Illustrations by Ulla Thynell from Nordic Tales: Folktales from Norway

Nordic Tales: Folktales from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark by Chronicle Books (Author), Ulla Thynell  (Illustrator) is intended for younger readers but is really for anyone who wants to see some illustrated versions of tales. And that always includes me. And since my DNA is about 41% Norwegian, I always enjoy Nordic tales. Be sure to page down for some illustrations, especially one for one of my favorites, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, since it is a Beauty and the Beast tale.

Book Description:

Nordic Tales is a collection of 16 traditional tales from the enchanting world of Nordic folklore.

Translated and transcribed by folklorists in the 19th century, these stories are at once magical, hilarious, cozy, and chilling.

Welcome to a world of mystical adventure—where trolls haunt the snowy forests, terrifying monsters roam the open sea, a young woman journeys to the end of the world, and a boy proves he knows no fear.

• Offers a fascinating view into Nordic culture
• The tales come alive alongside bold, contemporary art
• Part of the popular Tales series, featuring Tales of Japan, Celtic Tales, Tales of India, and Tales of East Africa

Nordic Tales will enthrall fans of fairytales and captivate those interested in the rich history of Nordic culture.

Ulla Thynell's glowing contemporary illustrations accompany each tale, conjuring dragons, princesses, and the northern lights.

And three of the illustrations: 

East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Hildur, Queen of the Elves

The Magician's Pupil

 

New Book: West of the Moon by Margi Preus

West of the Moon by Margi Preus was released this month. The novel borrows from several fairy tales, primarily Norwegian, such as King Valemon, The Twelve Wild Ducks, Soria Moria Castle, and, of course, East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

Can I just say my Norwegian blood is clamoring for me to read this? But I am trying to finish my own books right now? This one will hopefully be of interest to my niece Leighton this summer and we can then read it together. I'm a quarter Norwegian after all. Which makes her an eighth.

Book description:

In West of the Moon, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Margi Preus expertly weaves original fiction with myth and folktale to tell the story of Astri, a young Norwegian girl desperate to join her father in America.

After being separated from her sister and sold to a cruel goat farmer, Astri makes a daring escape. She quickly retrieves her little sister, and, armed with a troll treasure, a book of spells and curses, and a possibly magic hairbrush, they set off for America. With a mysterious companion in tow and the malevolent “goatman” in pursuit, the girls head over the Norwegian mountains, through field and forest, and in and out of folktales and dreams as they steadily make their way east of the sun and west of the moon.

Praise for West of the Moon

FIVE STARRED REVIEWS

"Like dun silk shot thought with gold, Preus interweaves the mesmerizing tale of Astri’s treacherous and harrowing mid-nineteenth-century emigration to America with bewitching tales of magic. A fascinating author’s note only adds to the wonder."
--Booklist, starred review

"Norwegian history, fiction and folklore intertwine seamlessly in this lively, fantastical adventure and moving coming-of-age story."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Enthralling and unflinching, this historical tale resonates with mythical undertones that will linger with readers after the final page is turned."
--School Library Journal, starred review

"Astri is like a girl out of a fairy tale, and the native folktales that Preus weaves through the narrative serve as guides, lessons, and inspiration for her."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Several Norwegian folktales are seamlessly integrated into the fast-paced, lyrically narrated story, which features a protagonist as stalwart and fearless as any fairy-tale hero."
--The Horn Book Magazine, starred review

Three Billy Goats Gruff Toys and My Favorite Book Version

My niece Kensie and I have been sharing The Three Billy Goats Gruff every time we get together recently. She is almost four years old and enjoys this story more than I expected. Of course, I adore it, too, and someday I hope she will still remember it--I think she will--and I will explain it is also part of her Norwegian heritage.

I started out with my favorite picture book version of it the story, The Three Billy Goats Gruff PB w CD (Book & CD) by Mary Finch (Author), Roberta Arenson (Illustrator), the version I have used for large storytimes for over ten years now. The text is perfect for reading aloud and the illustrations suit a larger audience sitting at your feet.

I especially love Finch's text for these lines which are quite fun to sing:

"I'm a troll, from a deep dark hole,
My belly's getting thinner,
I need to eat--and goat's a treat--
So I'll have you for my dinner."

Here's a page:

See, non threatening overall with playful colors although the troll is brown and mean.

