Contemporary Children's Literature in Norway

More directly than most, Norwegian children's literature has its origins in an oral tradition of folktales and songs, and its written beginnings in a collection of folk-tales. The definitive collection of Norwegian folk-tales, Norske Folkeeventyr, assembled by Peter Christen Asbjörnsen and Jörgen Moe, appeared about 1850. The work was directly inspired by the great success of the Grimm brothers' collection of German folktales called Kinder und Hausmärchen; in its retention of local dialect it was undoubtedly also influenced by a current upsurge of romantic nationalism in Norway.

Asbjörnsen and Moe's collections consists of sagn or legends connected with historical events or specific places, and of eventyr which are the completely fictional stories sometimes called märchen or fairy tales. It is the eventyr with its trolls, princesses and treasures that has made the Norwegian folktales popular all over the world.

Besides the obvious trolls it is difficult to identify the peculiarly Norwegian elements in an eventyr that make it differ from variants in other countries. George Webbe Dasent, who translated Asbjörnsen and Moe's tales into English as Popular Tales from the Norse in 1858, made the following observations in his introductory essay:

These Norse Tales we may characterize as bold, outspoken, and humorous, in the true sense of humor. In the midst of every difficulty and danger arises that old Norse feeling of making the best of everything, and keeping a good face to the foe. The language and tone are perhaps rather lower than in some other collections, but it must be remembered that these are the tales of "hempen homespuns. . . ."¹

Dasent has mentioned the major characteristics of the tone of Norwegian folktales: sharp objectivity, common-sense, a basic or earthy quality, and a keen sense of humor.

Although Asbjörnsen and Moe's collection was not specifically for children, it quickly became popular with the younger audience. Even today, Norske Folkeeventyr is probably the work of literature which is most well-known by children. In the later nineteenth century many collections of poetry, songs and tales were assembled especially for children, and in 1888 the first picture book for children appeared—Elling Hoist's collection of songs and rhymes called Norsk Billedbok for Bam. There followed the so-called "golden age" of Norwegian children's literature when excellent animal and family stories were written by such authors as Jörgen Moe, Sigrid Undset, Bernt Lie, Hans Aarud, Gabriel Scott, Barbara Ring, and Dikken Zwilgmeyer. Although these novels were original works, they usually dealt with country life and their tone was similar to that of the eventyr. They presented a literary version of the national folk revival and remain favorite classics today.

Asbjörnsen and Moe's collection appeared in the context of a national movement to establish Landsmaal, the spoken language of the people, on an equal footing with the literary and scholastic language which was derived from Danish. That language problem has never yet been resolved, and affects the whole question of literature for children. There are two officially acceptable variants of Norwegian-, which is the language derived from Danish, and Nynorsk, which is the consolidation of country dialects called Landsmaal. Both languages are required of all children in school; yet until recently nearly all books were published in , which was difficult reading for children who spoke Nynorsk at home. Only recently have many books for children been published in both dialects, and Nynorsk is developing a literature of its own especially for very young children.

This language problem has intensified the tendency to base modern literature for children on traditional oral literature and song; perhaps as a consequence, the radio has been of great importance in the development of children's literature. For many years there has been a program on Norwegian radio called Barnetime (The Children's Hour) which consists primarily of funny ballads and songs presented by their authors. Many of these programs have later been adapted into books, records, and (more recently) television programs. Three out of the four major Norwegian writers for children, Alf Pröysen, Thorbjörn Egner...