Scandinavian Folklore

Scandinavian folklore is the folklore of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the Swedish speaking parts of Finland.

Collecting folklore began when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden sent out instructions to all of the priests in all of the parishes to collect the folklore of their area in the 1630s. They collected customs, beliefs that were not sanctioned by the church, and other traditional material.

In Scandinavia, the term 'folklore' is not often used in academic circles; instead terms such as Folketro (folk belief; older Almuetro) or Folkesagn (folktales) have been coined. In common speech, it is simply referred to as den Gamle Tro (the old belief), or perhaps sæd skik og brug (customs, the way). It evolved from Norse paganism, and it is in technical terms labelled low-mythology, while the norse mythology is called high-mythology. High-mythology builds on low-mythology in its parts.

Iceland and the Faroe Islands are not a part of Scandinavia (although they are Nordic countries), but should nevertheless be regarded as Scandinavian in folkloric terms. Because of their common Germanic origin, Scandinavian folklore shows a large correspondence with folklores elsewhere, such as England and Germany, among others. Most of what has survived there might be found, of a similar nature, in the Baltic countries.