyne Knight, Broken Order: Shapeshifting as

Social Metaphor in Early Medieval England and Ireland (Stockholm: Department of History, Stockholm

University, 2019). 45 Knight, Broken Order. 46 Knight, 175–76. 47 Knight, 176. 48 Knight, 14.

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Historical Background

This section will give a basic historical background to the late medieval and early modern context

of the ballads. Firstly, it will discuss the ballads as an aspect of popular culture. It is important to

consider how the ballads have become printed sources, what the ballads meant to people, and how

they were transmitted. Without this context, it can be difficult to interpret the ballads in general,

let alone depictions of gender in the ballads. This section will then discuss magic in the ideological

environment of the late medieval and early modern periods. Magic was a very real, contentious,

and complex part of people’s lives in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.49 However, magic

was also a controversial and complex subject in late medieval and early modern discourses, of

which the supernatural ballads form part. There was often no specific definition of magic among

late medieval and early modern people, as its definition could change based on social status,

education, location, and ethnicity. Furthermore, mentalities on magic were changing during the

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, departing from longstanding medieval conceptions of magic.

Because of these changes, elite audiences may have viewed magic in the ballads negatively, but

popular audiences may have not had shared these views. The discrepancies between popular and

elite views of magic are important to consider when examining material that specifically involves

early modern conceptions of magic and the supernatural.

During the renaissance, elite audiences became more interested in the popular culture of

common people, and some began recording oral ballads through text.50 Swedish elites compiled

these ballads in visböcker (“songbooks”), many of which provide source material for Sveriges medeltida

ballader.51 For Sweden, interest in recording the oral ballad tradition declined after the seventeenth

century.52 Peter Burke argues that during the medieval period elites would participate in both elite

and popular culture, but began to withdraw from popular culture during the first half of the early

modern period.53 By the end of the early modern period, elites began to “rediscover” popular

culture, but as something “exotic”.54 In Sweden, this phenomenon could relate to the renewed

interest in ballad and folksong collecting during the romantic period of the nineteenth century.55

49 Linda Oja, Varken Gud eller natur: synen på magi i 1600- och 1700-talets Sverige (Eslöv: B. Östlings bokförl.

Symposion, 1999); Raisa Maria Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society: Finland and the Wider

European Experience, Women and Gender in the Early Modern World (Aldershot, Hampshire, England;

Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008); Stephen A. Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages

(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011); Göran Malmstedt, En förtrollad värld: förmoderna

föreställningar och bohuslänska trolldomsprocesser 1669—1672 (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2018). 50 Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009), 52; Elleström,

Intermediala perspektiv på medeltida ballader, 16–17. 51 Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, 52. 52 Jonsson, “Svensk balladtradition: 1, Balladkällor och balladtyper,” 64. 53 Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, 366–86. 54 Burke, 381. 55 Jonsson, “Svensk balladtradition: 1, Balladkällor och balladtyper,” 100.

12

Scholars agree that the “Swedish medieval ballads” are early modern recordings of a medieval

oral tradition.56 Printed versions of ballads from before the eighteenth century are quite rare in

Sweden.57 While most of the existing sources of Swedish medieval ballads are from the late

medieval and early modern periods, they are referred to as “medieval” because they are composed

in the medieval style.58 Scholars have concluded that in the beginning, the ballads were a part of

medieval oral tradition.59 They likely contained influences from Icelandic, Danish, and Norwegian

medieval courtly literature.60 By the sixteenth century, creating anthologies of poetry and lyric had

become very popular among the elite.61 That is to say, creating a collection of an oral tradition

adapted to text.62 These early modern textual records retained medieval style and motifs.63

However, they contain impressions of late medieval and early modern culture and ideologies.64

They reflect the values, attitudes, and thoughts of their writers, and are a window into the culture

of these periods. They are both a representation of culture at that point, but also a product of

gradual changes spanning over a larger span of space and time.65 The Swedish medieval ballads, in

a sense, are temporal and cultural hybrids. They thus must be interpreted as multivocal and

dynamic, rather than a static, unified representation of all mentalities at a single given point in time.

The natural hybridity of the ballad materials also made them accessible to all social strata of late

medieval and early modern Sweden. People from all social backgrounds participated in the ballad

tradition, albeit at different levels.66 According to Peter Burke, there were “tradition-bearers”:

performers, writers, and prolific ballad singers, as well as passive participants: listeners, recorders,

and singers with smaller repertoires.67 Early modern song culture was social, performative, and

associated with building group identities.68 Musical performances in the early modern period were

a part of the “performance of early music in general”.69 We can think of the ballads as tradition,

entertainment, and art form. And while people during the early modern period could modify ballads

or create new performances altogether, they still operated “within a traditional framework”.70 It

56 Colbert, The Birth of the Ballad: The Scandinavian Medieval Genre, 10:13; Burke, Popular Culture in Early

Modern Europe, 52; Elleström, Intermediala perspektiv på medeltida ballader, 16–17. 57 Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 7. 58 Colbert, The Birth of the Ballad: The Scandinavian Medieval Genre, 10:13. 59 Elleström, Intermediala perspektiv på medeltida ballader, 17. 60 Elleström, 17; M. J. Driscoll, “Arthurian Ballads, Rímur, Chapbooks and Folktales,” in The Arthur of the

North: The Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus’ Realms (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011), 168–95. 61 Elleström, Intermediala perspektiv på medeltida ballader, 16. 62 Elleström, 16. 63 S. Jansson, Den levande balladen; Colbert, The Birth of the Ballad: The Scandinavian Medieval Genre. 64 Elleström, Intermediala perspektiv på medeltida ballader, 17. 65 Merkelbach, Monsters in Society: Alterity, Transgression, and the Use of the Past in Medieval Iceland.

Merkelback makes a similar argument about the temporality and change found in the Icelandic sagas. 66 S. Jansson, Den levande balladen, 22; Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, 52–56. 67 Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, 133–62. 68 D. E. van der Poel, Louis Peter Grijp, and W. van Anrooij, Identity, Intertextuality, and Performance in Early

Modern Song Culture, Intersections (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 4. 69 Poel, Grijp, and Anrooij, 24. 70 Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, 162.

13

was in this way the ballad tradition did not become something else over time, but rather a self-

contained blending of cultural influences. The Swedish medieval ballads are part of a stable

tradition and have not changed drastically throughout their centuries’ long presence in popular

culture.71

The ballads were transmitted in a variety of ways. In some cases, traveling performers

transmitted ballads, though they visited urban areas more often than rural areas.72 In urban areas,

there were also broadside singers, who would perform in markets or streets to sell their printed

songs.73 Those who purchased the broadside would sometimes sing with the seller.74 The earliest

surviving Swedish broadside ballads were from the sixteenth century, but many more survive from

the eighteenth century and after.75 In Sveriges medeltida ballader, many of the ballad singers were

working-class people, often soldiers’ and farmers’ wives.76 The supernatural ballads were more

popular amongst women, especially ballads about the Näcken: an erotically-charged supernatural

creature that lived in the water.77

Because this thesis examines the supernatural ballads in particular, it is important to explain how

late medieval and early modern people would have perceived magical creatures, witchcraft, and

transformation. Beliefs on magic and superstition changed a great deal from the middle ages to the

early modern period. During the medieval period, the church considered the practice of magic to

be simply “superstition”.78 The church defined “superstition” as a harmless misunderstanding or

misuse of Christian teachings.79 By the early modern period, the church saw superstition and the

practice of magic as a serious threat: a “diabolical cult” of Satan.80 Practicing magic had become a

threat to the very fabric of early modern society and social hierarchy. The early modern period saw

a rise in witchcraft accusations, and Sweden’s witch-hunts spanned from 1668—1676. However,

there were important distinctions between developments in legal rhetoric and magic in popular

practice.81 Common people often practiced magic in everyday life, despite growing legal

opposition.82 Both men and women practiced beneficial magic and were tried for practicing magic.83

Many faced trials unaware they had even broken any laws.84 However, courts punished women

71 S. Jansson, Den levande balladen, 33–34. 72 Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, 136–135. 73 Poel, Grijp, and Anrooij, Identity, Intertextuality, and Performance in Early Modern Song Culture, 22. 74 Poel, Grijp, and Anrooij, 22. 75 Jonsson, “Svensk balladtradition: 1, Balladkällor och balladtyper,” 63–64. 76 S. Jansson, Den levande balladen, 43. 77 S. Jansson, 155. 78 Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages, 3. 79 Mitchell, 3. 80 Mitchell, 3. 81 Oja, Varken Gud eller natur, 29–30. 82 Oja, 299. 83 Raisa Maria Toivo, “Male Witches and Masculinity in Early Modern Finnish Witchcraft Trials,” in Gender in

Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, vol. 14 (London: Routledge, 2013), 137–52. 84 Oja, Varken Gud eller natur, 285.

14

more often than men for harmful magic and magic connected to the devil.85 This was contrary to

legal rhetoric, which had grown less slanted towards women towards the early modern period.86

Trials against witchcraft were complex entities in and of themselves and could have been both

ideological struggles as well as struggles for power within a community.87 On one hand, witchcraft

trials perpetuated misogynistic beliefs that women were “weaker-minded”, thus more susceptible

to committing witchcraft.88 They were also a means for women to negotiate power and socially

maneuver in their community.89 Men could also gain status by successfully defending their wives

against the defamation of a witchcraft accusation.90 Raisa Maria Toivo states that witchcraft cases

were multifaceted and displayed many layers of how social hierarchies and networks functioned in

early modern rural Sweden and Finland.91 She explains that:

Being convicted of witchcraft or similar crimes obviously damaged one’s social capital and general

trustworthiness, even though it did not usually lead to a total deprivation of social existence in the

form of execution, deportment or confiscation of property. However, witchcraft also had a

symbolic meaning, which may have given people the images and vocabulary with which they could

talk about unexpected and unwelcome surprises in inheritances. Witchcraft had this potential

partly because it lacked the concrete precision of some other crimes: although suspicions of

witchcraft were presented relating the practical details of something the alleged witch has said or

done, witchcraft was still continuously present and everyone was its potential target or victim.92

In this sense, magic and witchcraft in the early modern mind were both literal and metaphorical.

They became a literal means of wielding and negotiating power: both in the courts, and people’s

everyday lives. Witchcraft trials and accusations were literal means for women, men, and

households to negotiate power in a community. Being accused of witchcraft could destroy or build

a person’s and household’s reputation. Magic and witchcraft were metaphorical in the sense that

they could represent evil and subversion of social norms and hierarchy. They provided a

“vocabulary” for expressing situations of uncertainty and upside-down worlds, just like the

instability and uncertainty depicted in the supernatural transformation ballads.93 Conflicts involving

witchcraft in these ballads both demonized the women who caused them, but also depicted them

as powerful: power with the potential to rend the fabric of society.

85 Oja, 165. 86 Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages, 197; Christine Ekholst, A Punishment for Each

Criminal: Gender and Crime in Swedish Medieval Law (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 145. 87 Maria Wallenberg Bondesson, Religiösa konflikter i norra Hälsingland 1630—1800, Stockholm studies in

history 67 (Stockholm: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2003); Toivo,

Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society. 88 Oja, Varken Gud eller natur, 39. 89 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, 77. 90 Toivo, 165. 91 Toivo, 101–5. 92 Toivo, 111. 93 Toivo, 105. This vocabulary and uncertainty in witchcraft trials is also discussed here.

15

These concerns with the potential dangers of witchcraft to society peaked in Sweden during the

seventeenth century, but then slowly declined. At the peak of Swedish witchcraft hysteria, many

accusations involved witches flying to the sabbath, kidnapping children, copulating with Satan, and

stealing milk with the aid of horrific rabbit-creatures.94 However, this period also gradually began

to see a departure from fears of Satan and diabolic cults. Linda Oja describes this departure as a

“secularization” on views of magic, or a fundamental change in how people thought the world

worked.95 She concludes that while fear of witchcraft and superstition was quite strong in the

sixteenth century, over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries people slowly

became more skeptical of the power of evil magic and witches’ sabbath. What was once explained

as a supernatural phenomenon became more often a natural, or scientific phenomenon. This

process was slow and did not evolve evenly between popular and elite cultures.96 Stephen Mitchell,

an expert on Nordic medieval magic, agrees with Oja.97 He states that in comparison to the middle

ages, persecutions against practicing magic were more frequent and harsher in the early parts of

the early modern period, but this fear of magic evolved to a more detached fascination with the

dawn of the enlightenment. While the ballads were a part of a relatively old and stable tradition,

peoples’ worldviews were shifting around them. Magic in the ballads depicted older worldviews, in

a changing ideological environment: they embody both stability and change.

As people’s worldviews shifted, the supernatural ballads were able to remain a relevant part of

early modern culture because they depicted real-life contradictions and conflicts. Many people used

magic to cure diseases, ensure success on their farm, catch fish, or catch thieves: magic was a part

of people’s everyday lives.98 These strange and otherworldly stories embodied the debates and

anxieties that were a part of shifting worldviews. The contradictive values, improbable scenarios,

subverted hierarchies, and reinforced gender norms of the ballads were all a part of the dialectics

of the individual experience in a larger, changing society. Supernatural ballads became both stories

of change, but also remnants of ideological constancy.

94 Many have written on the Swedish witch-hunts, including works that discuss folklore present in these trials.

Here are just a few: Jan-Inge Wall, Tjuvmjölkande väsen: 1, Äldre nordisk tradition, Studia ethnologica

Upsaliensia (Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1977); Linda Oja, ed., Vägen till Blåkulla: nya perspektiv

på de stora svenska häxprocesserna, vol. 18, Opuscula historica Upsaliensia (Uppsala: Historiska institutionen,

Univ., 1997); Oja; Per-Anders Östling, Blåkulla, Magi Och Trolldomsprocesser: En Folkloristisk Studie Av

Folkliga Trosföreställningar Och Av Trolldomsprocesserna Inom Svea Hovrätts Jurisdiktion 1597–1720,

Etnolore 25 (Uppsala: Etnologiska avdelningen, 2002). 95 Oja, Varken Gud eller natur, 33. 96 Oja, 29–30. 97 Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages, 4. 98 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, 40–42; Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic

Middle Ages, 51.

16

Primary Sources

Sveriges medeltida ballader: Sweden’s Medieval Ballads

The source material for this thesis comprises entirely of printed work from Sveriges medeltida ballader.

Sveriges medeltida ballader is a completed project led by Svenska visarkivet (the Centre for Swedish Folk

Music and Jazz Research) to print and catalog nearly every medieval ballad in Swedish. Although

there were many printed ballad collections before Sveriges medeltida ballader, the Centre for Swedish

Folk Music and Jazz Research sought to close the gaps in these existing collections by creating a

definitive collection of Swedish language ballads across Sweden and Swedish-speaking parts of

Finland.99 They used both published sources and the entirety of the collections at the Centre for

Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research.100 The following sections will introduce how ballads in

Sveriges medeltida ballader are organized, provide information on their provenance, and describe how

they were selected for print.

The ballads for this thesis come from only volume one of Sveriges medeltida ballader, Naturmytiska

visor (Supernatural Ballads).101 Ballads in Sveriges medeltida ballader can come from a variety of sources,

but the ballads in this thesis come mainly from historical textual sources or interviews with

performers. Ballads from before the eighteenth century are more often texts from visböcker. Other

text sources could be skillingtryck, or “broadside ballads”. However, the most common source of

99 Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 4. 100 Jonsson et al., 6. Because of the limited space printing space for Sveriges medeltida ballader, they limited the

number of sources they printed. All unprinted sources are cited at the end of the section for the ballad. For

ballads with many sources, they chose to print a maximum of 25 versions. In Jonsson et al., 5. they state that

they chose 25 because it was an easier number to work with, and works with the internationally recognized (A-

Z) labeling system. Furthermore, they state that most of the ballads could be narrowed down to 25 printed

versions, and only 60 ballads (of 260) exceeded this amount. Because this thesis has selected a limited number of

ballads and versions, this has not been an issue to examining the sources. 101 In Scandinavian ballad research, the medieval ballads typically fall into six different categories: Ballads of the

Supernatural, Legendary Ballads, Historical Ballads, Ballads of Chivalry, Heroic Ballads, Jocular Ballads.

(Translation from: Types of the Scandinavian Ballad) The ballads of Sveriges medeltida ballader fall into five

volumes: Naturmytiska ballader, Legendvisor och historiska visor, Riddarvisor I, Riddarvisor II, Kämpvisor och

skämtvisor. (See: Sveriges medeltida ballader band 1-5:2) In Sveriges medeltida ballader, ballads are

differentiated by name and number, and versions are labeled by letter. Versions differ enough that they are

distinguishable, but not so much that they are no longer the same story. When examining the different ballads,

some scholars in English have opted to use the term “ballad type”. (See: Types of the Scandinavian Medieval

Ballad). Compare to Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index of “tale types”. Referring to ballads as “ballad types” allows

scholars to examine ballads with the same story, that are from different ballad traditions. For example, the ballad

type “The Two Sisters” could refer to the Danish (DgF 95), Faroese (CCF 136), Icelandic (IFkv 13), Norwegian

(NMB 18), or Swedish versions (SMB 13). “The Two Sisters” would also be the same type as the English ballad

“The Cruel Sister” or “The Twa Sisters” (Child 10). For this thesis, I will refer to “ballad types” as simply

“ballads”. For more information about these collections and how they are organized, see: Jonsson, “Svensk

balladtradition: 1, Balladkällor och balladtyper”; Bengt R. Jonsson, Svale Solheim, and Eva Danielson, eds., The

Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad: A Descriptive Catalogue (Oslo: Instituttet for sammenlignende

kulturforskning, 1978); Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 1–15, 493–95; James Massengale, “Swedish

Ballad Authenticity and Its Gatekeepers,” in Ballads of the North, Medieval to Modern (Kalamazoo: Medieval

Institute Publications, 2019), 3–28.

17

ballads in Sveriges medeltida ballader are ballads collected by an interviewer listening to a singer.102

Interviewers’ expertise ranged from folksong interested amateurs to musical professionals.103 The

interviewer would listen to a singer’s performance, then record the ballad text and sometimes

melody.104 Most ballads in Sveriges medeltida ballader have information on where and when the source

or singer was from.105

Of the ballads that the Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research decided to print, there

are three main points that they kept in mind when making their selection: temporality, geography,

and the contents of the ballad itself.106 Because people have carried on the ballad tradition for

centuries, the date the ballad was recorded is not a precise marker of how old the ballad is.107

Content and style of ballads became more important criteria, rather than the dating of the materials.