After introducing the book, I produced my finger puppets for the tale--mine were made by Manhattan Toy and are discontinued--so we could tell the story again. Now, every time I visit, I read and Kensie plays with the puppets, acting out the story with great enthusiasm. I love the finger puppets I have because the middle goat is also a sister, not a brother, which adds to the fun. But they are no longer readily available for purchase so I thought I would see what else I could find. And I found Alma's Designs Billy Goats Gruff. What fun! Here's a little image of it with link since I put a big image at the top of this post:

There is also the Educational Insights Three Billy Goats Gruff which allows for finger puppet or flannel board use.

And another flannel board set, Flannelboards Billy Goats Gruff:

My other favorite is this puppet set, The Three Billy Goats Gruff Puppets, which would work better in a classroom with lots of kids:

I don't know if Kensie will receive any of these since I already have the system that works well for us and I like to keep the story new for when we see each other, but these would be great in the classroom or home. I love the story and I have yet to find a kid who doesn't either.

King Valemon, the White Bear: A Norwegian Beauty and the Beast Tale

Hello all! I haven't forgotten to keep posting about tales in Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World. My grandfather died last week and the weeks before and especially after have been more than a little filled with other needs. It's time to return to the tales I love, however.

I was going to work chronologically--and I will somewhat in coming days--but my grandfather was a proud Norwegian since both of his parents immigrated from Norway before his birth. Yes, that makes me a quarter pure Norwegian, too, going back only a few generations. And a quarter German and a quarter Swiss and an 1/8 English and an 1/8 Swedish. Yes, overall, I am a Scandinavian by blood. Which explains my grandfather's 95 years with us despite years of cigar smoke.

So I wanted to share a Norwegian tale today to honor him. The two choices from my book are East of the Sun, West of the Moon and King Valemon, the White Bear. I think everyone is fairly familiar with East of the Sun, West of the Moon around here since it is the quintessential ATU 425A tale. And it is annotated on the SurLaLune main site although I need to finish updating the pages in the section with new info. And I will talk about it, too, mostly in the vein of interpretations of the tale since there are many great ones.

It is easy to confuse East of the Sun with King Valemon since they both have big white bears in them. And often retellers will mix their details, as happens in Princess and the White Bear King by Tanya Robyn Batt, in which the opening of King Valemon is used and combined with East of the Sun and The Black Bull of Norroway, a Scottish tale. Many of the Great Britain ATU 425A tales reference Norway.

There is also a Norwegian movie, The Polar Bear King, which references the tale, too.

White-Bear King Valemon by Theodor Kittelsen

The tale synopsis from Wikipedia is better than what I can write in a few short minutes, so here it is:

A king had two ugly and mean daughters and one, the youngest, who was beautiful and gentle. She dreamed of a golden wreath. Her father set goldsmiths to make it, but none of them matched her dream. Then she saw a white bear in the woods, and it had the wreath. The bear would not give it to her before she agreed to go away with him, and got three days to prepare for the trip. The daughter did not care for anything as long as she had the wreath, and her father was glad of her happiness and thought he could keep off the bear, but when it arrived, it attacked the king's army and defeated them, unscathed.

The king sent out his oldest daughter. The bear took her on its back and rushed off with her, but asked her if she had ever sat softer or seen clearer, and she said she had, on her mother's lap, and at her father's court; so the white bear brought her back to the castle. The next Thursday it came again, and the king tried his second daughter, and she also failed.

The third Thursday, the king had sent his third daughter, and she had never sat softer or seen clearer, so it took her to its castle. Every night, it turned into a man and came to her bed in the dark. Every year, she had a child, but as soon as the baby was born, the bear rushed away with it. At the end of three years, she asked to visit her parents. There, her mother gave her a candle so that she could see him. At night, she lit it and looked at him, and a drop of tallow fell on his forehead, waking him. He told her that if she had waited another month, he would have been free of a troll-hag's spell, but now he must go to her. He rushed off, but she seized his fur and rode him, though the branches battered her, until she was so tired that she fell off.

She searched in the forest until she came to a cottage where an old woman and a little girl were. The old woman told her that the bear had gone by; the little girl had a scissors that, whenever she cut in the air, silk and velvet appeared, but she said the woman had more need of it, and gave it to her. She went onto another hut, with another old woman and little girl. This time, the little girl gave her a flask that poured whatever was wished for and never emptied. She went onto a third hut, where the little girl gave her a cloth that could conjure up food.

