The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe

by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Jørgen Moe, Neil Gaiman (Foreword)

A new, definitive English translation of the celebrated story collection regarded as a landmark of Norwegian literature and culture
 

The extraordinary folktales collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe began appearing in Norway in 1841. Over the next two decades the publication of subsequent editions under the title Norske folkeeventyr made the names Asbjørnsen and Moe synonymous with Norwegian storytelling traditions. Tiina Nunnally’s vivid translation of their monumental collection is the first new English translation in more than 150 years—and the first ever to include all sixty original tales.

Magic and myth inhabit these pages in figures both familiar and strange. Giant trolls and talking animals are everywhere. The winds take human form. A one-eyed old woman might seem reminiscent of the Norse god Odin. We meet sly aunts, resourceful princesses, and devious robbers. The clever and fearless boy Ash Lad often takes center stage as he ingeniously breaks spells and defeats enemies to win half the kingdom. These stories, set in Norway’s majestic landscape of towering mountains and dense forests, are filled with humor, mischief, and sometimes surprisingly cruel twists of fate. All are rendered in the deceptively simple narrative style perfected by Asbjørnsen and Moe—now translated into an English that is as finely tuned to the modern ear as it is true to the original Norwegian.

Included here—for the very first time in English—are Asbjørnsen and Moe’s Forewords and Introductions to the early Norwegian editions of the tales. Asbjørnsen gives us an intriguing glimpse into the actual collection process and describes how the stories were initially received, both in Norway and abroad. Equally fascinating are Moe’s views on how central characters might be interpreted and his notes on the regions where each story was originally collected. Nunnally’s informative Translator’s Note places the tales in a biographical, historical, and literary context for the twenty-first century.

The Norwegian folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe are timeless stories that will entertain, startle, and enthrall readers of all ages.

 

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

339 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1843

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

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and The University of Minnesota Press for this ARC.

As requested, I will hold off on my full review here until closer to the book’s publication.

[Ken Fredette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute book of folktales thats very much like what Hans Christian Anderson wrote. But it's full of 3 headed trolls, 6 headed trolls, and 9 headed trolls, which the Ash Lad had to take care of in order to win his princess. There was a blue ribbon that made the boy stronger than any troll. We had the boys work for their princesses by going 1000 miles, 2000 miles, and 4000 miles in one day. We had a lad changing into different horses to fool his master, eventually besting him. They had most of the stories with good endings. I only read one with a bad ending for the person. I would praise Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Moe as exceptional storytellers where you could read one or two or more a night to your children before they slept. There was meaning in most of the stories for the better.

[Linden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a wonderful new translation of the folk tales of Norway. Similar in many ways to folk tales of other countries, yet uniquely Norwegian, the reader is treated to stories of many-headed trolls with great wealth, beautiful princesses, younger brothers triumphing over older ones, and helpful animals. I was glad to have the opportunity to read an excellent modern translation of these tales, which I'd like to imagine that my Norwegian ancestors told around the fire on a winter evening.

[Sammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those Norwegians are a bloodthirsty lot...

[Ghost of the Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the perfect treat to relax and distract myself from all that's going on around us right now.
I've never been one to think that fairy tales are for children only, after all i did just sign up for Disney+ .... lol.
For any one familiar with Norse mythology or even that work of love called Lord of the Rings a good many things here will be familiar, which doesn't make it less worthy to be read by all means!
This collection gathered all those years ago is nothing less that a testament of two men's love for their country and, consciously or not, a very big tool in helping Norway establish a better sense of self as a nation, given the period in which they were gathered and first published.
What's so special about this particular translation? It's the first time in a very long time that the tales are translated to English, and even better all of them are gathered here, which didn't happen with the previous, and til now, only translation into the English language.
All this to say, do you love a happy ending? Seeing the hero get his reward and the villain get punished? Do you miss the magic and the creatures from Middle Earth?
Take a plunge into this one...you won't regret it.


P.S: Kudos to the translator, this was a big bone to chew and she did a great job.

Happy Readings!

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of folktales in a similar vein to Hans Christian Andersen, however uniquely Norwegian in the sense that they definitely felt local and historical to Norway, full of trolls and other beings said to inhabit the Scandinavian country. There are stories of men walking thousands of miles, a blue ribbon making someone even stronger when he has it, a cat that kept all the vermin away and many others including a classic involving some billy goats. Overall it was a really enjoyable collection to delve into and I am glad I read it.