They did not include ballads composed in styles clearly after 1520.108 The “Swedish medieval

ballad” had to align with the medieval style. Furthermore, materials from the sixteenth to

eighteenth centuries that fit the criteria were almost invariably chosen for print, as they are so

difficult to find.109 Secondly, the Centre sought to provide material from an equal geographic

distribution across Sweden and Swedish-speaking parts of Finland.110 The last major rule regarded

the contents of the ballads themselves. Ballads had to follow the Swedish medieval style. They have

cohesive narratives, settings, and characters.111 Additionally, while not entirely universal, many

follow a similar structure. They have an end rhyme with either two-line or four-line verses.112 While

the songs may have the same story or characters, anything that did not follow the style conventions

of the Swedish medieval ballad was not chosen for print.

Methodologies

The ballads for this thesis meet two general criteria. Firstly, they contain “supernatural

transformation”. Secondly, they are the oldest versions of each ballad or come from the oldest

singers. These chosen versions have enough variation that they are not identical, but not so much

102 Ling, “Levin Christian Wiedes vissamling: en studie i 1800-talets folkliga vissång,” 20. 103 Ling, 20. 104 Ling, 20. 105 This is usually the type of source the ballad was from, where this source was printed, and when it was printed.

In the cases where the song was performed, information on singers could include name, birth and death dates,

where they lived and where they were from, when they performed the ballad, and their occupation. Interestingly,

a woman’s occupation was often listed as her husband’s wife. For example, “soldier’s wife” or “sailor’s wife”. 106 Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 6–8. 107 Jonsson et al., 6. 108 Jonsson et al., 493. 109 Jonsson et al., 7. 110 Jonsson et al., 6–7. Sveriges medeltida ballader labels geographic origin of a ballad through landskap

(province). 111 S. Jansson, Den levande balladen. p. 21 112 Jansson, 22.

18

that the narrative is completely different.113 This method narrows down the materials to a more

reasonable volume for a master’s thesis, while also allowing enough material to analyze for this

thesis. The supernatural within the realm of the ballads is anything that exceeds natural human

ability. While people’s conceptions of magic and the supernatural in the late medieval and early

modern periods were more complex than this simple rule, in the fictional world of the ballads,

abilities stemming from supernatural powers are clear to the audience. Humans turn into wolves,

talking snakes ride horses, castles materialize out of thin air: audiences were aware of magic because

it had to alter reality in some way.

While there are various types of transformation in the Swedish medieval ballads, this thesis only

includes ballads that describe humans with inhuman bodies.114 People could transform into things

found in nature, or even into objects. But to gain information on humanness and gender, the ballad

must discuss how some facet of how the person’s identity conflicts with the transformed state. The

most common indication of a “facet of humanity” is the transformed creature’s ability to

communicate with humans through speech. However, retaining a human identity in a transformed

state does not mean a hybrid will behave within human social codes. This thesis includes a small

sample of the ballads that contain supernatural transformation and interesting discussions of

gender, hybridity, and power.115

It is important to acknowledge some of the drawbacks to working with ballads from Sveriges

medeltida ballader, and some of the issues with working with ballads in general. Firstly, a ballad could

change based on its performer. While these ballads are part of a widespread Scandinavian tradition,

they are also part of individual experiences. The ballad was not just a song and a story, but also a

performance. The performativity of a medieval ballad created dynamic relationships between

performer, audience, and ballad, which changed from person to person. Performers could change

their medium based on their relationship to their audience, or their relationship to the ballad.116

Singers may have built repertoires around what resonated with them or what interested them.117

This performativity is what gives ballads variation, richness, and cultural significance, but it also

makes it a challenging material to study.118 There is no one “true” or “original” version of a ballad,

113 For example, while version H of Jungfrun förvandlad till lind is within the ballad type SMB 12, the story is

about a tree talking to a girl. It is made clear that the tree, was simply a talking tree. The performer stated that it

was a “story from a time when all things could talk.” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 92. De två

systrarna version C is similar because the younger sister survives and returns to her parents, unlike all the other

printed versions. 114 Knight, Broken Order, 88. Transformation in this thesis does not include resurrection or aging. I take

inspiration from Knight’s framework of defining transformation. 115 For a complete list of the ballads and versions in this thesis, with short plot summaries, see the appendix. 116 Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, 133–62. 117 S. Jansson, Den levande balladen, 55. 118 In a discussion I had with Svenska visarkivet, they said that at times singers would not pay close attention to

the meaning of lyrics, so there were times when ballads were difficult to understand. Singers could add or take

out parts of a ballad with every new performance. The performativity and adaptability of a ballad made it a

dynamic, multilayered piece of culture. Ballads meant different things to different people, which makes them a

19

no means to trace where and when a ballad is from, or what exactly people thought of them.119

Furthermore, variation did not end with the performer. The ballads in this thesis were also collected

by humans, who likely brought their own impressions, even when recording a performance. There

are likely inaccuracies in the process of converting a song to text. For instance, Jan Ling found that

among people who recorded ballad performances during the nineteenth century, those who were

musically trained were more likely to alter or “correct” the melody of a ballad they recorded.120 The

distribution of the materials is also an issue, both geographically and among groups of people. The

ballad collections that Sveriges medeltida ballader relies upon are often more concentrated in certain

geographic areas than others.121 Furthermore, the ballad collections feature far more women

performers than male performers.122

Questions of variability and representation bring a few issues to a qualitative study of the ballads.

We can safely assume the variation and individual impressions found in the ballads were not

anything outside of an established medieval and early modern “traditional framework”.123 Because

artists functioned within this framework, researchers can better estimate the cultural environment

that produced the ballads. This cultural environment is not precise, but rather a farrago of

ideological artifacts and gradual changes in mentalities over time and space. That is why this thesis

is a study of mentalities, culture, and an artistic medium, which are thought to reflect individual

experiences of people living in a larger society. This is a study of how the ballads depict people,

conflicts, and relationships, and how these depictions relate to late medieval and early modern

historical context.

With these issues in mind, this thesis takes careful consideration of how to read and analyze

these materials. While ballads are a literary source, a historical analysis through the lens of late

medieval and early modern popular culture can provide information on the social norms of that

time. Focusing on the supernatural transformation ballads can provide a new and unique view of

how gender was depicted in popular culture, through the lens of hybridity, liminality, and alterity.

As Gwendolyne Knight states in her doctoral thesis, historical documents as well as literary texts

“are all representations of cultural moments that construct meaning, reinforce norms, and fulfill

social functions.”124 The ballads both represent individual elements of popular culture in late

unique representation of popular culture. Furthermore, these many different meanings and understandings could

be left open to the audience to interpret. 119 See also: Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, 173. 120 Ling, “Levin Christian Wiedes vissamling: en studie i 1800-talets folkliga vissång,” 84. 121 S. Jansson, Den levande balladen, 14. 122 S. Jansson, 46–47. 123 Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, 162. 124 Knight, Broken Order. pp. 12-13

20

medieval and early modern Sweden, as well as the social-historical context in which they were

produced.125

Within the ballads, the use of supernatural transformation presents discussions of social norms

that can expand our understanding of individual and wider experiences in late medieval and early

modern culture. Transformation narratives put humans in a liminal state between the real world

and the supernatural. The inhuman state of these characters forced them to express humanness,

by affirming or even subverting social norms. Transformation in these stories highlights what it

meant to be human in the late medieval and early modern periods, by contrasting and defining

humanness through the tension of being human in an inhuman body. And inevitably, late medieval

and early modern discussions of the body involved having a gendered body. While these stories

define what is human and what is not, they also define masculinity and femininity. Furthermore,

these transformation-driven conflicts introduce aspects of real-life issues such as power and

authority, social roles, and gender norms. By examining humanness in transformation-driven

conflicts, this thesis aims to better understand conceptions of gender as they are depicted in the

Swedish medieval ballads. Studying humanness through hybridity and liminality can also bring new

and unique insights into late medieval and early modern popular culture. These ballads discuss

hybridity, liminality, and humanness, while also tying in elements of folk belief and popular culture.

This combination makes these sources especially useful and unique for exploring questions of

gender in the context of popular culture.

While understanding why studying the supernatural transformation ballads is important,

understanding how to study them is also key. The ballads, while perhaps only a page long, are

steeped with symbolism, metaphor, or even aesthetic fillers. They require close reading with

consideration to historical context and conventions of the ballad tradition. They are in themselves,

individual stories. Using a small selection of ballads as a sample, this thesis follows a qualitative,

micro-historical approach. Peter Burke argues researchers must study popular culture as both a

local phenomenon and a part of the wider European experience.126 This thesis analyzes the ballads,

a part of popular culture, in a similar fashion. The ballads are both a part of individual experience,

but also part of a long-standing tradition of storytelling and popular culture.

This thesis follows a qualitative reading of a small sample of ballads. This method entails reading

these ballads closely for instances that express depictions of gender. This method assumes that

characters and their actions in these ballads contain impressions of gender norms and gender

discourse from the late medieval and early modern periods. A female character in a certain ballad

125 Allan H. Pasco, “Literature as Historical Archive,” New Literary History 35, no. 3 (2004): 373–94; Henric

Bagerius, “Historikern och skönlitteraturen,” in Moderna historier: Skönlitteratur i det moderna samhällets

framväxt (Nordic Academic Press, 2011), 17–32; Henric Bagerius, Ulrika Nilsson Lagerlöf, and Pia Lundqvist,

“Skönlitteraturen i historievetenskapen – några metodologiska reflektioner,” Historisk Tidskrift 133, no. 3

(2013): 384–410. 126 Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, 90–92.

21

is a representation of how that ballad depicts femininity and a male character is a representation of

masculinity. These depictions are taken from a micro-historical perspective, as smaller discussions

within a larger societal framework. Secondly, this thesis follows the assumption that characters’

actions carry implicit depictions of gender, especially when analyzed against late medieval and early

modern social norms. Characters’ actions as normative or subversive are often the main indications

as to how characters negotiate gender. And thirdly, this thesis follows the assumption that

characters are both representations of gender, but also representations of certain social roles that

could be, but were not always, gendered.127 For instance, understanding that a female character

could be both mother and wife adds significance to her behavior in a ballad and how that ballad

depicts gender. This approach also assumes the ballads both negotiate and prescribe gender.

Reading these ballads and their characters closely for depictions of gender through action, social

roles, and against the backdrop of late medieval and early modern social norms, will illuminate

some possible ways in which masculinity and femininity were discussed in a medium of popular

culture.

127 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, 161. I have drawn from Toivo’s observations on

social roles in early modern society.

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Theory

Gender, Patriarchy, and the Square of Opposition

This thesis functions under the assumptions that gender is a social construct, gender expresses

“relationships of power”, and, in addition, researchers must study gender through intersectional

perspectives. 128 Joan W. Scott in her classical article “Gender: A Useful Category of Analysis”

proposes that gender is “a constitutive element of social relationships based on perceived

differences between the sexes” and was a “primary way of signifying relationships of power”.129

This means that researchers must analyze gender in the context of social relationships and power

disparities. Furthermore, this thesis also follows intersectional perspectives to studying gender.

Intersectional perspectives to gender assume that gender cannot be analyzed in isolation, but rather

in the context of “the dynamics of differences and sameness” that intersect with the experience of

gender.130 In other words, analyzing and understanding gender in historical context must take into

account the intersections of, for example, “race/gender/class/sexuality/nation”.131 With this in

mind, this thesis follows the assumption that gender is a product of a socio-historical context, and

cannot be removed from intersections of this context, such as social status, occupation, or religion.

To better understand how power and gender were related and negotiated in early modern

context, it is important to understand how historians have interpreted patriarchy. Under Scott’s

definition of gender as a social construct that reveals “relationships of power”132, this thesis also

works under the assumption that these relationships were dynamic and negotiable. Feminist

historians during the 1970s and 1980s interpreted the concept of patriarchy through the “dialectics

of male domination”, which caused them to neglect feminine expressions of agency and power.133

Criticism of this one-dimensional approach drove more recent scholarship to focus on women’s

agency in history.134 This approach brought women’s action to the foreground, with patriarchal

power in the “background”.135 Patriarchy was thus no longer defined by “dialectics of male

domination”, but instead occupied a contextual framework in which researchers could examine

128 Joan W. Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” The American Historical Review 91, no.

5 (1986): 1067. 129 Scott, 1067. 130 Sumi Cho, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, and Leslie McCall, “Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies:

Theory, Applications, and Praxis,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 38, no. 4 (June 1, 2013):

787. 131 Cho, Crenshaw, and McCall, 787. 132 Scott, “Gender,” 1067. 133 Androniki Dialeti, “From Women’s Oppression to Male Anxiety: The Concept of ‘Patriarchy’ in the

Historiography of Early Modern Europe,” in Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, vol. 14

(London: Routledge, 2013), 21. 134 Dialeti, 22. 135 Dialeti, 22.

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gender, power, and agency. 136 By understanding women’s position through time this way, historians

could examine women’s strategies for power in a patriarchal system, often through “dynamic

resistance” or “negotiation”.137 With this framework, we can examine the dynamics of gender,

patriarchy, and women’s agency in the ballads. The fact that early modern Swedish society was

highly patriarchal is a widely known. But women were not devoid of agency in this patriarchal

society, and they could negotiate their position in a variety of ways. For instance, women could

marry their children strategically to gain status in a community, use the courts to settle disputes, or

choose to remain unmarried widows to retain their autonomy.138 This theory allows for a more

dynamic approach to understanding how people negotiated gender and power.

This thesis also functions under the assumption that gender and power were heavily tied to

social roles, and these social roles had a specific construction during the early modern period. In

early modern context, the relationship between gender and power was negotiated through people’s

social roles. Raisa Maria Toivo has found that these social roles were defined through oppositional

pairs. The social hierarchy of the early modern period “appear[ed] as binary oppositions of social

roles, possibly but not necessarily gendered.”139 European conceptualization of social hierarchy

through binaries stems from Renaissance thinkers who favored illustrating concepts “in terms of a

binary opposition”, more so than thinkers had before.140 In turn, thinkers imagined hierarchies in

terms of the Aristotelian “square of opposition”: each pair could not exist without the “complementary

or conflicting” opposite of the other, and each member of the pair defined the other.141

Furthermore, each member of the pair was also defined by other pairs. Toivo explains that the

husband and wife consisted of a pair, and the wife and the child also created a pair. Within early

modern Swedish catechistic teachings, there were many ways to interpret the traits and roles of

each member of a pair, and many different interpretations existed at the same time.142 This meant

that members of the social hierarchy were defined in terms of social roles, and not exclusively by

gender. Toivo states that the social hierarchy as defined through social roles made society stable.

But positions in the social hierarchy on the individual level were dynamic. In this way, a person’s

“role” defined their position in the social hierarchy, which enabled them “room for a negotiation

of authority”.143 Like more recent theories of gender and patriarchy, members of early modern

136 Dialeti, 21. 137 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, 7; Dialeti, “From Women’s Oppression to Male

Anxiety: The Concept of ‘Patriarchy’ in the Historiography of Early Modern Europe,” 22. 138 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, 21–76. 139 Toivo, 161. 140 Toivo, 160. 141 Toivo, 160. 142 Toivo, 161. 143 Toivo, 161.

24

society were not necessarily fixed in place and could maneuver their position with their available

authority.144

Monster Theory, Transformation, and Literature

This thesis follows the assumption that literature reflects discussions, anxieties, and preoccupations

of society. Unlike official documents, literature presents a unique window into culture and

mindsets.145 Allan H. Pasco states: “A study of art uncovers society’s conscious and unconscious

reality in all its glory and shame.”146 By reading texts in their socio-historical context, we can

understand people’s mindsets during a certain period.147 When certain topics such as

metamorphosis, alterity, or infanticide, occurred frequently in literature at a given time, it can be a

sign that these topics were relevant discussions in contemporary culture.148 Researchers can

examine these topics in a variety of ways. Gwendolyne Knight argues that transformation in

literature can be studied as a social metaphor.149 She uses “social image and metaphor” to analyze

“conceptions of the individual and their place in society”.150 This “social image” refers to Cordelia

Heß’s descriptions of “social imagery”, which are the “sum total of textual images used as

metaphors for society within a given language and genre context.”151 Knight’s study adapts the

concept of social imagery into a “single image” of metamorphosis and explores “aspects of society”

that were “understood in terms of metamorphosis.”152 That is to say, she assumes metamorphosis

in texts acts as an “aid in the understanding of an abstract concept”, and her study seeks to illustrate

what metamorphosis is helping its readers to understand.153 This study draws from this approach

by focusing on the single image, hybridity, and studying the main themes iterated in situations

involving this image. In the case of the ballads, this regards gender, relationships, and dialectics of

power. By examining this single image of hybridity as a social metaphor, we can better understand

how the ballads used supernatural transformation as a means of discussing gender, power, and

relationships.

144 To a degree: there were obviously limitations and rules within society. 145 Pasco, “Literature as Historical Archive,” 373. 146 Pasco, 387. 147 Pasco, “Literature as Historical Archive.” 148 Inger Lövkrona, Annika Larsdotter, barnamörderska: kön, makt och sexualitet i 1700-talets Sverige (Lund:

Historiska media, 1999), 79; Pasco, “Literature as Historical Archive,” 387; Knight, Broken Order, 171–72;

Merkelbach, Monsters in Society: Alterity, Transgression, and the Use of the Past in Medieval Iceland, 2. 149 Knight, Broken Order, 29; Cordelia Hess, Social Imagery in Middle Low German: Didactical Literature and

Metaphorical Representation (1470-1517), Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions 167

(Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2013). 150 Knight, Broken Order, 29. 151 Knight, 29. 152 Knight, 29. 153 Knight, 29.

25

This thesis also applies monster theory, under the assumption that hybrids are a form of

monster. Jeffery Jerome Cohen describes the monster through seven theses.154 The first thesis

states that “The monstrous body is pure culture.” The monster “exists only to be read”, and always

“signifies something other than itself”. 155 Secondly, the monster never inhabits but one cultural

moment: it reappears in new stories, new minds, and new times. Researchers must, therefore, read

the monster “within the intricate matrix of social relations… that generate them.”156 Thirdly, the

monster always reappears “because it refuses easy categorization”. Monsters are “disturbing

hybrids” that reside in a liminal state, and threaten “boundary and normality”.157 In this way, the

monster (and the hybrid) allows “polyphony, mixed response, and resistance to integration.”158 The

fourth thesis states that the monster is an embodiment of “alterity”. This “monstrous difference”

is more often a product of the monster’s social and cultural context. The fifth thesis states that the

monster straddles the possible and the impossible, but also highlights the dangers of transgression.

Thesis six states that while the monster represents transgression and its consequences, the monster

also attracts “fantasies of aggression, domination, and inversion”.159 Monsters provide “safe

expression” of forbidden fantasies “in a clearly delimited and permanently liminal space”.160 Lastly,

the seventh thesis states that monsters question the reader’s perception of the world, their

“perception of difference”, and their “tolerance towards its expression”.161 They are just as much

on the outskirts of society, as they are an expression of mechanisms within society. This thesis will

use Cohen’s cultural framework of defining monsters and hybrids to apply a deeper, historical

analysis of how transformation and alterity relate to negotiations of gender and power in the

supernatural transformation ballads. Hybrids in the ballads are just as much monsters, as they are

embodiments of cultural values, transgression, subversion, and fantasy.

