Norwegian Folktales by Peter Christen Asbjornsen & Jorgen Moe
Keira Soleore
September 13, 2011
The tone of realism combined with lay humor that characterizes these medieval folktales, or folke eventyr as they're called, is very different from the chivalric romanticism of French or Spanish folktales, for example. "The Norwegian folk tales," said Jacob Grimm of the Grimm Brothers writing duo, "have a freshness and a fullness that surpasses nearly all others."
These tales were very popular in Norway and were told around fires on farms and in peasant cottages during the long winter evenings. Asbjørnsen and Moe have retained that narrative style of recounting in the rhythm and meter of their prose.
As with folktales in this vein, standards of truth, guilt, justice, moral rectitude, ethics, honesty, and sheer heroism, that allow the main characters to rise above the norm, pervade the stories. Certain conventions, such as calling a man calling his wife "old woman" or addressing her as "Mother" are retained for authenticity.
Huge bumbling trolls, who don't like the smell of Christian blood and are outwitted by puny intelligent people, was a theme guaranteed to bring a rousing cheer from listeners. In The Boys Who Met The Trolls In The Hedal Woods, three sons of a poor couple are spending a night in the woods, when they encounter three trolls who share one eye amongst them. The boys hit the hindmost troll and he shouts so loudly that the foremost troll drops the eye in fear and the eldest boy snatches it up. The trolls start to threaten the boys with all sorts of evil things to get them to return the eye. But the boys threaten them back saying that since the trolls now had no eyes, they wouldn't be able to protect themselves. This frightens the trolls so much that they promise all kinds of riches to the boys. The trolls' have one old woman amongst them, who brings gold and silver galore for the boys. The boys then allow the trolls to depart. (The story never says whether the boys return the eye or not.)
The theme of the underdog winning the prize expresses itself as the younger son, who is perceived as not very smart or capable of achieving much of anything, eventually wins the princess or the gold or achieves success. In Taper-Tom Who Made The Princess Laugh, the princess of the land is a very solemn girl and the king despairs of ever making the girl laugh. He promises riches, the princess's hand in marriage, and half his kingdom in exchange for making her laugh. Many folks try but end up with the king's punishment of having three stripes cut out of their backs with salt rubbed in them.
When Taper-Tom decides to give it a shot, he is laughed at for "he knew nothing and he did nothing." He joins the king's kitchen staff. There he meets an old crone with a golden goose. In exchange for the delicious fish Taper-Tom gives her, the old lady gives him the goose with the admonition that while anyone is touching the goose, if he says the phrase "Hang on, if you want to come along," that person would be stuck fast to the goose's feathers. The story goes on to recount how many different and unwilling people get stuck in a long daisy chain. The princess on seeing this bursts into uproarious laughter. The pleased king awards the boy with the promised prize.
The people stories, as opposed to animal stories, are always about poor people. In The Mill That Grinds At The Bottom Of The Sea, the younger brother who becomes vastly wealthy was a poor man in the beginning. In The Boys Who Met The Trolls In The Hedal Woods, the boys were sons of a poor couple and beg in the streets for their daily living. Before his luck begins to change, the hero of The Charcoal Burner barely has any food to put on the table of his humble home.
The youngest of the princesses is the most beautiful, loving, and kind, and is the beloved of the king. In The Three Princesses In The Mountain-In-The-Blue, the three princesses who are stolen by a snowflake and taken to three trolls living in the land of the Mountain-In-The-Blue, are rescued by the Solider. Now, the king has promised a princess and riches to whoever rescued them, so the Soldier's travel companions, the Captain and the Lieutenant, take advantage of him and leave him at the bottom of a deep well. They return home with the three princesses to fame and accolades.
Both of them want to marry the youngest but she would have none of them. So the king awards them the two oldest princesses. The king sets a guard on the youngest for her protection. The closer the wedding date of the older princesses arrives, the sadder they grow. But the king does not budge from his edict. The Soldier eventually returns to the village near the palace and brings a much-desired gift made of gold from the Mountain-In-The-Blue. When the youngest princess sees this, she casts off her despair and rushes to the king to tell him the whole tale of who really rescued them. As a result, the youngest gets to marry her Soldier, but the two older ones' suitors lose their lives for telling lies. The older princesses lead maiden lives to the end of their days.
The stronger, meaner, egoistical person or animal, who oppresses the weaker, smaller person or animal, is always served their comeuppance. In The Parson And The Sexton, the parson is a man puffed up on his own consequence. He always demands right-of-way on one-lane roads. Once he tries to defy even the king, who gets angry and demands that the parson show up at the palace and answer three questions, otherwise he would lose his frock and collar. Now the parson is aware he isn't the brightest candle in the village and so he persuades the sexton to go in his stead disguised as the parson.
The sexton is a bright fellow and answers the first two question put to him by the king in a forthright manner. As a final question, the king asks, "Tell me what I'm thinking now!" To which the sexton replies, "Oh, I suppose you're thinking that it's the parson who's standing here before you. But I'm sorry to say you're wrong, for it's the sexton." The king is tickled to hear this and makes the sexton the parson and the parson the sexton.
Tabby is a terribly large cat who loves to eat in The Tabby Who Was Such A Glutton. As she goes along her day, she manages to gobble up a bowl of porridge, a trough of droppings, the old woman in the cowshed, the old man of the house, the bell-cow in the stall, the branch-chopper in the home pasture, the stoat in the role-pile, the squirrel in the bush, Slypaws the Fox, hoppity Hare, Glutton Greylegs the Wolf, Frisky Bear, Snappish She-bear, Bruin Fine-Fellow, the bridal procession, the funeral procession, the Moon in the sky and the Sun in the heavens. However, as last she comes upon the billy-goat and tried to bully it, too. But the billy-goat "butted the Tabby so hard that she flew off the bridge and into the river, and there she burst. Then out came everyone she'd swallowed up, and they were as good as before."
Tales of sheer hilarity without a moral purpose were also very popular. In The Hare Who Had Been Married, a hare is happy to be celebrating "having been married." He meets a fox who proffers his comments based on the hare' utterances. At first the fox says, it's nice the hare's been married. When the hare complains about the wife, the fox offers his sympathy. When the hare lists the advantages of being married to her, the understandably confused fox now congratulates the hare. When the hare recounts a calamity, the fox consoles the hare. But the hare gleefully delivers the punch line that his wife is now dead and he's free. The fox declines to say anything to this.