East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Twenty-One Norwegian Folktales

by Ingri d'Aulaire, Edgar Parin d'Aulaire

This is the Viking Library Binding Edition.
Contents: Herding the King's Hares / The Ship That Went As Well by Land As by Sea / The Quern That Stands and Grinds At the Bottom of the Sea / The Maid on the Glass Mountain / The Widow's Son / Lord Per / Soria Moria Castle / Per, Paal, and Espen Cinderlad / Cinderlad and the Troll's Seven Silver Ducks / The Big Bird Dam / Kari Woodenskirt / Why the Bear Is Stumpy-Tailed / East of the Sun and West of the Moon / The Three Princesses in the Mountain So Blue / The Three Bushy Billy Goats / Tatterhood / Dapplegrim / Gudbrand on the Hillside / The Hen Trips in the Mountain / The Three Aunts / Doll in the Grass.

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

224 pages, Hardcover

Published April 14, 1969

About the author

Ingri d'Aulaire (1904-1980) was an American children's artist and illustrator, who worked in collaboration with her husband and fellow artist, Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. Born Ingri Mortenson in Kongsburg, Norway, she studied art in Norway, Germany and France, and met Edgar Parin d'Aulaire when she was a student in Munich. They married in 1925, and immigrated to the USA shortly thereafter, settling in Brooklyn in 1929. After pursuing separate careers initially, the couple turned to illustrating children's books together, releasing their first collaborative effort, The Magic Rug, in 1931. They settled in Wilton, Connecticut in 1941, and lived there until their deaths in the 1980s. Awarded the 1940 Caldecott Medal for their picture-book biography of Abraham Lincoln, the d'Aulaires published other children's biographies, as well as some notable works on Greek and Norse mythology. (source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire - the husband-wife team whose D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths , D'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants , and D'Aulaires' Trolls provided so many hours of reading pleasure in my childhood - appear to have been far more prolific than I had realized, producing close to thirty picture-books and story collections in their long career together. This volume, first published in 1938, and reprinted in this edition in 1969, was their eighth book, and presents twenty-one Norwegian folktales, taken from the classic nineteenth-century collection of Asbjørnsen and Moe. Readers familiar with that collection will recognize these tales with pleasure, just as fans of the D'Aulaires' work will delight in the distinctive illustrations to be found herein.

I had already encountered most of the tales in East of the Sun and West of the Moon, through various other collections of Norwegian folklore I have read over the years, so I found myself focusing more on tale-types during this reading, as so many of these stories have parallels in the other folk traditions of Europe. Herding the King's Hares, for instance - in which a young man, aided by a magical whistle that allows him to herd the king's hares, wins the hand of the princess - reminded me in part of the French tale of the Three Perfect Peaches . The Ship That Went As Well By Land As By Sea was quite reminiscent of the Russian story of The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship , as well as the German The Six Servants , from the collection of the Brothers Grimm. The Maid on the Glass Mountain is quite similar, in many respects, to the Russian Chestnut-Grey , and so on.

Of course, it is entertaining to pick out such similarities, but though these tales can certainly be placed in the wider folkloric context, they are also uniquely Norwegian, with their abundance of trolls, and down-to-earth heroes and heroines. The titular East of the Sun and West of the Moon (so reminiscent of Cupid and Psyche ), is always a favorite of mine, as is the odd Tatterhood. A lovely collection, sure to entertain folklore enthusiasts and D'Aulaires fans alike, this wonderful volume would be an excellent candidate, for reprinting by the New York Review of Books! Here's hoping...

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories are remarkably strange. Folklore is incredibly similar from country to county, and many of these stories are versions of other more familiar tales - Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Jack in the Beanstalk. Almost all of them are bloody, often violent, with a hint of sex (I imagine there are unexpunged original tales that are far, far more sexy than these, what with all the kidnapped princesses and tricky lads). It's the utter weirdness of the stories that makes many of them so delightful. My favorite gruesome oddity: a troll with twelve heads, who has kidnapped twelve princesses so they can scratch his heads all day long, one per head. There are many trolls in these tales, some with one head, some with three. There are giant horses, talking cats, lots of stories about three brothers (the youngest who is always laziest and trickiest and usually named Cinderlad). Plenty of princesses forced to marry these tricky lads by their royal fathers (I wonder what THEY had to say about that). The d'Aulaire's illustrations are almost too warm and fuzzy for these very un-fuzzy stories. But you really can't fault the d'Aulaires for very long - these are draw in quintessential Depression era colors and style.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twenty-one Norwegian fairy tales. Most were interesting, entertaining, and full of the elements that make fairy tales beloved. Some were odd. A few made me wrinkle my nose in confusion and distaste.

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s humorous how these stories escalate by trolls appearing with more numerous heads than the previous defeated troll! Oh my! Not six heads! Not nine heads! Oh dearie dearie me!
It’s also interesting how trolls steal princesses solely to have their heads scratched. I couldn’t help but find a similarity to rich trolls wanting their heads scratched to the wealthy Star Trek Ferengi who want their ears rubbed.
It’s also quite fun how Norse fairy tales have a “Cinderlad” rather than a Cinderella- who is always the youngest of three and proves his mettle better than his mocking brothers, who, in these tales, substitute for the ugly stepsisters (or Cinderella’s older sisters, depending on the version.)
I was also quite intrigued to find that the version of “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” in this collection was very like the myth of Cupid and Psyche except including trolls- as trolls, it would seem, are a requirement for every proper Norse fairy tale!