With the definition of monsters and hybrids in mind, we can then frame how monsters can be

read in a historical study of literature. Rebecca Merkelbach studies monsters in the Icelandic sagas

through a social model.162 This model assumes that monstrosity is a product of a character’s

behavior, rather than their physical state.163 Monsters in the Icelandic sagas are social monsters

because they are presented as a threat to “social stability”. 164 The monster was not a fixed concept

and was therefore understood through its behavior.165 Merkelbach states that we must observe the

154 Cohen, “Monster Culture (Seven Theses).” 155 Cohen, 4. 156 Cohen, 5. 157 Cohen, 6. 158 Cohen, 7. 159 Cohen, 16–17. 160 Cohen, 17. 161 Cohen, 20. 162 Merkelbach, Monsters in Society: Alterity, Transgression, and the Use of the Past in Medieval Iceland, 8. 163 Merkelbach, 2–8. 164 Merkelbach, 175. 165 Merkelbach, 4.

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actions of the monster and the reactions of society.166 Furthermore, these monsters appeared so

often in these materials because they “were meaningful to the culture and society that produced …

composed, [and] disseminated” them.167 In that way, exploring how societies wrote about

monstrosity and hybridity is important. Like Merkelbach’s monsters of the Icelandic sagas, the

monstrous hybrids in the Swedish medieval ballads “communicate the social concerns and anxieties

haunting the culture that produced the literature in which they appear.”168 The ballads, like the

sagas, were reflections of society, and brought important discussions of societal stability and

instability. Many of the hybrids or the creation of hybrids in the ballads are direct attacks on social

hierarchies of late medieval and early modern Sweden. This thesis will thus focus firstly on the

actions and reactions of characters in the ballads, and then observe how situations involving

hybrids “communicate the social concerns” of gender. 169

166 Merkelbach, 4. 167 Merkelbach, 2. 168 Merkelbach, 175. 169 Merkelbach, 175. Footnote refers to the quote only.

27

Operational Questions and Hypothesis

The most prominent themes in this ballad selection are violent conflict, social roles, and

negotiations of power. These themes arise as a result of magical transformation and humans

struggling in hybrid states. This thesis will thus pose the main question: How do these ballads depict

gender? This thesis will then more closely examine gender, by examining it through the lens of

hybridity and liminality. The narrower question then becomes: How do humans in these ballads behave

in hybrid and liminal states, and what does this say about gender in the late medieval and early modern periods?

This thesis will further focus on three themes that appear prominently in this selection of ballads:

violent conflict, negotiation of power, and social roles. These themes hold heavily gender-coded

places in late medieval and early modern society. They, therefore, can provide a rich analysis of

how the ballads depict gender.

This thesis will begin with an analysis of violent conflict and negotiation of power in the

supernatural transformation ballads. This analysis will explore how characters negotiate power,

violence, and transgression. It will illustrate examples where men and women exercise agency and

negotiate power through violence, magic, and help from others. This analysis will then highlight

how violence defines masculine and feminine roles in these ballads and shows multiple sides to late

medieval and early modern constructions of masculinity. Violence and magic take central roles in

many of these ballads and depict characters that both reinforce and subvert gender norms. This

thesis will then examine how supernatural transformation affects relationships and social roles.

This section explores the roles of mothers and male guardians, and how these roles are defined

through characters’ failure to fulfill them. The last section of this thesis ties together these sections

through an exploration of the complex nature of the motif of hybridity. This section describes how

transformation and hybridity in the Swedish medieval ballads do not depict gender as a one-

dimensional binary, but rather as a complex web of exceptions and negotiations, that are defined

by people’s actions in extraordinary situations.

While this thesis examines supernatural transformation, an important part of analyzing gender

in these stories are the external human conflicts and social networks surrounding a transformed

character. As Cohen states in his seven theses, researchers must read monsters in their social and

cultural context.170 By applying theories of hybridity and liminality, and analyzing how these states

relate to human conflict, this thesis discusses how these supernatural transformation ballads

present a polyphonic, negotiated image of gender in late medieval and early modern society.

170 Cohen, “Monster Culture (Seven Theses),” 4.

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Empirical Analysis

Negotiating Power and Transgression to Restore Order

This first section will examine strategies men and women use to restore themselves to human form

and retaliate against their attacker. This section will analyze Den förtrollade riddaren, Förvandling och

förlösning, Jungfrun förvandlad till lind, and De två systrarna. Characters in these ballads use revenge,

violence, and social networks as a means of negotiating gender, power, and agency. A hybrid state

allows characters to commit gruesome acts of violence that they would not otherwise commit in

human form. However, a hybrid state can also leave characters immobile and forces them to rely

on others to save them.

Violence could have many different meanings in late medieval and early modern society,

depending on the context, actors, or circumstances.171 For instance, legitimate forms of violence

could be figures of authority in a household physically “disciplining” their subordinates, or courts

carrying out corporal punishment to criminals.172 Violence in the home was not necessarily

negative, though not necessarily positive either. Male household heads of the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries were expected to discipline their wives.173 However, religious rhetoric of the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries shifted, and husbands’ violence in the home became

increasingly stigmatized and thought of as a sign of weakness.174 According to Maria Raisa Toivo:

“violence was both a right and a shame” of those in authority and even legitimate forms of violence

could be problematic.175 Though, the stigmatization of male violence in the household was more

part of official rhetoric than popular opinion.176

Men also practiced violence outside the home. Physical violence was closely tied to

constructions of masculinity and honor.177 Part of positive masculinity in the early modern period

was the ability to act out violently against the household and against men outside of the

171 Karin Hassan Jansson, Kvinnofrid: synen på våldtäkt och konstruktionen av kön i Sverige 1600—1800

(Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2002), 53–54; Jonas Liliequist, “Changing Discourses of Marital

Violence in Sweden from the Age of Reformation to the Late Nineteenth Century,” Gender & History 23, no. 1

(2011): 1–25; Mats Hallenberg, “The Golden Age of the Aggressive Male? Violence, Masculinity and the State

in Sixteenth-Century Sweden,” Gender & History 25, no. 1 (2013): 132–49; Ekholst, A Punishment for Each

Criminal: Gender and Crime in Swedish Medieval Law, 77–78. 172 K. Jansson, Kvinnofrid, 53. 173 Liliequist, “Changing Discourses of Marital Violence in Sweden from the Age of Reformation to the Late

Nineteenth Century,” 4–5. 174 Liliequist, 5. 175 Raisa Maria Toivo, “Violence between Parents and Children: Courts of Law in Early Modern Finland,” The

History of the Family 18, no. 3 (August 1, 2013): 341. 176 Liliequist, “Changing Discourses of Marital Violence in Sweden from the Age of Reformation to the Late

Nineteenth Century,” 7. 177 K. Jansson, Kvinnofrid, 53.

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household.178 Women also practiced violence outside of the household, but it was never a positive

expression of femininity. 179 Men more often acted out violently against other men, rather than

against women.180 Exercising legitimate forms of violence was important in early modern

constructions of masculinity, but above all, self-control was most crucial.181 This meant exercising

forms of legitimate violence within reason and exercising violence within social codes.

Violence was not legitimate when it went against the social hierarchy. Subordinates acting

violently against authority was a very grave crime in early modern law.182 For this reason, children

attacking their parents was taboo.183 It was within the law to sentence a child to death if they hit

their parent. While this law was very harsh and reflected the gravity of the crime, it did not mean

this sentence was always carried out. The court weighed the sentence with the circumstances of a

crime, and the past behavior of both child and parent.184 Additionally, if an adult child killed their

parent, courts could also call for the death penalty. However, the death penalty was rarely carried

out except if the plaintiff had many previous offenses.185

It was accepted and even expected for superiors to discipline and control their subordinates

through violence.186 A parent who did not discipline their child could be considered neglectful.187

However, overusing this violence as a means of discipline could be a matter of concern to the

courts. Victims of excessive violence could file a complaint in church courts, which included

complaints against parents.188 In response, “courts tried to re-establish a normative hierarchical

situation”.189 Raisa Maria Toivo notes that these cases show that seventeenth-century “courts must

have thought that a return to a sensible authority was a viable option”.190 That is to say, victims of

excessive violence could expect those they filed complaints against to be reintroduced into the

system of power that was abused, by the courts they had relied on to protect them.

We can assume that violence within the family was a very real struggle that both parents and

children faced. While laws and courts were concerned with controlling people’s use of power, they

prioritized restoring order and balance within the social hierarchy. This system centered on

178 Ann-Catrin Östman, “Oenighet och äkta kärlek: Behandling av äktenskapliga ‘tratör’ i ett agrarsamhälle på

1700-talet,” in En slående olikhet: Om våld som skapare av identiteter och hierarkier i det tidigmoderna

Sverige, 2014, 69. 179 Inger Lövkrona, “Hierarki och makt: den förmoderna familjen som genusrelation,” in Familj och kön

(Studentlitteratur, 1999), 28. 180 Lövkrona, 28. 181 K. Jansson, Kvinnofrid, 54; Liliequist, “Changing Discourses of Marital Violence in Sweden from the Age of

Reformation to the Late Nineteenth Century,” 5–6. 182 K. Jansson, Kvinnofrid, 53–54. 183 Toivo, “Violence between Parents and Children,” 342. 184 Toivo, 340. 185 Toivo, 342. 186 K. Jansson, Kvinnofrid, 53; Toivo, “Violence between Parents and Children,” 340. 187 Toivo, “Violence between Parents and Children,” 340. 188 Toivo, 341. Toivo uses the exact words “excessive violence”. 189 Toivo, 341. 190 Toivo, 341.

30

domestic violence as legitimate power put victims in a vulnerable position. Victims of excessive

violence could face severe punishment for retaliating against authority, however, seeking legal

recourse against abuse of authority did not guarantee their protection. We can see that the ballads

Den förtrollade riddaren and Förvandling och förlösning test this return to a “normative hierarchical

situation”.191 Instead of reintroducing the abusive member of authority, the solution of early

modern courts, these ballads suggest removing them entirely. These ballads challenge the opinion

of authorities, proposing that order can be restored by removing abusive authority figures. These

ballads show a discussion present in popular culture that did not align with official opinions or

practices. The ability to retaliate against authority and at the same time still restore social order

fulfills a fantasy of power far from the reality of early modern legal and social practice.

The two werewolf ballads Den förtrollade riddaren and Förvandling och förlösning involve male

characters committing violent revenge against figures of authority. Den förtrollade riddaren follows a

boy whose mother died when he was young.192 His stepmother was cruel, and transformed him

into nails, knives, scissors, and then into a wolf.193 She states that he will forever be a wolf unless

he eats his brother’s flesh.194 Much later, the werewolf waits in the forest until his stepmother rides

by.195 He ambushes her, knocks her off her horse, and then eats the child in her womb.196 He then

rises as a knight “bold and good”.197 Version B of Den förtrollade riddaren is similar, but most notably

after eating his brother, he turns into a “servant so good”.198

In Förvandling och förlösning, a fox and a wolf approach a mother and daughter baking bread.199

They claim that these women are their mothers who did not feed them, give them drink, or give

them life.200 They then flay and eat the women.201 As they are eating the mothers’ hearts, a sorceress

arrives and turns the boys into princes.202 A note from the transcriber states that the performer

191 Toivo, 341. 192 Version A is longer than version B. Version B does not include specific mention of the mother’s death, the

stepmother only turns the stepson into a wolf, and does not mention devouring his brother as a cure. “Min moder

blef dödh ihnnan vprann Sohl”. Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 37. 193 “Först skapte hoon Migh i Nåhler/Och sade Jagh skulle tråhna./Så skapte hoon Migh i knijfver/Och sade Jag

skulle icke trifwas/Så skapte hon Migh i Saxer/Och sade Jagh skull' icke wexa/Så skapte hoon Migh i Vlffwen

grå/Och bödh Jagh skulle åth Skogen gåå.” Jonsson et al., 37. 194 “Och sade Jagh skulle aldrig fåå booth/Förähn Jagh hade drucket min Broders blodh”. Jonsson et al., 37. 195 “Så lade Jagh migh vnder lijda/Där min Styfmoder skulle framrijda” Jonsson et al., 37. 196 “Där tager Jag til medh mäste/Min Styfmoder vthaf häste/Så togh [Jagh] till medh harme/Hennes foster vhr

hennes barme”. Version B: “Så tog jag i med harme/jag ref min styfbroder ur barme” Jonsson et al., 37–38. 197 “Wardt jagh en Riddare bold och godh” Jonsson et al., 37. 198 “sedan blef jag en dräng så god.” Jonsson et al., 38. It is also interesting to note that the ballad’s title is Den

förtrollade riddaren (The Cursed Knight), though there is no mention of a knight in this version. 199 “Modren och dottren stod och bakade bröd/In kom räfven uti päls så röd” Jonsson et al., 52. 200 “Är icke du vår moder som icke gaf oss lif/I dag skall vi steka dig och äta dig med knif/Är icke du vår moder

som icke gaf oss mat/I dag skall vi steka dig och lägga dig på fat/Är icke du vår moder som icke gaf oss dryck/I

dag skall vi slagta dig och skära dig i styck'” Jonsson et al., 52. 201 “De togo modren och dottren och refvo deras klä'r/Ja de gjorde väl mer/De togo den modren och dottren ifrån

sitt bröd och vin/De började klösa och sarga deras skinn” Jonsson et al., 52. 202 “Ej förr de druckit deras varma blod/Förrn Spåkvinnan alt för dem stod/Hon rörde och slog dem med sin

staf/Och det blef en prins utaf dem hvar” Jonsson et al., 52.

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would pause between stanzas to tell the whole story of the ballad in spoken word. The performer

stated that the mother and the daughter both became pregnant and tried to hide the children. They

did this by allowing someone to turn the children into animals.203

There are multiple aspects to the violence in Den förtrollade riddaren and Förvandling och förlösning,

each adding a layer to the depiction of masculine violence and power in these ballads. Because

violence was so closely tied to early modern constructions of masculinity, these violent acts were

part of how these ballads depict gender and power. These male characters chose to restore order

themselves through physical violence, as opposed to enlisting the help of outside forces. In this

way, the ballads depict masculine power as a force of independent action, and a force of physical

violence. However, while violence and independent action can be interpreted in these stories as an

expression of positive masculinity, and a means of restoring order, it is still transgressive. Their

violent acts go against the social hierarchy. Furthermore, the willingness to commit transgression

and the excessive violence in these ballads goes against any notions of self-control—one of the

most important traits of early modern masculinity.204 In this way, the violence in these ballads,

although meant to restore order, can be read as a form of highly negative masculinity.

While these ballads depict transgression and negative masculinity, the circumstances of the

characters’ actions openly question whether the transgression was justified or not. These ballads

do this by describing violence committed in a hybrid state and also questioning the actions of the

figures of authority. The mothers and the stepmother abused their authority and harmed the

children they were charged to care for. They too violated the social hierarchy, by not using their

power for good. This reinforces the notion that these women were evil and likewise transgressed

against social codes. Additionally, these women were the creators of the hybrid beings that

ultimately killed them. In this sense, they brought upon themselves the wrath of the creatures they

made. Furthermore, the physical violence in the ballads was committed while the characters were

in a temporary, hybrid state. They were not fully human men, nor were they fully monstrous

creatures. Per-Anders Östling observed that sixteenth- and seventeenth-century stories of witches

committing crimes in animal states depicted them as “freed from moral codes which regulated

people’s behavior in the human world.”205 This is similar to the hybrids in these ballads. This liminal

state creates a monster of violent fantasy that gives these characters both the space and power to

commit transgression. A hybrid state distances the characters’ actions from negative masculinity

because their hybridity distances them from the responsibility of being human and acting within

reason. At the same time, the nature of these crimes reaffirms them as transgressive. They violated

the social hierarchy, they used excessive violence, they murdered and cannibalized defenseless

203 “Berättelse anfördes delvis emellan värserna att moder och dotter i hemlighet födt barn och att de låtit

förvandla dem till ulfvar och björnar. För detta hade den föredragande ingen värsform.” Jonsson et al., 53. 204 K. Jansson, Kvinnofrid, 54. 205 “Möjligen medförde övergången från människa till djur att hon befriades från de moraliska normer som

reglerade människans beteende i den mänskliga världen.” Östling, Blåkulla, Magi Och Trolldomsprocesser, 71.

32

women. The men in these ballads negotiate gender, power, and violence through hybridity. They

committed a transgressive act to bring justice against women who likewise committed transgressive

acts. Through the lens of hybridity, violence and masculinity in these ballads are polyphonic: they

are depicted as both transgression against the social order, and a necessary act of upholding this

order.

It is also important to note some of the intersections of social status and masculinity in these

ballads. In version A of Den förtrollade riddaren, the stepson turns into a knight after killing his

stepmother. In version B, he turns into a worker. Both ballads depict men who commit violent

transgressions, but the different social statuses could point to differing ways late medieval and early

modern audiences used elites to discuss gender. In version A, negative masculinity, violence, and

transgression are depicted as aspects of elite masculinity. This is similar to Förvandling och förlösning.

While the mothers are seemingly common women who bake their own bread, their children

become princes at the end of the story. Like version A of Den förtrollade riddaren, this ballad associates

transgressive violence as a means of restoring order with elite masculinity. However, in version B

of Den förtrollade riddaren, transgression and violence are associated with masculinity of the common

man. This version could imply masculine expressions of violence to restore order were a part of

common and elite masculinities, or, on the other hand, it sought to distance elite masculinity from

violence, transgression, and masculinity of common men. Social status and the difference between

elite and common masculinities seem to be another important aspect of the deception of violence,

masculinity, and transgression in these ballads.

The ballad Jungfrun förvandlad till lind is also a ballad about a stepmother transforming a child but

is an example of a different means of restoration and retaliation. In this ballad, a female character

is transformed into a passive form and must rely on others to rescue her, restore order, and retaliate

against her attacker. Furthermore, this ballad seems to imply that figures of authority that abuse

their powers do not always face consequences. Jungfrun förvandlad till lind begins with a stepmother

who turns her stepdaughter into a tree. It is hinted at that the stepmother is jealous of the

stepdaughter, either for her beauty, riches, or her high-ranking fiancé. 206 Another woman stumbles

upon this tree and speaks with her.207 It turns out that the only way for the stepdaughter to return

to a human form is if her fiancé comes and kisses her.208 The woman writes a letter and an animal

delivers it to the stepdaughter’s fiancé.209 Her fiancé, usually a prince, knight, or king, rushes to the

206 “Maglena hon hade en stjufdotter rik” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 89.; “Malena hon hade en

styfdotter fin”Jonsson et al., 90.; In version C the stepdaughter states “Hon sad' jag skulle till Herr Måns skull ta

mig dän” after her stepmother turns her into a tree. Jonsson et al., 88. 207 “Stånder nu du Lind, så fager som du är,/Med förgylta blad, som du nu sielfwer bär” Jonsson et al., Sveriges

medeltida ballader, 86. 208 “Ingen är i werlden som mig kan giöra bot,/Förutan konung Magnus, han kysser på min rot.” Jonsson et al.,

86. 209 “Jungfrun satt sig neder at skrifwa/…/Framkommer tå then Falcken grå,/Ert bref Will iag bära til konung

Magni gård.” Jonsson et al., 86.

