The Tales contained in this volume form a second series of those
"Popular Tales from the Norse," which have been received with much
favour in this country, and of which a Third Edition will shortly be
published. A part of them appeared some years ago in _Once a Week_, from
which they are now reprinted by permission of the proprietors, the Norse
originals, from which they were translated, having been communicated by
the translator's friend, P. Chr. Asbjoernsen, to various Christmas books,
published in Christiania. In 1871, Mr. Asbjoernsen collected those
scattered Tales and added some more to them, which he published under
the title "Norske Folke-Eventyr fortalte of P. Chr. Asbjoernsen, Ny
Samling." It is from this new series as revised by the collector that
the present version has been made. In it the translator has trodden in
the path laid down in the first series of "Tales from the Norse," and
tried to turn his Norse original into mother English, which any one that
runs may read.
That this plan has met with favour abroad as well as at home is proved
by the fact that large editions of the "Tales from the Norse" have been
printed by Messrs. Appleton in New York, by which, no doubt, that
appropriating firm have been great gainers, though the translator's
share in their profits has amounted to nothing. It is more grateful to
him to find that in Norway, the cradle of these beautiful stories, his
efforts have been warmly appreciated by Messrs Asbjoernsen and Moe, who,
in their preface to the Third Edition, Christiania, 1866, speak in the
following terms of his version: "In France and England collections have
appeared in which our Tales have not only been correctly and faultlessly
translated, but even rendered with exemplary truth and care,--nay, with
thorough mastery; the English translation, by George Webbe Dasent, is
the best and happiest rendering of our Tales that has appeared, and it
has in England been more successful and become far more widely known
than the originals here at home." Then speaking of the Introduction,
Messrs. Asbjoernsen and Moe go on to say, "We have here added the end of
this Introduction to show how the translator has understood and grasped
the relation in which these Tales stand to Norse nature and the life of
the people, and how they have sprung out of both."
The title of this volume, "Tales from the Fjeld," arose out of the form
in which they were published in _Once a Week_. The translator began by
setting them in a frame formed by the imaginary adventures of English
sportsmen on the Fjeld or Fells in Norway. "Karin and Anders," and
"Edward and I," are therefore the creatures of his imagination, but the
Tales are the Tales of Asbjoernsen. After a while he grew weary of the
setting and framework, and when about a third of the volume had been
thus framed, he resolved to let the Tales speak for themselves and stand
alone as in the first series of "Popular Tales from the Norse."
With regard to the bearing of these Tales on the question of the
diffusion of race and tradition, much might be said, but as he has
already traversed the same ground in the Introduction to the "Tales from
the Norse," he reserves what he has to say on that point till the Third
Edition of those Tales shall appear. It will be enough here to mention
that several of the Tales now published are variations, though very
interesting ones, from some of those in the first series. Others are
rather the harvest of popular experience than mythical tales, and on the
whole the character of this volume is more jocose and less poetical than
that of its predecessor. In a word, they are, many of them, what the
Germans would call "Schwaenke."
Of this kind are the Tales called "The Charcoal Burner," "Our Parish
Clerk," and "The Parson and the Clerk." In "Goody 'gainst the Stream,"
and "Silly Men and Cunning Wives," the reader, skilled in popular
fiction, will find two tales of Indian origin, both of which are
wide-spread in the folklore of the West, and make their appearance in
the Facetiae of Poggio. The Beast Epic, in which Jacob Grimm so
delighted, is largely represented, and the stories of that kind in this
volume are among the best that have been collected. One of the most
mythical and at the same time one of the most domestic stories of those
now published, is, perhaps, "The Father of the Family," which ought
rather to have been called "The Seventh, the Father of the Family," as
it is not till the wayfarer has inquired seven times from as many
generations of old men that he finds the real father of the family Mr.
Ralston, the accomplished writer and editor of "Russian Popular Tales,"
has pointed out in an article on these Norse Tales, which appeared in
_Fraser's Magazine_ for December, 1872, the probable antiquity of this
story, which he classes with the Rigsmal of the Elder Edda. That it was
known in England two centuries ago is proved by the curious fact that it
has got woven into the life of "Old Jenkins," whose mythical age as well
as that of "Old Parr," Mr. Thoms has recently demolished in his book on
the "Longevity of Man." The story as quoted by Mr. Thoms, from
Clarkson's "History and Antiquities of Richmond," in Yorkshire, is so
curious that it is worth while to give it at length. There had been some
legal dispute in which the evidence of Old Jenkins, as confessedly "the
oldest inhabitant" was required, and the agent of Mrs. Wastell, one of
the parties, went to visit the old man. "Previous to Jenkins going to
York," says Mr. Clarkson, "when the agent of Mrs. Wastell went to him to
find out what account he could give of the matter in dispute, he saw an
old man sitting at the door, to whom he told his business. The old man
said 'he could remember nothing about it, but that he would find his
father in the house, who perhaps could satisfy him.' When he went in he
saw another old man sitting over the fire, bowed down with years, to
whom he repeated his former questions. With some difficulty he made him
understand what he had said, and after a little while got the following
answer, which surprised him very much: 'That he knew nothing about it,
but that if he would go into the yard he would meet with his father, who
perhaps could tell him.' The agent upon this thought that he had met
with a race of Antediluvians. However into the yard he went, and to his
no small astonishment found a venerable man with a long beard, and a
broad leathern belt about him, chopping sticks. To this man he again
told his business, and received such information as in the end recovered
the royalty in dispute." "The fact is," adds Mr. Thoms, "that the story
of Jenkins' son and grandson is only a Yorkshire version of the story as
old or older than Jenkins himself, namely, of the very old man who was
seen crying because his father had beaten him for throwing stones at his
grandfather." On which it may be remarked, that however old Old Jenkins
may have been, this story has probably out-lived as many generations as
popular belief gave years to his life. Another old story is "Death and
the Doctor," which centuries ago got entangled with the history of the
family of Bethune, in Scotland, who were supposed to possess an
hereditary gift of leechcraft, derived in the same way. "Friends in Life
and Death," is a Norse variation of Rip van Winkle, which is nothing
more nor less than a Dutch popular tale, while the lassie who won the
prince by fulfilling his conditions of coming to him, "not driving and
not riding, not walking and not carried, not fasting and not full-fed,
not naked and not clad, not by daylight and not by night," has its
variations in many lands. It is no little proof of the wonderful skill
of Hans Christian Andersen, and at the same time of his power to enter
into the spirit of popular fiction, that he has worked the tale of "The
Companion" into one of his most happy stories.
In this volume, as in the former one, the translator, while striving to
be as truthful as possible, has in the case of some characters adopted
the English equivalent rather than a literal rendering from the Norse.
Thus "Askpot" is still "Boots," the youngest of the family on whom falls
all the dirty work, and not "Cinderbob" or the Scottish "Ashiepet."
"Tyrihans" he has rendered almost literally "Taper Tom," the name
meaning not slender or limber Tom, but Tom who sits in the ingle and
makes tapers or matchwood of resinous fir to be used instead of candles.
Some of the Tales, such as "The Charcoal Burner," "Our Parish Clerk,"
and "The Sheep and the Pig who set up House," are filled with proverbs
which it was often very difficult to render. On this and other points it
must be left to others to say whether he has succeeded or not. But if
his readers, young and old, will only remember that things which seem
easiest are often the hardest to do, they will be as gentle readers as
those he desired to find for his first volume, and so long as they are
of that spirit he is sure to be well pleased.
_October 18th, 1873._