SUMMARY: In Vilhelm Grønbech’s The Culture of the Teutons (1931), there was a chapter on ‘The Creative Festival’, originally the final chapter in the first Danish edition and entitled ‘Festal silence and festal noise’. To the English edition was finally added an ‘Essay on ritual drama,’ often considered the very foundation of the traditionally strong interest in the myth-ritual relationship among Danish historians of religions. Grønbech did not pretend to have discovered the myth-ritual relationship but admitted inspiration primarily from American ethnography. This paper explores the role of the myth-ritual theme at the International Congress of Anthropology in Chicago on the occasion of the World’s Columbian Exhibition in 1893, especially a methodologically remarkable paper by W.W. Newell, “Ritual regarded as the dramatization of myths,” containing in nuce many of the most important insights in ritual drama, that later acquired more substance through the studies of Vilh. Grønbech and others.

RESUMÉ: Vilh. Grønbechs Vor Folkeæt I Oldtiden I-IV (1909-12) mundede ud i kapitlet “Feststilhed og Festlarm.” I den engelske udgave (1931) blev det lidt forøget og fik titlen “The Creative Festival”, og der tilføjedes det berømte “Essay on Ritual Drama”, der for mange stod som selve grundlæggelsen af den stærke danske religionshistoriske interesse for kult-myte-forholdet. Grønbech foregav ikke at være den, der havde opdaget dette forhold, men vedgik en inspiration især fra amerikansk etnografi. Denne artikel undersøger temaet myte-ritual, og den rolle det spillede ved den internationale antropologiske kongres i forbindelse med den store verdensudstilling i Chicago i 1893, navnlig W.W. Newells metodologisk bemærkelsesværdige bidrag “Ritual regarded as the dramatization of myths”, der in nuce allerede rummer mange af de vigtigste af de indsigter i kultdramaet, der sidenhen fik tilført mere substans ved Vilh. Grønbechs og andres studier.