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This thesis analyzes eight specific Swedish medieval ballads that contain supernatural transformation and hybridity for how they depict gender in late medieval and early modern contexts. Using literature as a historical resource and a micro-historical approach, this thesis applies gender theory, intersectional approaches, and monster theory to its reading of these ballads. Through this analysis, this thesis has found that transformation in these ballads highlights what it meant to be human in the late medieval and early modern periods, by contrasting and defining humanness through the tension of being a hybrid. And inevitably, discussions of the body during these periods involved having a gendered body. While these stories define what was human and what was not, they discuss and negotiate late medieval and early modern conceptions of masculinity and femininity. Additionally, the conflicts in these stories introduce real-life issues such as power, violence, and social roles. Characters in these ballads negotiate gender and social roles by subverting and upholding societal power structures. A woman acts independently and marries a snake against her family’s wishes. Wives use magic to upend the social hierarchy usurp their husbands’ authority. Father’s roles as protectors are both questioned and underlined in stories of their failures. This thesis concludes that late medieval and early modern audiences had many different understandings of gender, and these audiences used supernatural transformation ballads as a means of communicating complex and contradictory elements of identity and gender during this period.

In February 2005, a collection predominantly containing medieval ballads was found in the library of Växjö. The collectors were mainly George Stephens, originally from Scotland, and Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius, both active in Småland in the nineteenth century. In connection with an intital inventory of the material, Magnus Gustafsson, ethnomusicologist at Smålands Musikarkiv, marked ballads of uncertain origin with a question mark. The purpose of this essay is to investigate 22 of these marked ballads. To be able to compare them with other material we have developed a method to identify differences. By means of the method both the text and the melody are compared and in addition the differences in terms of quality and quantity are assessed. We have compared the collection, named Växjö Stadsbiblioteks Stephenssamling (VSS), with the Swedish edition of medieval ballads, Sveriges Medeltida Ballader (SMB). In the comparison, a ballad forgotten since the mid nineteenth century was retrieved .

<p>In February 2005, a collection predominantly containing medieval ballads was found in the library of Växjö. The collectors were mainly George Stephens, originally from Scotland, and Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius, both active in Småland in the nineteenth century. In connection with an intital inventory of the material, Magnus Gustafsson, ethnomusicologist at Smålands Musikarkiv, marked ballads of uncertain origin with a question mark.</p><p>The purpose of this essay is to investigate 22 of these marked ballads. To be able to compare them with other material we have developed a method to identify differences. By means of the method both the text and the melody are compared and in addition the differences in terms of quality and quantity are assessed. We have compared the collection, named Växjö Stadsbiblioteks Stephenssamling (VSS), with the Swedish edition of medieval ballads, Sveriges Medeltida Ballader (SMB). In the comparison, a ballad forgotten since the mid nineteenth century was retrieved .</p>

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att granska hur genus och genusrelationer uttrycks i svenska, medeltida ballader. Genom att förstå balladkaraktärernas handlingar som performativa, ämnar uppsatsen undersöka hur maskulinitet och femininitet etableras och omförhandlas i balladernas narrativ genom att kartlägga handlingsmönster. Av betydelse är att belysa hur karaktärernas handlingsmöjligheter påverkas av faktorer såsom kön, social status och familjerelationer, men även jämföra hur genusmönster i balladen reflekterar eller utmanar normer och ideal i det senmedeltida samhället. Uppsatsen åskådliggör hur män och kvinnor har möjlighet att utöva och förhandla om makt på olika sätt. Genom detta rör man sig bort från uppfattningen om passivitet och maktlöshet som analogt med femininitet, och aktivitet och makt som synonymt med maskulinitet. Resultaten uppvisar därmed en problematisering och nyansering av genusuttryck i medeltida ballader som saknas i tidigare forskning, och framhäver fördelarna att bedriva ett mer inkluderande synsätt gentemot den här typen av källmaterial inom historievetenskapen.