Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser

Danmarks gamle Folkeviser (DgF) is a 12-volume collection of 539 Danish popular ballads, begun by Svend Grundtvig in 1853, and completed in 1976. The collection drew both on early modern manuscripts, such as Karen Brahe's Folio, and much more recent folk- song collecting activity. It is now standard practice to refer to the Danish ballad type by its assigned a DgF number. Variants (or variant groups) are indicated by an alphabet following the DgF number. Many of the ballads are Danish examples from a family of cognate ballads disseminated throughout Scandinavia. Together with the so-called "skæmteviser" (joking songs), they form a common Nordic, medieval ballad genre.