East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North

by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Jørgen Moe, Kay Nielsen (Illustrator)

The 33 Scandinavian folk tales take the imagination of the reader from rags to riches, from skulduggery to heroism, via witches' curses, beautiful princesses, giants, quests, billy goats and the occasional wicked troll, to a happy ending.

Genres: Fairy Tales, Classics, Childrens, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Folklore

151 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 15, 2012

About the author

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore. They were so closely united in their lives' work that their folk tale collections are commonly mentioned only as "Asbjørnsen and Moe".

Reviews

[Mutia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Folktales are always amusingly stupid and stupidly amusing, excited to read others from outside my homeland to compare which part of the world has the most fucked up lore. Also, the main reason I read this is because Kay Nielsen's illustration, he has one of my favorite style, I can see his influence on my own stuff.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous illustrations by Kay Nielsen, in Kindle form only really worth getting this version (which cost me one penny on Amazon) if you have a Kindle that shows colour illustrations or a Kindle app for a phone or tablet. On the older generation Kindles the illustrations would be too small, black and white, and basically unintelligible. I'm certain this same collection is available for free for those with the older generation Kindles (if the penny price is too high or you don't want to charge something to your card at the moment).

SAHMs and housewives who feel unappreciated would be well-served to find a way to show their partners the very short story The Husband Who Was to Mind the House. ;)

I've always thought most of these Northern Tales were intended to remind children to follow instructions to the letter. Every hero who ignored what they were told ended up in trouble, where every one who did as instructed came out on top.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to this version on Librivox. I like that they had different readers for each story. The Lindworm Prince was an a-hole.

[Manda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely little collection of fairy tales. The Kindle edition features the full color Kay Nielsen illustrations from the 1914 edition.