Tales from a Finnish Tupa

by James Cloyd Bowman, Margery Williams Bianco

An illustrated collection of folktales from Finland, including the magical tale "Vaino and the Swan Princess," the humorous story "The Pig-headed Wife," and the fable "The Bear Goes Fishing."

Genres: Folklore, Fairy Tales

288 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1936

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been in our house since my childhood, but I had never read it in its entirety until now. I enjoyed reading and hearing the Finnish names and Finnish words, sprinkled throughout, in my mind. The first long section, "Tales of Magic," was the most interesting, even though the themes of the stories were often repetitive. A typical story involves a poor, hard-working boy, who responds to a king's challenge for the chance of winning the princess's hand in marriage. He overcomes the challenge with the help of animals, wizards, or magic spells, and lives happily ever after with the beautiful princess. The closing sections, "Droll Stories" and "Fables," were not particularly amusing.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody I know in Finland has ever heard of these stories. I suppose they are no longer taught in the Finnish school curriculum, if they ever were, but they should be. These amusing tales are not just fairy stories, with the usual magic, morals, and talking animals - they put a peculiarly Finnish slant on the genre. The magic is outrageous, but the wizards are modest; the violence is minimal, with people and animals using their wits rather than their brawn; and there is almost always some wry humour to keep the reader chuckling. Just wait till you get to the chapter about the Hölmöläiset, a whole village of idiots! Although men are usually the heroes, there are no helpless princesses in a Finnish folk tale: the female characters are always brave and resourceful. The English translation is simple and easy to follow, although the selection of twenty-two stories included here seems rather arbitrary, and at less than 200 pages, the volume is far too short. Chosen from two collections of Finnish folklore, Suomen kansan satuja ja tarinoita by Eero Salmelainen and Suomen kansan satuja by Iivo Harkonen, these tales are strange and surreal, and will be a firm favourite with any Finnophile.

[Leaflet · Rating 3 out of 5]

"These folk tales make much and varied use of the power of words, but they also depict the life of a strange people. Their customs, their beliefs, their sorrows, and their laughter, in short their entire culture, is herein recorded for all time.

The Finns were a pastoral people. They loved their fields and their flocks, their rivers and lakes, and their deep, wild forests. They loved peace and hated violence. They approved of strength and courage and right doing, and liked nothing better than to trip up the heels of the opproessor and the deceiver. Their ideals were the ideals of true men and women the world over.

On the surface they were cold and inexpressive, and seemed as frozen over as their lakes in winter. But beneath their fur coats their hearts were warm, and deep within their hearts, when least expected, there was a droll laughter, and a keen sense of human values."

[Jbondandrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly enjoyable collection of Finnish fairytales.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a delightful collection of folktales and fairy tales from Finland. It includes variants on more familiar stories, like Chicken Little and Cinderella, as well as some very northern tales about ice and saunas. There's even a short section of tales from the Finnish equivalent of Chelm.
The stories range from short fables to longer tales. Margery Williams did a great job of turning these tales into readable prose.
My only tiny quibble with the book's format was that it had a lot of really great pronunciation notes, but the stories themselves lost some of the accent marks needed to guide the reader to correct pronunciation of names. So, in order to figure out how to say various words and names, you have to go to the vocabulary list AND a separate pronunciation section, because the accent marks are only printed in the vocabulary list.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick and easy read. A retelling of of some classic Finnish folk stories; a very unadorned kind of writing. Has the typical "folk story" feel to the storytelling. I found it easy and enjoyable, and liked the use of Finnish words and phrases in many of the stories, but ultimately nothing seemed too profound. Perhaps some more commentary would have been interesting for me to read, although I understand that that wasn't really the aim of this book. Overall an enjoyable but probably rather forgettable read. Perhaps it did give me some insight into certain traditional aspects of Finnish culture, which is part of what I was hoping for. Recommended to anyone interested in Finnish culture or in folk stories and fairy tales.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are the folks tales I grew up on, passed down from my mother and my grandmother in a original edition. I've long been fascinated by the lessons imparted in fables, fairy tales and folklore the world over, both for their universality and uniqueness. There is far more commonality in most children's literature than I expected. Tales from a Finnish Tupa is an interesting exception. Perhaps due to the geographic isolation or the largely homogenous population, these tales are unique in their telling and sometimes unique in their message. It's not that the message is unfamiliar but merely that other cultures chose not to impress them upon their children. For me, this is an odd-ball must read.

[Nancy Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an old book, one I've owned since I was a child. Not easy to find Finnish folktales! As I am partly Finnish, I treasure this book and always have. Many of the stories have fairly familiar fairy tale themes; others are more unusual. Several are favorites. I love this book and recommend it, if you can find it! P.S. -- the illustrations are really wonderful and different.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating folklore from a culture that is not well-known to American audiences.

[Larissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review here: http://www.rochester.edu/College/tran...