33

tree and kisses her back into a woman again.210 In some versions, this is the end. In other versions,

the fiancé decides to take the stepdaughter to his home, or to the stepmother’s home, so he can

confront her. In version E, while speaking with the stepdaughter, the fiancé states “In Hell there

will I ready her judgment”.211 In version I the stepmother claims the stepdaughter had died, but the

fiancé counters by saying the stepmother deserves being “boiled in tar and rolled in lead”.212

The selected versions of Jungfrun förvandlad till lind depict women’s agency through their ability

to delegate action through their social network.213 The female character’s hybrid state as a tree

physically immobilizes her, unlike the added power a hybrid state lends in Den förtrollade riddaren and

Förvandling och förlösning. But this immobilized state does not deprive her of agency. The female

character emphasizes her helpless, passive position in this ballad: “Tomorrow suitors come to ask

for your hand/Tomorrow come timbermen to inspect me./So an altar-bridge out of me they will

lay/Thereupon many sinners shall go their way”.214 By describing her position, she convinces others

to aid her. While this ballad depicts a female character that is physically passive, it implies that she

can rely on her social network to save her. It is also interesting to note that her form is gendered,

like the werewolf forms in the previous ballads. While the tree is delicate, passive, and a victim to

circumstance, the werewolves are aggressive, active, and take charge of their fates. These ballads

show very different images of feminine and masculine agency. The young woman exercises agency

through her social network, rather than through violence or independent action. Femininity

becomes multisided in this ballad, both physically passive and socially active. Women are depicted

as able to exercise agency, but through their social network.

The male character’s actions in these versions negotiate the boundaries of the man of action, as

seen previously, and the loving, caring partner. Furthermore, his high social status creates an image

of elite masculinity. The fiancé is quite literally able to use the power of his love to restore the

young woman. But he also uses masculine constructions of action to rescue and retaliate for her.

The stepdaughter’s fiancé is depicted initially through independent, unwavering action.

Immediately after he reads the letter, he saddles his horse and rides “faster than a bird flies”.215

Without hesitation he takes over responsibility for her welfare and safety. And unlike the two

previous ballads, the hybrid is restored by tender, romantic love: “King Magnus fell down upon

210 “Konung Magnus han faller på sin' bara knä,/Och kysser så roten på Lindeträd.” Jonsson et al., 86. 211 “I Helfvetet der skall jag bereda hennes dom” Jonsson et al., 90. 212 “Er fåstemö är döder och lagder på bår/Der öfver har jag fällt mången sorgefuller tår” to which he replies

“Och hörer ni kär svärmoder min/Hvad skall den ha som två vänner skilljer åt/Den skall kokas i tjära och välltas

i bly/Och nu hafver ni fällt domen åt er sjelf”. Jonsson et al., 93. 213 This refers to all versions in the chart in the appendix except version F. This version seems to imply the

young woman curses her stepmother, while speaking to her mother-in-law, but it is unclear, so I did not include

it in this section. 214 “I Morgon komma friare och fria till dig/I morgon kommer Timmermän och skåda på mig./Så hugga de mig

till en altarespång./Der mången syndig menniska skall hafva sin gång.” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida

ballader, 89. 215 “Han red väl fortare än fogelen flög.” Jonsson et al., 88.

34

his knees,/So he kissed the woman, as the linden tree./King Magnus fell down to the woman’s

feet,/So he kissed her, on the linden roots.”216 Unlike the previous ballads, the male character

expresses positive masculinity by not only acting to save his fiancée but also balancing this action

with love and tenderness. This balance of action and love is also present in versions where the

fiancé verbally retaliates against his fiancée’s stepmother. In some versions, after he rescues her, he

curses the stepmother: “In hell there I will ready her judgment”217, “[She] will be boiled in tar and

rolled in lead”.218 In this way, the fiancé represents his partner in instances where she cannot

physically save or defend herself. This shares similarities with the Swedish proxy system. Through

the proxy system in both medieval and early modern law, women could not legally represent

themselves in court.219 Instead, their male guardian would be their legal proxy. 220 This male guardian

was usually a husband, father, or male relative.221 This ballad represents an idealized version of this

system: men successfully protect women who cannot protect themselves but still exercise self-

control by not overusing their power and authority. This image of self-control also intersects with

the fiancé’s social status. His status gives him a position of authority over the stepmother, but he

uses his power to protect others rather than using excessive violence or overstepping the social

hierarchy. The fiancé presents a positive image of elite masculinity. This image is a man of action,

but also a man of justice, order, and restraint. This ballad makes the distinction of femininity and

masculinity through action. The young woman uses the power of proxy to take action, rather than

directly taking action herself. The fiancé takes independent action and rescues her. But this

independent action is controlled and does not deprive the male character of vulnerability, emotion,

and love. Positive masculinity in this ballad depicts love and tenderness in parallel with expressions

of action and authority.

Jungfrun förvandlad till lind also brings up interesting discussions about the use of authority in

bringing order and disorder. In versions A and B, the ballad ends with the fiancé and the young

woman marrying. The stepmother faces no punishments, nor is she even mentioned. The

discussions of these versions center around the masculine and feminine roles in the context of love

and marriage. The young woman still exercises agency, and the young man is still presented as her

protector. However, the fiancé does not threaten or exercise authority over the stepmother. In

version I, the fiancé rescues the young woman, they marry, and then he heads to the stepmother’s

216 “Kung Magnus föll ned för Jungfruns fot,/Så kysste han den Jungfrun i Lidenträd.” Jonsson et al., 87. 217 “Och hälsa du din styfmoder ond./I Helfvetet der skall jag bereda hennes dom” Jonsson et al., 90. 218 “Den skall kokas i tjära och välltas i bly/Och nu hafver ni fällt domen åt er sjelf” Jonsson et al., 93. 219 Susanna Hedenborg, Susanna Hedenborg, and Lars Kvarnström, Det svenska samhället 1720—2018:

böndernas och arbetarnas tid, 7th ed. (Lund: Studentlitteratur, 2019), 38–40; Ekholst, A Punishment for Each

Criminal: Gender and Crime in Swedish Medieval Law, 23–25; Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern

Society, 138–39. 220 Hedenborg, Hedenborg, and Kvarnström, Det svenska samhället 1720—2018, 38–40; Ekholst, A Punishment

for Each Criminal: Gender and Crime in Swedish Medieval Law, 23–25; Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early

Modern Society, 138–39. 221 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, 138–39.

35

home to say that she deserves to boil in tar and be rolled in lead. In this case, elite authority and

independent action define the male character. Restoring order is not always a part of this ballad,

however. The stepmother is not always punished, and gets away with her crimes. While the young

woman and the fiancé can ride away and escape, unlike the other versions, the fiancé does not

exercise authority over the stepmother. Throughout the versions selected of Jungfrun förvandlad till

lind, while the female character can always rely on her fiancé for rescue, her fiancé is not always

defined through his authority. Not exercising authority could be depicted as masculine weakness,

however, it could also be an example of self-control. Jungfrun förvandlad till lind also considers that

figures of authority can abuse their authority and face no retaliation, and in some cases, it is enough

to rescue a loved one and escape.

Like Jungfrun förvandlad till lind, De två systrarna exhibits physical violence through proxy. And like

Den förtrollade riddaren and Förvandling och förlösning, the woman’s hybrid form enables her to commit

revenge. However, this ballad is also quite different. The main characters are an older sister and a

younger sister. The older sister has a dark complexion and, according to the ballad, no matter how

much she bathes, she will never be as fair as her younger sister. 222 They decide to go to the river to

bathe. The older sister thrusts the younger sister into the water, knowing she cannot make it to the

shore herself.223 The younger sister begs her older sister to aid her, bribing her with crowns and

gold necklaces. She even offers her older sister her fiancé, usually a knight or a prince, but the older

sister refuses, stating she will marry him anyway.224 Jealousy, especially of physical beauty and rich

husbands, is a theme present in both De två systrarana and Jungfrun förvandlad till lind and seems to be

a depiction of a negative female trait. The older sister goes back home and lies to her worried

parents that the younger sister refused to leave the water. Meanwhile, the younger sister dies and

someone collects her body and crafts it into a harp. This person goes to the older sister’s wedding

party, she is about to marry her younger sister’s former fiancé, and plays the harp.225 The harp sings

of the truth of what happened at the river.226 Most versions end differently, however, the result is

often pandemonium. Either the older sister falls dead in her marriage bed, or her fate lies in the

222 “Den äldsta var svart som svartan jord;/Den yngsta så hvit som klaran Sol./…/‘Och tvättar du dig än natt och

dag;/Slätt aldrig så blir du så hvit som jag.’” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 96. 223 “Den yngsta satte sig uppå en sten,/Den äldsta sköt henne i hafsens djup,” Jonsson et al., 103. 224 “Å kära du min syster du hjelp mig i land,/Däj vill jag gifva mitt röda gullband./Ditt röda gullband det kan jag

väl få,/Men aldrig skall Du på gröna jorden gå./Å kära Du min Syster, du hjelp mig i land,/Däj vill jag gifva mitt

dronningenamn/Ditt dronningenamn det kan jag väl få./Men aldrig skall du på gröna jorden gå./Å kära du min

syster du hjelp mig i land,/Däj vill jag gifva min lille fästeman/Din lille fästeman den tänker jag mig att få/Men

aldrig skall du på gröna jorden gå,” Jonsson et al., 103. 225 “Så kom der ett skepp från Engeland/Så drogo de sjömän det liket i land/Så togo de hennes skönt snöhvita

kropp/Och gjorde derutaf en spelestock./Sen togo de hennes fingrar så små/Och gjorde de skönsta låtpipor

utå/Sen togo de hennes det fagra guldhår,/Och gjorde spelsträngar, som ljufliga går/Så foro de dit som det

brölloppet stod/Begärde få spela på harpan så god” Jonsson et al., 108. 226 “första slaget på harpan ran/Min Syster hon hafver mit röda guldband/Och hör huru spelet säga kan/Det säger

Du har hennes röda guldband/…/fjerde slaget på Harpan ran/Min Syster tog från mig min Fästeman/Hör [Du]

hvad spelet säga kan/tungt är mit lif /Det säger du har hennes Fästeman/Våller mig den tunga” Jonsson et al., 99.

36

fires of hell.227 In version Ba, Da, and La, the younger sister informs the entire wedding of the

crime, but there is no clear resolution, and the older sister lives on.228 In versions E and J the older

sister is burned at the stake.229 In versions I and O, the guests break the harp, and out comes the

living younger sister.230

When examining the character’s actions in this ballad, we can see multiple sides to how the

female characters exercise agency. Firstly, like Jungfrun förvandlad till lind, the transformed female

character delegates action to her social network. We see a parallel to Jungfrun förvandlad till lind in

that when the character is transformed, she is immobile and physically reliant on others to restore

order. She is depicted as a passive object of delicate beauty: “Then they took her beautiful golden

hair/And made strings, like polished gold”.231 Like Jungfrun förvandlad till lind, her hybrid form is also

gendered, and she is rendered passive except for her ability to communicate with others. She

exercises agency through her social network, in order to bring justice. However, the way the

younger sister restores order is problematic. Ingrid Åkesson observes that “When the magical harp

tells the truth, it, however, becomes clear that no order has returned… the whole family structure

is exposed to collapse and chaos.”232 Åkesson states further that audiences can interpret the harp

as an “instrument… for justice or vengeance, for destruction or deconstruction.”233 Like the

werewolves, the younger sister breaks social norms and brings chaos at a wedding party, in order

to restore order. Furthermore, this “order” in some versions could become quite violent. In version

E the wedding party takes off the older sister’s clothes and throws her into a fire. 234 Like Junfrun

förvandlad till lind, the fiancé rescues the female character from her family. Fathers are seemingly

absent, though these women are still a part of his household, and they would be responsible for

their daughters’ safety. The fiancés take it upon themselves to intervene. In version J the fiancé

227 “Och tredje slag han på Harpan slog/…/Den Bruden allt uti sin Brudsäng dog” Jonsson et al., 98.; “Om

Sönda'n satt hon med gullkronan röd,/Om Måndan så låg hon i helfvets glöd.” Jonsson et al., 104.; I morgon

skall du ligga i helvetets glöd.” Jonsson et al., 109. 228 “Hör [Du] hvad spelet säga kan/…/Det säger du har hennes Fästeman” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida

ballader, 99.; “Det andra slaget på Gullharpan sang/…/Min Syster är förbannad” Jonsson et al., 102.; “Det tredje

taget de på harpan klang/…/Och brudgummen han var min fästeman” Jonsson et al., 110. 229 “De klädde af henne från tå och till topp,/…/Så brände de henne aldeles opp” Jonsson et al., Sveriges

medeltida ballader, 103.; “Brudgummen tar bruden i wenstra hand/…/Och kastar henne i röda eldbran” Jonsson

et al., 108.; Also, in version O, the older sister is rolled in barrels of spikes: “Den andra blef rullad i spiktunnor

5” Jonsson et al., 115. 230 “De togo den fiol och slogo mot en sten/strax rant opp en jungfru så fager och ren.” Jonsson et al., Sveriges

medeltida ballader, 107.; “De togo den harpan och slog mot en sten/Der rann upp en jungfru båd fager och fin”

Jonsson et al., 115. 231 “Sen togo de hennes det fagra guldhår,/Och gjorde spelsträngar, som ljufliga går” Jonsson et al., Sveriges

medeltida ballader, 108. 232 “När den magiska harpan berättar sanningen blir det emellertid tydligt att ingen ordning har återställts: inte

bara den äldre systern drabbas, utan hela familjestrukturen utsätts för sammanbrott och kaos.” Åkesson,

“Talande harpa och betvingande sång: Musicerande, makt och genus i några medeltidsballader,” 133. 233 “Harpan kan bokstavligen ses som ett instrument (sic!) för rättvisa eller hämnd, destruktion eller

dekonstruktion.” Åkesson, 134. 234 “De klädde af henne från tå och till topp,/…/Så brände de henne aldeles opp” Jonsson et al., Sveriges

medeltida ballader, 103.

37

himself throws the older sister in a fire.235 In version O, the older sister is rolled in five barrels of

spikes. 236 Sometimes order is seemingly completely restored in the end: in versions I and O, the

wedding party breaks the harp against a stone, and out springs the younger sister. The transformed

character in this ballad is mainly characterized by her beauty, innocence, and the injustice she faced.

Although she is depicted as delicate and passive, in some versions she can exercise agency through

her social network, bring chaos, and incite others to exact revenge on her behalf.

Femininity in this ballad is depicted as both passive, and capable of violence and deception. This

ballad is characterized by a stark contrast between the delicacy and beauty of the younger sister, as

human or harp, and the violence of the older sister. The older sister, after pushing her sister into

the river, makes no move to help her as she begs her for her life. This ballad complicates the image

of the passive female by introducing another image of femininity capable of both physical violence

and deception. There seems to be different archetypes of early modern femininity in this ballad,

which exercise agency differently. There is the passive, innocent, beautiful, and honest woman. She

tries to exercise agency through her social network. Then there is the actively violent, deceptive,

and devious woman. This woman strikes independently and hides her actions from others. In these

versions, the contrast of the younger sister to her violent older sister further exemplifies this image

of passive femininity as a positive means of exercising agency. Furthermore, this ballad depicts

women as capable of having violent or passive traits, though a violent woman can be punished or

not, depending on how the story is told.

De två systrarna also depicts the fallibility of man to the influences of women. The man of

independent action, galloping away to save his love, could just as likely need rescue himself. It was

widely held belief in the early modern period that a man had to choose his spouse carefully.237 Some

believed that an unruly or truculent wife could drive her husband to violence.238 In the case of De

två systrarna, the groom nearly marries a woman capable of murdering her own sister and lying about

it. In versions Ba, Da, and La although the guests hear the harp’s song, there is no clear resolution

to the situation, and the groom likely ends up in a marriage with a murderer. These versions also

serve as warnings against unwary men. And like Jungfrun förvandlad till lind, this ballad introduces the

idea that people who commit crimes may not always face the consequences. In some versions of

this story, the older sister’s malevolence, duplicity, and greed are even rewarded. When the fiancé

does realize his mistake of marrying the older sister, he is vocal about his shock. In version I, after

the harp becomes a woman again, the groom tells her: “I swear on almighty God,/that it was you

235 “Brudgummen tar bruden i wenstra hand/…/Och kastar henne i röda eldbran” Jonsson et al., 108. 236 “Den andra blef rullad i spiktunnor 5” Jonsson et al., 115. 237 Liliequist, “Changing Discourses of Marital Violence in Sweden from the Age of Reformation to the Late

Nineteenth Century,” 5–6. 238 Liliequist, 11.

38

I chose as my bride.”239 He was perhaps also trying to justify his awkward position, being found

hastily hopping from one woman to the next. In version E, after hearing the harp’s song, the fiancé

says to the older sister: “Having lost your sister so/Never will I in the marriage bed with you go”.240

The fiancé was only able to escape his fate by the younger sister revealing the truth. He was not

able to deduce the crimes on his own. We can see here that in late medieval and early modern

popular culture, women could be depicted as capable of taking advantage of others, especially men.

Even the younger sister was not completely innocent. She was willing to give her older sister her

fiancé, in exchange for saving her life.241 There is much that goes on between these women that

the groom is completely unaware of. The older sister is a clear warning that men must not marry

hastily, as perhaps the fiancé did in this ballad. Furthermore, women were capable of murder,

deception, and manipulation: just as women could be passive and docile like a harp or a tree, they

were likewise capable of great evil.

The constructions of power, agency, and physical violence in the ballads discussed in this section

are different between men and women, even though they all share similar outcomes. In these

examples, men utilize physical violence to exact revenge, even when it transgresses social codes.

This transgression is both justified and transgressive because these men are in a temporary state of

violence and monstrosity. These ballads do not depict a single image of masculinity and violence,

but rather a discussion of retaliating against authority and restoring order. The female victims in

these examples, while forced into a passive position, involve their social network to help them out

of a hybrid state. The involvement of male members of their social network often resulted in action

or even violence and was arguably part of these female characters’ strategy for restoring order.

