The article discusses different Danish responses to the Thirty Years War as documented in printed popular ballads. The material is analyzed in the perepctive of history of experience (Erfahrungsgeschichte). Three types of ballads document three responses/coping strategies: penitence, patriotism and irony. Penitence was the officially approved and politically correct response. Patrotism was politically explosive, and the fact that irony is also found in this source material is a surprise.