The fourth night, she came to a hut where an old woman had many children who cried for food and had no clothing. The princess fed and clothed them, so the old woman had her husband, a smith, make her iron claws so she could climb the mountainside. With them, she reached a castle where the Troll-Hag was to marry the white bear. She started to clip out cloth. The Troll-Hag offered to trade for them; the princess insisted on a night with her sweetheart, and the troll-hag agreed but drugged him, so that she could not wake him. The next day, she bribed her way in with the flask; again the troll-hag had drugged him, but an artisan next door heard her and told the king. The third day, she bribed her way in with the cloth, and the king had not drunk the drink, and they could talk.

The king had them put a trap door in the bridge the bridal procession was to cross, and had it opened so that the troll-hag fell through it and died. They took her gold and went to his homeland for the real wedding, but on the way, they took the little girls, and the princess learned that they were her own daughters, whom the white bear had taken so they could aid her in her quest.

The tale also inspired the logo for Norsk folkeminnelag, the Norwegian Folklore Society. Yes, it looks like images for East of the Sun since she rides a white bear, too, but if you look in her hands, you'll see the golden wreath, the definite sign of a King Valemon tale. Besides, this image was obviously inspired by the Kittelson illustration I included above.

Advertising: Espen Askeladd

Dovre has been a Norwegian underwear brand since 1922. This year the title for the campagin was Enchanting Quality. We took one of the most known fairy tale characters, Espen Askeladd, and one of his tales and mixed him with today's fashion.

Photographer: Joon Brandt
Additional credits: Øyedrops
Published: February 2010

Via Ads of the World.

Troll Hunter Film

Have you heard about the Troll Hunter film? It is looking like the little film that could with the media coverage I have seen for it. It is a foreign film--Norwegian, no surprise--that draws a little bit of inspiration from The Blair Witch Project in its storytelling. The buzz is positive overall but I admit I don't do visual horror so someone will have tell me if its watchable for me before I try as much as I enjoy trolls thanks to my quarter Norwegian heritage. It's officially PG-13 although it has been rated R a few places, so I wonder. I am a wimp, but not as much as I think since I did translate and edit all of those Bluebeard tales which would certainly get a hardcore rating. And it's something different to offer in the way of folklore films here on SurLaLune.

Description from the official site:

The government says there’s nothing to worry about – it’s just a problem with bears making trouble in the mountains and forests of Norway. But local hunters don’t believe it – and neither do a trio of college students who want to find out the truth. Armed with a video camera, they trail a mysterious “poacher,” who wants nothing to do with them. However, their persistence lands them straight in the path of the objects of his pursuits: trolls. They soon find themselves documenting every move of this grizzled, unlikely hero – the trollhunter – risking their lives to uncover the secrets of creatures only thought to exist in fairy tales.

Amazon's description:

The Norwegian comedy-fantasy Troll Hunter, a surprise art-house hit across the globe, posits an intriguing question--what if monsters of folklore and popular culture existed, but were kept hidden by the government?--and delivers the results in a clever, faux-documentary format that underscores both the special effects and the satire. Controversial comedian Otto Jespersen is the title character, a world-weary, working-class stiff assigned by a bureaucratic agency to track and eliminate dangerous trolls from the Scandinavian countryside. The lack of respect and notoriety afforded by his job convinces Jespersen to allow a naive collegiate film crew to follow him on his hunts, which nicely balance quirky humor with genuine moments of suspense and some impressive CGI special effects for the trolls. Genre fans' appreciation for the "shaky-cam" subgenre (The Blair Witch Project, [REC], Cloverfield) will undoubtedly affect how they feel about Troll Hunter--the film's light comedy will certainly be lost on those unwilling to either believe or tolerate the idea of another film comprised of "found footage." But more forgiving viewers will be thankful for the rather seamless incorporation of the CGI trolls, all imaginatively rendered as part fairy-tale image and part biological specimen, into live-action scenes, as well as the dryly humorous satire of government "special projects." Pacing is also occasionally an issue--though beautiful, the Norwegian landscape receives far too much coverage--but for the patient, Troll Hunter is a unique and clever experience.

Here's the trailer:

Fairytale Reflections (25) "Weird Tales From Northern Seas"

With the holiday weekend, I didn't highlight many of the interesting news articles and blog entries from late last week and early this one. So today I will catch up a little. First, since we will get a new one tomorrow, I wanted to highlight Fairytale Reflections (25) "Weird Tales From Northern Seas" at SMoST.

Katherine went a somewhat different direction with this one. I'll let her explain:

I think it's time for some fairytale reflections from you, you lovely and talented and sensitive people who come and read this blog and sometimes comment! So I'm putting up an entire story from one of the wonderful 19th century collectors and retellers of folktales whom I’ve met on the road through fairyland: Jonas Lie, a celebrated Norwegian author.

