Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1943, Page 38

LE NORD
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America, the work devolving upon his collaborator became in-
creasingly heavy. At the same time the annual Government grant
was reduced to 2000 kr. The lack of funds and collaborators
would have brought the work to a standstill if one of the members
of the Academy had not stepped into the breach. This was Mr.
Albin Rapp who contributed 25,000 kr. towards the publication
of Swedish folk-tales from the Provinces of Nárke and Söder-
manland. On account of my knowledge of the peasant life and
speech of Nárke, I was entrusted with the task of editing Gabriel
Djurklou’s famous collection of legends and folk-tales, the cost
being borne by Mr. Rapp’s donation.
It is estimated that the stories and legends collected by Djur-
klou will fill three volumes. The first of these will appear during
1943. It will contain tales and legends from Nárke, recorded in
Standard Swedish and preserved partly in Djurklou’s original MS
in the Provincial Museum of örebro, and partly in a fair copy
made by Djurklou himself, and found in the archives of the
Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. The work
of editing P. A. Sáve’s folk-tales and legends from Gotland has
also been commenced.
On Nov. 6, 1936, the Academy decided to bring out a
periodical of its own, devoted to Scandinavian and comparative
ethnology under the editorship of Sigurd Erixon. The periodical
finally received the somewhat macaronic name of “Folk-liv.
Acta ethnologica et folkloristica europæa.” Five large-sized, mag-
nificently produced annual volumes of this periodical have al-
ready appeared.
Ánother noteworthy date in the history of the Academy was
February 26, 1937. On that day Dr. Lars Levander was entrusted
with the task of preparing an account of “övre Dalarnas gamla
bondekultur” (The Old Peasant Culture of Upper Dalecarlia), in
two volumes, receiving a grant from the Academy for the purpose.
Subsequently the Academy also granted a sum for the prepara-
tion of a third volume. The work was commenced at once and
proceeded steadily with a regularity which is entirely character-
istic of Dr. Levander’s working methods. The first volume, which
comprises nearly 600 pages, is already printed and will appear
in the course of the present year. This work, which is unique
in its kind, embodies the results of research carried on throughout
several decades. Never has the peasant life of a relatively small
area of any country been described in such detail and with such