Norwegian Folktales (1977)

A fairly comprehensive selection of folk tales. In many of these a standard formula applies (for example: king offers half his kingdom and daughter to to anyone who can do X; three sons fancy having ago, two eldest ones fail and unfancied yougest son manges X by guile and wins the day). As an adult reader this soon gets tedious, even with the addition of X involving trolls. That said, there are also plenty of more interesting ones are less formulaic with no obvious right or wrong, or moral to be drawn out. I liked "the ash-lad who had an eating match with the troll" though I have to say that I would not have gone about things entirely as the ash-lad did.

AThroughout the book is wondeffully illustrated, and this really brings the stories to life. ( )

Very interesting book that has a lot of well-known folktales in it. ( )

The first folktale I read from this book was "The Fox as Shepard." An Old woman in search of a shepard to herd her livestock asks three animals, bear, wolf, and fox. She picks fox for his response to her question "Do you know how to call the animals?" In which fox replies "Dilly, Dally, Holli, Dolli."
The fox over a period of three days eats up all the animals. The woman, angry at the fox throws a drop of cream and it hits the fox's tail. This tail then accounts for the the white tip of the fox's tail, from the drop of cream. I found this folktale to be morbid and hillarious. It's meaning dictates: never trust a fox with your livlihood, or he'll gobble it all up. The second folktale I read from this book was "The Ash Lad Who Had An Eating Match With the Troll." In this story, a farmer in debt sends his sons into the forest to cut some wood. The first son goes and is scared off by the troll who claims "If you are chopping wood in my forest, I will eat you!" The boy runs back, so the farmer sends his second son, who is met by the troll and runs away as well. His third son, the ash lad, is sent, and sent in with napsack full of curdled cheese. When the Troll confronts him, he responds to the Trolls threating words by squeezing a piece of the cheese, claiming its rock, and letting the troll know he would do the same to him. Subsequently, the troll helps the boy chop down wood, and after, they hed back to the troll's house. They have an eating contest, and the boy convinces the troll to cut out his stomach so he could eat more. The troll listens, kills himself, and the boy runs off with all the gold and silver of the mountain. This tale is strikingly morbid and hillarious as well. I enjoy the Norwegian folktale. They are simple, satirical, and to the point. They do not spend countless words of useless descriptions, yet make the story interesting to follow. ( )

Took me almost a year to read all of these to Kirk. Uncle Gordon & Aunt Marilyn brought this book for me from Norway and it seemed appropriate to read it to Kirk while exploring my Norsk roots. This is the Norse equivalent to Grimm. Wonderful fairy tal ( )

summary:
Very small type suitable for older readers or to read to a child. Drawings done to accompany the stories are done in black and white ink and seem to fit the stories very well. I hadn't heard of any of the stories which made it really nice to read some new material under "folktales". Some would not be suitable for all kids but most are a great introduction into the Norwegian life.

Review:
Great book but I didn't understand some of the stories and the small type didn't help. The drawings are nice and go along with the stories well. I did enjoy reading stories I'd never heard before. It won't be great for young readers as they may lose interest in hard to read pages, but to be read aloud may keep their interest. ( )