This is the second in a two volume collection of tales from Scandinavia. There is a clear and rich tradition of storytelling in the north, perhaps dictated by long winter nights and roaring fires. Whenever you read the sagas or pick up on the wandering collections of Hans Christien Andersen and Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, amongst many others, you tap into a centuries old heritage wrapped in wonder and magic and outlandish heroism.
In this second volume I’ve pulled together some more of my favourite stories as told by Andersen, Asbjørnsen, Zacharias Topelius and Andrew Lang. The stories have been drawn from Lang’s Coloured Fairy Books, Andersen’s Fairy Tales, from The Birch and the Star, and Other Stories, and from Asbjørnsen collaboration on Tales from the Fjeld.
As with the collections from the British Isles published recently, It’s always a pleasure and never a chore to re-read and re-present these lovely stories.
Table of Content
PREFACE
THE ELDERBUSH
SILLY MEN AND CUNNING WIVES
THE PRINCESS IN THE CHEST
TAPER TOM.
THE FALSE COLLAR
THE TROLLS IN HEDALE WOOD.
THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS IN THE FOREST
THE SKIPPER AND OLD NICK.
THE FIR TREE
GOODY GAINST-THE-STREAM
HOW TO WIN A PRINCE
THE MERRY WIVES
BOOTS AND THE BEASTS
THE LEAP-FROG
THE SWEETHEART IN THE WOOD
I KNOW WHAT I HAVE LEARNED
HOW THEY GOT HAIRLOCK HOME
THE NAUGHTY BOY
OSBORN BOOTS AND MR. GLIBTONGUE.
JESPER WHO HERDED THE HARES
THIS IS THE LAD WHO SOLD THE PIG
THE OLD HOUSE
THE SHEEP AND THE PIG WHO SET UP HOUSE
KING LINDORM
THE GOLDEN PALACE THAT HUNG IN THE AIR
THE REAL PRINCESS
LITTLE FREDDY WITH HIS FIDDLE
MAIDEN BRIGHT-EYE
MOTHER ROUNDABOUT’S DAUGHTER
THE SHADOW
THE GREEN KNIGHT
MASTER AND PUPIL
BOOTS AND HIS CREW
THE STORY OF A MOTHER
THE TOWN-MOUSE AND THE FELL-MOUSE
MINNIKIN
SILLY MATT
THE DRAGON OF THE NORTH
KING VALEMON, THE WHITE BEAR
THE GOLDEN BIRD
HISTORICAL NOTES
ABOUT THE EDITOR
About the author
I was born in 1962 into a predominantly sporting household – Dad being a good footballer, playing senior amateur and lower league professional football in England, as well as running a series of private businesses in partnership with mum, herself an accomplished and medal winning dancer.
I obtained a degree in History from Leeds University before wandering rather haphazardly into the emerging world of business computing in the late nineteen-eighties.
A little like my sporting father, I followed a succession of amateur writing paths alongside my career in technology, including working as a freelance journalist and book reviewer, my one claim to fame being a by-line in a national newspaper in the UK, The Sunday People.
I also spent 10 years treading the boards, appearing all over the south of the UK in pantos and plays, in village halls and occasionally on the stage of a professional theatre or two.
Following the sporting theme, and a while after I hung up my own boots, I worked on live TV broadcasts for the BBC, ITV, TVNZ, Euro Sport and others as a rugby ‘Stato’, covering Heineken Cups, Six Nations, IRB World Sevens and IRB World Cups in the late ’90’s and early ’00’s.
I try to combine my love of storytelling with a passion for information technology, and am currently Vice President – Technology with a major UK Fin Tech company.
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