Some fun facts about these tales:

"East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is the original source material for Disney's Beauty and the Beast, being the inspiration for La Belle et la Bête.

Collecting Norwegian folk tales was a result of the national romantic (you could say separatist) movement during the 19th century; Norway was a part of Sweden at the time.

Most Norwegians haven't read more than a few of these. They are perhaps best known as stop-motion/puppet films by the director Ivo Caprino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dMbxrspfoU&list=PL6B529FE04...

Here are the ones that I think are most entertaining/recognized to such a degree that they are worth reading:

- The Three Billy-Goats Gruff - The Ashlad Who Ate a Match with the Troll - The Ashlad and his Crew (the film above) - East of the Sun and West of the Moon - The Husband Who Was to Mind the House - The Boy Who Went to the North Wind - One's Own Children Are Always Prettiest - The Ashlad Who Made the Princess Say "That's a lie!" - Soria Moria Castle - The Giant without a Heart in his Body - The Three Princesses in the Blue Mountain

Minor correction: Norway was not formally a part of Sweden. The arrangement was a "personal union of the separate kingdoms of Sweden and Norway under a common monarch and common foreign policy", see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_between_Sweden_and_Norwa....

I love "The priest and the clerk" for its incredibly colorful use of arcaic Norwegian language.

Not sure how well it translates without a huge amount of care, but at least it's a good long-form joke in English as well :)

If you ever get a chance to see Abbi Patrix tell this kind of tale live, grab it. He's great.

(Web presence is mostly French, but he sometimes performs in English too.)

Ah, old stories. From a different time. Dreaming of the basic assumption of a common, shared experience, of everything relating back to the group, the individual justifying himself to others. Everyone that exists in this place counts. You give and get in return. That's the world I believed in before the internet, before smartphones. The people sitting with you on the train, those could be protagonists of my very own Norwegian Folktale.

All of it in stark contrast to today's individualism, where, surprisingly, people are not selfish or cold, but still have boundaries; primarily it's not about the group, it's about yourself. Maybe we can relate. Maybe I can give, but I don't have to. Maybe I get something in return but it would be foolish to rely on it. Instead, why don't I try and go alone, use the modern tools and reach heights impossible in an earlier age. No one in the collective is holding me back.

Took me a while to adapt....

A (deceased) artist named Theodor Kittelsen [1] has made quite a few illustrations [2] for many of these tales (and other Norwegian stories and fantasy creatures).

He lived not far from where I live and my famly and I often visit the combined cobalt mining and Kittelsen museum called Blaafarveverket [3] (the blue colour plant or the plant that makes blue colour)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Kittelsen

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTU0K-nvPmY

[3] https://www.blaa.no/en/

His most known work: Soria Moria, is amazing.

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soria_Moria_Castle

This is probably his most well-known work among metal fans:

https://uploads4.wikiart.org/images/theodor-severin-kittelse...

I mostly know about this work because of the Phil Elverum track of the same name which is also incredible.

This collection of fairytales is beautiful but, in general, I want to say that this website is full of gems. It's an example of how I'd like the web to be: accessible, full of knowledge, independent, with personality.

Those who like this site may also enjoy this [1], which has illustrations from many classic children's and fairy tale books.

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/index.html

Does anyone know if/where this collection is available in Norwegian (preferably in Bokmål)?

Haven't verified that http://folkeeventyr.no/ has all of them, but seems to have a lot and at least the first one and plenty of Ashlads, kings, princesses, trolls, foxes, men, old ladies, etc.

See also: http://runeberg.org/folkeven/

Number 50, Two Stepsisters, is the source of my favourite expression in the Norwegian language:

"You haven't sucked this out of your own breast!"

When I was a kid, at one time, I had access to a lending library which had a series of books with titles of the form "X Fairy Tales", where X had values like Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, etc.

Many of them were very entertaining. I don't remember the name of the publisher but a google may find it, for anyone interested in it for themselves or their kids.

This is a reminder of what the web should be about - publishing great content in an accessible format.

It says "slightly modernised to make the reading easier" - what exactly has been modernised?

I'm charmed. I'm dizzy!

good fairytales in a very unattractive package.

on my display this website looks like this: https://paste.pics/6ac21e4b7357bd608ac7903a24eb3d79

huge white areas devoid of content. css, where art thou?

Do you really want enormously wide text columns? Having a max-width is nowadays considered courteous because most people find it easier to read text where lines are roughly the same length as on a printed page.

Looks great on my mobile :-)

(FF developer edition)