Högtidsstunder i Ulvaboda

Abstract

This article aims to depict a storyteller in the province of Blekinge in southern Sweden, Ivar Andersson (1899–1987), and his storytelling language. A part of his voluminous repertoire of stories and accordion music was documented in March 1970 by the current author and his colleague. Ivar Andersson answered a call regarding local legends from Bengt af Klintberg who was working at Radio Sweden at the time. A meeting was arranged to collect material for a radio programme and a series of folk music records. The article begins with a short biography of Ivar Andersson, primarily based on books by ethnologist Lynn Åkesson and Swedish emigration specialist Ulf Beijbom. The language in seventeen of Ivar Anderson’s stories is then analysed. All stories belong to those recorded during the meeting in Ulvaboda and they are rendered unabridged at the end of the article. The language used is characterised by a rich vocabulary, a frequent use of dialogue, repetitions of dramatically important elements, linguistic features aiming at establishing contact with the listeners and a conscious use of names of people and places in the stories. Recurring topics in the seventeen stories are encounters with a ghost called the Knight of Ebbeboda and stories about a local character, the former navvy Snus-Henrik (Snuff Henrik).