The concept of folklore began in the 1800’s. At this time, people began to write down old national histories as a way of collect the immaterial folk culture.

Folklore is the widespread term for anecdotes, adventures, folksongs, stories, local stories, and legends. In the past, these types of stories were told orally from one generation to the next - and so, they did not exist in any written form. 

Through Svend Grundtvig’s work with folklores, others were inspired to gather old folksongs from all over Denmark. It was, to a great extent, the local teachers of land sockens, who took a hold of the work, which quickly became a registration and a writing edition of all verbal traditions.

The work demanded great discipline, the ability to understand and be able to write down in the local dialect, as well as the ability to write down sheet music and often being able to overcome people’s skepticism. 

It was a work with slow progress, which meant that the folklore gatherers used a lot of time visiting private homes. The verbal traditions were expecially widespread within the so-called peasants of the countryside. This meant that the gatherers had to go through desolated streches and spend many days at the time at different farms to write down the stories. 

The folklore gatherers were fiery souls, who gathered materials systemically and in great amounts. The Danish Folklore Collection was founded in 1904 and is today a part of The Royal Library. The gathered folklores are a part of different cientific researchs today.