[Carol Bakker · Rating 3 out of 5]

My friends, Joel and Cheyenne, put this on their baby shower wish list. How cool is that? I grabbed that item, always excited to give the gift of a book. And found myself intrigued. I discovered that Audible carries this title in their Plus Catalog and jumped into it.

I'm a fan of translator Tiina Nunnally (she translated Kristin Lavransdatter) and was delighted with Ann Richardson's narration.

The stories are better suited to one or two at a sitting. I caught myself listening with adult ears and with adult impatience. The structure of fairy tales often involves *a lot* of repetition. We are used to "Cinderella" in our fairytales, but these folktales use "Ashlad."

I'm truly ignorant about fairy tales. I'm planning on taking Angelina Stanford's Fairy Tale class to understand more. I'm expecting to come back to listen again, and with increased comprehension will come increased appreciation. And probably 4 stars.

[Puj Doo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being slightly Norwegian, it was so fun to see where all the old stories came from.
I remember my dad telling versions of these to me and my siblings. When I told him i found some of his famous stories (although a bit less modernized) he was very confused, as all his stories were brought down from his parents and he figured they were made up.
Cool to see that even though i didn't know i had any connection to my roots, in little ways i still do.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read a complete Grimm, or HC Andersen, or any of the other major collections of folkloric fairy tale. So I might find those as well to be a bit too patchy and plain weird at times for my tastes, while also providing some fun. This certainly can be called that – patchy, as some stories go on too long and some hardly ever get going; plain weird, for the stories that can outstay their welcome do so by including too any elements. Take 'The Three Princesses in White Land' as an example – a lad gets hidden from his fate when sold as a baby, then must ignore two lovely princesses buried up to their necks in sand, but, he is told (how is this even known?) to obey the third, who says how he is to defeat three trolls who beat him up first. Newly married he's given a condition to live by, fails to obey that rule, then uses a host of magical transport and magical people to find out where he should go to redeem himself – and there are still three bits of this to do this with and that for and ye gods is this a folk tale or a whole saga?

I've not come across such wilfully convoluted approaches in the more popular stories of this form. But there is still fun, as I say, not least in those entries here featuring Ash Lad, a down-on-his-luck character that's half Cinderella, half Struwwelpeter (oh, and the former gets to make a convoluted appearance in these pages). We also see the benefit of living the complete opposite to that guy who swapped a paper-clip up and up to a house. There is a clear comment to be made about this collection, in that the authors are so little-known worldwide as opposed to the others I mentioned at the top, and that may well be for obvious reasons. But that's not to denigrate this collection; it's been well put together, and even if my e-arc was done too early for Neil Gaiman's introduction you can see there is a bid to put these stories out there where they should belong. I think they do belong in a second rank, below the Grimms etc, but they're still readable, and the academic will be very grateful for this compilation – the first time ever the full sixty, presented by a vicar and a peat expert, have ever been together in English.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe is a delightful collection that will appeal to readers of all ages. Nunnally's translation flows beautifully and simply, and the stories are varied and numerous. It is fascinating to compare these stories to folktales from other parts of Europe, noting the similarities and differences. I appreciate the inclusion of the authors' original and interesting forewords, as well as the list showing the source location(s) of each tale. This is definitely a book I would like to have in my home library.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Norwegians sure gave the Grimm Brothers a run for their money on odd, violent, and disturbing tales.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 5.0 of 5

This book holds so much appeal to me on so many different levels. First of all, I'm fascinated by fairy tales, folk tales, and mythology. The creating of myths and legends to explain the unexplained, or to teach lessons, or simply to pass along stories to new generations is so remarkable. We get caught up in best-seller fiction that we tend to forget these roots of story-telling.

Then there's the absurd and the supernatural elements. For most readers today, if I offered a novel or a collection of short stories of trolls, or people turning into pigs or horses or birds, or where witches offered up promises of riches, the responses would typically be that the readers isn't interested in supernatural fiction or such fantasy elements. But if it's offered as a fairy tale or folk tale, the response tends to be different.

And then there's the unique 'Norwegian-ness' to the stories. I loved reading these and thinking that it is very likely that my ancestors were read or told many of these stories as they were growing up.

And finally, I liked how new some of these were to me, and how similar to other countries' tales other stories were.

