John Bauer (1) (1882–1918)

John Bauer is well-known to every Swede for his paintings of trolls, elfs and other fairytale creature. His Nordic forests and clumsy, ragged trolls have shaped the Swedish notion of these creatures more than anything else. Bauer painted most of his classic works for an annual anthology of fairytales in the 1910s. The stories were not folktales, but new stories written in a folkloristic tradition, by some of the renowned writers of their time.

This is a collection of a bunch of these original show more stories, with Bauer’s illustrations. It’s a mixed bag. Very few, if any, live up to the standard of the artwork, and it’s at times pretty shocking to realize what paternalistic, sexist, moralistic crap has inspired some classic pictures. A few stories are very good though, often on the slightly spooky side, putting emphasis on the other-ness and eeriness of trolls, skogsrår and giants. On the other hand, if I have to read about another honest, perky lad who doesn’t know the meaning of fear, I’ll scream. show less

The best part of this book are the beautiful illustrations by John Bauer, a Swedish artist of tremendous talent and vision that was cut short at the young age of 36. The fairy tales are full of trolls and changelings, not the usual German fairy tales of witches and lost children.

AMAZING illustrations. Fun stories, but the morals are only so-so to me.

In the beginning of the tale Jerker finds out that the queen of the town and her daughter were milking other people's cows to steal their money. Jerker made a plan to stop them by plugging the bung that they were using to milk the cows. When he was in the palace he hid behind some barrels and stops them. At the end he gives back all the money. I liked the book because Jerker's plan succeeded. I liked that when Jerker gave back the money they gave him some too for his deeds. This is a Swedish show more folk tale. I learned that a bung is a barrel stopper. show less