ABSTRACT
Klintberg was one of the earliest European scholars to take up the study of contemporary legend, and he is still one of the most respected scholars in the field. His early essays include: “Folksägner i dag.” Fataburen (1976):269–96; and “Modern Migratory Legends in Oral Tradition and Daily Papers.” Arv 37 (1981):153–60. In this essay from the early 1980s he examines four familiar legends (“The Hook,” “The Severed Fingers,” “The Choking Doberman” and “The Solid Cement Cadillac”). Approaching them from a functionalist perspective, he interprets them as expressions of symbolic revenge in a culture which suppresses vengeful instincts. Klintberg is also the author of two compilations of legends: Råttan i pizzan: Folksägner i vår tid (Stockholm: Norstedts, 1986); and Den stulna njuren: Sägner och rykten i vår tid (Stockholm: Norstedts, 1994). This essay is reprinted from Perspectives on Contemporary Legend: Proceedings of the Conference on Contemporary Legend, Sheffield, July 1982, ed. Paul Smith. 141–46. CECTAL Conference Papers Series, no. 4. Sheffield: CECTAL, 1984.