I have to admit, the character of Ash Lad was entirely new to me, and he appears in a number of stories in this collection. He was apparently a popular 'everyboy' symbol. He is often (always?) the youngest of siblings, given the worst chores and not much is expected of him in terms of success. But of course, he is usually the one who succeeds where all the others before him have failed. The first two times I read a story in which Ash Lad appeared I didn't think much about the character, but by the third time, I had grown to look forward to reading the Ash Lad stories.

Some stories were quite interesting for their different look at a familiar concept. "Kari Stave-Skirt" was quite an interesting variation on the Cinderella story. And "The Twelve Wild Ducks" is the Snow White story.

Most of us have heard of frog's turning into prince's or swans becoming a princess, but never before have I read a story in which a cat's head is cut off and "the loveliest princess that anyone could ever imagine" appears! ("Sir Per")

One of the great things about folk tales is that if you don't want to explain how something happened, you don't have to! "There were once three brothers," begins the story, "Nothing is Needed by the one All Women Love," "I don’t really know how it happened, but each of them had been given one wish so they could have whatever they wanted."

And of the greatest titles for a short story/tale would have to be: "The Blacksmith They Didn't Dare Let into Hell"

In addition to a quite thorough collection of fairy tales, we are given numerous forewords introductions (collected from the various Norwegian editions) that give us some valuable insight into the development and changing role of folk tales in Norwegian literature.

It took me a little longer than normal to read this book because I savored it. The tales are often quite short, but reading too many in one sitting (certainly not how they would have been read or told to children) would have them blend together a bit.

I've read most of Andersen's and Grimm's fairy tales and it was a real treasure for me to read Asbjørnsen and Moe.

This book contains the following:

Foreword - Neil Gaiman
Translator’s Note
3 About Ash Lad, Who Stole the Troll’s
Silver Ducks, Coverlet, and Golden Harp
The Gjertrud Bird
The Griffin
The Quandary
Richman Peddler Per
Ash Lad, Who Competed with the Troll
About the Boy Who Went to the North Wind and Demanded the Flour Back
The Virgin Mary As Godmother
The Three Princesses in White Land
Some Women Are Like That
Everyone Thinks Their Own Children Are Best
A Tale of Courtship
The Three Aunts
The Widow’s Son
The Husband’s Daughter and the Wife ’s Daughter
The Rooster and the Hen in the Nut Forest
The Bear and the Fox Why the Bear Has a Stump of a Tail
The Fox Cheats the Bear Out of His Christmas Meal
Gudbrand Slope
Kari Stave-Skirt
The Fox As Shepherd
The Blacksmith They Didn’t Dare Let into Hell
The Rooster and the Hen
The Rooster, the Cuckoo, and the Black Grouse
Lillekort
The Doll in the Grass
Paal Next-Door
Soria Moria Castle
Sir Per
Little Aase Goosegirl
The Boy and the Devil
The Seven Foals
Gidske
The Twelve Wild Ducks
The Master Thief
The Three Sisters Who Were Taken into the Mountain
About the Giant Troll Who Never Carried His Heart with Him
Dappleband
Nothing Is Needed by the One All Women Love
Ash Lad, Who Got the Princess to Say He Was Lying
The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Who Were Supposed to Go to the Mountain Pasture to Fatten Up
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
The Hen Who Had to Go to Dovre Mountain or Else the Whole World Would Perish
The Man Who Had to Keep House
Tom Thumb
Haaken Speckled-Beard
Master Maiden
Well Done and Poorly Rewarded
True and Untrue
Per and Paal and Esben Ash Lad
The Mill That Keeps Grinding at the Bottom of the Sea
The Maiden on the Glass Mountain
Butterball
Big Per and Little Per
Ragged Cap
The Bushy Bride
The Tabby Cat on Dovre Mountain
Farmer Weather-Beard
The Blue Ribbon
The Honest Four-Skilling Coin
The Old Man of the House
Foreword to the Second Norwegian Edition - Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
From the Introduction to the Second Norwegian Edition - Jørgen Moe
Foreword to the Third Norwegian Edition - Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Foreword to the Fourth Norwegian Edition - Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Notes on the Regional Collection Sites of the Tales
Index

Looking for a good book? The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe is valuable book and resource of fairy tales and anyone interested in the history of literature or story-telling, or just a great collection of classic tales, this is definitely a book to have.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

[Ruxandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

When they were about to eat dinner at the bridal estate, Tom Thumb was seated at the table next to the princess. But he was in a terrible position, for he couldn’t reach any of the food. He wouldn’t have had even a bite to eat if the princess hadn’t helped him up onto the table. Everything was fine and good as long as he could eat what was on his plate.

