@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

SimonRoyHughes

@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe

A translator and editor of #NorwegianFolktales. A teacher. A Brit (nominally, after so many years) living in northern Norway. A human being.

Friend of #JohnMastodon

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SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

My response to any article on "fairy tales":

Please define your terms, and differentiate what you are calling fairy tales from myths, legends, folktales, and even wonder tales. If you can't (and we know you can't – no one has been able to), do at least acknowledge the fuzzy, overlapping, organic scope of the concepts.

There is no such thing as a fairy tale. There are, however, many fairy tales. – paraphrasing Jack Zipes (I think) from memory.

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Folktale ending:

“And if you want to know any more, then you can ask grandfather – I expect he knows a lot more than I do!”

@norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

gutenberg_org, (edited ) to books
@gutenberg_org@mastodon.social avatar

Danish-born Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset was born #OTD in 1882.

Born in Denmark and raised in Norway, Undset had her first books of historical fiction published in 1907. She fled Norway for the United States in 1940 because of her opposition to Nazi Germany and the German invasion and occupation of Norway, but returned after World War II ended in 1945.

Books by Sigrid Undset at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35742

#books #literature

SimonRoyHughes,
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

@gutenberg_org Let's see how much of a Danish author she was...

Sigrid Undset’s father was Norwegian. Her mother was Danish. She was born in Denmark. She lived in Norway from age 2. She worked in an office for ten years in Norway. She wrote in Norwegian (riksmål, a precursor to modern bokmål). She won the Nobel prize in literature in 1928, representing Norway. Her eldest son died in April 1940, fighting for Norway against the invading Nazis. A vocal critic of Hitler and Nazism (especially their antisemitism), she fled Norway as the Nazis approached. She recorded radio addresses, which were sent from London to Norway. When she arrived in the US (travelling the long way around), she wrote and spoke in support of a free Norway. She returned to Norway after the war. She agitated for a sterner punishment of Norwegian collaborators (including the equally famous Nazi, Knut Hamsun). She forever after hated her collaborating daughter-in-law for betraying Norway. Statues have been erected in her honour, in Norway. Her image appeared on the NOK500 bank note until recently. Nearly every town and city in the country has a street named after her.

Sigrid Undset was Norwegian.

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

An early nisse legend from Norway, with a surprise at the end.

https://norwegianfolktales.net/folklore/the-bure-nisse

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Arbitrarily chosen, but 2024-09-01 is the big day.

The Complete Norwegian Folktales and Legends of Asbjørnsen & Moe – for the first time ever in English.

Not only that, but this project has developed into the most comprehensive edition of Asbjørnsen & Moe in any language.

Not to be missed.

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes, to random
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

I understand this. I can draw Donald Duck's head, but can't for the life of me figure out how to do his body.

On the other hand, if I were king, I wouldn't pay for an unfinished painting.

SimonRoyHughes, to random
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

(I has ISBNs.)

SimonRoyHughes,
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

@raymccarthy Norwegian ISBNs are gratis, but obligate publishers to deposit three copies of the publication at the national library. It's a small price to pay for immortality.

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

The three volumes of The Complete Norwegian Folktales and Legends of Asbjørnsen & Moe, the non-annotated edition, are all-but ready. All the folktales. All the legends. All the illustrations.

Vol. 1: 443 pages
Vol. 2: 463 pages
Vol. 3: 569 pages

This edition will be published at roughly the same time as The Complete Norwegian Folktales and Legends of Asbjørnsen & Moe, the annotated edition, which is only waiting for the final editing of my prefaces. All the folktales. All the legends. All the original prefaces and introductions. All the notes, both original and newly researched.

Vol. 1: (currently) 809 pages
Vol. 2: (currently) 609 pages
Vol. 3: (currently) 659 pages

Tomorrow I may feel tiny and unworthy, tempted to keep everything to myself. But tonight, I feel something like a giant.

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

This huge translation and writing project I am fitting together in its final form is too big to fit in my brain all at once. I must therefore trust the decisions that numerous iterations of me from the past made. I have to resist the urge to revisit every detail, just because I may have had a bad night's sleep. In this way, I expect be able to publish a work bigger and more comprehensive than any I ever imagined producing, while still retaining some semblance of my sanity. That's the hope.