While they could not restore order themselves, they utilized the power and authority of male

members of their social network. However, women were just as capable of violence as men were.

These women were depicted as having the potential to deceive others, to murder family members,

and transform others with magic. These women were not helpless or powerless, it was just better

in these ballads, that they did not use this power.

239 “Jag svär dig inför den alsvåldige Gud,/att du är den som jag valt till min brud.” Jonsson et al., Sveriges

medeltida ballader, 107. 240 “Å hafven I förlorat Er syster så,/Å aldrig vill jag i Brudsäng med Er gå,” Jonsson et al., 103. 241 “Å kära min Syster du hjelp mig i land!/Och Dig vill jag gifva min fästerman” Jonsson et al., 96.

39

Upending the Social Order, through Magic

Magic in real life was quite different from magic in the ballads: instances of harmful and beneficial

forms of magic were far more clear cut in the ballads than shifting legal discourse of the early

modern period.242 Magic in the ballads is very similar to how Richard Kieckhefer describes it in

medieval courtly romances.243 There is no clear line between religious powers and “natural” magic,

and often elements of these are swapped or substituted.244 The difference between natural or

demonic magic is very unclear, but there are generally indications through context.245 Magic

functions more as a symbolic plot element.246 The most important aspect of practicing magic in

these ballads is the intention of the character. Magic was not inherently evil in the transformation

ballads and was not always used as a marker of a character’s moral degradation. Keeping in mind

these ballads are fictional works and do not fully reflect legal opinions on magic, magic in these

stories represent a form of power. Magic is a form of power that is fickle, unforgiving, unstoppable,

and highly accessible. In Jungfrun i hindhamn, the stepmother turns her stepdaughter into a doe with

string and scissors.247 In Den förtrollade riddaren, the method the stepmother uses to rid herself of her

stepson gives him the ability to rid himself of her. Magic is depicted as a form of power over others

and the environment, which can also be overused, much like violence in Den förtrollade riddaren and

Förvandling och förlösning. However, in a few cases, this magic is also used for good. Like physical

violence, magic is a multisided form of negotiating power, which requires restraint.

While in these ballads magic could be used for good, the discussion of magic being used for

good in early modern discourse was slightly more controversial. A popular audience of late

medieval and early modern Sweden would have agreed that harming people through magic was not

acceptable.248 While the church had criticized what they deemed as inappropriate practices of the

common people throughout the sixteenth century, it was not until the end of the seventeenth

century that these authorities began more widely persecuting people for practicing superstition and

magic.249 During the early part of the sixteenth century, Swedish laws dictated that killing a person

with magic could warrant the death penalty, however, lesser injuries could bring fines proportionate

to the injury caused.250 These laws changed after the first half of the sixteenth century, and

242 Oja, Varken Gud eller natur. While ideological changes likely began in the early, early modern period, strict

laws against all forms of magic did not start to appear until after the first half of the seventeenth century. 243 Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, Cambridge Medieval Textbooks (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1990). 244 Kieckhefer, 108. 245 Kieckhefer, 112. 246 Kieckhefer, 108–9. 247 “Hennes Styfmoder togh fram Sax och lijn/Och skapte din Fästemö vti en hind.” Jonsson et al., Sveriges

medeltida ballader, 63. 248 Oja, Varken Gud eller natur, 285–86. 249 Oja, 24–25. 250 Oja, 95.

40

punishments for magic became harsher.251 A person could face the death penalty for harming

someone with magic, even if it did not result in death.252 By the seventeenth century, all kinds of

magic could be punished, even magic that did not harm others.253 Although punishments became

harsher, people were not always put to death for practicing magic. For instance, women more often

faced legal persecution for practicing witchcraft in the late medieval period, however, their

punishments showed “relative leniency”.254 While women were more often persecuted for

witchcraft and superstition, this did not mean men did not face persecution as well.255 The act of

practicing magic in itself had gradually become unacceptable in the eyes of the law and the church,

as opposed to mostly harmful magic. While laws and religious ideologies changed in the period that

these ballads were shaped, popular attitudes did not follow in all respects. In fact, while there was

already a divide between learned and popular beliefs during the sixteenth century, the Reformation

only drove these groups further apart.256 While popular and elite cultures generally agreed on the

dangers of malevolent magic, this was not the case with beneficial magic.257 Many people practicing

beneficial magic did not realize what they did was considered wrong.258

Taking a look at these ballads, we can assume that a popular audience would not have considered

all kinds of magic evil or connected to the devil. While they would likely agree that turning children

into wolves or trees were not forms of acceptable behavior, using magic to return people to human

form or to turn them into magic harps to bring justice, were not automatically transgressive

behaviors either. More importantly, the magic in these ballads present beliefs from a changing

ideological environment, but do not necessarily seek to contest or uphold these changes. It is rather

gender, power, and violence that define the use of magic in these ballads.

Because only women harm people with magic in the supernatural transformation ballads, this

section will examine the ways in which these ballads depict the relationship between femininity and

harmful magic, and the ways in which women negotiate power through magic. Linda Oja has

observed that violence through magic can be a feminine expression of violence.259 She claims that

because it was not accepted for women to commit physical violence in conflict, it was more

common for them to resort to verbal and magical violence.260 Like physical violence, magic was a

means of negotiating power for both men and women. However, women were more associated

251 Oja, 95–96. 252 Oja, 96. 253 Oja, 96. 254 Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages, 196–97. 255 Oja, Varken Gud eller natur, 39, 165; Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages, 197–98;

Toivo, “Male Witches and Masculinity in Early Modern Finnish Witchcraft Trials.” 256 Oja, Varken Gud eller natur, 30–32. 257 Oja, 285–86. 258 Oja, 285. 259 Linda Oja, “Kvinnligt, Manligt, Magiskt. Genusperspektiv På Folklig Magi i 1600- Och 1700-Talets

Sverige,” Kyrkohistorisk Årsskrift, 1994, 43–55. 260 Oja.

41

with magic as a means of negotiating violent power.261 This source of power is highly problematic

in the selected ballads. In these ballads, women who harm others through magic outline the

antithesis to acceptable female behavior, and the antithesis of order. Stephen Mitchell claims that

this antithesis of positive femininity, or the “evil woman”, was quite well-known in late medieval

Sweden and Denmark.262 Citing an example from late medieval Swedish court records, Mitchell

argues that the “evil woman” was depicted as a “disruptive force” in the community.263 To this

community, an “evil woman” was “contentious, outspoken, troublesome, and ‘uppity’”.264 During

the Danish witch trials the “evil woman”, who exhibited the antithesis of acceptable female

behavior, was a common character depicted in witch trials.265 Painting the accused as an “anti-

housewife” or “evil woman” became a means of illustrating guilt.266 In these trials, witches

“represented to their accusers a negative femininity closely related to the household and socially

acceptable behaviors for women in general”.267 The witch and evil woman were connected to order

within the household as well as within the community. It was not only in early modern courts

where this “evil woman” persisted. This character-type was well established in popular discourse

since the middle ages, through characters such as “Sko-Ella” or “Titta-Grå”.268 “Sko-Ella” or

“Shoe-Ella” was depicted as a woman the devil found to be so evil that even he feared her.269 She

would willingly “[sew] the seeds of discord between a man and his wife”—just for a pair of shoes.270

And like many of the women we see in these ballads, the tale of “Sko-Ella” was a warning against

immoral behavior, although she does not seem to face any consequences in the end.271 This

character-type was used as an exemplum on church murals as “but one misogynistic and

stereotypical view of women that permeated most arenas of public discourse in late medieval

261 Oja. 262 Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages, 176. 263 Mitchell, 177. 264 Mitchell, 178. 265 Louise Nyholm Kallestrup, “Women, Witches, and the Town Courts of Ribe: Ideas of the Gendered Witch in

Early Modern Denmark,” in Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, vol. 14 (London: Routledge,

2013), 121–36. 266 Kallestrup, 128. See also Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, 121. 267 Kallestrup, “Women, Witches, and the Town Courts of Ribe: Ideas of the Gendered Witch in Early Modern

Denmark,” 132. 268 Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages, 178. 269 Mitchell, 137. Mitchell claims this story, The Old Woman as Troublemaker, was of “postmedieval traditions”.

The story goes that the devil and Sko-Ella (Shoe-Ella) hatch a plan, intending to “stir up trouble between a

married couple”. At the success of this plan, the devil said he would give Sko-Ella a pair of shoes. Sko-Ella

successfully “stirs up trouble”, the result being a husband killing his wife. “The devil, given he believes Sko-Ella

is actually worse than he, fears giving her the reward and does so only at the end of a long pole.” Mitchell notes

that while this story is a warning against poor behavior, “in the story as we have it, Sko-Ella pays no price for

her actions.” 270 Mitchell, 178. 271 Mitchell, 137.

42

Europe”.272 The women we see practicing magic in the ballads are likewise another version of “Sko-

Ella”, willing to bring disorder to the community, family, as well as people’s own bodies.

As we have seen in De två systrarna, certain ballads define femininity through contrast. In this

ballad, there are two types of women: the passive and deferent younger sister, and the subversive

and violent older sister. In the case of Jungfrun i fågelhamn and Jungfrun förvandlad till lind this contrast

is highlighted through magic and violence against the female victims. In Jungfrun i fågelhamn, the

stepmother barges into the stepdaughter’s domestic space looking to bring her harm.273 She

disturbs the peace of the young woman’s home, overuses her power in the social hierarchy, and is

violent towards others. She is encoded as the “evil woman” by her willingness to bring disorder to

people’s households. The young woman, on the other hand, was going about her household

work.274 She did not seem to bring any provocation, nor did she fight back. The truculent

stepmother is contrasted with the industrious, peaceful young woman. The stepmother then

“…made me into a wild doe/and told me to go to the forest/And made all my maids into gray

wolves/Which I would run from daily”.275 The stepmother breaks the laws of God and nature by

turning humans into animals. The stepmother becomes a representation of disorder and violence

against the household, social hierarchy, and nature. And even in animal form, the young woman

remains peaceful, and is depicted as a beautiful animal, while the stepmother is described as an

“ugly hag”.276

Jungfrun förvandlad till lind also draws contrasts between the innocence of the female victim and

the evil of the stepmother. In version D, the stepmother sews complete disorder in the household

by transforming all her stepchildren into animals.277 This version also makes reference to an

inverted household, criticizing the father’s inability to control the stepmother’s behavior.278 The

stepmother not only subverts the image of “mother”, but also the image of “wife”. She inverts the

household hierarchy and brings tyranny over husband and family. In a sense, she embodies the

tyrannical husband that early modern discourse so criticized.279 The stepmother negotiates power

over the household through magic and violence. The young woman, on the other hand, suffers in

her position and relies on a young prince to save her. She is innocent, non-violent, patient, and

exercises agency through her social network. In Jungfrun förvandlad till lind, patience and passivity are

depicted as positive attributes. The stepdaughter is depicted as having deference to whatever young

272 Mitchell, 178–79. 273 “Jagh satt uti min eigen buhr/och lade däth Guldet i tille/Jhn då kom min Styffmoder/hon mig den skaden

wålde” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 35. 274 “Jagh satt uti min eigen buhr/och lade däth Guldet i tille” Jonsson et al., 35. 275 “Hoon skapte migh i en willande hind/och badh migh åth Skogen löpa/Och alle mina Möijer i Vlfwer

grå/Som Migh skulle dageligh föösa.” Jonsson et al., 35. 276 “Der inne spela dhe fägreste diur/Som kallas hiorten och hinden” Jonsson et al., 35. 277 “Och jag hade bröder båd stora och små/ Och somma skapad' hon i biörna och ulvarne grå” Jonsson et al., 88. 278 “Min fader han gaf mig i styf-moders våld” Jonsson et al., 88. 279 Liliequist, “Changing Discourses of Marital Violence in Sweden from the Age of Reformation to the Late

Nineteenth Century.”

43

man comes to save her, whereas the stepmother defers to no one. She rules over her household

with violence and uses magic to violate the social hierarchy and nature. She is therefore also, the

antithesis of positive femininity.

It is also important to point out the intersection of the depiction of the stepmother in Jungfrun i

fågelhamn as the “evil woman”, her status as an elite, and how this relates to the ways ordinary people

used elites to discuss issues of gender in the ballads. We can conclude that the family in this ballad

was elite because the unmarried stepdaughter had maids and her own home. Gwendolyn A.

Morgan argues that medieval English ballads are both depictions of elite values, but also an attack

against them.280 Jungfrun i fågelhamn seemingly fits into this argument. The elite stepmother in Jungfrun

i fågelhamn is jealous, vindictive, and evil. She uses her authority to oppress her family and becomes

a negative female stereotype of greed and evil, like “Sko-Ella”. However, these ballads also show

examples that do not align with this view. For example, the fiancé in Jungfrun förvandlad till lind

represents positive, controlled elite masculinity. He uses his elite authority to help the more

vulnerable but does not oppress others. It seems that popular audiences used elite figures to sketch

archetypes of masculinity and femininity, in a way that could both celebrate and criticize figures of

authority.

While Jungfrun förvandlad till lind and Jungfrun i fågelhamn depict the antithesis of positive

conceptions of late medieval and early modern womanhood, this does not mean all instances of

women using magic are negative. For example, in Förvandling och förlösning, a female character

performs beneficial magic by turning the children into humans again. This ballad uses the word

spåkvinna (mystic, wise-woman, witch). 281 This is unlike more derogatory terms such as den fuhla

Trollkiering (the ugly hag/witch) seen in Jungfrun i fågelhamn. 282 In De två systrarna, the younger sister

is able to use her magic powers as a harp to bring her sister to justice. This could also be a positive

depiction of women using the power of magic. In Lindormen, the young woman involves herself

with a magical creature, aware that having a snake as a fiancé, “would be a great shame”.283 While

the young woman does not practice magic herself, she involves herself with a magical creature and

is depicted as a positive force in the ballad. In a sense, she completed a magical ritual by marrying

the snake and helping restore him to human form. It is also worth noting that men could use magic

as a positive means of negotiating power in the selected ballads. In De två systrarna, a man built a

beautiful, functional harp out of a dead body. While this feat itself was magical, the song of the

harp could also have been depicted as magical. Ingrid Åkesson states that in the ballads, music and

musical instruments were often depicted as a magical power that could sit in both the human and

280 Gwendolyn A. Morgan, Medieval Balladry and the Courtly Tradition: Literature of Revolt and Assimulation,

vol. 160 (New York: P. Lang, 1993), 45. 281 Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 52. 282 Jonsson et al., 35. 283 “Det wore vål mig till en faselig stor skam/Om jag skulle [få en lindorm till fästeman.]” Jonsson et al., 77.

44

supernatural worlds.284 In this instance, magic becomes a positive power of change and brings

justice to the older sister. Additionally, in Jungfrun i fågelhamn, the young man feeds the hybrid hawk-

woman a piece of his flesh, which restores her to human form. Blood was widely known for its

potent mystical and medicinal properties, and it is likely that the young man in this ballad was using

a magical ritual to restore the young woman.285 In this instance, magic is again a positive force. In

the ballads, magic was not a force exclusive to femininity or masculinity, nor was it a force exclusive

to good or evil. Like physical violence, magic was an expression of power. It was a means of both

restoring order or causing disorder. While women could use the power of magic to become a tyrant

over her household, women were also capable of using these magical powers for good. Having

control over these magical powers and not using for evil seems to be what divides “wise-women”

from “ugly hags”.

In these ballads, while women are depicted as capable of taking over their entire household, this

is an inversion of the idealized, male-headed early modern household. The women who negotiate

power through harmful magic in these ballads are disruptive, violent, and subversive. They are

representations of negative femininity and share characteristics with popular medieval and early

modern stereotypes such as “Sko-Ella”. Furthermore, they sew disorder within their own families.

Their victims, on the other hand, are submissive, passive, and innocent. These victims rely on male

characters to rescue them and exercise agency within the existing social hierarchy. They represent

one ideal of feminine behavior. Magic in these ballads is depicted as a dangerous form of power

that can upend the early modern household. It is a power that women are depicted as capable of

conjuring, though the reversibility of transformation magic in many of these stories proves that

women were not always capable of controlling it. But when women have control over their magical

powers and do not use it in a way that violates social norms, it is not depicted as subversive. It is

clear in these ballads that women could exercise agency and even wield power, however, like men

and violence, they had to use this power within reason. The use of magic in these ballads further

illustrates the ways in which women can exercise agency, though people were concerned with what

realms they exercised agency in. When it came to the household hierarchy, it was not a positive

place for women to use too much power. However, when it came to restoring and upholding order,

this magic was a positive force.

284 Åkesson, “Talande harpa och betvingande sång: Musicerande, makt och genus i några medeltidsballader,”

142. 285 Richard Sugg, Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to

the Victorians (Routledge, 2015), 17–32; Östling, Blåkulla, Magi Och Trolldomsprocesser, 70.

45

Violence by Accident or by a Stranger

This section includes stories of female victims of male violence, committed either without the

intention of violence against a certain person, or with sadistic intention. These ballads depict

positive expressions of masculinity as both expressing restraint and exhibiting emotional

vulnerability. When male characters in these ballads do not practice restraint, women die. When

they realize their mistakes, they express grief. Expressing emotions could be an example of lack of

restraint or weakness, and early modern thinkers more often associated this weakness with

women.286 However, emotional vulnerability is present both in ballads where restraint is part of the

discussion, and when it is not. I will therefore argue that these ballads depict emotional vulnerability

as a means of negotiating gender. While the violence men commit are more central to these stories,

their despair and vulnerability are also quite important. The supernatural transformation ballads

present men as capable of gruesome, senseless violence, but they are also presented as protectors,

capable of restraint. These ballads also present late medieval and early modern masculinity as

vulnerable, both physically and emotionally. The violence in Varulven, Jungfrun i hindhamn, and

Jungfrun i fågelhamn adds layers to the depiction of masculinity in this selection, depictions which are

quite different from some of the earlier discussed ballads.

