The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway

by Lise Lunge-Larsen, Betsy Bowen (Illustrator)

As tall as trees and as ancient and rugged as the Norwegian landscape from which they come, trolls are some of lore's most fascinating and varied creatures. Some live under bridges, others deep inside caves. They can carry their heads under their arms or hide their hearts inside wells. They can walk across oceans and fly over mountains. Trees and shrubs may grow from their heads, and their noses can be long enough to stir soup. There are troll hags, troll daughters, and elderly, shrunken trolls. Old or young, they are quarrelsome, ugly, and boastful, and they love to trick princesses and children. To defeat them, children must rely on the strengths of their humanity-persistence, kindness, pluck, and willingness to heed good advice

Genres: Fiction, Picture Books, Folklore, Childrens, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Mythology

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I located Norwegian/American storyteller and author Lise Lunge-Larsen's 1999 The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway, her brilliantly and delightfully retold collection of nine thematic Norwegian folktales (and specifically as the book title indicates about trolls) on Open Library (while researching something entirely different), was sufficiently intrigued to borrow, to download The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway and then spent a very enjoyable two hours reading and savouring Lunge-Larsen's featured stories, all of which but The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Boy and the North Wind were generally unfamiliar to me and would probably also be unfamiliar to the majority of American/Canadian/English children and maybe even to many American/Canadian/English adults as well (except for likely the already mentioned and pretty much universally famous in the English speaking world tale of The Tree Billy Goats Gruff), and that after reading and hugely enjoying The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway on Open Library, I am definitely more than interested in obtaining a paper copy of The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway for my personal bookshelves.

Ugly, greedy, fierce, nastily argumentative, rather sillily dimwitted and thus also often easily outwitted, trolls provide delightful and diverse subject matter in The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway and Lise Lunge-Larsen approaches her nine selected stories with much storytelling vim, textual enthusiasm and generally also with an eye and an ear for humour (which in my opinion nicely and wonderfully harkens back to her career as not only a writer but also as someone who orally tells and relates stories and in particular folklore). But of course and most delightfully, ALL of the other characters encountered in The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway are usually quite as textually memorable as the troll villains are, from the feckless Butterball (a boy who repeatedly outwits a hungry troll hag who gruesomely but also rather hilariously carries her head cradled in her armpit), a lad who makes friends with the North Wind to succeed against a group of thieving trolls and of course the familiar trio of trickster like goats in The Three Billy Goats Gruff defeating and killing the troll under the bridge (see above) and with Betsy Bowen's wood-cut like accompanying artwork for The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway providing an aesthetically lovely decorative trim to and for Lunge-Larsen's words but also and fortunately not taking over from the texts either, so that The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway is first and foremost a verbal feast and delight, with Bowen's illustrations more than a trifle augmenting this but never ever going beyond their job of providing a bit of visual ornamentation and not much more.

With a Scandinavian flavour naturally and gloriously permeating the customary folktale elements present in The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway (such as kidnapped princesses, magical quests and how I really do enjoy just how similar thematics wise The Boy and the North Wind is to the Brothers Grimm tale of Tischlein deck dich, Esel streck dich, Knüppel aus dem Sack) and each story ending with the traditional Norwegian folktale refrain of Snipp, snapp, snute, Her er eventyret ute! (Snip, snap, snout, This tale is told out!) and which is delightfully presented by Lise Lunge-Larsen with a pronunciation guide, each and every tale of The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway has made me smile, has been enjoyable, diverting and also renders me really keen to read more and more Norwegian and yes indeed other Nordic folklore.

And while The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway would be a five star book for me even if only the nine selected troll themed stories were being featured, Lunge-Larsen's detailed introductions, her afterwords for every featured tale (how readers learn, for example, that trolls will burst and turn into stone when exposed to sunlight and that Edvard Grieg's famous In the Hall of the Mountain King music for Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt refers to the trolls of Norway's Dovre Mountains) along with the detailed primary and secondary sources for The Troll With No Heart in His Body and other Tales of Trolls, from Norway, this is all both hugely and lastingly personally appreciated by me and also provides the absolute icing on an already most delicious folkloric reading cake.

[Dolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection of stories from Norway about Trolls and the people who outsmart them. The comments from the author are great and the bits of Norwegian sprinkled throughout the book add a bit of fun, too. And the woodcut illustrations are fabulous - they go perfectly with the stories.

I love the ending to each story:
Snip, snapp, snute; Her er eventyret ute!
Snip, snap, snout; This tale's told out!

[Rebecca Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an awesome collection of troll stories, most of which I would love to tell. My favorites were "The Eating Competition", "Butterball", "The Boy who became a lion, a falcon, and an ant", "The Boy and the North Wind" and, of course, "The Troll with no Heart in his body". I remember playing Billy Goats Gruff as a child where a parent stood under the playground bridge and pretended to be a troll, lol. A lot of these tales have some pretty serious violence, so know your audience I guess. A troll family accidentally cooks their daughter in stew, a troll cuts open his own stomach, and a prince squeezes a troll's heart until it bursts. Plus the whole theme of trolls wanting to eat everyone, lol.

Red Flags violence/death/scary themes

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations are amazing.

[Barb Middleton · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's nothing like a creepy, hairy, enormous monster to scare the bejeebers out of a reader. Trolls were the monster of choice in my home with our Norwegian-American heritage. Trolls were ferocious and liked to eat children. They could have multiple heads, but that didn't equate into more brain power. More like brain drain. They argued with each other until they gave each other headaches. According to the folk tales, they liked to kidnap princesses and hold them captive so they would rub their sore heads after arguing with each other. And boy -oh boy- are they loud. When they yell, such as in the three Billy Goats Gruff, "Who's that stepping on my bridge?" the ground rumbles and every person and animal quakes in fear.

Nine stories about trolls in Scandinavia are presented in this novel. They are written for the reader to tell as stories out loud with repetition and short moral tales. The author's note explains the themes that are covered and each story explains the origins and modifications of some so that they are more appropriate for younger children. For instance, one story has the narrator-child cutting off the head of a troll child in the classic story. The author modified it so that the troll child is pushed in the stew and eaten by the unknowing troll parents by the clever child. Another story has an eating competition where the child pretends to make a hole in his stomach so he can eat more than the troll. He has hidden a sack in his clothes and slips the food in it. The troll, not wanting to lose the competition but being full, decides to make a hole in his own stomach like the boy. He stabs himself and dies by turning into stone. While the stories are toned down for younger readers, they are still violent - some more than others.

The stories usually surround a child who is disobedient and ends up with a troll who is going to eat them. The child has to rely on his or her own wits to get out of the predicament. The trolls nature is contradictory to human nature and it is a clear foil to the child hero. The lessons deal with how actions have consequences, it is important to never give up, to believe in yourself, and more. This is a good book for the storyteller looking for short stories to present to an audience.

Reading Level 5.6

[Damiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read these with my son who loves them very much, particularly the story for which the collection is named and the story Butterball. He acts them out and asks me to read them multiple times.
An excellent, unique collection. Would recommend for older children as there are some Brothers Grimm vibes with some of the stories (such as the hero child tossing the troll daughter in a pot and the troll parents noting how delicious it smells) so sensitive children might have issues with this.
A family favorite for the adults who love folklore and kids.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turns out that Norwegian trolls are giants... sometimes large enough to have trees growing out of their bodies.

Author credits original sources, explains adaptations, and includes back matter (don't miss the very last story!). She's told these tales over and over out loud to children, everything from my favorite, Three Billy Goats Gruff, to the title story. Some I've seen before, at least in variants, but some are completely unfamiliar to me. If you like woodcuts, you'll probably love the art.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is wonderful, and 4 out of 5 only because it's too darn short.

[Amy C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tired of arch hipster tripe masquerading as children's books? Sick of celebrity "I'm So Pretty" self-esteem fables? Had enough of ironic fairy tales for children who don't know there's a serious one underneath? Or maybe you've decided you'd just as soon burn Dora at the stake (el poste! The stake!.........El poste!).

