True and Untrue and Other Norse Tales - Illustrated by Frederick T. Chapman

Sigrid Undset

Description

This collection, True and Untrue and Other Norse Tales, edited by Sigrid Undset and illustrated by Frederick T. Chapman, contains twenty-eight classic Norse narratives. They include the folkloric stories of ‘East O’ the Sun and West O’ the Moon’, ‘The Seven Foals’, ‘Why the Sea is Salt’, ‘The Squire’s Bride’, and ‘The Master Thief’.
The tales are accompanied by the masterful artwork of Frederick T. Chapman; a book and Magazine illustrator, who contributed to numerous publications including Woman’s Home Companion, Collier’s, and American Magazines. He is best known for his pioneering work in children’s books such as ‘Joan, Maid of France, ‘White Falcon’, and ‘Luther Burbank, Nature’s Helper.’
Presented alongside the text, Chapman’s enchanting creations serve to further refine and enhance the classic Nordic storytelling – making this a book to be enjoyed and appreciated, by both young and old alike. Pook Press celebrates the great ‘Golden Age of Illustration‘ in children’s literature – a period of unparalleled excellence in book illustration from the 1880s to the 1930s. Our collection showcases classic fairy tales, children’s stories, and the work of some of the most celebrated artists, illustrators and authors.

Sujets

• Mythes et fables
• Contes

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 16 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781473389243
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

TRUE and
UNTRUE
And Other Norse Tales
Edited and Compiled by S IGRID U NDSET
Illustrated by Frederick T. Chapman
These tales are based on the original stories collected by Moe and Asbj rnsen
C ONTENTS

The Adventure Story of the Folk Tale- A Foreword
I
II
III
IV
V
True and Untrue
The Mastermaid
Soria Moria Castle
The Seven Foals
Dapplegrim
Farmer Weathersky
The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body
The Big Bird Dan
The Boy with the Ale Keg
The Blacksmith They Were Afraid to Receive in Hell
Gertrude s Bird
Why the Sea Is Salt
Buttercup
Herding the King s Hares
The Ashlad Who Made the Princess Say, You lie.
Well Done and Ill Paid
Why the Bear Is Stumpy-tailed
The Fox as Herdsman
Gudbrand on the Hillside
Little Frikk and His Fiddle
The Husband Who Was to Mind the House
Not a Pin to Choose Between Them
The Squire s Bride
The Master Thief
The Parson and the Sexton
East O the Sun and West O the Moon
The Reward of the World
TRUE AND UNTRUE
And Other Norse Tales
T HE A DVENTURE S TORY OF THE F OLK T ALE

