Table Of ContentThe Complete and Original
Norwegian Folktales
of Asbjørnsen and Moe
The Complete and Original
Norwegian
Folktales
of ASBJØRNSEN AND MOE
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe
Translated by Tiina Nunnally
Foreword by Neil Gaiman
university of minnesota press
Minneapolis London
This translation has been published with the financial support of NORLA.
The translator is grateful to Norsk biografisk leksikon for its
comprehensive biographical information on Asbjørnsen and Moe.
page viii Theodor Kittelsen, Skogtroll, 1907. 36 × 28 cm.
National Gallery, Norway. Photograph by Jacques Lathion/Nasjonalmuseet.
page xii Theodor Kittelsen, Husmand, 1911. 84 × 56 cm.
Blaafarveværket Collection, The Th. Kittelsen Museum at The Cobalt Mines.
Photograph by Blaafarveværket.
Foreword copyright 2019 by Neil Gaiman
English translation copyright 2019 by Tiina Nunnally
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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25 24 23 22 21 20 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Foreword Neil Gaiman ix Translator’s Note xiii
Norwegian Folktales
3 About Ash Lad, Who Stole the Troll’s
Silver Ducks, Coverlet, and Golden Harp
7 The Gjertrud Bird
8 The Griffin
17 The Quandary
18 Richman Peddler Per
27 Ash Lad, Who Competed with the Troll
29 About the Boy Who Went to the
North Wind and Demanded the Flour Back
32 The Virgin Mary As Godmother
36 The Three Princesses in White Land
41 Some Women Are Like That
45 Everyone Thinks Their Own Children Are Best
46 A Tale of Courtship
46 The Three Aunts
50 The Widow’s Son
57 The Husband’s Daughter and the Wife’s Daughter
65 The Rooster and the Hen in the Nut Forest
68 The Bear and the Fox
Why the Bear Has a Stump of a Tail
The Fox Cheats the Bear Out of His
Christmas Meal
70 Gudbrand Slope
73 Kari Stave- Skirt
83 The Fox As Shepherd
84 The Blacksmith They Didn’t Dare Let
into Hell
90 The Rooster and the Hen
90 The Rooster, the Cuckoo, and the Black Grouse
91 Lillekort
103 The Doll in the Grass
105 Paal Next- Door
107 Soria Moria Castle
116 Sir Per
120 Little Aase Goosegirl
123 The Boy and the Devil
124 The Seven Foals
130 Gidske
134 The Twelve Wild Ducks
140 The Master Thief
152 The Three Sisters Who Were Taken
into the Mountain
157 About the Giant Troll Who Never
Carried His Heart with Him
163 Dappleband
171 Nothing Is Needed by the One All
Women Love
179 Ash Lad, Who Got the Princess to Say
He Was Lying
181 The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Who Were
Supposed to Go to the Mountain Pasture
to Fatten Up
182 East of the Sun and West of the Moon
191 The Hen Who Had to Go to Dovre Mountain
or Else the Whole World Would Perish
194 The Man Who Had to Keep House
196 Tom Thumb
197 Haaken Speckled- Beard
204 Master Maiden
217 Well Done and Poorly Rewarded
219 True and Untrue
224 Per and Paal and Esben Ash Lad
228 The Mill That Keeps Grinding at the
Bottom of the Sea
232 The Maiden on the Glass Mountain
240 Butterball
243 Big Per and Little Per
249 Ragged Cap
254 The Bushy Bride
260 The Tabby Cat on Dovre Mountain
261 Farmer Weather- Beard
268 The Blue Ribbon
280 The Honest Four- Skilling Coin
284 The Old Man of the House
® ® ®
Foreword to the Second Norwegian Edition 287
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
From the Introduction to the Second Norwegian Edition 290
Jørgen Moe
Foreword to the Third Norwegian Edition 308
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Foreword to the Fourth Norwegian Edition 311
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Notes on the Regional Collection Sites of the Tales 313
Foreword
Neil Gaiman
I KEEP TRYING TO WRITE a measured and sensible introduction to this
book, and I keep failing. I keep failing because in order to find out what I
think I pick up the proofs and start to read— or rather, at this point, to reread
and to rerereread— any one of the Norwegian folktales waiting between these
covers, and then I’m swallowed by them. I don’t read them critically. I don’t
even put my compare- this- story- from-t his- tradition- to- this- other- story- that-
it- somehow- resembles hat on. I just start to read, and I’m following the adven-
tures of Ash Lad, or the Girl Whose Godmother Was the Virgin Mary, and I
feel satisfied.
Someone is telling me a story.
I first went to Norway in July 1998. I landed in a tired daze: I had flown to
Oslo from Reykjavik, where the sun did not set and my hotel had no curtains,
so I had spent most of the past three days awake. I managed a day in Oslo of
seeing people, of drinking my tea where Ibsen drank his coffee, and eventu-
ally I was taken to my room in the Grand Hotel where the curtains, lined with
black, closed, and in the glorious darkness I finally slept.
I woke refreshed, and had days of joy.
I was introduced to the art of Theodor Kittelsen (1857– 1914), who drew
trolls and the Norwegian countryside. Kittelsen was more than an illustra-
tor or a folk artist, but he was not as well known as Arthur Rackham or John
Bauer. His trolls made sense: they were as much a part of the world as the
trees and the hills. His drawings and paintings felt as though they had paused
in their travels for Kittelsen to create their portraits. I learned that Kittelsen
was once told that a rival had decided to start painting trolls, and he had been
puzzled and upset by this. “How can he draw a troll?” he asked. “He’s never
seen a troll!”
The cover of this book features a painting by Theodor Kittelsen.
ix