This is for you and your children. They're good tales well told; there's an excellent sense of the grammar of folk tales, it's literate, the language hits the mark. The illustrations are also good. Lunge-Larsen would've been at home in the '70s with storytellers like Glen Rounds and others from the original Cricket stable.

[J. Wootton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little collection of traditional tales, set alongside excellent woodcut- and stencil-style illustrations and academic notes cleverly disguised as storyteller's banter. Most excellent.

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nine troll stories from traditional Norwegian folklore are retold in this gorgeous collection from author Lise Lunge-Larson and illustrator Betsy Bowen. Here are well-known selections such as The Three Billy Goats Gruff, in which three caprine siblings outwit the troll living under the bridge they must cross to get to their summer pastures, and The White Cat in the Dovre Mountains, in which a man and his bear free a household from a troll infestation one Christmas Eve. In The Boy Who Became a Lion, a Falcon and an Ant, a young boy out to make his fortune is rewarded for his kindness to various animals he meets along his journey by the ability to take their shape—a gift which comes in handy when he must fight dragons and outwit trolls. Butterball sees a chubby young boy who, although silly enough to keep falling into a troll hag's trap, manages to keep getting himself out of it; while The Handshake follows the adventures of a man who unknowingly visits some trolls in an enchanted world, and with the help of some cheese, comes away with his hand intact.

The Boy and the North Wind relates how a young boy named Per is given three magical gifts by the North Wind, only to lose the first two—a cloth which provides food and a ram which supplies money—to a troll hag in whose house he stays, using the third magical gift to win back his stolen treasures. The Sailors and the Troll demonstrates that trolls are not to be trusted, even if they come from your home region, and are met in far-off places like Greenland, while in The Eating Competition, a young boy outwits a local forest troll, tricking him into stabbing himself. Finally, in the eponymous The Troll with No Heart in His Body, the youngest of seven princes must save his elder brothers and their brides, as well as a captive princess, from a troll who keeps his heart separate from his body, in a special hiding place.

A marvelous, marvelous book, The Troll With No Heart in His Body and Other Tales of Trolls from Norway has everything I look for in a folktale collection: fascinating stories that entertain and enthrall, a storyteller who documents source material and specifies how she had modified each tale, a thoughtful introduction situating the tales in their cultural milieu, and gorgeous artwork. In sum: a triumph! Born and raised in Norway, author Lise Lunge-Larson married an American and moved to the states, where she became a storyteller, relating these tales to the children in schools near her Minnesota home. She teamed up with Minnesota illustrator Betsy Bowen, herself of Norwegian extraction, to present some of her own favorites from childhood—stories which she heard from her parents, and which can all be found in that masterful collection of Norwegian folklore from Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. I was familiar with a number of these tales, and have run across a number of picture book retellings of both The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The White Cat in the Dovre Mountains, but other stories were either unfamiliar, or only partially familiar, with element I knew but others I didn't. In any case, I enjoyed all of them, I enjoyed the supplemental discussion of them, and I enjoyed the accompanying woodcut illustrations. Highly recommended to all folklore enthusiasts, particularly those interested in Norwegian folklore specifically, and in troll tales.

[Ethan Westerfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a classic book of troll tales from my childhood. This is the first time I read the intro sections along with the stories, and I concur with her point that many of us are severely lacking in cultural community and identity. I don't necessarily agree that it's the root of some of the problems the author posits, but that lack of belonging and tradition absolutely has an effect on people, especially kids.

I don't have a massive amount of ties to my Norwegian heritage, but I like lefse, I've tried ludefisk, and I love troll stories. It's a comforting feeling to look at these tales and know that in some way, they're part of my lineage.

My favorite story is probably the Eating Contest. I always loved the wits of the main character in it. Another favorite is The Handshake, as it paints trolls in a less nefarious light.

[Payton Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars!!

