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 Asjbørnsen 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 to include all sixty original tales as well as Asbjørnsen and Moe's Forewords and Introductions to the early Norwegian editions of the tales.
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.
In his marvelous introduction to this collection, Neil Gaiman writes:
"In a translation as crystalline and pellucid as the waters of the fjords, Tiina Nunnally takes the stories that Asbjørnsen and Moe collected from the people of rural Norway, translates them, and gives them to us afresh. Each story feels honed, as if it were recently collected from a storyteller who knew how to tell it and who had, in turn, heard it from someone who knew how to tell it."
These timeless stories will entertain, startle, and enthrall readers of all ages. 318 pages. Hardcover.