But then a big, big tureen of porridge was brought in, and he couldn’t reach inside of it. Tom Thumb knew just what to do. He climbed up and sat on the rim.

There was a lump of butter in the middle of the porridge, and he couldn’t reach it. He crawled into the tureen and sat at the very edge of the butter. All of a sudden the princess picked up a big spoonful of porridge so she could dip it in the butter.

The spoon came so close to Tom Thumb that he fell into the butter and drowned. (p. 197)

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming collection. There were some similar elements amongst the tales though so they could feel a bit repetitive but still there were so many of them. They were not moralising and some were funny in a horrifying way (prompted a reaction of "oh no..." 😅). This along with the fact that there were some intentional repetition in the storytelling made me think that children would find them entertaining indeed.
Well translated and well narrated too

[Vanessa Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

True to form for Norwegian folktales, this anthology was delightfully wacky and at times slightly off-putting, just as it should be.

[Ann Bradley M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly LOVED THIS. Each story is so clever. Read it bc my dog has a Norwegian name (Freya) & enjoyed every minute of it

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I both really enjoyed and didn't enjoy these stories. On the one hand, I love the narrative voice. My dad used to tell me Norwegian bedtime stories, and I recognize a very similar style of speaking. It is authentic and brings me back to my childhood. I can also tell that these are a national and cultural treasure.
My only hesitation is that as a reader, many of these short stories feel very similar. They kind of blend together (especially with all the Ash Lads). Which meant that as a reader, I didn't enjoy as much.
But, I need to give full props to the translator, Tina Nunnally, and to Asbjornsen and Moe for collecting the stories. Individually, the stories are amazing and excellent. And that's how I recommend you read them, once a night, out loud, for the full effect.
I loved "The Three Aunts", "The Rooster and the Hen in the Nut Forest", and "Richman Peddler Per." Three short stories I'm sure I will come back to again and again.

[Katy H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars mainly because there is a lot of repetition within and between tales that becomes more tedious the further you read. Basically, every hero has to chop off some troll heads (sometimes several per troll!), most everything costs $300, quests involve the protagonist doing the exact same thing (worded almost exactly the same way) multiple times, and the reward for completing a quest is a princess and half the kingdom. There you go, I've summarized at least half the book for you. It's got some gems, notably The Man Who Had to Keep House (plot: a farmer husband switches roles with his wife for a day and practically destroys their house). My suggestion for anyone wanting to read is to choose a selection of tales and skip some of the ones about Ash Lad, the boy who can always do anything his brothers can't - there are many!

[Lory Hess · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe form one of the treasures of world folklore. In this newly translated, definitive edition we have these beloved tales -- such as East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Three Billy Goats Gruff -- and others less well known, in a version that strives to preserve the spirit of the original. The translator's introduction is fascinating and enlightening, and as an appendix the introductions to the first four Norwegian editions are included for further research. A foreword by Neil Gaiman was not included in the review copy, but I'm sure it will also be excellent. This is a must-have edition for lovers of folktales.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any unabridged collection, there’s great stories and some expose the formula, which can be wearying if listened to back to back. It’s also hard to separate the story from the tale. I believe folktales are best heard but wonder with so many takes if multiple narrators would have been a better choice. I read about half and will come back to it time to time, which I think is the best way to enjoy folk tales. Save each like a little treat rather than try to read it as a novel.

[Vonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for sharing these folktales! A very enjoyable collection of Norwegian folktales seamlessly translated. I read them in the evenings to my family to much enjoyment and discussion. We imagined it was the way they were first shared. This one is a must have for your folktale collection.

