This is the first 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 volume I’ve pulled together some 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
OSBORN’S PIPE
BIKKU MATTI
THE HAUNTED MILL.
THE HONEST PENNY.
ESBEN AND THE WTICH
THE DEATH OF CHANTICLEER
HANS, THE MERMAID’S SON
THE GREEDY CAT.
THE RASPBERRY WORM
GRUMBLEGIZZARD
THE WHITE DOVE
FATHER BRUIN IN THE CORNER.
REYNARD AND CHANTICLEER.
THE STORY OF SIGURD
GOODMAN AXEHAFT
THE COMPANION
KARI WOODENGOWN
THE SHOP BOY AND HIS CHEESE
PEIK
THE TROLL’S DAUGHTER
DEATH AND THE DOCTOR
THE WAY OF THE WORLD
THE BELL
THE PANCAKE
PORK AND HONEY
THE HARE AND THE HEIRESS
SLIP ROOT, CATCH REYNARD’S FOOT
BRUIN GOODFELLOW
THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK
REYNARD WANTS TO TASTE HORSE-FLESH
MASTER TOBACCO
THE CHARCOAL-BURNER
THE SNOW QUEEN
A BOX WITH SOMETHING PRETTY IN IT
THE THREE LEMONS
THE PRIEST AND THE CLERK
FRIENDS IN LIFE AND DEATH
THE FATHER OF THE FAMILY
THREE YEARS WITHOUT WAGES
OUR PARISH CLERK
HISTORICAL NOTES
ABOUT THE EDITOR
About the author
! 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.
You can find out more about Clive’s work and contact me at: https://www.boyonabench.com