SCANDINAVIA 213

and courtly class. This is the attitude of the poet who composed the
ballads concerning Valdemar IFs queens Bengerd (or Berengaria
of Portugal) and Dagmar. Bengerd has been singled out for
condemnation. As a morning-gift after her marriage to the king
she demands the imposition of heavy taxes on the bonders (DGF
139); she is thus contrasted with her predecessor Dagmar, the
merciful (DGF 133.) A beautiful ballad entitled Queen Dagmar's
Death (DGF 135) increases the antithesis. Somewhat later, Sir
TidemantTs Murder (UDV 60) is concerned with the opposition by
the countrymen to the unpopular ploughpenny tax, probably in
the reign of Erik Ploughpenny (1241-50). The frontier battle of
Lena (1208), an attempt by the Danes from Skane to recover
control over Sweden, is the subject of a ballad which the competent
authorities do not hesitate to class as contemporary (DGF 136).
It is encountered in Sweden too (Arwidsson 153), as are also the
earlier ballads of Esbern Snare, Sir Stig, Tovelille, and also Queen
Dag mar's Death. The fact that so many historical ballads have
migrated from Denmark to Sweden is one proof of the exceptional
intimacy existing between those two lands. The oldest indepen-
dent ballad in the Swedish series is Kin? Birder and his Brothers

o o

(Bergstrom 94), which is also known in Denmark (DGF 154). This
refers to a royal family tragedy of the years 1317-18. In Norway
the oldest indigenous historical ballad seems to be King Haagen
Haagens0n'$ Death (DGF 142), preserved in Danish, and it must
have been soon followed by the Norse originals of the Faeroese
Frugvin Margreta and Eyduns rima (Hammershaimb FA 19, 18,
DGF iii, pp. 921-3), There is some record in the sixteenth century
concerning this ballad in its Norse form (Marittepd Nordnes). The
theme is the obscure fate of that Maid of Norway who brought to
an end the old Scottish dynasty and gave cause for the fine ballad
of Sir Patrick Spens. According to the Scottish tradition she lies
where

Haf owre, haf owre to Aberdour,
it's fiftie fadom deip.

The Norse singer, however, is a partisan of the woman who claimed
to be the Maid, and was burned at Nordnes in 1301.

It is clear from these examples that the composition of 'viser' was
active in Denmark from the earliest years of the thirteenth century.
In Sweden the fashion was one of Danish origin, but was fully
naturalized in the fourteenth century, and in Norway Siser' seem