Folk stories and fairy tales

For centuries, people pass down fairy tales, stories about a fight between good and evil, with supernatural elements as a part of everyday life, through generations by telling their children the stories they heard growing up. The stories are never exactly the same. The hero lives in the local village, the trolls are hiding in the nearby mountains, the king has three or maybe seven daughters. Often, this creates regional variants: in Southern Norway, the stories are often about seafaring and water nymphs; in Northern Norway, about the forces of nature and survival in harsh conditions.

Although the details may change, some things in fairy tales stay the same. Fairy tales are often vague about when and sometimes even where they occur. That is why many start with established phrases like “once upon a time” and include set expressions like “in a land far, far away” or “over the hills and far away”. Certain numbers that carry a lot of symbolism are also common: most of the time, there are three brothers, three princesses, or three similar events. But fairy tales aren’t just entertainment. They teach children about danger and also about how, even in danger, it is possible to do good, to succeed, and to find a happy ending. That is why they end on a happy note, typically followed by another established phrase like “and they lived happily ever after”.

In retelling these stories, people participate not just in preserving them, but also in recreating and reshaping them. This is how folk fairy tales are formed: without a specific author, through oral tradition and collaboration across time. In this way, the fairy tales parallel legends from which some of them come. But they also differ from legends in one significant way: while fairy tales are understood to be stories of fancy, legends are origin stories of natural and historical phenomena that often employ supernatural or at least exaggerated elements but purport to be real.

By the 19th century, interest in writing down folk stories will grow, and folklorists will preserve them forever in print. Inspired by them, authors like Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), Jonas Lie (1833-1908), Regine Normann (1867-1939), and many more will write their own original stories, creating the genre of literary fairy tales that have an identifiable author and don’t always follow the traditional folkloric structure.

Andreas Faye is born in 1802, the oldest son of a sailor. His father intends for him to join the family business and become a sailor, but Andreas impresses in school more than he does on deck. He ends up studying at the Kristiania University and graduates with a degree in theology in 1828. Shortly after, he becomes an educator whose career will span over 30 years.

Inspired by the work of his predecessors, the brothers Grimm, he devotes himself to researching and collecting folkloric traditions. In 1833, he publishes Norske Sagn (Norwegian Legends): a parallel to the Grimms’s 1816 book Deutsche Sagen (German Legends). To his disappointment, the book is not very well received. He receives much criticism for his difficult language and dry writing style. For the next decade, he works on revisions on and off, and in 1844, publishes a new version of the collection: Norske folke-sagn (Norwegian Folk Legends). Once again, he fails to reach a wider audience. He dedicates himself instead to his ever-growing family, work in education and politics, and writing about history and religion. In 1860, he retires from teaching and becomes a priest, a service he will continue until his death in 1869.

Although his fairy tales never become standard bedtime readings, they do have an impact among the educated. Through his collection of folk stories, Faye sparks interest in Norwegian folklore and uniquely Norwegian cultural heritage during and after his lifetime. His work serves as a starting point for other, often more successful, folklorists, like Asbjørnsen and Moe, and inspires literary giants like Johan S. Welhaven, Henrik Ibsen, and Theodor Kittelsen.

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen is born in January 1812 to a well-off family in Kristiania. Shortly after his birth, the family runs into financial difficulties when the economic crisis caused by the Napoleonic wars hits them. They are forced to sell their home and move. Still, they are able to send Peter Christen, who’s proving himself to be a bright child with a wide array of interests, to boarding school when he is 14.

Jørgen Moe is born in April 1813 in Hole, some 40km away from where the Asbjørnsens live. He is one of eight siblings born to a farming family of good means. Growing up, he and his siblings want for little. When he turns 13, he too is sent to a boarding school.

The two meet in 1826 in Norderhov while attending university preparations. They are fast friends who share similar interests and a penchant for mischief. But after boarding school, the two stay in touch only through letters until they both enroll in the University of Kristiania in 1833: Peter Christen is studying biology and Jørgen theology. Their shared interest in folklore motivates a renewed commitment to working together. Both have published books inspired by cultural heritage to varying degrees of success, but the works of folklorists like the brothers Grimm and Andreas Faye inspire them to do more.

For the next 15 years, Asbjørnsen and Moe travel through Southern Norway, collecting local legends, fairy tales, and poems. They make it a point to write them down the way the locals tell them: complete with dialect words and typically Norwegian expressions, although they make some edits to give the stories a more artistic flair. In 1841, they publish a sample of their collection as an anonymous pamphlet. The pamphlet is well received, and in 1843 and 1844, they publish the full collection in two hardcover tomes titled Norske folkeeventyr (Norwegian Folk Fairy Tales).

They continue to work with folklore and independently publish books of stories and poems for the rest of their lives. Though they remain friends, they never again work as closely as at this time, and later editions of Norwegian Folk Fairy Tales will be edited primarily by Asbjørnsen with only minor contributions from Moe.

Asbjørnsen splits his time between his two major interests: folklore and biology. He becomes a big proponent of Darwin’s theory of evolution and one of Norway’s first oceanographers. He never marries or has children and dies in January of 1885.

Moe dedicates much of his later life to the church, serving as the bishop of Kristiansand in 1875. He serves in this position until he retires in January of 1882, only months before his death. He leaves behind a wife and three children.

Asbjørnsen and Moe will be remembered as Norway’s foremost folklorists. Their fairy tale collections will become a quintessential part of childhood in Norway, and there will nary exist a household in the country without their books on its shelves. Their contribution to the preservation of Norwegian cultural heritage and the Norwegian language can hardly be overstated.

In the 19th century, the European continent is undergoing a major transformation: the birth of nation-states. Newly formed nation-states claim a single unified identity characterized by set borders, a common language, and a sense of belonging to a single culture. As both a contributor to and a consequence of the geopolitical upheaval, a new art movement emerges: national romanticism. It takes root particularly in the countries that are newly independent or still seeking independence: like Norway.

After more than 400 years under Denmark, Norway is ceded to Sweden in 1814 in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. In Denmark-Norway, Danish rules and laws were followed, political power was concentrated in the hands of the Danes, and Danish was the official language of public communication, administration, and education. Though autonomy is greater under Swedish rule, a desire for independence is growing.

To support the Norwegian demand for independence, political and academic elites put a lot of focus on uniquely Norwegian national products: its history, culture, language, and folklore. Figures like Asbjørnsen and Moe, who bring attention to Norwegian folklore and are among the first to write in Norwegian, are vital to this effort. Their work delineates Norwegian culture as separate from Danish and Swedish and plays a key role in the establishment of Norwegian as a written language in its own right. Along with authors like Henrik Wergeland, Johan Sebastian Welhaven, and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, as well as artists like Theodor Kittelsen, Johan Christian Dahl, and Adolph Tideman, they are the pioneers of national romanticism in Norway.

As an art and literary movement, national romanticism dominated Norway between 1840 and 1860. It is characterized by an emotional style of writing, idealisation of rural life, focus on folklore, history, and mythology, and a celebration of nature and landscape.