All the World's Reward: Folktales Told by Five Scandinavian Storytellers

by Reimund Kvideland (Editor), Henning K. Sehmsdorf (Editor)

All the World's Reward presents ninety-eight tales from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Swedish-speaking Finland, and Iceland. Each area is represented by the complete recorded repertoire of a single storyteller. Such a focus helps place the stories in the context of the communities in which they were performed and also reveals how individual folk artists used the medium of oral literature to make statements about their lives and their world. Some preferred jocular stories and others wonder tales; some performed mostly for adults, others for children; some used storytelling to criticize society, and others spun wish fulfillment tales to find relief from a harsh reality.

Genres: Folklore

325 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1999

Reviews

[Steven Walle · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the World's Reward is an extensive and excellent collection of Scandinavian folk lore. A group of 5 contributers share the stories from Norway, Finland, Sweeden, and Iceland. The narrative story telling tradition is becoming a lost art and it was great to hear some of it again. I would recommend this book highly.
Be Blessed.
Diamond

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to Scandinavian Folktales through five individual story tellers and their repertoires. I use this to teach my Scandinavian folklore course, and like it much better than the editors' collection of Legends and Folk Beliefs (though in any case, both books are the most complete presentation of texts in Scandinavian folklore available in English, as far as I know). Each section is in turn edited by another scholar who specializes in that particular country's folklore.

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty comprehensive collection, with lots of good information about the storytellers. However, the faithfulness of the translation to the original speaking style of the storytellers can sometimes detract from the readability of the stories themselves.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book, which carefully looks at context, history and genre. A helpful book. Uses ideas from Bengt Holbek's works. I have read it several times.