And the Wagon Came Rolling In … : Legend and the Politics of (Self-) Censorship in Nineteenth-Century Denmark

Abstract

Buried in the thousands of pages of Evald Tang Kristensen *s remarkable collection of nineteenth century Danish folklore is an amus- ing, yet shockingly obscene, story told by Bitte Jens Kristensen, a cobbler and smallholder from northern Jutland. Tang Kristensen 's decision to break the story into three parts, publishing two of those parts separately, and not publishing the most obscene section of the story, is an intriguing case of politically motivated censorship in nineteenth-century Denmark. This censorship and Tang Kristensen 's uncharacteristic editorializing raise important questions concerning distortion of the truth. Tang Kristensen's deliberate misrepresentation of the stories and his targeted attack on ethnic outsiders in Denmark (in this case Jewish peddlers) resonates with the issues of censorship and distortion that are an important part of contemporary Danish debates about freedom of the press and immigration. These debates have long been part of the Danish media landscape, but have gathered considerable steam in the aftermath of the Muhammad cartoon crisis. In 2006 and 2007 Denmark was frequently in the news. The deci- sion by the editors of Jyllands Posten in September 2005 to publish a series of caricatures depicting the prophet Muhammad quickly led to a vigorous debate in Denmark concerning constitutionally guaranteed freedoms - of the press, of expression, and of religion - as well as heated discussions about the position of immigrants in contemporary