Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1787–1864) was a Serbian author, philologist and linguist. For his collection and preservation of Serbian folktales, Encyclopædia Britannica labelled him "the father of Serbian folk-literature scholarship." Well known abroad and familiar to Jacob Grimm, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and historian Leopold von Ranke, Karadžić contributed to folk literature, compiling stories from the oral storytelling tradition he grew up with. He published several volumes of folk prose and poetry, including a book of over 100 lyrical and epic songs learned as a child and written down from memory.