[Gerry Grenfell-Walford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different folk tales from different places seem to have subtly different purposes and priorities.
These ones, collected from 1800s Norway, seem to have mainly two aims: to entertain and to instruct. Hard work is valued in these stories, kindness, courage and generosity. Characters who fail to display these values, rarely prosper. Many of the tales speak of grinding poverty- something I suspect the original tellers had much familiarity with! Many a tale starts along the lines of: 'there once was a man and wife who were so poor they had nothing but their three children...'
Despite this punishing hardship, children are always seen as a joy and a gift, especially younger and perhaps initially unpromising ones. And a mark of a troll's sheer evil is their desire to hurt or even eat children. In one story Ash -Lad is rewarded for his curiosity- I can think of almost no other tradition where children nosing about is approved of!! Icelandic tales for example, spend much longer scaring the life out of minors to keep them from wandering off, and to keep them alive!
Though hazy on the details, the peasants in the stories try to be good Christians, and one can see the firm imprint of Lutheranism in the way hard physical work is a virtue. They are also unquestioningly pro-monarchical. Kings are basically good, and success is usually when one of the characters becomes a king themselves. Still, the peasants are not obsequious or servile, and they never compromise their basic honesty.
There are indeed some teasing hangovers from Norway's heroic Pagan past: when a character says 'its been a while since a Christian came this way' you're being told that the character has wandered out of the busy Norwegian ports, into the vast Norwegian hinterland of glaciers and impenetrable wildernesses, and even more so into the Norwegian folk imagination. Here both danger AND reward beckon, outside the run of the usual drudgery.
Superficially, the tales do have a deep conservatism to them, as you might expect. But they also have warmth and humour, and an eye for the grotesque and the weird. Old ladies have baroquely excessive facial features for example, and it's sometimes not revealed to the end whether someone is is being completely bat-sh*t crazy or are actually being dazzlingly clever. The story of the supportive wife, for example, might well be an exhausted husband's fantasy, but it turns out kindly for both of them in this instance, and certainly better than might really be believed mainly, I think, because the husband too is basically a 'good egg' who loves his wife.
Magic is an important feature, but it's not the main one. These stories seem to me to be about handing down values, and magic is the sugar to swallow the pill. It's about the Norwegian peasants themselves, and it's really quite interesting.

***** Great
**** Good
*** Fair
** Poor
* Dire

[Steven Dunlap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before we had radio, movies, television or the internet we had folktales. People had to entertain each other through the immediacy of in-person story-telling. Reading folktales provides us with more than just stories to enjoy. They also teach us about a people and a culture, sometimes at a given time in the past or sometimes now. People have often used folktales to explain the world to their children. Therefore, reading the Norwegian folktales in this book tells us what ordinary people in Norway valued, what they hoped for and what sort of people they wanted their children to become when they grew up. The tales in this book come to us from two amateur folklorists who traveled through the Norwegian countryside the 19th century, painstakingly coaxing and cajoling people into trusting them with their stories.

Some stories show the rewards of hard work or of acting in an honest, forthright manner, such as the one about a boy who always makes good on his promises; thereby receiving the reward of his own kingdom. Others show the value of cooperation, such as the story of two step-sisters -- one who takes advice graciously and helps those who help her as opposed to the other sister who ignores good advice and takes whatever she wants. Each obtains different results in the same circumstances. Throughout most of these stories we see the recurring theme of individuals requiring something for their help. And those who bargain in good faith then deliver receive rewards. Those who do not -- well, they do not fair so well, such as the trolls who get their heads cut off in the end.

I listened to the eAudiobook version that has an excellent narrator, Ann Richardson, who modulates her voice to give each character their own "voice," in Norwegian accented English. The translator, Tiina Nunnally, has taken the 19th century Norwegian and given us the prose in 21st century English, replacing some of the archaic words and expressions that appear in earlier English translations. Earlier translations also omitted many of the stories, making this the first book in English that contains all known Norwegian folktales.

[Marzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Translator Tiina Nunnally first caught my attention in 2005 with her spectacular modern translations of the Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales which removed all the syrupy sweet Disney coating and looked at the astonishingly sharp lessons Andersen offered up to Danish children. (Witness the actual story of The Snow Queen, for instance, in all its Christian allusion.) As such, I was eager to review Nunnally's latest translation of folktales, modern translations of the much loved Norwegian Folktales collected over decades by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. From Ash Lad to Three Billy Goats Gruff, from three-headed trolls to twelve-headed ones, all the classics are here including my personal childhood favorite, "The Tabby Cat of Dovre Mountain." (If you've never that one, you should if you want a good laugh.) This is a beautiful edition of the folktales but alas, it is only at present available in hardcover. I'm still waiting for my copy because it looks as if the first printing may have sold out. If you are a lover of folktales, this is a wonderful edition. Nunnally's well-worded translations (she points out all the efforts translators make to capture the intent of the original in terms understood by modern readers.

The introduction written by Neil Gaiman was not made available in the Digital Review Copy I received, but many readers may recall his own recent foray into the Norse world, Norse Mythology. I'm eager to see what he has written about this classic collection.

Spin, span, spun- my review is done!