“Nothing can truly show children, even adults, more about how to live, about who they are, and about their place in the world, and the struggles of life than a good folktale…”

What an absolutely delightful collection of troll stories!! While I knew a few of the classics, there were definitely a couple that were new to me. I especially loved The Sailors and the Troll. I know I’ll be tracking down more troll stories and variations of these folktales in the coming months. I may not be a child anymore, but my attention will always be fully gripped by a good troll tale.

“Like fire, a good story is slightly dangerous, spellbinding, and warming.”

[Private Account · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book needs to be edited - quite a few typos. Otherwise, the stories were super fun and the pictures were nice too. As far as fairy tales go, I really like how proactive the heroes of the Scandinavian tales are. *This book is great, but pales in comparison to Swedish Folk Tales by John Bauer and Holger Lundburgh.

[Daniel Kleven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful collection of troll stories from Norway, not just collected, but handed on by Lse Lunge-Larsen of Minnesota. Each story has a brief bibliographical note on the source material, and the book includes a wonderful bibliography with notes from Lunge-Larsen. And the tales themselves! Just delightful.

Snipp, snapp, snute
Her er eventyret ute!

[Laurann Cowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of my collection of Norwegian fairy tales and myths. Well written as the author uses spare language that she has recalled from her childhood giving the story line more authenticity. It is also beautifully illustrated with woodcuts which adds to it greatly.

[DúviAurvandil Ericsson e Pereira · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt and being struck by the dichotomy between the professed motto for humanity versus that for troll-kind. "To Thyself, Be True" is the calling for Men, while Trolls have the less elevated "To Thyself, Be Enough".

These stories of those who are just 'enough' is anything but. The writing style is clear and delightful, appropriate for all ages but with enough mild terror to make them interesting. The artwork is simple and beautiful, not taking over the reader's imagination but just giving it a small supplement and mystery. The etymological notes for the stories are interesting and give the reader a bigger picture of the Norse landscape as well as provide places for further reading.

Reader, be true to thyself and add this to your collection.

[Carfig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous wood block illustrations to typical Norwegian fairy tales involving typical dumb trolls. Even the littlest billy goat can fool a troll! Sometimes it takes a few tries, but eventually anyone outwits the troll.

[Boom! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great selection of unpopular tales not often heard in America. Themes are similar to most fairy tales that enough children to never give up, the look for the magic and to be weary that not everything is always as it might at first appear. A must for any troll-lover!

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful classic troll tales that don't sugar-coat the endings. A few grim endings- in the Brothers Grimm or Roald Dahl tradition- that my children found absolutely fascinating. A classic read for bedtime at our house when the kids were younger.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF because I lost interest. I picked this book up because I was interested in folklore from Norway. While the first few stories held my interest really well I did lose interest after a while. I would be willing to pick it up again and read maybe one story at a time.

[sb · Rating 5 out of 5]

i absolutely loved reading about these trolls from norway. truly got me in the mood for halloween. the illustrations were colored wood carvings! so stunning and creative.

snip, snap, snout
this tale’s told out

(iykyk)

👃🏻📚 smell meter is def high. loved every page.

[Bookwalker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been interested in Norwegian Folklore for quite some time, so it was really fun and interesting to read through this collection of stories. And, the introduction carries some very important points about how important storytelling and story is for our culture.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

We read this in preparation for a trip to Norway, and fell in love with the stories. The author is a great story-teller, engaging and exciting every step of the way. I'd highly recommend!

[Rosie Gearhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

My girls loved this book. Stories from Norway. Good for with a study of the Vikings. 6+

[Erika Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the authors note when you need inspiration for children's books. Wonderful collection and wood block art. Authentic and well researched.

[frogfairie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun collection of Norwegian troll stories accompanied by wonderful woodblock prints!

[Assh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really great folk tale book that sources the stories, gives details about the origin, and can be adapted for live storytelling.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love to read stories from Norway especially about Trolls

[Sam Fletcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

My two sons (nearly 6 and 4) and I loved these stories. If you're heritage is from Norway, the North, or you just love northerly things and tales, this is a great collection.