The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Jørgen Moe, Tiina Nunnally

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN:
  9781452964706
• Subtopic: European Literary Collections

The definitive English translation of the celebrated story collection regarded as a landmark of Norwegian literature and culture—now in paperback

The extraordinary folktales collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe began appearing in Norway in 1841. Over the next two decades the publication of subsequent editions under the title Norske folkeeventyr made the names Asbjørnsen and Moe synonymous with Norwegian storytelling traditions. Tiina Nunnally’s vivid translation of their monumental collection is the first new English translation in more than 150 years—and the first ever to include all sixty original tales.

Magic and myth inhabit these pages in figures both familiar and strange. Giant trolls and talking animals are everywhere. The winds take human form. A one-eyed old woman might seem reminiscent of the Norse god Odin. We meet sly aunts, resourceful princesses, and devious robbers. The clever and fearless boy Ash Lad often takes center stage as he ingeniously breaks spells and defeats enemies to win half the kingdom. These stories, set in Norway’s majestic landscape of towering mountains and dense forests, are filled with humor, mischief, and sometimes surprisingly cruel twists of fate. All are rendered in the deceptively simple narrative style perfected by Asbjørnsen and Moe—now translated into an English that is as finely tuned to the modern ear as it is true to the original Norwegian.

Included here—for the very first time in English—are Asbjørnsen and Moe’s Forewords and Introductions to the early Norwegian editions of the tales. Asbjørnsen gives us an intriguing glimpse into the actual collection process and describes how the stories were initially received, both in Norway and abroad. Equally fascinating are Moe’s views on how central characters might be interpreted and his notes on the regions where each story was originally collected. Nunnally’s informative Translator’s Note places the tales in a biographical, historical, and literary context for the twenty-first century.

The Norwegian folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe are timeless stories that will entertain, startle, and enthrall readers of all ages.

 

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword
• Translator’s Note
• About Ash Lad, Who Stole the Troll’s Silver Ducks, Coverlet, and Golden Harp
• The Gjertrud Bird
• The Griffin
• The Quandary
• Richman Peddler Per
• Ash Lad, Who Competed with the Troll
• About the Boy Who Went to the North Wind and Demanded the Flour Back
• The Vigin Mary As Godmother
• The Three Princesses in White Land
• Some Women Are Like That
• Everyone Thinks Their Own Children Are Best
• A Tale of Courtship
• The Three Aunts
• The Widow’s Son
• The Husband’s Daughter and the Wife’s Daughter
• The Rooster and the Hen in the Nut Forest
• The Bear and the Fox
• Gudbrand Slope
• Kari Stave-Skirt
• The Fox As Shepherd
• The Blacksmith They Didn’t Dare Let into Hell
• The Rooster and the Hen
• The Rooster, the Cuckoo and the Black Grouse
• Lillekort
• The Doll in the Grass
• Paal Next-Door
• Soria Moria Castle
• Ser Per
• Little Aase Goosegirl
• The Boy and the Devil
• The Seven Foals
• Gidske
• The Twelve Wild Ducks
• The Master Thief
• The Three Sisters Who Were Taken into the Mountain
• About the Giant Troll Who Never Carried His Heart with Him
• Dappleband
• Nothing Is Needed by the One All Women Love
• Ash Lad, Who Got the Princess to Say He Was Lying
• The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Who Were Supposed to Go to the Mountain Pasture to Fatten Up
• East of the Sun and West of the Moon
• The Hen Who Had to Go to Dovre Mountain or Else the Whole World Would Perish
• The Man Who Had to Keep House
• Tom Thumb
• Haaken Speckled-Beard
• Master Maiden
• Well Done and Poorly Rewarded
• True and Untrue
• Per and Paal and Esben Ash Lad
• The Mill That Keeps Grinding at the Bottom of the Sea
• The Maiden on the Glass Mountain
• Butterball
• Big Per and Little Per
• Ragged Cap
• The Bushy Bride
• The Tabby Cat on Dovre Mountain
• Farmer Weather-Beard
• The Blue Ribbon
• The Honest Four-Skilling Coin
• The Old Man of the House
• Foreword to the Second Norwegian Edition
• From the Introduction to the Second Norwegian Edition
• Foreword to the Third Norwegian Edition
• Foreword to the Fourth Norwegian Edition
• Notes on the Regional Collection Sites of the Tales