I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from UMP via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Cathy Geha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe
by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Jørgen Moe

Translated by Tiina Nunnally

Having loved Fairy Tales and Folk Tales for all of my life and having read them from many countries I was delighted to find this book up for review and now want to add it to my collection. In this book there is history about the original authors and how they collected the tales, the fact that the authors were influenced by Grimm and more.

As I read I saw tales that I remember reading as a child and others that reminded me, in part, of other fairy tales. The illustrations are marvelous. I believe this book is not only historical but relevant and educational and would allow for discussion in classes or between parents and children.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I buy? Yes, to add to my collection
Would I buy it to give as a gift? I think my granddaughters “might” enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley and University of Minnesota Press for the ARC - This is my honest review.

5 Stars

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun collection of children's stories from Norway. Originally published in 1841, the 2019 English translation is accessible and would be quite readable for children. I will admit that as an adult some of the stories bored me - they can be very repetitive. Still, The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe provides an interesting look into Norwegian folklore of the 19th century.
*
Title: The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe
Author(s): Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Jørgen Moe, Tiina Nunnally (translator), with a foreword Neil Gaiman
Year: 2019, first published in 1841
Genre: Fiction - Short story collection: folklore, fantasy
Page count: 320 pages
Date(s) read: 10/8/23 - 10/19/23
Book #202 in 2023

[Lauren D'Souza · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are fun, bizarre Norwegian folktales - simply put. Asbjornsen and Moe were two nineteenth-century collectors of old Norwegian folklore who worked in tandem for most of their folk-telling careers; this is the first English translation of their complete folktales in more than 150 years.

The stories read like a mix of Grimm’s fairy tales, ancient etiological stories, and Greek myths. To me, they’re not the kind of myths that I would have enjoyed reading as a young girl - they’re filled with deception, mischief, murder (quite often), and other wild adventures - but I can see these being popular oral histories for kids of the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of the myths tell tales of “Ash Lad,” the youngest of three sons who was so named because his older brothers said he was only good for digging in the ashes - but as you may expect, Ash Lad is a clever boy, finding novel solutions to problems that stump his older brothers. You’ll find all of the other folktale characters here - damsels in distress, tricky robbers, nasty Norwegian trolls, wise and prophetic old women or men, all set against Norway’s forests and mountains.

Reading the introductory note from the translator gives you a sense of how daunting it must have been to translate these stories - not did Nunnally have to translate from old Norwegian, but she strived to maintain the same simple narrative style that Asbjornsen and Moe used, filled with humor, alliteration, and repetition. She also updated the dialogue to make it less archaic, but still reflective of the homely characters in the stories. Some of Nunnally’s efforts don’t fully succeed, but I was impressed anywhere I could get even a glimpse of the humor and mischief that was present in the original Norwegian tales.

Overall, an entertaining and fun read if you were the kind of kid who enjoyed fairy tales or the kind of high-schooler who enjoyed the Greek epics. Thank you to University of Minnesota Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a lover of fairytales and mythology, this book was right up my alley, packed full of trolls and princesses and talking animals. The book definitely had a Norwegian feel to it, and I couldn't help but think of this being read to children around a roaring fire with the snow falling heavily outside. The book feels more folktale than Brothers Grimm, and I loved the stories, almost all of which were new to me. This would be lovely to reread on a Winter night, and I'm looking forward to the darker months so I can do just that.

NOTE: I was provided with a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Jenessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Almost all of these tales were new to me! I was pleasantly surprised by that, I had fun learning about Ash Lad and various trolls. This is an extensive collection of folktales and lends itself to being picked up and put down; this took me quite a while to go through. These are very classic folktales and may seem a bit simplistic to the modern reader. If you’re not into mythology/folktales this probably isn’t the book for you. Still I enjoyed it! I also for once found that the different forewords actually added to the story. It was interesting seeing the change from essentially two crazy guys collecting old tales to them becoming part of the Norwegian national identity.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally! I finally got through it!
I read the majority of the tales last year, but after about 60 to 70%, I needed a break from all the small stories, there was a lot of repetition, and some of them were kind of traumatizing. I have read horror books that are tame by comparison, I’m not kidding.

Despite the few really twisted and weird ones, there were lots of interesting tales, most of the Ash Lad ones were great, some about heroines as well.

I finished it up in between other books but pushed myself to finish the last hour of the audiobook.
The narration was fantastic and definitely part of the reason I wanted to come back to it.