East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North illustrated by Kay Nielsen (4/5)
Norwegian folk tales with spectacular illustrations (just scroll down). The tales are familiar: rooms that shouldn't be entered while someone is away that just can't be resisted followed by pleading for forgiveness and second and third chances. Things turn out all right in these, but it makes me wonder about their message- it's certainly not heeding someone's command under pain of death. Also quite a bit of torture, violence, people who are really trolls, treasure, and royal weddings.
tags: books, Kay Nielsen, East of the Sun and West of the Moon
Omigosh! This book was one I loved as a kid! My Scandahoovian-American friends all had copies and I finally sat down and ate up the tales, too. Man, I hadn't thought of that volume in ages. Thanks, Claire!
ReplyDeleteThe book had been on my sister-in-law's gift list for ages since it's out of print (with this illustrator anyway). My parents got it from the library to check it out before finding a used copy of it. I totally get why she digs it.
ReplyDeleteGrew up with these tales :) The link didn't work, though, so I couldn't see if it was the same illustrations!
ReplyDeleteHmm, the link worked for me, so I don't know what's up with that.
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