Great Swedish Fairy Tales

by Elsa Olenius

Book Overview

Wicked magicians, angry trolls, mysterious elves, and nimble gnomes are just a few of the characters that make up this charming collection of twenty-nine Swedish fairytales. Tales of knights in search... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440030412
• ISBN13: 9780440030416
• Release Date: January 1973
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.
• Age Range: 9 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 6

Customer Reviews

A book to be passed on to the next generation

My mother got this book in the early 70's and has since been passed on to me, much to her denial. But since I no longer live with my parents and I have the book with me I think its safe to say its finally mine. This book has the most wonderful collections of fairy tales. This is a book to be loved by all generations, not just children. I have had a love for fairy tales since I was an infant and this book is the only one I have come across that can truly feed my appetite for such tales. The stories are filled with trolls, tomtes, page boys, princess', and magic. They are stories of underdogs becoming hero's, good conquering evil, and love overcomming all obsticals. Whether that love be for family (which it generally is) or the classic man and maiden. The stories are only made richer by the illustrations done by John Bauer. Of course a review can never do this book justice. To find out how truly wonderful it is you'll have to read it for yourself. Welcome to the wild woods of Sweden. Enjoy your stay!

Great for kids of all ages

John Bauer's illustrations are splendid, with rich detail reminiscent of early Renaissance art. Olenius' prose is at once magical and informal. My daughter's third grade class fell in love with the book after a reading of just one of these tales. Most American children are not exposed to the tales of other cultures, and these stories of trolls and princesses, brave little boys, green-haired witches, magical plants and talking animals.

Tales of kinder, gentler evil spirits

When reading the fairy tales of a culture, you not only learn what they thought, but also the climate of their origins. The habitat of the Swedes is quite clear from this collection, where all tales are about trolls and ogres in a forest. What distinguishes these creatures from those in the tales from other locations is that the trolls are not totally evil and must follow a strict code of conduct. For example, even though a troll may want to cook and eat you, once they accept something from you they are forbidden to harm you in any way. All manner of trolls and other creatures of the forest are described in these tales. In most of them, they are interacting with humans, sometimes passing for humans in their attempts to obtain riches, mates or just to satisfy their curiosity about humans. Oddly enough, the heroes in these tales rarely vanquish their foes by chopping of their heads. Sometimes they defeat them by trickery and other times by kindness. All of the stories have happy endings, occasionally when the captive princess is rescued by the hero in the nick of time. However, even when holding captives against their will, the trolls do not torture their victims, unless you consider troll kindness to be a torture. I really enjoyed these tales of heroes, heroines and not so bad trolls who have their good points. With almost no killing, maiming or other features found in other fairy tales, this is a collection of stories that any child can read. It was fascinating to me that from the Swedish point of view the trolls of the forest were not evil, just similar creatures with a strict code of ethics who occasionally did bad things. Take away the strict code of ethics part and you have human behavior.

Charming, traditional Swedish tales full of Nordic magic

Winter seems eternal north of the Arctic Circle, and magic blows on the North Wind like snow crystals. Great Swedish Fairy Tales by Holger Lundbergh, John Bauer (Illustrator) bewitches with the charms of trolls, tomtes, courtiers, croft farmers and wide-eyed children. This collection of several truly great Swedish tales is illuminated by John Bauer's dark ink. Bauer paints a world of magic and detail making this a masterpiece beautiful to behold. You'll recognize some of the images as familiar, and some will haunt you with delight. The illustrations grace the pages; the stories grace the imagination.

charming stories and rich illustrations

This is one of my favorite book since girlhood. As with most fairy tales, many of these involve the expected kinds of storylines (quest stories, moral tales, etc.), but have the benefit of being less well-known than the ones by Grimm et al. Charming stories told in just the right way. Lots of princesses and trolls, tomten (Scandinavian elves of a sort) and moose. And, of course, John Bauer's haunting artwork is not to be missed.