Sveriges Medeltida Ballader (SMB) is a scholarly edition which compiles, in principle, all of the known Swedish medieval (traditional) ballads in existence, including those from Swedish-speaking parts of Finland. ^[1] The collection was published between 1983 and 2001 by the Svenskt visarkiv, and edited by Bengt R. Jonsson [ sv], Margareta Jersild [ sv] and Sven-Bertil Jansson.

The ballads are cross referenced to the corresponding TSB number ( The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad). ^[2] Not only that, the SMB numbers were assigned in the order of ascending TSB type numbers, i.e., SMB 1 was assigned to TSB A 4, ending with SMB 260 assigned to F 75, at the point in time when 260 ballad types were recognized in the collection. ^[3] But 263 types were given in the final count when the 5th volume was published 2001. (See § Contents of the published volumes).

For each ballad type in the collection, all variants in full text have been printed, up to a maximum of 25 variants, arranged chronologically (This means that for about 80% of the types, all known variants are exhaustively printed, while for the 20% remaining, only a listing of the variants are given beyond the 25 variants limit). ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Another feature of SMB is that the accompanying melodies have been comprehensively printed alongside the text, ^[1] unlike ballad collections in some of the other languages.

In 2005, a ballad collection was discovered in the library of Växjö that contained ballad types not enumerated in the SMB. ^[4]

A full list of the Swedish ballad types is given in the List of Sveriges Medeltida Ballader [ sv].

Contents of the published volumes

• Band 1 (1983): Naturmytisk visa "Ballads of the Supernatural" [ sv] (SMB 1-36)
• Band 2 (1986): Legendvisa "Legendary Ballads" [ sv] (SMB 37-54); Historisk visa "Historical Ballads" [ sv] (SMB 55-65)
• Band 3 (1990): Riddarvisa "Ballads of Chivalry" [ sv] I (SMB 66-130)
• Band 4:1 (1996): Riddarvisa II (SMB 131-169)
• Band 4:2 (1997): Riddarvisa III (SMB 170-196)
• Band 5:1 (2001) Kämpavisa "Heroic Ballads" [ sv] (SMB 197-219); Skämtvisa "Jocular Ballads" [ sv] I (SMB 220-233)
• Band 5:2 (2001) Skämtvisa II (SMB 234-263) ^{[5] [6]}

See also

• GA = Geijer and Afzelius, Svenska folk-visor från forntiden (1814–1816) – pioneering Swedish ballad collection.
• SF = Adolf Ivar Arwidsson [ sv], Svenska fornsånger [ sv] (1834) – another early Swedish compilation.
• GAB = Bergström [ sv] and Höijer [ sv], Svenska folkvisor (1880) – revision of Geijer and Afzelius.
• List of folk song collections
• Danmarks gamle folkeviser – Danish folk ballad compilation
• Francis J. Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads – Compilation of traditional ballads in English.

Footnotes

Explanatory notes

Citations

References

External links

• Searchable index at Svenskt visarkiv (in Swedish)