Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend

by Reimund Kvideland (Editor), Henning Sehmsdorf (Contributor)

An entertaining collection of over 400 folk tales of legends, stories, and magic. Translated from the original Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish, this highly acclaimed work is perfect for bedside or fireside reading.

Genres: Folklore, Nonfiction, Mythology, History, Religion, Spirituality, Scandinavian Literature

456 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, along with Reidar Th. Christiansen's Folktales of Norway, is probably the best book I've encountered for Scandinavian folklore. Like Christiansen's book, it deals with legends, but unlike it, it has no folktales whatsoever. Including a wide variety of legends from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, and the Faroese Islands, Kvideland's and Sehmsdorf's translation of tales covers a wide breadth of themes, motifs and origins, exploring their cultural backgrounds, distributions, and other relevant information. The book also starts off with a pretty useful overview of Scandinavian history and addresses the industrialization of the region, even giving a special section at the end of the book for modern folklore, what some would call "urban legends." Whether one prefers stories of ghosts and revenants, of the supernormal "hidden folk," or village views of historical events, this book is rich and comprehensive in many ways. I definitely recommend it to any lover of the Scandinavian region, as well as anyone interested in good folklore collections.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of translated folklore from the Scandinavian countries, with notes. Most of the collection is from the 18th and 19th centuries, so the "folk-tellers" themselves are obscured. But the editors show close attention to context, such that can be found. Moreover, they include the archive sources for every piece, so one can find the pieces in the orginal languages. I enjoyed peaking into the religious beliefs - how strange and how distant I feel from them. The book reinforces the difficulties of comprehension of human beings.

[aja · Rating 4 out of 5]

again, more research. i got the most use out of the chapter & section notes, but there were some rly great stories in this one. most of the stuff about ghosts i'd already found in the jacqueline simpson book, but i got a lot of great info about witches & magic in this one.

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really nice, well-organized collection of folk legends. As far as I can ascertain the translations are quite good. Extremely accessible to the casual reader without losing any of its scholarly appeal.

[Jude Connolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mythologies/folk beliefs should've been divided into what was before and after the influence of Christianity since so much of it changed as a result, but it was still generally helpful.

[James Norton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written for an academic readership, this book boils down old tales and legends to the barest of outlines, compressing epics (or at least fully realized tales) into paragraph-long riffs. It's an incredible way to warehouse a tremendous volume of lore and legends, and it makes for fascinating reading.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection. it was used as the main text in a Scandinavian folk literature class I took.

[Catherine Schaff-Stump · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really useful and fun for research. Talk to me about the politics of milk.