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"Folklore Norway."
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Sister Bear : a Norse tale
Halva is traveling with her trained bear to visit the King of Denmark when they stop for the night at a cottage where, they learn, a pack of trolls is about to make its annual Christmas Eve visit, causing trouble and making a big mess. Includes author's note about the story's origins.
Book
The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe
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 titleNorske 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.
eBook
Seven ways to trick a troll
A collection of seven Norwegian folktales from various historical and international sources, all featuring trolls and showing how even small children can trick them. Includes an introduction explaining what trolls are and how they came to be.
Book
Trolls
Cover; Trolls: An Unnatural History; Imprint Page; Contents; Introduction; 1. The Earliest Trolls; 2. Medieval Trolls; 3. Folklore Trolls; 4. Fairy-tale Trolls and Trolls Illustrated; 5. Trolls in Literature; 6. Trolls, Children, Marketing and Whimsy; Epilogue; Sources and Further Reading; Acknowledgements and Photo Acknowledgements; Index. Trolls lurk under bridges waiting to eat children, threaten hobbits in Middle-Earth, and invade the dungeons of Hogwarts. Often they are depicted as stupid, slow, and ugly creatures, but they also appear as comforting characters in some children’ s stories or as plastic dolls with bright, fuzzy hair. Today, the name of this fantastic being from Scandinavia has found a wider reach: it is the word for the homeless in California and slang for the antagonizing and sometimes cruel people on the Internet. But how did trolls go from folktales to the World Wide Web? To explain why trolls still hold our interest, John Lindow goes back to their first appearances in Scandinavian folklore, where they were beings in nature living beside a preindustrial society of small-scale farming and fishing. He explores reports of actual encounters with trolls - meetings others found plausible in spite of their better judgment - and follows trolls’ natural transition from folktales to other domains in popular culture.
eBook
The Saga of the Volsungs
The Saga of the Volsungsis an Icelandic epic of special interest to admirers of Richard Wagner, who drew heavily upon this Norse source in writing his Ring Cycle and a primary source for writers of fantasy such as J. R. R. Tolkien and romantics such as William Morris. A trove of traditional lore, it tells of love, jealousy, vengeance, war, and the mythic deeds of the dragonslayer, Sigurd the Volsung. Byock's comprehensive introduction explores the history, legends, and myths contained in the saga and traces the development of a narrative that reaches back to the period of the great folk migrations in Europe when the Roman Empire collapsed.
eBook
d'Aulaires' book of Norwegian folktales
Twenty-one of the Norwegian folktales collected by Asbj²rnsen and Moe telling of trolls, sprites, princesses, cinderlads, talking cats, and mountains made of glass.
Book
Plasmodial slime moulds (myxomycetes) in Swedish and Nordic folk biology
Background
Folk biology commonly contains knowledge of many more taxa than those of immediate economic importance. Species with little or no practical use are, however, often overlooked by ethnobiological research. An example are a few Myxomycetes taxa which played an important role in the folk biology and beliefs of pre-industrial Sweden and adjacent Nordic countries, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Such organisms are not of less interest for the understanding of human-biota relationships; local knowledge about the entire biota in a given environment should therefore be studied to comprehend the full range of folk biology.
Methodology
This qualitative study analyses and reviews historical data available in archives and published ethnographic collections as well as scattered and fragmentary notes in the literature using a historical ethnobiological approach.
Results
Peasants in the Nordic countries recognized three taxa of myxomycetes. Scrambled egg slime,
Fuligo septica
(L.) F.H.Wigg., in particular attracted interest and is known by many local folk names. This slime had no practical value or use, yet it was well known in folk biology and associated with a supernatural malevolent being which in the shape of a hare or cat stole milk or butter on behalf of a witch. The belief in evil origins of slime became the cause of violent actions such as whipping and burning of the organism. Two other taxa,
Lycogala epidendron
(L.) Fr. and
Mucilago crustacea
F.H.Wigg., have also been observed in folk biology, but data on how they were perceived and treated is sparse.
Conclusions
The sudden appearance of strange shapes and clear colours of myxomycetes in damp weather created both fear and curiosity; these odd organisms required explanations, interpretations and actions. Our example of the economically irrelevant myxomycetes in Sweden and nearby Nordic countries indicates that interpretations in pre-industrial societies of natural phenomena and various organisms, connections with beliefs and perceptions about the surrounding environment and the possible consequent actions should be studied alongside economic plants and animals in ethnobiological research, for a deeper understanding about folk biology and the multilayered and multidimensional relationships between humans and biota.
Journal Article
The three Billy Goats Gruff : a favorite story in rhythm and rhyme
Retells, through song, the tale of three billy goats who trick a troll that lives under the bridge. Includes glossary, critical thinking questions, and sheet music.
Book
Conspiratorial Thinking among Russian Speakers in Estonia: From COVID-19 to the War in Ukraine
This research stems from ethnographic interviews about COVID-19 conspiracy theories that uncovered that the interviewees (members of the Russophone minority residing in Estonia) perceived a significant connection between the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. I analyze major themes that bring two conspiracy theories together, one theory about the pandemic and the other about the war in Ukraine—and other narratives that tend to gravitate toward them to form a system of vernacular knowledge. I also explore the reasons and vulnerabilities behind this group's beliefs in conspiracy theories.
Journal Article