Page:Danish fairy and folk tales.djvu/12

 woe of the hero; the sorrows of the faithful against whom foul play is started, and the many insignificant yet collectively important details and incidents that produce the obligate tears or smiles.

Whether told in the Jutlander's broken dialect, the singing tone of the "Fynboer," or in the Zealander's rolling provincialism, these tales are built upon the same foundation, and become adapted, through sympathies roused, or indignation called forth, to the receptive powers of the listeners with which the story-teller is always familiar. Thus the form in which we receive a story from some old woman, or nurse, depends in a certain measure upon the ways and habits of the population which has preserved the tale. At the same time, the ingenuity and the memory of the narrator are important factors in producing the dramatic or moral tenor appreciated by the listener. Hence the same story may be found in Denmark, Germany, Servia (sic), or England, comprising the same facts and founded upon one common "plot," with the exception of certain details; but the mode of telling, the tinge of nationality or of individual peculiarities these are as different as the momentous charm produced in telling.

The folk tales of the Danes are prominently illustrative of the ways and habits of this nation. Interwoven as they are with the best and brightest thoughts, hopes, and aspirations of "the plain people"—the rural population—they cannot but