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What this episode is about
Part 1 of my Norway special is a double-length story hour. No analysis, no explanations, just stories. I take you through a country where the mountains have faces, and I retell the most important troll legends the way they were told in Norway.
What a troll is
It starts with the land turned to stone: rocks that look like hunched figures, and peaks that are said to have once been someone.
Legends of the coast
From the Helgeland coast comes the legend of the Seven Sisters, the horseman Hestmannen and the hat with the hole in it, the mountain Torghatten. Then there is the wedding party that turned to stone at the Troll Wall.
The classic fairy tales
From the Asbjørnsen and Moe collection I tell the Three Billy Goats Gruff and the troll under the bridge, the boy who had an eating contest with the troll and tricked him with a piece of cheese, and the troll who didn’t keep his heart in his body but hid it in an egg.
The changeling and the cat on the Dovrefjell
The darkest story of the evening is about the strange child in the cradle. At the end, things get lighter again with the cat on the Dovrefjell, a story about a bear, a cabin full of trolls and a Christmas Eve.
Where these stories come from and why the troll almost always loses is what I explain in Part 2.
Frequently asked questions
Where do the Norwegian troll stories come from?
The fairy tales come from the Norske Folkeeventyr by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, published from 1841. The local legends belong to the oral tradition of the Helgeland and Nordland coast.
More in the lexicon: Troll.
About this episode
Norway is full of trolls. You just have to know how to read the mountains. In this first part of our Norway special there’s no analysis, no explaining – only stories. A full story-hour at double length: the great petrification legends of the coast, the classic troll tales of Asbjørnsen & Moe, and the ancient belief about the child in the cradle. The interpretation follows in Part 2.
Sit down, turn the lights low, and come up into the mountains.
📚 SOURCES & FURTHER READINGTonight’s tales come from the classic collection by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen & Jørgen Moe, Norske Folkeeventyr (from 1841 onward): “De tre bukkene Bruse” (The Three Billy Goats Gruff), “Askeladden som kappåt med trollet” (The Boy Who Had an Eating Match with a Troll), “Risen som ikke hadde noe hjerte på seg” (The Troll/Giant with No Heart in His Body), and “Kjetta på Dovre” (The Cat on the Dovrefjell).– Andreas Faye, Norske Folke-Sagn (1833/1844) – the early foundational collection of Norwegian place-legends and folk belief.– Reidar Th. Christiansen, The Migratory Legends (1958) – the standard catalogue of Norwegian migratory legends, including petrification, the changeling and church-bell motifs.– The Torghatten / Seven Sisters legend is the well-known place-legend of the Helgeland/Nordland coast (Brønnøysund, Alsten, Leka, Lofoten).– On the visual tradition: Theodor Kittelsen (1857–1914), who still shapes how we picture Norway’s trolls.Note: this episode retells the legends. Their origin, interpretation and source-criticism are covered in full in Part 2.