Restraint, Desire, and Positive Masculinity

Part of late medieval constructions of masculinity and becoming a man was growing out of “the

impulsivity of childhood and youth”.287 Part of overcoming this impulsivity was maintaining self-

control and modesty, especially when managing household members and household resources.288

Sari Katajala-Peltomaa states that “the most important part” of building the masculine identity of

a father and head of household in Swedish late medieval canonization literature, was not

“distinction from women” but rather “distinction from immature boys”.289 This theme is also

present in the ballad materials. In the supernatural transformation ballads, the distinction between

expressions of positive or negative masculinity, especially in terms of violence, is the ability of self-

control and restraint. Most men in the supernatural transformation ballads are capable of physical

violence, but restraint is key when expressing this violence positively. Jungfrun i hindhamn and Jungfrun

286 Claes Ekenstam, “Rädd att falla: gråtens och mansbildens sammanflätade historia,” in Manligt och omanligt i

ett historiskt perspektiv, Rapport - Forskningsrådsnämnden, 99:4 (Stockholm: Forskningsrådsnämnden, 1999),

162–63. 287 Valerie L. Garver, “The Influence of Monastic Ideals upon Carolingian Conceptions of Childhood” (Berlin,

Boston: De Gruyter, 2005); Sari Katajala-Peltomaa, “Fatherhood, Masculinity and Lived Religion in Late-

Medieval Sweden,” Scandinavian Journal of History 38, no. 2 (2013): 230. 288 Katherine J. Lewis, “Male Saints and Devotional Masculinity in Late Medieval England,” Gender & History

24, no. 1 (2012): 112–33; Katajala-Peltomaa, “Fatherhood, Masculinity and Lived Religion in Late-Medieval

Sweden,” 224. 289 Katajala-Peltomaa, “Fatherhood, Masculinity and Lived Religion in Late-Medieval Sweden,” 224.

46

i fågelhamn discuss restraint and violence in the context of desire. In Jungfrun i hindhamn, a male

character is not able to restrain his desire to obtain a goal, which required violent means, and harms

someone close to him. In Jungfrun i fågelhamn the male character can restrain himself and is thus

rewarded with marriage. The restraint of violent power is what separates these two stories and

defines expressions of positive and negative masculinity.

Accidental violence is present in Jungfrun i hindhamn and to some extent in Jungfrun i fågelhamn.

Both these ballads begin with a man going out on a hunt. In Jungfrun i hindhamn, the main character’s

mother warns him that he can hunt any animal except for the doe.290 In version B, his mother

explains that his fiancée’s stepmother turned his fiancée into a doe.291 In version A, the main

character gets carried away and ends up killing the doe. After it is dead, he skins it and discovers

that he has killed his sister.292 This version is quite vague about his fate but implies that he never

knew joy again. 293 In version B, though he was warned, the man still shoots the doe. Thereafter,

he recalls his mother’s warning. Realizing he killed his own fiancée; he takes his own life. 294

Jungfrun i fågelhamn has a similar beginning to Jungfrun i hindhamn. A knight is hunting in a meadow

and encounters a doe which he could not resist pursuing.295 Just as his arrow is about to meet its

target, the “ugly hag”, fearing the knight will kill the doe, turns it into a hawk.296 As the knight

gathers his bearings, a local peasant approaches him.297 The peasant says that in order to get the

hawk, the knight should feed it a piece of his own flesh.298 Once the hawk eats this flesh, it turns

into a woman.299 The woman then explains that her stepmother barged into her cottage and turned

290 “Skiuter tu diur och skiuter tu råå/then salige hindenn lätt tu gå,” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader,

63. 291 “Du skiuth hiorter och du skiuth hara/Men lätt den fagra hinden fara./Hennes Styfmoder togh fram Sax och

lijn/Och skapte din Fästemö Vti en hind.” Jonsson et al., 63. 292 “Ther speler enn hindh altt för hans hwndh/Suennen hann sinn båge bendhe,/Swennenn hann sin båga

bende/the hwasse strålenn hann vtthsendhe,/The hwasse strålenn som hann skött/thenn salige hindenn skadann

nötth,” Jonsson et al., 63. 293 “Ther faller rijm altt vtth medh åå,/sell är thenn Swenn godh lycke kan få,/…/säll är thenn suenn olycko kann

fly,” Jonsson et al., 63. 294 “Herr Peder spände Bougen emot sin Footh/…/Och skiuter sigh sielff i hierterooth.” Jonsson et al., 64. 295 “Där inne spela twå lustige diur/som Man kaller hiorten och hinden/Där effter gåer Herr Nilss lagesson/han

achter den hinden at winna” Jonsson et al., 35. 296 “Där af låtte han snaror giöra,/och mente den hinden at binda./Skam få den fuhla Trollkiering/hon räddes för

vngerswens liste/Hoon skapte henne i en willande höök” Jonsson et al., 35. 297 “Där då komme dhe bönder fram/som Skogen tilhörde medh rätta/Men höör du Herr Nilss Lagesson/Wij

willje [seija] tigh Rådh/Huru du skall den höken fåå/giff honom en blodig bråå.” Jonsson et al., 35. 298 James Moreira, “‘His Hawk, His Hound, and Lady Fair’ Social Symbols and Ballad Metaphors,” in Ballads

of the North, Medieval to Modern (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2019), 123–37. James Moreira

brings up some interesting points about the use of hunting birds in the English ballads. He points out that

falconers required self-control. In a manuscript on the art of falconry, he points that qualities of value are: “an

appreciation of the esthetic as well as the practical principles of sport hunting, a propensity for self-evaluation

and criticism, resourcefulness, courage, maturity, patience, and diligence”. And a most telling quote from the

manuscript states: “He should not be too young, as his youth may tempt him to break the rules governing his

art.”, echoing the warnings in these ballads. 299 “Höken togh den blödande bråå/och satte sigh på en tufwa/När han hade ätit den bråden vp/War han stoltz

Jungfruga.” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 35.

47

her into a doe. Her stepmother had told her she would spend her days running from wolves in the

forest.300 After she tells her story, the young knight and the woman get married and fall in love.301

The core discussions of Jungfrun i hindhamn and Jungfrun i fågelhamn are the value of restraint even

when facing a tempting reward, and the potential dangers of giving in to desires. These ballads

negotiate masculine power by illustrating one of its greatest failures: the inability to control

violence. Both these ballads describe men hunting a desirable creature. The “beautiful” doe

“frolics” about.302 The male character in Jungfrun i fågelhamn experiences desire for this creature

frolicking before him, however, he stops when the peasant warns him. Heeding his words, the

knight is rewarded by restoring order and bringing the woman back to her human form. His reward

for restraint is love and marriage. In this way, Jungfrun i fågelhamn establishes that positive masculinity

can be expressed through violence and desire, so long as the man has this violence and desire under

control. It is also interesting to note the intersection of the depiction of masculinity in this ballad

with the male character’s position as an elite. The knight’s willingness to listen to the local peasant,

a subordinate, depicts him as a figure of authority with humility. In these ballads, a positive

expression of elite masculinity was not only exercising authority over others but also acknowledging

the limitations of one’s own knowledge and experience. This is similar to Jungfrun i hindhamn. While

the mother likely did not have authority over her adult son, her word of warning proved far wiser

than the man’s actions. In these ballads, even if men had higher authority, they did not necessarily

have more knowledge or experiences than their subordinates. Jungfrun i fågelhamn negotiates

masculine power through establishing a balance between violence, desire, and humility. He takes

the role of humble elite by listening to those with more knowledge than him, he takes the role of

protector and saves the woman, but it is also clear he can take the role of violent hunter and go

after his desires as well.

While the male character practices restraint and rescues the transformed woman in Jungfrun i

fågelhamn, this is not the case in Jungfrun i hindhamn. The picture of an enticing creature is strongest

in Jungfrun i hindhamn, where the doe “so pleasantly frolicked before him”.303 As the doe frolics

about, as if teasing the young man, the fiancé, or in the other version the brother, immediately

readies his bow. In version B, the ballad continues in a dramatic back and forth until the fiancé sets

300 “Jagh satt uti min eigen buhr/och lade däth Guldet i tille/Jhn då kom min Styffmoder/…/Hoon skapte migh i

en willande hind/och badh migh åth Skogen Iöpa/Och alle mina Möijer i Vlfwer grå/Som Migh skulle dageligh

föösa.” Jonsson et al., 35. 301 “Så toge dhe hwar andre i fambn/Medh begges deras godhe willje/Den år icke född eller födas kan/Som oss

både skall åthskillja” Jonsson et al., 35. 302 “Där inne spela twå lustige diur” Jonsson et al., 35.; “ther speller enn hindh altt för hans hundh” Jonsson et

al., 63. 303 “Så lustelig spehlte för honom den hind.” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 64.

48

his bow to shoot “his own fiancé in the head”.304 The way the young man is drawn to the creature

and immediately acts out violently against it draws parallels to transgressive desire. The young man,

in version B at least, seems to have so little restraint that he desires even an animal.305 This overlap

of desirability, beauty, and violence coincides with the werewolf Varulven. In certain Swedish folk

beliefs, the varulv or “werewolf” was the figure of complete depravity and evil.306 The werewolf

corners the girl and says to her: “But never so beautiful a woman have I found” as the woman begs

for her life.307 His desire for her, an animal’s desire for a human, is depicted as perverse, inhuman,

insatiable, and violent. Despite her offers of gold and oxen, the werewolf cannot resist the

temptation of a young, beautiful woman.308 He not only devours her but leaves her clothes strewn

about the forest.309 However, unlike the werewolf in Varulven, the male character in Jungfrun i

hindhamn must face the consequences of his careless actions.

Jungfrun i hindhamn and Jungfrun i fågelhamn negotiate masculine power through the acceptance of

its failures, as well as through the acknowledgment of the consequences of these failures. Jungfrun i

hindhamn seems to imply that the consequences of men not controlling their desires results in the

death of their loved ones, especially women. James Moreia, in a study of the English ballads, points

out that “Classical ballads inevitably draw on the conventional associations of hunt symbols and

the human characteristics they embody: strength, grace, discipline, masculinity, and most

importantly control.”310 These two ballads present opposite ends of these desired traits. The

impossible yet beautiful hybrid brings the test of these traits, and only those who can control

themselves can restore order. Uncontrolled violence is depicted in this ballad as a grave failure of

the late medieval and early modern man. The male character had no intention of committing

murder, but because he did not listen to other’s warnings, control his violence, and rein in his

desire, he brought the demise of his loved one. The consequences of not heeding authority, and

giving in to desire, results in innocent people’s death—innocent women’s death. While the men in

these ballads are capable of positive forms of violence, these ballads warn that this same form of

violence could just as easily turn against them.

304 “Herr Peder lade Bogen för sit bröst/Den hinden skiulte sigh för en qwist./Herr Peder lade Bougen för sit

låhr/Den hinden skiulte sigh för en lågh/Herr Peder lade Bogen mot sin foth/Den hinden skiulte sig för en

roth./Herr Peder lade Bougen emoth sit knä/Skiöth så sin eigen fästemöö ihiehl.” Jonsson et al., 64. 305 Whether or not version A implies incest, would be difficult to say without further research. A discussion of

forbidden desire, transgression, and bestiality would also be interesting. However, it could be that version B is a

warning to young men who wish to “shoot their bow” before the marriage bed. 306 Odstedt, Varulven i svensk folktradition, 106. 307 “Men alldrig så skön jungfru jag fann.” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 41. 308 “Ack kåra du min ulf du biter inte mej/ Den rödaste guldkrona, den vill jag gifva dej/Din rödaste guldkrona

jag aktar inte på/För jag tager väl sköna jungfrun ändå/ Ack kära du min ulf du biter inte mej/Min oxar och min

kor dem vill jag gifva dej/Din oxar och din kor jag aktar inte på/För jag tager väl sköna Jungfrun ändå.” Jonsson

et al., 44. 309 The removal of clothing in an act of violence occurs in Förvandling och förlösning and De två systrarna, but

in the context of punishing depraved women. 310 Moreira, “‘His Hawk, His Hound, and Lady Fair’ Social Symbols and Ballad Metaphors,” 126.

49

Emotional Vulnerability and Masculinity

Claes Ekenstam argues that while during the medieval period expressing emotion such as crying

was accepted within limits, the renaissance saw stronger criticism towards most male expressions

of emotion.311 Women and children, as part of their weaker natures, were more associated with

strong expressions of emotion.312 However, these beliefs were not held universally, and for some,

it was accepted to cry over, for example, close relationships.313 Just as male aggression and violence

were a part of masculinity in the supernatural transformation ballads, emotional vulnerability,

including strong expressions of sadness, grief, and guilt, are also a part of masculinity. Jungfrun i

hindhamn and Varulven both contain themes of male emotional vulnerability. In both ballads the

male characters are closely tied to the female characters in the story. These female characters die

as a result of violence. These ballads depict the failures of masculinity, and the emotional

vulnerability these men then face. While the death of the women in these ballads is depicted as the

men’s fault, their emotional vulnerability is not depicted as a negative expression of masculinity. It

is rather only a part of masculine expression as depicted in these ballads. It is both a part of early

modern masculinity to be responsible for women’s safety, but also to acknowledge failure to do so

through emotion.

The first ballad discussed in this section is Varulven, one of the most violent ballads in this

selection. In Varulven a girl ventures into the forest and meets a werewolf.314 She pleads with it to

let her pass, but the wolf refuses.315 She climbs up a tree and screams. Her fiancé hears her cries

and races to her aid, but too late. He encounters the wolf as it devours his fiancé and their unborn

child.316 The ending of this ballad differs depending on the version. In version A, the fiancé laments

his fate to God.317 In version Ca, the morning after the attack there are three dead at the husband’s

house: the husband, his wife, and their child. It is unclear if the wolf killed the husband as well, or

how they returned to his home.318 In version E there are only two dead at his house. At their grave

311 Ekenstam, “Rädd att falla: gråtens och mansbildens sammanflätade historia,” 162–63. 312 Ekenstam, 162–63. 313 Ekenstam, 164–65. 314 “Och Jungfrun hon gångar sig åt rosendelund/…/Der möter hon en ulf i samma stund” Jonsson et al., Sveriges

medeltida ballader, 44. 315 “Ack kära du min ulf du biter inte mej/Den rödaste guldkrona, den vill jag gifva dej/Din rödaste guldkrona

jag aktar inte på/För jag tager väl sköna jungfrun ändå/Ack kära du min ulf du biter inte mej/Min oxar och min

kor dem vill jag gifva dej/Din oxar och din kor jag aktar inte på/För jag tager väl sköna Jungfrun ändå.” Jonsson

et al., 44. 316 “Jungfrun sprang opp i det högaste träd:/…/Jungfrun gaf opp ett sånt hiskeligt rop/Så att det hördes till Herr

Peders borg./…/Herr Peder han sadlade sin gångare grå/Han red litet fortare än lilla foglen flög./…/ Då möter

han Ulfven med fostret i mun.” Jonsson et al., 44. 317 “Gud trösta Gud bättra mig ungersven/…/Min jungfru är borta min häst är för ränd” Jonsson et al., 39. 318 “När det blef dager och dager blef ljus/Då var det 3 lik i Herr Peders hus./Det ena var Herr Peder, det andra

var hans mö/…/Det tredje det fostret som Ulfven ref till döds.” Jonsson et al., 41.

50

grow two Linden trees, locked in an embrace.319 Version D most clearly blames the woman’s death

on the fiancé. After she begs him to let her inside, and he refuses, a wolf eats her. When her

husband goes out to rescue her, he finds a tongue on the ground, which curses him to hell.320 The

husband rides to his father’s home, lays in bed, and tells them to call the priest and ready a bier.

Like in Jungfrun i hindhamn, Varulven features men who face complete despair as a result of their

loved ones’ death. In version A of Jungfrun i hindhamn, the male character feels no joy again. In

version B, the fiancé graphically ends his own life after discovering he killed his own fiancée. In

Varulven, it is not clear if it is the wolf that killed the fiancé, or if he killed himself. It is only clear

in version D, when he lays down on his bed, to die of despair: “Oh dear mother, make my bed/Oh

dear father, help me lay my head/Oh dear sister curl my hair/Oh dear brother, prepare my bier.”321

Emotional despair leading to death or suicide were complex subjects during the late medieval and

early modern periods, thus even in a fictional song, someone taking their own life was likely a

powerful image of despair. Men committing suicide through violent means was a reality of early

modern society.322 Furthermore, a man’s “failure to maintain the economic and social welfare of

the household” was discussed as circumstances contributing to his suicide in court proceedings.323

In this sense, men took a great deal of responsibility for the welfare of others in their care, to the

point where their community described their inability to do so as a circumstance of their suicide.

In the early modern period, women were largely believed to be more vulnerable to emotional

distress and mental illness that could lead to suicide. 324 However, these ballads depict images of

men who can face this kind of emotional turmoil as well. Even in other ballads in this selection,

this emotional vulnerability can be interpreted as a means of negotiating gender. In version F of

Jungfrun förvandlad till lind the fiancé cries when he finds out his loved one was transformed into a

tree.325 Tears, emotion, and despair, though associated with feminine “weakness”, were also

important expressions of being human.326 In these ballads, emotional vulnerability is an important

aspect of acknowledging failure, expressing guilt, and defining early modern masculinity.

319 “Så war det twå lik uti Herr Päders hus./De lade de liken' allt uti en graf/…/Det vexte opp en lind uppå deras

graf/…/Det ena bladet tager det andra i sin famn” Jonsson et al., 44. 320 “Kära Herr Peder ni släppen mig in/Det regnar så svåra på skarlakan kind/…/Liten Cherstin hon gångar till

ulvaskog öde/…/Der möter hon sig en ulf så stor./…/Herr Peder han rider åt ulfvaskogen ut/…/Så rider han sig

ett stycke längre fram/Så fick han se hennes tungoband/Hör du tungband hvad jag säger dig/Hvad dom fäller du

öfver mig i dag/I helfvete har jag beredt din dom/I helfvete har jag beredt ditt namn” I would also like to note

that in this ballad, the man tells his father to help him mount his horse. (Han bad till Fader: j lyften mig uppå)

Jonsson et al., 43. 321 “Och kära min moder ni bädda min säng/Och kära min Fader min hjelp mig i den/Och kära min Syster ni

krusa mitt hår/…/Och kära min broder gör reda på min bår/…/” Jonsson et al., 44. 322 Riikka Miettinen, “Gendered Suicide in Early Modern Sweden and Finland,” in Gender in Late Medieval and

Early Modern Europe, vol. 14 (London: Routledge, 2013), 173–90. 323 Miettinen, 182. 324 Miettinen, 182. 325 “Han läste deri; Hans ögon de rann” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 90. 326 Ekenstam, “Rädd att falla: gråtens och mansbildens sammanflätade historia,” 164–65; Liliequist, “Changing

Discourses of Marital Violence in Sweden from the Age of Reformation to the Late Nineteenth Century,” 3;

Miettinen, “Gendered Suicide in Early Modern Sweden and Finland,” 182.

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While in both stories the male characters played no role in transforming someone magically,

these ballads seem to imply they were partially responsible for the victims’ death. In Jungfrun i

hindhamn for his lack of self-control, and in Varulven for failing to protect his fiancé from danger.

