(b Hornborga, Västergötland, May 6, 1785; d Enköping, Sept 25, 1871). Swedish pastor and folksong collector. After studying theology, he took a clerical post in Stockholm from 1809 to 1820, and from 1820 was pastor in Enköping. In 1811 he became a member of the Götiska Förbund and was deeply involved in the collecting of early folk tales, poems and melodies. He was an amateur flautist, but had little training in music; his friends helped him notate the melodies he heard.
Afzelius was the first to notate and publish the folksong Näckens polska, which he heard sung by a peasant girl in Småland in 1810, and to which he later wrote the poem Djupt i havet; the melody and text were printed in the journal Iduna in 1812. He collaborated with Erik Gustaf Geijer in the three-volume collection, Svenska folkvisor (1814–17), and supplied a number of melodies for Olof Åhlström’s anthology, ...