ABSTRACT
The focus of this study now shifts from the generalities of tradition in late nineteenth century Denmark to the specific informants who, as evidenced by their repertoires, were active participants in the tradition.1 The number of informants who have been deemed “exceptional” is large enough to provide a statistically sound group and assure that conclusions are not based on anomalous repertoires. The biographies of the informants are fairly well established and include information on date and place of birth, occupation, marital status and background. Short anecdotal descriptions about the individuals have been culled from Kristensen’s autobiography, his collections and other biographical sources.2 The repertoire analysis relies on the biographical information as a means for establishing group affiliations-gender, class, occupation, marital status, age, etc.—while the legends of the informants’ repertoires represent the materials to be analyzed. The empirically observable attributes of each legend have been tabulated according to a coding scheme with sixty-nine discrete fields. These tabulations constitute a data-base. By developing a data-base of such information, it is possible to use various statistical tools to reveal trends of “who” (group affiliation) tells “what” (legend attributes). The conclusions which can be drawn from this level of analysis are limited by the methodology. While statistical analysis allows for the
evaluation of large amounts of data, it removes the essential contextual elements of the legend narratives to the extent that each empirically observable feature is divorced from its narrative setting. Nevertheless, it does provide a reasonable picture of trends in tradition. These general trends, in turn, provide insight as to which questions should be considered in greater detail in the analyses of particular legends in individual repertoires.