I
I F you like folk tales and if you have read the folk tales of different nations, you will have noticed the family likeness among a number of stories from countries separated by thousands of miles of land and ocean. You may have wondered how it could happen, that much the same kind of tales should be told in almost every corner of the globe. Is it because all men are brothers under the skin, and the things that matter the most to all of us are in the end very much the same, so that when we invent stories about the world as we know it, or as we would like it to be, we unconsciously invent almost the same stories? Or is it because the tales have wandered?
The answer to both of these questions is yes. Everywhere in the world parents love their children; boys and girls have wanted to marry someone they liked better than anyone else; and everywhere most young people would not mind if the beloved one could also contribute something to their future prosperity-say half a kingdom, or the giant s hoard of gold, or just a fine farm or a snug little cottage. All over the world man has felt attached to the beach where he had his cottage and his boat, or to the fields he tilled, or to his native land. And everywhere the people knew, that when one man was loyal to his tribe or his country, it meant protection to all of them, and that he would defend his home soil with courage and cunning. But they also saw how important it was to have wise men among them-lawgivers, inventors of improved weapons and implements and of better ways to utilize the resources of their environment. And so all tribes, and all nations, have told tales and made songs about their heroes-the warriors as well as the heroes who revealed to them spiritual truths and new ways to increase in material culture. Most men have felt sure that generosity, kindness, a sense of justice, and sincerity are good things. But most men also admire a clever trickster, at least as long as he does not play his tricks at their expense. Most men delight in wit, astuteness and practical jokes. Because so much of the subject matter of folk tales is common human nature, there are good reasons to believe that similar stories have been invented by different people, at different times. When wandering tribes met and mixed, peacefully or by conquest, they would learn each other s tales, and then old stories might be changed because a similar story of some other tribe seemed more beautiful or witty. And sometimes people learned a story that was quite new to them.
For the tales have also wandered. Students of folklore have tried to trace some basic types of folk tales across continents and back through the ages, as far as records can be found. And scholars have advanced a number of theories about the origin and the wanderings of this ancient lore. Most of these theories cannot be definitely proved, nor can they be disproved. Here is one about the origin of the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
A school of anthropologists that flourished in Vienna before World War II supposed-and they gathered material which partly proves they were on the right track-that when man first appeared on earth, small groups of men and women roaming wide in search of their livelihood, got separated and came to live so far apart that their descendants did not meet for many thousands of years. Each in their isolated area of settlement evolved entirely different ways of life. The Viennese school spoke of Kulturkreise , meaning spheres of culture. This was when the great glacier still covered most of Europe, North America down beyond the Great Lakes, and Asia, all the way into the middle of present-day China. Sometimes the icecap would recede for ages, sometimes it advanced. Then men and animals alike who lived near the edge of the glacier had to move south.
Farthest to the south, probably along the great rivers of India and Burma, little bands, armed with sticks and heavy stones which they carried in their fists, clubbed a path through the jungle. On small clearings they erected their flimsy shelters of poles and palm fronds and plaited grass. Although they later developed cudgels from the sticks, and from the fist-stones, maces and axes, in the beginning they were so severely handicapped against the wild animals of the jungle that they lived mostly on shellfish and fish from the rivers, and on the vegetable food they could gather-roots, fruit and seeds. In those early days women were just as efficient as men when it came to providing food for the household. And then, maybe because she had noticed that when seeds had been spilled in the dumps of dirt and offal by the shelters, the edible plants grew lush and large, some wise woman scratched the ground around her hut and put in some seeds on purpose, before she dropped the garbage on it (for cleanliness was still an undiscovered pleasure-the people just left their filth all around the place). So the first garden in the world was started. That women first cultivated vegetables, and that the beginning of agriculture was gardening, seem tolerably certain. Since in this type of culture woman became the chief provider and food producer, a way of life developed which has been called matriarchy.
The head of the family was the mother. Her children stayed with her all their lives. They made friends with the sons and daughters of other mothers, but we would not call the relation between the young people of different families marriages, since the couples never moved away from their mothers to set up homes of their own. (In the end, of course, marriage was introduced, or re-introduced, because many young people wanted to move out and clear a place of their own and be together always-and I suppose they wanted to get away from the almighty matriarchs!) But for ages the daughters and granddaughters, with their children, lived with the old mother, and the sons had neither rights nor duties towards their children in another mother s household, but educated their sisters sons in the crafts and the duties of the tribesmen.
Now I have read how someone of the Viennese school suggested that the first Little Red Riding Hood was not a sweet little girl, but a naughty boy who wanted more than his share, or his ration, of the food his grandmother raised in her garden. He broke into the family plot at night and rifled the vegetable beds. And the original Red Hood was his own raw and bloody pate, because when Grandmother discovered his wickedness she had him scalped. The bad boy survived, but he did not mend his ways. So in the end came the big bad wolf-and inside the wolf was Grandmamma. Though it was not because the wolf had swallowed her. She came in her ceremonial robes of animal hides that she used when she made magic to protect her garden. She killed the bad boy, and his relatives ate him at a sacrificial meal. However, whether this is the original story about Red Riding Hood or not, I would not venture to say.
In the north of Asia, near the edge of the great glacier, were tundras and marshes and shallow lakes, fed by the waters from the icecap. The marshes and the lakes teemed with bird life; and the tundras and the grassy plains farther south were alive with herds of grass-eaters-deer, antelopes, wild cattle and horses. Even primitive men could sometimes trap these in holes dug into the ground and covered with branches; or they might kill a deer by throwing stones and sticks, or by slingshots. They lived on the meat and dressed in the hides, for this was a cold country. From the hides they also made portable shelters-tents-when they had to be on the move following after the trekking herds. In the end these first hunters invented the spear and the javelin, by tipping their sticks with bone and splinters of flint; they also constructed bows and arrows. The men, stronger and more agile, unhampered by the care and carrying of children, became the chief providers. The culture of the tribe was now patriarchal for the father was the head of the family, and his sons stayed with him. But he let them bring home their wives and he married his daughters to the sons of other men. Because the men were more important, he wanted the sons of his sons to belong to his own hunting party.
At some time in these distant ages, it occurred to the hunters to cut off some of the animals from the herds and drive them into a pocket in the hills, from which they could not easily escape, these animals to be held as a meat reserve. The men proceeded to build artificial corrals for their trapped reindeer or cattle. By accident, and by using their powers of observation and deduction, they discovered that some kinds of animals will thrive and breed in captivity, and that some of them would even become quite tame. (Maybe this was the children s contribution to civilization, as the herdboys played with the young animals and made pets of the