Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1979, Page 68

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The Case of »Hernilds kvæði
and that until he has secured an effect satisfying to his
taste. The essential difference between the two processes
lies in the unconsciousness of the folk-musician, whose ex-
periments are not directed towards a desired end but are
the random efforts of a moment. Is it too much to suppose
that what some individuals have not been able to refrain
from doing with melodies, other individuals have done with
the words of the ballads?1
According to this view, it is assumed that changes introduced
into ballad texts by either memory lapses or creative impulses
are limited, random acts: thus, widely varying texts reflect the
cumulative effect of many such acts and presuppose a long
history in oral tradition.
Although in most instances variant texts of a single ballad
type do differ in limited, random ways, occasionally there are
to be found in tradition variants that are so dissimilar that
they may even be taken as representing different ballad types.
One such case is the several Norwegian texts collected by
Sophus Bugge, some of which were entitled »Here Pær a stolts
Gunnild« (Bugge 163) and others, »Knut konungen rider ut«
(Bugge 191). Leiv Heggstad and H. Griiner-Nielsen later re-
cognized these as independent versions of the same ballad type
and categorized them as such in Utsyn yver gamal norsk folke-
visedikting (1912) under a new title »Den utrue egtemann«
(Utsyn 137). In his article »‘Den utrue egtemann’: A Nor-
wegian Ballad and Formulaic Composition« (1963) W. Edson
Richmond has argued that the widely varying texts of »Den
utrue egtemann« could not have been produced by communal
recreation: the low number of texts collected (three complete
texts and one fragment) would seem to indicate that this ballad
type had not had a long enough life in tradition for this gra-
dual process, as it is described by Sharp and Gerould, to have
produced such profound changes. Instead, Richmond suggests
that it is most likely that these changes came about by formu-
laic composition, a mode of performance in which singers re-