I’m a norwegian, and part of growing up is learning about the folk stories of Askeladden. There are a lot of them, and quite a few involves an encounter with a Troll.
In one of these stories Askeladden and the Troll agree on an eating contest where the Troll will let him go if he loses. Askeladden wins by faking it all, sticking the “eaten” food in a small bag in his lap. When the troll asks how Askeladden can eat that much, Askeladden convinces the troll that it’s easy - he just has to take a knife and slice open his stomach. Of course the troll does it and dies.
I never thought much of it until the topic of these kinds of stories came up while I was living in Czech Republic quite a few years ago. “This is the kind of stuff youbtell kids??”
The takeaways are:
Norwegian stories for children are grotesque for anyone who didn’t grow up with them.
I was fortunate enough to be brought up on stories from all over. LOADS of people have folk stories that are “grotesque” to those not brought up with them, and once you get over that, you begin to look at your own folk tales and seeing how foolish and/or grotesque and/or problematical they are. I mean talking snakes with legs? Daughters getting their own father to impregnate them? Fathers offering their own daughters for rape to protect guests? Yeah, Christian-sphere mythology has a lot of grotesque bits as well and there it’s considered holy writ!
I’m a norwegian, and part of growing up is learning about the folk stories of Askeladden. There are a lot of them, and quite a few involves an encounter with a Troll.
In one of these stories Askeladden and the Troll agree on an eating contest where the Troll will let him go if he loses. Askeladden wins by faking it all, sticking the “eaten” food in a small bag in his lap. When the troll asks how Askeladden can eat that much, Askeladden convinces the troll that it’s easy - he just has to take a knife and slice open his stomach. Of course the troll does it and dies.
I never thought much of it until the topic of these kinds of stories came up while I was living in Czech Republic quite a few years ago. “This is the kind of stuff youbtell kids??”
The takeaways are:
That sounds about par for any European children’s story from anytime prior to 1960.
Exactly. Just read any Grimm brothers’ fairy tale… Live grandmas popping out a sliced wolf’s stomach, witches pushed in the oven…
Not sure about kids nowadays, but this is how Gen X (and those before them) grew up.
I was fortunate enough to be brought up on stories from all over. LOADS of people have folk stories that are “grotesque” to those not brought up with them, and once you get over that, you begin to look at your own folk tales and seeing how foolish and/or grotesque and/or problematical they are. I mean talking snakes with legs? Daughters getting their own father to impregnate them? Fathers offering their own daughters for rape to protect guests? Yeah, Christian-sphere mythology has a lot of grotesque bits as well and there it’s considered holy writ!