These ballads highlight the vulnerability of masculine power: both of their inability to surmount

the threat of harmful magic and monsters, and their despair at this. While emotional vulnerability

can be accepted as part of early modern manhood, as in Jungfrun förvandlad till lind, it can also be an

expression of guilt and failure. It can be a human response to failing masculine roles, the

consequences of which resulted in the death of loved ones. It is important to note that while the

men in these ballads seem capable of physical violence, their emotional vulnerability and ability to

protect their loved ones are also important traits. Their grief and vulnerability display a more

compassionate figure and depict them as human figures despite their grave mistakes. It was

important for men in these stories to practice restraint, but they were also depicted as vulnerable

beings, capable of failure. These ballads negotiate masculinity through violence, failure,

expectations, and vulnerability. The man of independent action and violence is also the man of

failure and emotional vulnerability.

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Relationships, Responsibility, and Guardianship

Raisa Maria Toivo states that in early modern Sweden and Finland, in order for authority to be

considered legitimate, people had to exercise power and this power had to be accepted.327 Excessive

use of power was not accepted and thus not considered legitimate.328 Late medieval hierarchies and

early modern hierarchies were based on pairs.329 Those lower in the pair were expected to respect

their place, and those higher in the hierarchy were expected to exercise their power. However,

society mandated that this power was practiced in balance. Those higher in the hierarchy would

exercise their power within reason, and those lower would accept this power. This relationship of

power and acceptance was built in pairs, each person filling a role in the pair. Husband-Wife,

Parent-Child, Master-Servant. People both filled roles and were expected to use the authority from

these roles justly.330

This model can be applied to studying conflict and relationships in the ballads and can help

reveal how the ballads depict gender in social roles and power structures. The ballads are

intertwined with positions of social hierarchy, and the differing levels of authority people had. The

roles present in the ballads are often gendered: mother, fiancée, father, fiancé. Conflicts often occur

because of misuse of power against someone of lower authority, rejection of higher authority

because of misuse of power, or both. By examining these conflicts in pairs, misuse of power in the

household hierarchy becomes more evident. Mothers attack children, children murder parents, and

women runaway and disobey their family to marry a snake. These misuses of power tell us how

gendered roles were expected to be filled, or how people failed to fill them.

This section analyzes how people fail to fulfill their roles in the ballads, and how the ballads

define this failure. These failures often do not have a single definition, or a clear-cut resolution.

These ballads instead present overall concerns that people may have had in society, and the

gendered way these roles were expected to be fulfilled. The most common roles discussed are

mother and male guardian. The mothers in this section fail their role by harming their children,

whereas the men discussed fail to protect their female loved ones. Mothers that have failed their

role are depicted as evil and are punished. When male guardians fail, they are depicted as pitiful

and remorseful, but there are some cases where they are admonished for their failure.

In the early modern household, the husband was considered the head, and all others subordinate

to him. His wife was his partner in running the household, but still his subordinate.331 In agrarian

households this power dynamic may have been different than urban households, because the wife

327 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, 160–61. 328 Toivo, 160–61. 329 Toivo, 160–61. 330 Toivo, 161. 331 Toivo, 121.

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was expected to take over her husband’s duties of managing the farm while he was away.332

Women’s authority and influence was thought to largely involve the domestic sphere, though

managing the household and children was collaborated and negotiated between husband and

wife.333 The male head of the household was also legal representative of the whole household: his

wife, children, servants, and other dependents.334 Married and unmarried women could not

represent themselves or bring cases to court without their husband’s authority, though women still

utilized the courts as a means of negotiating power in their community.335 Widows, however, did

have legal autonomy.336 People fulfilling their social roles, including their roles in the household,

was very important to early modern society. Inger Lövkrona states that people’s roles in pre-

industrial society were often defined by their productive role in the family.337 Like Toivo, Lövkrona

sees these roles as both self-identifying and defined in relation to a role’s counterpart.338 The ballads

depicted people’s responsibilities in these roles, as well as how they failed to fulfill them.

Mothers and Children

The ballads that depict mothers failing their roles are Den förtrollade riddaren, Förvandling och förlösning,

Jungfrun i fågelhamn, Jungfrun i hindhamn, Jungfrun förvandlad till lind. All these ballads except Förvandling

och förlösning feature stepmothers who use magic to change their child into a different body. As

discussed previously, the stepmothers who changed their children into animals or objects are

presented as images of the “evil-woman”. These stepmothers not only fail in their social roles as

wife and mother figure, but they also represent the antithesis of positive femininity in late medieval

and early modern society. They do the opposite of their nurturing natures.339 Furthermore, these

ballads characterize women’s failures in relation to their children and husband. Their failure to

submit to their husband, failure to control their jealousy of their children, and failure to not harm

their children. However, this depiction of women’s failures is not universal. Förvandling och förlösning

brings a different image to this kind of failure.

The mothers in Förvandling och förlösning fail their roles as mothers by attempting to conceal their

births and neglecting their children. The failure of neglect is clearly stated at the beginning of the

332 Toivo, 103. 333 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society; Linda Oja, “Childcare and Gender in Sweden c.

1600–1800,” Gender & History 27, no. 1 (2015): 77–111. 334 Hedenborg, Hedenborg, and Kvarnström, Det svenska samhället 1720—2018, 38–40; Ekholst, A Punishment

for Each Criminal: Gender and Crime in Swedish Medieval Law, 23–25; Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early

Modern Society, 138–39. 335 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society. 336 Toivo, 24–26. 337 Lövkrona, “Hierarki och makt: den förmoderna familjen som genusrelation,” 21–22. 338 Lövkrona, 22. 339 Toivo, “Violence between Parents and Children,” 339.

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ballad: upon the children’s return, they greet the mothers by saying, “Are you not our mother who

did not give us life/…/Are you not our mother that did not give us food/…/Are you not our

mother that did not give us drink”. 340 For this failure, the women face one of the most gruesome

punishments in this selection of ballads. The animals tear apart the women’s clothes, skin them,

and eat them. The ballad then cryptically states “They likely did more”.341 However, these mothers

are depicted as complex figures in a difficult situation. Firstly, it is important to note the women’s

social status. They had no servants to bake their bread, and they likely lived together despite both

being old enough to have children. This ballad could have been implicitly pointing to economic

motivations for their actions. The poor mothers could not afford to take care of their children, so

they allowed them to fend for themselves as animals. They did not murder the children outright.

They did not seemingly have motivations to harm the children, as we have seen evil stepmothers

do. The mothers seemingly could not bear the social burden of having children publicly, so chose

to allow them to become animals. While these circumstances could create sympathy for the

mothers, their actions are ultimately punished. Furthermore, this ballad seems to imply that

responsibility for the children lies fully on the mothers. The women were punished for attempting

to conceal their children and the shame of having children outside of marriage, but the fathers are

not criticized for their actions. The mothers in this ballad failed their duties by not providing for

their children, a punishment and shame these mothers faced alone. This ballad depicts the mothers

in a way that makes them neither fully sympathetic nor unsympathetic characters. Aspects of this

ballad such as the harsh punishment, the mothers’ social status, and the absent fathers seem to

point to a more complex depiction of motherhood and childbearing in late medieval and early

modern popular culture. Childbearing was something women bore independently but was also a

source of shame she might seek to hide. This ballad, while depicting these women’s actions as

wrong, also considers the burden women faced when tasked with raising and bearing children

alone.

These ballads depict mothers and stepmothers who fail their roles as cruel, evil, and a danger to

society. By inverting their roles, they threaten the very structure of the household, and in turn, the

structure of society. Though they are not punished in every ballad, the punishments they receive

are often gruesome. These selected ballads seem to have a preoccupation with women mistreating

the children they were charged to care for. But Förvandling och förlösning presents this preoccupation

in a way that is less clear-cut than the other ballads. While this ballad depicts what the women did

as wrong, certain aspects of this ballad complicate their role as mothers. This ballad depicts

childbearing and birth as processes fully within the maternal sphere, and as burdens they faced

alone. From the selected ballads, we can see that women’s social roles, and their failure to fulfill

340 “Är icke du vår moder som icke gaf oss lif/…/Är icke du vår moder som icke gaf oss mat/…/Är icke du vår

moder som icke gaf oss dryck/…/” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 52. 341 “Ja de gjorde väl mer” Jonsson et al., 52.

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them, were more closely tied to their relationship with their children than fathers’ roles were. While

caring for children was not an exclusively female role, some of these ballads seem to emphasize

women’s failure in their role as a mother.

Male Guardians

The stories that involve the responsibility of a male guardian are Jungfrun förvandlad till lind, Varulven,

Jungfrun i hindhamn, and Lindormen. These ballads discuss the failure of fiancés, fathers, and brothers

as their role as protectors of the women in their lives. While fathers fail at their role in these ballads,

they fail differently than mothers. Instead of taking a direct role in caring for their children, they

are criticized for failing to regulate how their wives care for their children. These ballads also depict

male guardians in positions requiring them to protect a female character in the ballad, sometimes

from their own families, and the fallout of failing to protect these relatives.

A few ballads in this selection depict father figures through how they have failed their roles, by

failing to regulate the behavior of their wife. Both Jungfrun förvandlad till lind and Den förtrollade riddaren

mention this lack of control over their household. In version D of Jungfrun förvandlad till lind the

stepdaughter states: “I was so small when I lost my mother/My father left me to my stepmother’s

rule”.342 She then describes how she had “brothers both big and small” which her stepmother

turned into wolves and bears.343 Her father had not only delivered her fate, but also the fate of her

siblings. The female character does not view the stepmother’s actions as independent, but her

father was also partially to blame. It was not just the mother’s responsibility to care for the

children—it was also up to the father to ensure the children were safe. This theme is also present

in version I of Jungfrun förvandlad till lind. When the young woman asks the stepdaughter how she

became a tree, she replies: “My father he got me a stepmother so wicked”.344 In this version, the

young woman clearly blames her father for marrying such an evil woman, as opposed to completely

blaming the stepmother. Furthermore, the fiancé rescues the stepdaughter, as opposed to the father

taking any action. The father’s failure was so grave that an outside force had to intervene. Having

these evil stepmothers in the family and failing to control them echoes the warnings of De två

systrarna and the idea that men should choose their spouses carefully.

The father likewise failed in Den förtrollade riddaren. In version A the son states: “My father travels

so widely around/So evil a stepmother he had found.”345 In these ballads, fathers seem to be

responsible for choosing a responsible spouse as well as ensuring their spouse treats their children

properly. This may seem like common sense, but this shows two important ideas that scholars have

342 “Jag var mig så liten jag miste min moder/Min fader han gaf mig i styf-moders våld” Jonsson et al., 88. 343 “Och jag hade bröder båd stora och små/Och somma skapad' hon i biörna och ulvarne grå” Jonsson et al., 88. 344 “Min fader han skaffa mig en stjufmor så led” Jonsson et al., 93. 345 “Min fader han drager så wijdt om land/Så ond en Styfmoder han på fann.” Jonsson et al., 37.

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found when researching hierarchies in late medieval and early modern families. The father, as the

male head of household, was expected to regulate the behavior in his household.346 This applied

especially to controlling his wife’s behavior.347 According to a seventeenth-century sermon, there

was no greater shame than a husband being dominated by his wife: “[it is a husband’s] greatest

humiliation and shame, if he allowed himself to be subdued, ruled and criticised by a woman”.348

In these ballads, an inability for a father to control how his wife treats his children was considered

his failure. Furthermore, while the father is blamed in these ballads, he takes no part in restoring

order. In the case of Jungfrun förvandland till Lind, her fiancé is the only person who can save her. In

some versions, the fiancé confronts the stepmother on the stepdaughter’s behalf, but the father

never involved himself in the conflict. His inability to handle the conflict and exert power in his

household defines how the father failed his role in these supernatural transformation ballads. The

product of the hybrid is not just an unnatural body, but also an unnatural household. They are

households where fathers do not exert authority, where stepmothers reign tyrannically, and where

children are no longer human. These stories seem to imply that when fathers do not exert authority

over their wives and children, the entire structure of the household collapses. The family, a place

where people should have been safe, becomes a place where children are in danger. Although these

ballads seem to highlight the importance of social hierarchy and order, they also seem to highlight

the fallibility of parents and their authority. Mothers, stepmothers, and fathers can harm the

children they were meant to protect.

Brothers can also fail their roles, as we have seen in Jungfrun i hindhamn, where the brother’s lack

of self-control resulted in his sister’s death. Lindormen also explores the role of brother, but through

authority, female agency, and marriage. In Mia Korpiola’s study of marriage formation from

1200—1600, she found that throughout this period, the church struggled to emphasize individual

consent as a means of sealing a legitimate marriage.349 Keeping wealth and property within kin

groups was still prioritized over a woman’s consent in marriage.350 Often, family and kin groups

carried more weight in a person’s marriage prospects than their individual choice.351 Furthermore,

even though the idea of individual consent was beginning to spread in Sweden, people still sought

the consent of their parents and relatives before getting married. 352 Influence of family and kin was

stronger over women than men, as families could deprive their daughters of a dowry if they did

346 Liliequist, “Changing Discourses of Marital Violence in Sweden from the Age of Reformation to the Late

Nineteenth Century,” 3–4. 347 Liliequist, 3–4. 348 Liliequist, 3. Liliequist quotes Christopher Fischer from a 1618 sermon. 349 Mia Korpiola, Between Betrothal and Bedding: Marriage Formation in Sweden 1200-1600, Northern World

(Leiden: Brill, 2009), 154–60. 350 Korpiola, 155–56. 351 Korpiola, 165–75. 352 Korpiola, 166–67.

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not approve of the marriage.353 Without a dowry, it could be very difficult for a woman to marry.

Over time, individuals gained more control over their marriage, and economically interested kin

groups gradually lost power over marriage formation in late medieval and early modern Europe.354

The issues of individual consent and women’s agency in marriage formation also appear in

Lindormen. While her family, her brothers, attempt to influence her choice in marriage, their

authority seems contested, and the woman in this story ultimately exercises her own independence

when choosing a husband.

In Lindormen a female servant meets a snake.355 The snake begs her to run away with him to

marry, as it seems the only way he can become human again is by obtaining a human wife.356

Although she states “It would be a terrible shame/if I took a snake’s last name”, she goes with the

snake anyway.357 On their journey, they meet her seven brothers.358 The brothers express their

reservations over this reptilian union: “It would be such a disgrace/To run off in a snake’s

embrace”.359 The young woman holds her ground and states that it was foretold when she was a

child that she would marry a snake.360 The two then reach a meadow, usually with a mysterious

bed, and decide to sleep.361 The young woman cries bitterly and wrings her hands as she lays down

next to the cold and terrifying snake.362 This ballad seems to imply that going to the marriage bed

despite fear and misgivings, is rewarded. Her suffering and sacrifice are written into her character.

In the morning the woman awakes in a castle, next to a warm, human prince (or king). The young

servant woman is rewarded for marrying the snake by becoming a noblewoman and living in a

castle.363

Lindormen presents brothers as figures who are meant to protect their female siblings. Her

brothers are concerned with her honor and social standing, and what happens to this social standing

when she marries. The woman must beg them for their permission, implying they had authority

353 Korpiola, 169. 354 Korpiola, 256–57. 355 “Signa lilla tjente i Konungens gård/…/Der möter henne en Lindorm så stor.” Jonsson et al., Sveriges

medeltida ballader, 65. 356 “Hörest Du Signa lilla hvad jag säger dig/Vill Du nu följa af Landet med mig.” Jonsson et al., 65. 357 “Det wore väl mig till en faselig stor skam/Om jag skulle [få en lindorm till fästeman.]” Jonsson et al., 77. 358 In version A she encounters her father, and then her brothers. 359 “Det är dig så storan en skam/Att du skall gå med en Lindorm af lann” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida

ballader, 68. 360 “och kära mine bröder ni låten mig gå/ty det är mig spått en lindorm jag skall få” Jonsson et al., 76. 361 “Och de gingo sig åt blomstergrön äng/Der hitta de sig en uppbäddad säng” Jonsson et al., 68. 362 “Jungfrun satte sig i sängen ned/Så bitterlig hon gret och sina händer vred/…/Och Signe somnade vid en

lindorm så kall” Jonsson et al., 69. Except in version Da, where they simply sleep peacefully together. In some

of the later versions not used in this thesis, a bird comforts the young woman as she lays next to the snake. In

version La the snake rests his head on her knee, and then “Den jungfrun hon la’ sig hos den lindorm så grym”

Jonsson et al., 79. which is slightly more suggestive than the other versions. It is also in this version that the

brothers threaten to cut snake’s head off, and the snake forces himself into the young woman’s house by

threatening to knock it down. 363 “Och när som hon vaknade var det en konung båld/Om morgonen när dager var ljus/Så voro de både i ett

konungahus” Jonsson et al., Sveriges medeltida ballader, 69.

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over their sister’s actions. It is interesting to note that in version I, after the snake and the woman

have slept together, and the snake has awoken as a prince, the woman suggests visiting her brothers

as if to flaunt the transformation and sudden influx of wealth.364 In early modern thought, wives

were not only considered capable of having “stronger reason” than their husbands in certain

situations, but they were also able to hold legitimate authority over their husbands when they

showed “stronger reason”. 365 In this ballad, it seems that while the woman’s family tried to express

authority over her, she was able to defy them with legitimate authority because marrying a snake

proved to hold “stronger reason”. While it is not clear whether the brothers succeeded in their role

or not, Lindormen illustrates the role of brothers as having authority over their female siblings and

guardians of their female siblings’ reputations. Though, the end this story shows the triumph of

female agency as well as women’s wisdom and “stronger reason”. Despite her family’s objections,

she married the snake, and despite her trepidations, the marriage proved to be the right choice.

This story wrestles with the notion of family and patriarchal authority against individual choice and

depicts individual choice in marriage as above family and kinship influences. Unlike the father

figures from some of the other ballads, asserting authority over a woman’s choice in marriage could

be wrong, and it could be that she has more reason in these matters. While brothers’ inability to

protect their sisters, as see in Jungfrun i hindhamn, can result in their death, it is protecting them from

masculine violence that is more important. In Lindormen, her brothers do not exhibit violence and

allow their sister to exercise her agency. In this sense, while the role of brother does not necessarily

have full authority over his sister, it is in his interest to protect her honor and physical safety.

Husbands or fiancés also illustrate a specific form of responsibility in the ballads. In some

ballads, this role is to protect other women. Characters either fail by not protecting their loved ones

from harm or succeed by rescuing them. These responsibilities are most prevalent in Varulven,

Jungfrun i hindhamn, and Jungfrun förvandlad till lind. The most common figure in these stories is the

fiancé. He is most often a man of action. In Varulven and Jungfrun förvandlad till lind he saddles his

horse and rushes to his loved one’s rescue. The theme of action and violence become important

illustrations of how men protect other women. Varulven and Jungfrun i hindhamn present failures to

fulfill these responsibilities. In Jungfrun i hindhamn, the fiancé fails his responsibility because he not

only disregards his mother’s warnings, he ends up murdering his loved one. He could not prevent

her from harm even though he was warned. Furthermore, unlike the fiancé in Jungfrun förvandlad till

lind, he fails to restore his loved one to her human form. In the case of this ballad, his main

responsibility had been to exercise restraint and protect his loved one from physical harm. Like

Jungfrun i hindhamn, the fiancé in Varulven also fails to protect his loved one from physical harm.