Here's a little bit of background: he was a contemporary of Ibsen, born 1833 at Hvokksund, Norway, not far from Oslo; but he spent much of his childhood at Tromsø, inside the Arctic Circle. He was sent to naval college, but poor eyesight made him unsuited for a life at sea, so he became a lawyer and began to write and publish poems and novels which reflected Norwegian life, folklore and nationalism.

I confess I haven’t read any of Lie’s novels, as most of them don’t seem to have been translated into English. But I do have a collection of his reworkings of Norwegian and Finnish legends about the sea. It’s called ‘Weird Tales From Northern Seas’. My edition was published in English in 1893 and consists of eleven short stories cherry-picked from a volume called ‘Trold’- 'Trolls' - and another called 'Fortaellinger og Skildringer ', which means something like 'Tales and Depictions, or 'Stories and Portrayals' (translations courtesy of the Bookwitch). How I wish I could read the others.

Go through to her post to read the rest...

Eventyr Brus

Eventyr Brus (I've also seen it as Eventyrbrus & Eventyr-Brus) is currently bottled by Ringnes in Norway. (Ringnes is also a Pepsi product bottler and distributor in Norway as well as the largest brewer of beers.) It's a soda* marketed once again for children and has a fairy tale pictured on its label. I haven't found a description of taste, but it appears to be fruit flavored.

The image above is apparently of the original bottle from the 1950s, perhaps even 1948 when the brand first appeared on the market. I imagine most of us can identify the tale as The Three Billy Goats Gruff since it is one of the most famous fairy tale exports from Norway along with East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

From what I can tell--and I could be completely wrong--this label is still in use or was until fairly recently. It is the one I've seen the most often around the web, but the Ringnes site has a different image, the one below which I had to screen capture. It's not very big and the illustration is hard to see, but it is obviously not the same label. Perhaps they rotate through a few illustrations but the label remains essentially the same otherwise.


That said, the image at the top of this entry came from a graphic design project entry on the Behance Network in which two students, Sofie Platou & Moa Nordahl, redesigned the label for a class project and I think did a wonderful job of updating the brand even if they left out the overt fairy tale references. I'm married to a graphic designer so these types of projects are always fun for us to look at together and share. Do click through to see the student designs. I'm not sharing them here to avoid confusion with the real thing versus a student concept project.

Once again, thanks to Eirin for sharing these brands with me and you...

*Soda, Pop, Coke or Other: What region of the U.S. do you live in? I'm a Southerner, raised by a Midwesterner who has lived in California, so I use soda and pop interchangeably. In Nashville, "cold drink" is also popular with some groups as a generic term for a carbonated drink. I personally don't use that one or coke since they are too confusing in most contexts. Nashville is too much of a melting pot for one term to be considered the dominant one anyway. But "pop" produced giggles whenever I said it in California.

Melkesjokolade et lite eventyr

New SurLaLune blog reader Eirin is Norwegian and she sent me an email about a couple of fairy tale offerings in Norway, including Melkesjokolade et lite eventyr (English translation: Milk chocolate, a little fairy tale).

The small chocolate bar is made by Freia and packaged with a fairy tale illustration on the outside. Then the inside has a fairy tale printed on it to read. Love it! I went searching for images of the wrapper, inside and out, and alas only found these two exterior ones. The first is from NorwegianGoods.com where you can also order the chocolate stateside. (SurLaLune is not affiliated.)

I found this second image on Flickr and it is by Mazda6 (Tor). It gives you an idea of the size of the bar, small and obviously marketed primarily for children. Glad I'm a child at heart... (At 24 g, it's slightly bigger than a snack size (two stick size) Kit Kat bar which is 21 g).



It also has a Wikipedia entry, but no images are provided there.

One set of my great-grandparents immigrated from Norway at the turn of the last century, making me a full quarter Norwegian just a few generations back so I am always thrilled to learn more about Norwegian fairy tales and related stuff, like chocolate! I've only had Daim before--another Norwegian chocolate--since it is readily available at Ikea, although I've seen it on my few trips to Europe, too. Melkesjokolade was unknown to me until now though.

Thanks for sharing, Eirin! Eirin also shared information on a fairy tale drink made by Ringnes called Eventyr Brus, of which I am gathering imagery to share, too.

Perhaps I should order a few bars, all for the sake of research, of course!