The Genre of Trolls - Doria

PREFACE
I have greatly enjoyed writing this thesis, not least because of the many stimulating
discussions I have had with colleagues and friends along the way.
Naturally, I have also incurred many debts of gratitude, the creditors of
which I hope I have faithfully listed below. I sincerely apologize for any
omissions or oversights.
The first set of thanks goes to my supervisor, Professor Ulrika Wolf-
Knuts, who has encouraged me from the very start. Her unfailing devotion
to her students is remarkable, and I am grateful that I have been able to
benefit from it. She has read every draft of my dissertation, quite regardless
of what condition it was in, with speed and acumen, and with many annoying
questions as a result, but I do not doubt that these have made the
manuscript more easily legible and the arguments more convincing. Her
knowledge of Finland-Swedish folk belief and the religious situation in
19th-century Ostrobothnia has been particularly valuable in the preparation
of the thesis, and she has liberally shared her insights with me during the
years.
I also owe Dr Lena Marander-Eklund many thanks. When I worked on
my M. A. thesis she functioned as my supervisor for a term, and during this
time she managed to introduce me to no less than two of the theories I am
utilizing in this book: Lotte Tarkka’s theory of intertextuality, and Charles
Briggs and Richard Bauman’s theory of genre. I guess neither of us realized
in what direction these theories would take my work, but that is the charm
of doing research, after all. During the years she has also readily supplied
me with whatever archive material I have needed, and I am grateful for this
as well.
Moreover, I wish to express my gratitude to those colleagues who have
assisted me during my stays abroad: Professor Inger Lövkrona, the Department
of Ethnology at Lund University, who took care of me for a term in
Lund; at the School of Celtic and Scottish Studies, Scottish Ethnology
Section at the University of Edinburgh, I benefitted from the generosity of
Dr Margaret Mackay who acted as my supervisor—I am especially grateful
for the advice on finding English translations of internationally well-known
hymns, which posed a real problem for me. I also thank Dr John Shaw
who invited me to give a speech at the seminar of the School of Scottish
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