Although the fiancé, like in Jungfrun förvandlad till lind, saddles his horse and rushes to his love’s

364 “Min sötaste ängel och godaste vän/skall vi hälsa på mina bröder som vi gjorde för en stund” Jonsson et al.,

76. 365 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, 161.

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rescue, he comes too late. In some versions, he despairs that his wife is gone. However, in many

other versions, the next day he is dead alongside his wife and child. In the case of Varulven, the

ballad could imply that the fiancé failed in his responsibilities, though the situation was beyond his

control. Like the other male roles in the ballads, the male characters had to exercise violent power,

control, and protect their loved ones. Fathers who did not protect their children, although it was

the stepmother harming them, still failed in their roles as fathers. Though fathers were different, in

that they were never punished in these ballads. Fiancés who could not protect their loved ones also

failed their responsibilities. Male guardians had to simultaneously take the role of weapon and

shield, and the inability to do so could result in grievous harm to their loved ones.

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Hybridity’s inherent Polyphony

In a study of the use of symbolism in the English ballads, James Moreira states: “Individual symbols

in balladry are not so multifaceted that their reverberations are infinite, but their function is in

essence refractive. They establish multiple possibilities through the presentation of a single motif.”366

Hybridity and the conflicts therein refract “both positive and negative attributes simultaneously”.367

Under this framework, this “refraction” is what creates the polyphonic expressions of gender in

these ballads. Hybrid characters and those intertwined in their struggles for power can

simultaneously express positive and negative aspects of femininity, masculinity, power, and social

roles because of the multi-faceted nature of hybrid stories. In these struggles for power, people can

reaffirm gender norms or topple the social order in order to regain a balance in society. Mothers

must use their powers for good, while also submitting to the hierarchical standards of society, and

bearing the burden of birth on their own. Men must be able to exert violent power, protect their

loved ones, and also exhibit self-control. Hybridity and transformative magic were not only

products of subversion and duplicity, but also a means of expressing these various negotiations of

gender, power, and agency into a narrative of human body and behavior. These themes embody

the polyphony of late medieval and early modern conceptions of gender, power, and human nature.

For those in hybrid bodies, sometimes transgression, in the space of outlawry, was necessary to

restore order. Being transformed into a hybrid draws parallels to the punishment of outlawry in

medieval laws. Outlawry completely banished a person from their community. Furthermore, an

outlaw could “not be protected by the law and could be killed by anyone”.368 Hybrid characters, in

a sense, become outlaws. They are separated from their kin, household, and any resources from

their community. They are vulnerable to attack, even from their own family. Furthermore, they are

forced to the outskirts of society, to the natural world. However, unlike outlaws, hybrids are still

partially human and have a path back to society through their interactions with other humans.

Rebecca Merkelbach argues that in the Icelandic sagas, an outlaw’s interaction with society defines

their alterity, rather than their location physically outside of society.369 These characters can develop

into outlaws or monsters through transgressive interaction with human society. This idea is similar

to the ballads in this thesis. Hybrid characters, though outcast, can remain human through their

interactions with others, so long as their goal is to restore order. But they can also separate

themselves from society by breaking social norms and bringing disorder. For instance, in Varulven

the werewolf becomes the embodiment of the outlaw. Physically banished from society, his

depraved and violent behavior further separates him from humanity. In these ballads, his violence

366 Moreira, “‘His Hawk, His Hound, and Lady Fair’ Social Symbols and Ballad Metaphors,” 132. 367 Moreira, 132. 368 Ekholst, A Punishment for Each Criminal: Gender and Crime in Swedish Medieval Law, 111. 369 Merkelbach, Monsters in Society: Alterity, Transgression, and the Use of the Past in Medieval Iceland, 52.

61

is unparalleled. He terrorizes and cannibalizes pregnant women. Michelè Simonsen notes,

werewolves in Danish folklore ate fetuses because they sought to restore human balance in their

hybrid bodies.370 Even in the context of Scandinavian folklore, transgression is also used as a means

of restoring order.

Varulven also discusses the different failures of masculinity, family, and social roles by

emphasizing the emotional fallout of the werewolf’s actions. His depravity created further chaos,

so much so that men would die of despair. The werewolf embodies the failures of uncontrolled

masculine violence but at the same time is an extension of men’s failure to protect their loved ones.

Gendered hybrid figures such as werewolves, trees, or harps can represent different interpretations

of masculinity or femininity. For example, Jungfrun i hindhamn depicts the hybrid doe as feminine.

She is beautiful, graceful, desirable, and passive. But her desirability is intertwined with the male

character’s inability to control his violent power. She is a representation of positive feminine

attributes but also an extension of masculine failures of self-control. Hybrids in these stories

embody disorder and became a metaphor for masculinity’s failures. In this way, hybrids are not

necessarily a uniform expression of gender norms, but rather at the center of many different

interpretations of these norms.

This polyphony is also present in hybrids seeking to restore order through transgression.

Transgression can take different, simultaneous meanings, depending on the story. In Lindormen, the

snake-prince seeks to restore order through marriage. The young woman is aware this marriage

would be “a great shame” yet she still goes against her brothers’ wills and thus against male

authority. Ultimately, this transgression against authority and society is rewarded as a means of

restoring human order. This transgression simultaneously breaks and restores social order. In Den

förtrollade riddaren and Förvandling och förlösning the hybrid characters murder women in authority.

Though this act is highly transgressive it is seemingly justified as a means of restoring order. The

werewolves in these stories are depictions of broken gender norms, negative masculinity, and

agents of order. In De två systrarna, the younger sister reveals murder and duplicity at her sister’s

wedding, causing chaos and further violence.371 She likewise disrupts social norms to restore order.

Hybridity establishes a liminal space that negotiates the meaning of transgression, gender norms,

and morality.

Human bodies can also become the symbolic embodiments of transgression, rather than the

hybrids they create. It is often hybrids who seek to restore order and humans who cause disorder.

People who use magic to transform others subvert all conceptions of order and break the God-

given image of the human body.372 The resulting hybrid acts like Toivo’s vocabulary of the witch.373

370 Simonsen, “The Werewolf in Nineteenth-Century Denmark,” 232. 371 Åkesson, “Talande harpa och betvingande sång: Musicerande, makt och genus i några medeltidsballader,”

133. 372 Liepe, Den medeltida kroppen: kroppens och könets ikonografi i nordisk medeltid, 76–77. 373 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, 111.

62

It creates a vocabulary to describe, discuss, and negotiate subversion and struggle for order. At its

center sits the hybrid human body, which can become the embodiment of disorder and

transgression. Yet, a hybrid’s actions can contradict this vocabulary, and become simultaneously a

physical embodiment of disorder, and a symbol of the struggle for social order. A woman turned

into a tree can express disorder in a hybrid body, but still physically and socially affirm female

gender norms. A murdered woman’s body can simultaneously become a grotesque harp and an

embodiment of feminine grace and beauty. Bodies eponymous with feminine beauty and innocence

can also create chaos or tempt men to lose control. And ironically, those who physically represent

disorder, are often those who attempt to restore it. Keeping Merkelbach’s argument in mind, it is

in these ballads that a person practicing magic becomes the outlaw, though they are physically and

socially not outcast. Using magic to transform others is a means of negotiating power and

controlling one’s environment, through subverting the natural order. It is the act of subverting

order through magic that defines the outlaw, monster, or alterity, rather than their physical state or

environment. While their targets are physical embodiments of transgression, their actions depict

them as the real monsters in the story. Hybridity does not transform only the target, but also the

person who casts the spell.

Looking at the motif of hybridity we can see that the use of power and gender are at its center.

Hybridity plays on the themes of order, disorder, power, and gender. These ballads seem to imply

that physically becoming a hybrid may not necessarily be transgressive, nor does it mean any single

definition of right or wrong at any given time. Those who appear monstrous can be simultaneously

a hero and a villain, while those in human form can just as likely become the monster. Hybrid

figures and human figures become intertwined with expressions of transgression, monstrosity, and

disorder. There is no single side to the use of power and transgression. Even when a person misuses

their authority, those retaliating and rejecting this authority do not seem juster. These ballads are

seemingly more concerned with discussing and debating norms, rather than giving a clear-cut

explanation of expectations of social roles or gender. They opt for polyphonic depictions and

interpretations of gender and power, that both challenge and uphold late medieval and early

modern social values.

63

Conclusions and Summary

Transgression, Violence, and Evil Women

In two ballads, Den förtrollade riddaren and Förvandling och förlösning, we find illustrations of male

characters fulfilling monstrous fantasies of violent revenge while in hybrid states. Hybrid states

both give these characters the power of physical violence, and distance them from human

responsibility by putting them in the bodies of animals. These ballads depict violence that is both

transgressive and results in restoring and upholding order. Because both characters were male, this

violent revenge could be a negative expression of masculinity and physical violence. They are

simultaneously expressions of negative masculinity and transgression, but also justified bringers of

order.

In Jungfrun förvandlad till lind and De två systrarna, we find illustrations of women exercising agency

through their social network to restore human order. In these cases, their hybrid states physically

immobilize them, and they seemingly become passive victims. However, they exercise agency

through their social networks. In this way, they indirectly utilize masculine codes of action and

power as a means of restoring order. However, these ballads show that while women could be

depicted as passive, women could likewise be depicted as capable of violence, deception, and

causing chaos. Jealous older sisters and evil stepmothers become images of violence and disorder.

Just as men could use the power of physical violence for good or for evil, women could use their

agency to help or harm others. Furthermore, order was not always restored, and those committing

wrong were not always punished.

These ballads also depicted femininity negatively when women exercised too much agency over

their family, through harmful magic. While harmful magic itself could be a positive expression of

power, these ballads emphasize that women using magic topple the social hierarchy and subvert

their social roles was a highly negative expression of feminine agency and power. As we see in

Jungfrun i fågelhamn and Jungfrun förvandlad till lind, stepmothers who use magic to harm their families

take over the role of household head and usurp the rule of the husband. These women match

representations of negative female stereotypes such as “Sko-Ella”, which were used to exemplify

the antithesis of ideal feminine behavior. Additionally, like the older sister in De två systrarna, these

women were jealous of other women’s husbands or beauty. Jealously and greed in these ballads

seem to be recurring depictions of negative femininity. These negative depictions of women are

contrasted to their passive, innocent victims. Women who rely on their social network and exercise

agency through male proxy are depicted as positive expressions of femininity, whereas women who

use magic to act independently and violently violate social norms, gender norms, and their social

roles as mother and wife.

64

Both men and women are associated with different kinds of power in these supernatural

transformation ballads. The overuse of this power can be through heinous crimes against a

subordinate party. And when characters misuse their power, they are not always punished. The

ballads bring a discussion of the complexities of functioning within a society so defined by power,

gender, and social hierarchies. In this reading of a few supernatural ballads, contradictions of

violence and revenge are not depicted strictly as right or wrong, but rather as an illustration of the

ambiguity of asserting power.374 These hybrid creatures, violent men, and magical women sketch a

discussion of negotiations of power and gender, which do not illustrate a single image of femininity

or masculinity of the late medieval and early modern periods. If we take these ballads as a

representation of discussions of values, mindsets, and issues in late medieval and early modern

popular culture, we can see that people had many different understandings of and anxieties over

issues of order, disorder, and balance of power.

Intersections of Social Roles and Responsibilities

In Jungfrun i hindhamn and Jungfrun i fågelhamn we see a different side to late medieval and early

modern masculinity. Instead of conflicts between stepmothers and stepdaughters taking the center

of the story, men’s ability to practice restraint becomes the central discussion. It is clear from the

other ballads that men were depicted as capable of exerting violent power. When men can control

this power, they are rewarded, as we have seen in Jungfrun i fågelhamn. However, failure to control

this power meant women would die, as we have seen in Jungfrun i hindhamn. These failures are tied

to discussions of emotional vulnerability and powerlessness as accepted parts of late medieval and

early modern masculinities. In Varulven and Jungfrun i hindhamn we also see despair and vulnerability

as important parts of masculinity. The fact that men could exercise violent power did not devoid

them of love, tenderness, and emotional vulnerability. In these ballads, men’s failure and

vulnerability are presented as one of the many facets of late medieval and early modern masculinity.

In Den förtrollade riddaren, Förvandling och förlösning, Jungfrun i fågelhamn, Jungfrun i hindhamn, and

Jungfrun förvandlad till lind we see examples of mothers or stepmothers abusing their authority and

turning their children into animals. The discussion of mothers, stepmothers, and wives failing their

roles points to anxieties in late medieval and early modern society towards women’s behavior in

the domestic sphere, but more importantly, women’s attitudes towards their children. Evil

stepmothers in these ballads depict the antithesis of the ideal mother figure and upend the entire

household structure. This view of the evil mother is, however, complicated in Förvandling och

förlösning. These women are depicted as poor, desperate, and alone. While the mothers in this ballad

are punished for neglecting their children, their characters are not depicted as completely evil, like

374 Toivo, “Violence between Parents and Children,” 341.

65

the stepmothers in the other ballads. However, what all these ballads do have in common is that

women’s failures were linked to their roles as mothers and wives, and they faced punishments for

these failures alone. While some ballads mention absent fathers, it is the neglectful mothers and

stepmothers who are cannibalized, boiled in tar, or skinned alive. Furthermore, it is the neglectful

mothers and cruel stepmothers who are the main embodiments of subversion and evil.

While women failed as mothers and wives in these ballads, men failed as protectors or guardians

over women. Fathers fail their roles, but differently from mothers. Rather than failing his role in

direct relation to childcare, the father fails his role by allowing his wife to mistreat the children. A

father’s failure was his inability to maintain the social hierarchy in the household and regulate his

wife’s behavior. His failure was allowing his wife to have authority over him. Fiancés failed their

responsibilities by not protecting their loved ones from harm. This failure could be an indirect

failure, as seen in Varulven. While the failure in this ballad was not entirely his fault, he still carried

the guilt of his loved one’s demise. A fiancé’s failure could also stem from a lack of self-control, as

seen in Jungfrun i hindhamn. His failure to control his desires brought the death of his own fiancée.

Brothers are another role discussed in this selection. In Lindormen, while the brothers make clear

that they have authority over their sister and whom she chooses to marry, she exercises her own

agency and marries a snake. The brotherly role in this ballad was also depicted as a protective role,

however, brotherly authority is also problematized, as their sister proved to have “stronger

reason”.375

These ballads make clear that social responsibilities within the family are divided by gender.

Discussions of women’s responsibilities as caring and nurturing mothers, and submitting to their

husbands, play a central role in the responsibility and failure of women in these ballads. Discussions

of men’s roles in the ballads are linked to their ability to exert power, and their ability to protect

their loved ones from harm. Even if circumstances are out of the male character’s control, the

ballad still depicts a loved one coming to harm as his failure. These failures were likely a source of

anxiety for late medieval and early modern audiences, though their discussion in these ballads

depicts these failures as a fundamental part of humanity’s flawed nature. The supernatural

transformation ballads in this thesis depict contradictory and negotiated images of late medieval

and early modern womanhood and manhood as parts of the whole human experience.

These stories of hybridity, monsters, and magic depict polyphonic expressions of masculinity

and femininity because the nature of hybridity in these ballads is itself polyphonic. Hybridity had

many different interpretations, which created stories that were open to people’s thoughts and

expressions. Ballads about supernatural transformation can embody different images of gender and

power simultaneously. These stories are situated on a spectrum of right and wrong, rather than in

any single place. Furthermore, they are a discussion of the human condition, rather than a

375 Toivo, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society, 161.

66

prescription. The stories in these supernatural transformation ballads were a means of

communicating contradiction amongst the strict social norms and hierarchies from the late

medieval and early modern periods. These stories challenge, uphold, and negotiate gender and

power on a platform that was close enough to humanity that people could relate to them, but deep

enough in stories of fantasy and monstrosity that people could take up controversial topics. These

ballads show that people had many different understandings of gender, and sometimes these

understandings were normative, dynamic, and contradictory. While stories of women turning into

trees seem like far off fantasies, stories of hybridity were a language with which late medieval and

early modern audiences communicated the many facets of gender, transgression, power, and order.

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Appendix:

1. Ballads with Catalog Number, Title, Summary, and Versions

No. Title: Summary: Versions:

4 Jungfrun i

fågelhamn

A knight goes out hunting and sees a doe. Before it

meets his arrow, a witch turns the doe into a hawk. A

local peasant tells the knight to feed the hawk a piece

of his own flesh. The knight does so, and the hawk

turns into a woman. They marry.

Aa

5 Den

förtrollade

riddaren

A stepmother turns her stepson into a werewolf. He

later kills her, consumes her unborn child, and

becomes human again.

A, B

6 Varulven

A woman goes into the forest to meet her fiancé. She

encounters a werewolf who murders her and her

unborn child. Her fiancé comes to the rescue, but too

late.

A, Ca, D,

E

7 Förvandling

och

förlösning

A fox and a wolf meet a mother and daughter. The

animals reveal they were the women’s abandoned

children and take revenge for the neglect they faced.

As the animals devour the women, a wise-woman

comes and changes the animals into princes.

Aa

10 Jungfrun i

hindhamn

A man’s mother warns him not to kill the doe when

he goes out hunting. He kills the doe, remembering

his mother’s words too late. The doe turns out to be

his sister (or fiancé in version B).

A, B

11 Lindormen

A snake begs a servant woman to marry him. She

agrees, against her family’s wishes. After a night of

sleeping together, the snake turns into a prince (or

king). She becomes a princess (or queen).

A, B, Ca,

Cb, Da,

E, I, J

12 Jungfrun

förvandlad

till lind

A stepmother transforms her stepdaughter into a tree.

She laments her fate to another woman. This woman

writes a letter to the stepdaughter’s fiancé. The fiancé

comes to the rescue, and the stepdaughter becomes a

woman again.

A, B, C,

D, E, F,

G, I

68

13 De två

systrarna

An older sister murders her younger sister into order

to marry the younger sister’s fiancé. Someone

recovers the murdered sister’s body and makes it into

a harp. They take the harp to the older sister’s

wedding. When they play the harp, the song reveals

what had happened at the river. Depending on the

version, the older sister dies, is murdered by the

wedding party, or there is no clear resolution.

Aa, Ba,

Da, E, Fa,

Ia, Ib, J,

K, La, O

Jonsson, Bengt R., Margareta Jersild, Sven-Bertil Jansson, and Svenskt visarkiv. Sveriges medeltida

ballader: Bd 1 Naturmytiska visor: (nr 1–36). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1983.

69

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