The Light at the End of the Tunnel

I have finished writing the introductions, and there is now nothing left for me to do but edit a few incidental texts before publication. I hope this editing will be done before summer commences, and I am hoping to publish before the beginning of autumn.

What a wild ride it’s been!

Even for a Londoner, Norwegian folktales have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. At home, Vera Southgate’s “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” from 1968 was my first introduction. Robert Lumley’s illustration of the troll climbing on to the bridge (shown left) is forever etched into my psyche. I have vague recollections from school, of puppet films that include characters eating what appeared to be wallpaper paste, but which was called porridge; I had never seen porridge like that. Funnily enough, I can date these recollections, for I only attended that particular infants’ school for a year, so it must have been 1976. (The huge Betamax video player in the audio/ visual room also made an impression.)

Fifteen years later, I saw these films again, this time at an exhibition of Ivo Caprino’s work in Bergen, Norway. It was at this exhibition that I was at last made aware of the Asbjørnsen and Moe collection. I wanted to read it all.

Another ten years passed. I had by this time fathered three children, and taken far too much education. I was looking around for something to occupy my mind while I worked a part-time job and weighed the pros and cons of embarking on an academic career. It was my tenth year of living, studying, and working in Norway, and I wondered if I was competent enough to translate something from Norwegian to English. I decided a short trial would suffice, and had a go at one of Asbjørnsen’s folktales: “Bamse Brakar,” which I called “Goodman Bear.” I found the work satisfying, and translated a further handful of tales. Then I discovered that the whole collection had never appeared in English. And I realised I could remedy that situation.

The rest is really history, except that life intervened for another ten years, and it wasn’t until 2015 that I seriously attempted to complete the collection, with the support of the fine folk of #FolkloreThursday to cheer me on.

That was all half a million words ago, now.