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends @norwegianfolktales #Folklore #FolkloreThursday @writers @writingcommunity @translators #AmWriting #AmTranslating

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Did you know that the first choice of title for Asbjørnsen & Moe was an imitation of the Grimms’: “Norwegian Folk- and Children’s Tales”? Did you know their publisher wanted them to publish by subscription (crowd funding)? Did you know the publisher withdrew support when too few subscriptions were sold?

A translation here: https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/subscription-invitation-1840

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes, to random
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Gentlefolk of every stripe, this is it. You don’t get a second opportunity. So, live it well.

eivind, to histodons
@eivind@fribygda.no avatar

OTD, 7 May 1945, the Norwegian paper Aftenposten published literary Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun's Hitler obituray. @histodons

SimonRoyHughes,
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

@eivind This is one reason Hamsun should always be styled as "the Nazi, Knut Hamsun." He deserves to be hated as Sigrid Undset hated him.

@histodons

SimonRoyHughes,
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

@eivind @histodons But the cowards don't dare raise their voices when I start ranting.

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Revisiting my notes on The Three Bears, and I have a question about "Scrapefoot," which was discovered by Joseph Jacobs in 1894, and may predate Robert Southey’s version.

It tells of three bears in a castle, which are visited by Scrapefoot, a cunning fox. Scrapefoot takes their milk, chairs, beds...

Could it have been a tale in the Reynard cycle?

https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/meft/meft20.htm

@folklore

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

#ManOrBear #NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore #Folktale

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

#WritersCoffeeClub - 3. May: Does your work include pictures, maps or other custom graphics?

Yes. More than 350 illustrations by various Norwegian artists, such as August Schneider, Erik Werenskiold, Theodor Kittelsen, P. N. Arbo, Hans Gude, Otto Sinding, Vincent St. Lerche, Adolph Tidemand, and Johan Eckersberg.

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends @norwegianfolktales @folklore #folklore

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Norwegian Folktales: Forgotten Variants.

Bloggity blog.

(Sometimes I feel as if all I do is announce plans without publishing anything. That will change, once Asbjørnsen & Moe is released.)

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/for-my-next-trick-forgotten-variants

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Stay safe out there tonight, ladies!

#WalpurgisNacht #Folklore @folklore

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

“Do you want to buy a sow today?” said the boy. “It’s both a big sow, a good sow, and a rightly fat sow,” he said.

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Parts of the whole Asbjørnsen & Moe collection have been translated and published before me. I am critical of every one that I have seen (which doesn’t necessarily mean I hate them). I am also critical of nearly every review of these translations I have read.

Any work of translation is a statement from the translator, and should therefore be approached with scepticism. Reviewers ought not comment on matters they know not of, such as faithfulness to the original, publishing histories, original editions, etc.

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday

Now I’m off to bed, to dream of similar rosy reviews of my work…

SimonRoyHughes, to literature
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Readers Digest = Volksbücher

@literature @reading @writingcommunity

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes, to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Mountain Scenes: A Reindeer Hunt in the Rondane Mountains

#NorwegianFolktales #NorwegianLegends #Folklore @folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes, to linguistics
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

A girl at school felt ill, and had to go home. Of course, we need to establish contact with the family before we release a kid, so I got her to ring home. She rang a contact, showed me the screen on her phone, to let me see who she was ringing, and the word on the screen was one I didn't recognise.

She finished the conversation, and I asked her about the word. Arabic for pappa, she told me (transliterated into the Latin alphabet). So I asked her about the word for mama, and so on. The conversation lasted all of a minute, but it was as if this girl grew a couple of inches -- a teacher was interested in HER background. She left smiling, despite feeling ill.

Arabic is my no means a small language, but it is where I live, and so the same mechanisms this opinion piece describes ("You must change to please us.") are all too often apparent from day to day.

Show a little curiosity, rather. Learn a little from those whose perspactive is different from yours. And above all, respect other people and their backgrounds -- they are as valuable as you think you are.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/24/language-speak-big-slovene-english-german

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