La Maison Forte
NORSK SKOGKATT

16 March 2004  

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EVENTYR

Since people first sat around the fire at night and told each other stories to ward off the dark, animals have figured as favorite characters, reflecting the entire panoply of human traits: loyalty, greed, wile, gullibility.

Scandinavian folklore is full of magical creatures. Princes are turned into swans or bears, hares and foxes talk, even pancakes have lives of their own! All of them, and the princesses and goose girls too, consort with trolls and nisse and tusse and the rest of the supernatural beings dwelling in the forests and mountains and around the fjords.

The bushy-tailed 'huldre-cats' are long-time inhabitants of this fascinating world – among the oldest, in fact, as they were companions of the great goddess Freyja.

In this section you will find a selection of folk tales involving cats, several of them collected by Norwegian folklorists Peter Christian Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. A favorite is the Norwegian eventyr about the cat that talks a troll to death in the service of her master. There are several versions of this story, obviously related to Perrault's Puss in Boots (Le Chat Botté). It is called Herre Per in Norwegian, Sir Per in English, La Chatte et le Troll de la Montagne Bleu in French – and in German there are two choices: Der Herr Peter and Helge-Hal im Blauen Berg. In a Swedish variant, Die tüchtige Katze, or The Clever Cat, the 'cat as helper' comes to the aid of a young girl instead of the lad in other versions.

I have also included a bit of mythology, including material on Freyja, Snorri Sturlusson's tale of Thor at the home of the giants, and an interesting story about Leif Eriksson encountering Norwegian Forest Cats at the court of Olaf Trygvasson. Did he take them with him to 'Vinland' to become ancestors of the Maine Coon?.

in English:          The Honest Penny          Kisa the Cat          The Cottager and his Cat          The Tabby Who Was Such a Glutton          The Troll Turned Cat          The Severed Hand          Sir Per          The Boy Who Served 3 Years Without Pay          King Solomon's Cat          The Clever Cat          Forest Cat and Maine Coon - same breed?          Thor's Expedition to the Home of the Giants          Freyja          Français:          La Chatte et le Troll de la Montagne Bleu          L'expedition de Thor aux Pays des Géants          Les Dix-Sept Chats, par Selma Lagerlöf

Deutsch:          Der Ehrlicher Vierschilling          Salomos Katze          Die tüchtige Katze          Die Katze, die so viel fressen konnte          Der Herr Peter          Helge-Hal im Blauen Berg          Der Bursche der 3 Jahre umsonst dienen soll          Kisa Königstochter & ihre Schwester Ingibjörg          Die Wertvolle Katze          Waldkatze und Maine Coon – dasselbe Rasse?          Norsk:          Herre Per          Reve-Enka          Kvernsagn          Kjetta som var så fæl til å ete          Gutten som skulle tjene tre år uten lønn

There is a wealth of material available online about folklore and the old sagas. For an introduction to the subject you could do no better than a wonderful article by Birgit Hertzberg Johnsen, Ph.D., on the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs's web site. Called 'Norwegian Folktales and Legends' , it explains the various types of Norwegian folk stories and legends, which cropped up as early as the 12th century (the word aeventyr, as Dr. Johnsen explains, being taken from the Roman adventura - 'event' or 'strange occurence'.) My other favorite sites include:

Project Runeberg- traditional Folke-eventyr in Norwegian.
Norse Sagas, University of Oregon - original fornsögur and English translations
Baldwin Project - Popular Tales from the Norse by George Webbe Dasent
Ashlimann - folk texts
Cal. Tech. - Folklore, Eddas

The illustrations on this page are by the great Norwegian artist and troll expert Theodor Kittelsen (1857-1914).

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