Asbjørnsen, a teacher, and Moe, a minister, had been friends for about 15 years when in 1841 they published the first volume of folktales –[2] the collection of which had been an interest of both for some years. The work's popularity is partly attributable to Norway's newly won partial independence, and the wave of nationalism that swept the country in the 19th century; and the Norwegian written language they contributed to developing (i.e., what would become Bokmål). The language of their publication of the fairy tales struck a balance in that, while it did not preserve their original dialect form in its entirety, it did import certain non-Danish features from it (dialect words and certain syntactic constructions).[3][4][a]
Asbjørnsen and Moe were inspired by the German folktale collectors, the Brothers Grimm, not merely to emulate their methodology, but drawing encouragement by it, their endeavor was a work of national importance,[4] especially as the Grimms openly gave high praise for the Norske folkeeventyr.[5] Asbjørnsen and Moe applied the principles espoused by the Grimms, for instance, using a simple linguistic style in place of dialects, while maintaining the original form of the stories.[citation needed] Moreover, Asbjørnsen and Moe did not publish collected folktales in the raw, but created "retold" versions, seeking to reconstruct the lost Urform (original form) of the tales—although the alterations performed were not as drastic as the Grimms sometimes allowed license for themselves.[6] The Norwegian pair also collected tales from the field themselves, in contrast to the Grimms.[7]
Publications
The original series, entitled Norske Folkeeventyr went into publication piecemeal. It first appeared a slim pamphlet (1841) offering a selection of a few tales, without a title page, the editor's names or table of contents. This was sufficiently well-received, and championed by P. A. Munch in a German newspaper.[4] It led to the appearance of a reprint of the first volume in 1843 and the second volume in 1844 as proper hardcovers. The second edition appeared in 1852.[8] Another series dubbed the "New Collection" appeared later (Norske Folke-Eventyr. Ny Samling 1871). The tales are numbered, the original collection containing 58 tales, increased to 60 tales in later editions. The new collection held 50 tales.
Asbjørnsen as a solo project collected and published Norske Huldre-Eventyr og Folkesagn I-II (1845–48),[1] which also was expanded by a "second collection," (Norske huldre-eventyr og folkesagn: anden samling 1866).[9]
In later editions, Werenskiold and Theodor Kittelsen became prominent illustrators. Kittelsen was an unknown artist when he began collaborating on the project on the recommendation of his friend Werenskiold.[13]
Translation into English
The tales were first translated into English by Sir George Webbe Dasent.[c] He translated all but a few of the tales from the two series of Norske Folkeeventyr. Dasent's Popular Tales from the Norse (1859), contains all 58 tales from the initial edition of the original collection.[15][d] Dasent's Tales from the Fjeld: A Second Series of Popular Tales (1874) covers the two tales added to later editions of the original collection and 45 of the tales from the new collection.[16][e]
Asbjørnsen and Moe evidently approved of Dasent's translations: "In France and England collections have appeared in which our tales have not only been correctly and faultlessly translated, but even rendered with exemplary truth and care nay, with thorough mastery. The English translation, by George Webbe Dasent, is the best and happiest rendering of our tales that has appeared."[17] The latest translation into English is by Tiina Nunnally in 2019.[18]
H. L. Braekstad, Round the Yule Log: Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales (1881) includes tales from the Norske Huldre-Eventyr.[19] An abridged translation of Stroebe's Nordische Volksmärchen (1922),[20] rendered into English by Martens, provides additional tales from the various collections, and complements the above translations to some extent. Carl Norman's Norwegian Folktales (1960) is a selection that includes some of the tales from the Ny Samling omitted by Dasent.[21]
List of Norwegian folktales
Norske Folkeeventyr
Legend:
"NF#" – Tale number as they appear in Asbjørnsen and Moe's Norske Folkeeventyr
"Modern Norwegian Title" – Modernized spelling (conforms with Projekt Runeberg e-texts).[22]
"About the Giant Troll Who Never Carried His Heart With Him" (Nunn.); "The Giant who had no Heart" (Br. 7); "Anent the Giant Who Did Not Have His Heart About Him" (Str. & Martens 16)
"Ash Lad, Who Got the Princess to Say He Was Lying" (Nunn.); "The Ash Lad who made the Princess Say "You're a Liar" " (Iversen & Nor. 18); "Ashiepattle who made the Princess tell the Truth at last" (Br. 28)
"The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Who Were Supposed to Go Up to the Mountain Pasture to Fatten Up" (Nunn.); "The Three Billy Goats who went up into the Hills to get Fat" (Br. 15)
Grisen og levemåten hans (from Barne-Eventyr 1909, Moltke Moe ed.)
