752 
THE AMERICAN- S C A N D IN A VI AN R E VIEW 
The Stockholm Dance Ring Has Its Own 
Home on Malaren 
as such very highly es¬ 
teemed. Every town had 
its master of the fiddle or 
the nychelharpa . The 
melodies were passed 
from one generation to 
another, but now and 
then some gifted fiddler 
arose who would adapt 
the old tunes or compose 
new ones or who would 
pick up new dances— 
perhaps at the parties of 
the gentry—which would 
be adapted and national¬ 
ized. In this manner, a 
wealth of characteristic 
once a school-boy game, while 
Weaving the Homespun, King 
Gustaf’s Toast, and the clapping 
dance have reminiscences of the 
old ring-games. 
When the singing lost its im¬ 
portance and finally vanished 
altogether from the dance, the 
music was, of course, retained, 
but it came to be more and more 
frequently relegated to speleman 
who, although they might have 
some other trade besides, were 
really professional musicians and 
The Swedish Halting Is a Trial of Strength 
Agility Between Two Men 
and 
The V ingAkeir Dance Is Built on the Motif of a Man 
Torn Between Two Women 
music was developed; 
brisk, vigorous marches, 
merry and rhythmic 
dances, alternating with 
tender romances steeped 
in the wistful, melan¬ 
choly moods of the 
Xorthern light nights 
and filled with the emo¬ 
tional sadness that is a 
basic characteristic of the 
Swedish peasant tem¬ 
perament—a sadness 
that is not lacking in 
the dances, which are 
often in a minor kev. 
•/ 
