The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad (TSB) classifies (in principle) all "types" of traditional ballader known in one of more of the Scandinavian languages (i.e., in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Faeroese, or even on the extinct language Norn).
In its turn, the list of types is divided into six groups (with some subgroups), as infra. The division essentially follows the one by A. I. Arwidsson, and Svend Grundtvig's original division in DgF; however, many of the ballads Grundtvig classified in group C are reclassified. The number of ballad types in each group in the second printed edition of TSB from 1978 is given within parenthesis. Since then, more types have been added to group F.
| A: | Ballads of the supernatural; | (75 types) |
| B: | Legendary ballads; | (37 types) |
| C: | Historical ballads; | (41 types) |
| D: | Ballads of chivalry; | (441 types) |
| E: | Heroic ballads; | (167 types) |
| F: | Jocular ballads. | (77 types) |
Each ballad type is given a short description, including a summary of the differences of the variants of the ballad and how they differ, and comprises a list of appearances in various Nordic ballad collections. An example is given in [1], where the description of the type A 38, Den talende strængeleg/De två systrarna - The Two Sisters is quoted.
TSB is collated(?) by three Nordic ballad researchers: Bengt R. Jonsson, Svale Solheim, and Eva Danielson, and published in book form by the Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture (Oslo, Norway) and Svenskt Visarkiv (Sweden), on Universitetsforlaget (Oslo-Bergen-Tromsø 1978, ISBN 82-00-09479-0). The book also contains a register of ballad titles, and some other tools for finding ballad types.
Almost all of the ballad types given in the Danish (DgF), Faroese (CCF), Icelandic (IFkv), or Swedish (SMB) ballad type listings also have a specific TSB type listing. (The exceptions are a few texts, who now are known to be of rather recent origin, or otherwise are found to be deficient.) Norsk visearkiv, which is responsible for the corresponding Norwegian ballad project, has decided to employ the TSB classification directly. Many Scandinavian ballad types are also easily recognised in ballad collections from other languages. E.g., the aforementioned type TSB A 38 corresponds to Child 10.