Ole Hansen Frølundes barndomserindringer og rejsedagbog fra Treårskrigen

Abstract

This article is composed of two parts. The first part consists of a precise transcript of a manuscript written by a private soldier during the Three Years’ War 1848-51. The manuscript contains the soldier’s recollections of his childhood and early adolescent years, and a diary which was kept during the first two years of the war. The soldier belongs to the lower social class of the village society. Motherless since birth he spends his first eight years with a drunken grandfather. This upbringing influences the boy who develops the same tendecies. He becomes an unruly youngster who truants from book-learning which results in him not being recommended for confirmation. He goes into service early on, does his job poorly, gets his wage in advance, and spends it on drinking and card-playing. But then his conscience is awakened and henceforth he lives his life as Christian conscious of his sin. He gets married, is drafted into the military, and begins keeping the diary. The second part con- tains a description and evaluation of the soldier’s spelling, language, and linguistic style. It is demonstrated that his orthography is influenced by his Zealandic dialect and lower social upbringing, but it is also shown that he makes efforts to comply to the accepted written language standards. The article concludes by putting the manuscript into the perspective of language history, given that reflections about the origins of the low-status forms are made.