AT 211
"The Pig and his Way of Life" (Kari B. Svendsen, 1985)[42]
*
Gullfebla (from Juletræet for 1850)
*
Jomfru Maria og svalen (from Eventyrbog for Barn 1883-1337. Asbjørnsen and Moltke Moe edd.)[43]
*
Julebesøket i prestegården (from Juletræet for 1851)
*
Prestens mor
*
Reve-enka (from Barne-Eventyr 1909. Moltke Moe.)
*
Vårherre og St. Peder på vandring (Et bömisk eventyr.) (from Nord und Süd 1858)
Influence
The Soria Moria castle, which appeared in Dasent's translations of the tales, inspired J. R. R. Tolkien to use the name Moria for a fabulous subterranean complex in his Middle-earth stories.[44]
Footnotes
Explanatory notes
^At the same time the language in the tales also contained many words from Norwegian dialects, which helped toward making a hybrid of older Danish and eastern Norwegian dialects in particular, a language variant that was developed in stages into today's Norwegian bokmål, or "book tongue." Through the later 1800s and the 1900s, bokmål became less Danish through language reforms, and the language of Asbjørnsen and Moe's folk tales followed suit. Their language has been modernized many times. Also, many of these tales were published by Det Norske Samlaget in 1995 in New Norwegian, the most distinctly Norwegian of the two official variants of written Norwegian, and in many cases the language form that comes closest to the tales as recorded by Asbjørnsen and Moe.
^The appended "Fortegnelse over Illustrationerne og Kunstnerne" gives credit to each artwork, naming the engravers such as H. P. Hansen and Frederik Hendriksen [no] whose signatures appear in the engravings.[11]
^Friedrich Bresemann's German translation of 1847[14] appeared prior to Dasent's English in 1849.
^Dasent splits the two subtales of Bjørnen og reven into 2 independent tales, which brings his tale count to 59.
^Dasent's Tales from the Fjeld count 51 tales = 2 original collection + 45 new collection + 3 (counts Bjørnen og reven as 4 separate bear and fox stories) + 1 (The Haunted Mill which is "Kværensagn" taken from Asbjornsen's "Norske Huldre-Eventyr og Folkesagn")
^The title character was changed from "Askepot" in the first edition to Akeladden in later editions.
^Another "slightly different variant" is Prinsessen som ingen kunne målbinde, in Eventyrbog for børn, volume 3.[24]
^Prinsessen som ingen kunne målbinde is a slight variant of the tale Spurningen from Norske Folkeeventyr,[24] and replaces it in most subsequent publications.
^"[Moe] met Asbjørnsen first when he was fourteen years of age."[1] so 1827.
^Rudvin, Mette (c. 1999), Norske Folkeeventyr. A Polysystemic Approach to Folk Literature in Nineteenth-Century Norway(PDF), One of the reasons the Asbjørnsen and Moe corpus received such national acclaim and consensus was precisely that it embodied both the myth of a national identity and of a national language in a relatively conservative (i.e. Danish) form, and therefore functioned as a compromise between an emerging national identity and the maintenance of an (elite) conservative linguistic and literary form. ... Asbjørnsen and Moe's translation policy was instrumental in laying the foundation for a new and viable national language form which steadily developed further and further away from the Danicized language that represented the colonized past into a new, independent language - neither Danish, nor rural dialect.
^Dorson, Richard (1964), "Preface", in Christiansen, R. Th. (ed.), Folktales of Norway, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, p. x, [Asbjørnsen and Moe's] end product so appealed to Jacob Grimm that he described them as the best Märchen in print, cited in Rudvin (c. 1999), p. 25n
^Sehmsdorf, Henning K. (1986). "The Smith They Didn't Dare Let Into Hel". Short Stories from Norway, 1850-1900. Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Wisconsin. p. 6.
^Stroebe & Martens (1922), p. 69. "The Honest Four-Shilling Piece" is the verbatim title given in footnote.
Stroebe, Klara, ed. (1922). Norwegian Fairy Book. Translated by Martens, Frederick H. Asbjornsen and Moe (orig. eds.); George W. Hood (illus.). Frederick A. Stokes Company.; e-text via Internet