The one especially jarring detail in these tales is the translation of currency into dollars, and characters being said to have “a hundred dollars” if wealthy. I think it would have been better to say the character had “a hundred gold coins” or something along those lines- as the real-world currency sort of breaks the tales’ “somewhere and away” illusion and brings up questions such as “is a hundred dollars a lot?” Real currency changes value, after all, and may not mean the same thing as was intended when the tales were first published.

I think my favorite tale in the collection was “Tatterhood” which although a similar tale to that of “Prince Lindworm” (Queen eating flowers to have children and all that ensues) and sadly lacking a wyrm (who would not want a dragon in a tale?), however has instead a ugly princess who saves her sister and marries the prince. No lolling about for this gal, and never she minds what people think of her.

*****
A wee roll and a span have clattered around and I return to this review to right a fib. Although “Tatterhood” was dandy and good and I take back none of its attributes, I realized my favorite tale (by remembrance continued still in the brain, and an itch to tell it to some small folk) is the tale in this collection called “The Three Aunts.” It is a sort of version of Rumpelstiltskin where a maiden must complete impossible spinning tasks overnight, but instead of a wee man, she has the help of three ugly women- one with a nose like Cyrano de Bergerac, another with a substantial rump, and one further with huge bloodshot eyes. Because the Queen thinks the maiden did all the spinning and weaving work herself, she weds her to her son with the notion that she needn’t hire anyone to do any work anymore, as the new princess can do it all! However the three “aunties” show up at the wedding feast and tell the prince some very interesting reasons for their ugliness, and things take a rather different turn than the Queen had planned...
You’ll simply have to eye the tale yourself to see why!

[A B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jeepers.

What a compilation of creepy tales that basically teach the reader that laziness, thievery, deception, and wasting time poking around in fireplace cinders will be handsomely rewarded. Just make sure to heed the advice of little old men in the forest and don't mock old ladies in the forest that have gotten their noses stuck in a log.

Seriously, that's all that the heroes of these stories do to set them apart. Each story begins with an only or youngest son, usually named Espen or Cinderlad, who is a lazy little $hit. His hardworking older brothers, Per and Paal, often meet a horrific end (flayed, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and thrown into a snake pit? holy buckets!) simply because they didn't listen to the obligatory old man. Espen gets a shload of good luck and does stuff like ointment-filled horns from trolls. Trolls are often the obligatory evil in Norse fairy tales, but I'm starting to sympathize with the trolls. They just want to be left alone, maybe have a pretty princess occasionally scratch their many heads to help them fall asleep. Instead, pesky juvenile delinquents like Espen keep bothering them.

Fairy tales from all over the world often have a moral lesson. Good is usually rewarded and bad is punished. But in these tales, it's the opposite. What awful lessons.

Aside from the lovely "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" and the interesting, if odd and rambling "The Princesses in the Mountains So Blue", I don't recommend this book at all. I appreciate that it was a labor of love for the authors and the storytelling is beautiful. But it's like having Botticelli paint a pile of manure - a complete misuse of their talents.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, sweet children's book that I had read years and years ago. I picked it up again since I've been reading Strindberg and taking in Scandinavian history. (Besides, my husband is of Norwegian ancestry!) Like all folktales, many of the same characters appear over and over in different adventures. We see Espen Cinderlad in many. Cinderlad spends all his time sitting by the fireplace and shifting and stirring the ashes with a branch until an adventure comes along. He and his brothers then start off to win the Princess's hand and half the kingdom (always the princess and half the kingdom). His brothers come across some ugly old peasant who asks for help with something and, of course, they just laugh and pass on. Cinderlad stops and helps and wins magical help with his task. And don't forget the magnificent Scandinavian trolls with multiple heads. If you can lure them out just before daybreak and keep them out until the first light of the sun, they exploded!!

If you have small children or even if you don't, you might want to pick this up to read. It's cute!

[Loki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mom's note: We only read the first story, and it was really repetitive and boring, like I often expect mythology to be. Loki probably would have kept reading it, but I didn't want to. Total lack of pictures as well.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful.

[Sally B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the stories! Loved the illustrations!

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to read and plenty of stories I had never heard of. There were several stories that had many similarities with just some of the details being different: the hero being betrayed and someone else claiming his deeds but the youngest daughter refuses the marry that person and the hero comes back and everything is good, i.e. Cinderlad for a name is often used and the boy is usually the youngest and thought to only enjoy poking at the ashes in the fire and being lazy but ends up being the hero of the stories. But for the girls and women out there, there are a few stories where girls are the heros.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down my favorite book of all time! It is a collection of old tales, some more gruesome than you may anticipate. I have had this book since I was in Elementary (I am now in my 30s) and to this day will reference it! i will pass it to my children as they get older as well. This book is harder to get your hands on these days, but absolutely worth the purchase if you are able to obtain it!

[Kokeshi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The translation reads very clunky with an odd assortment of word choices. Furthermore, I think many of the stories have been drastically shortened making them confusing to the reader. Thankfully, the illustrations were quite good and give the reader some pleasure.