Troll Magic
Hidden Folk from the Mountains and Forests of Norway
In this book, first published as Troldskab in 1892, Theodor Kittelsen spins tales of wonder around creatures rumored to haunt the fields, forests, and waterfalls of Norway. Striding, gamboling, and slithering across these pages are witches and gnomes and sea monsters, fiery dragons waking from their stiff-winged slumber, mermaids rising from the deep, and the sly, shapeshifting nøkk. But first and foremost are the trolls, hapless, horrible, or just plain silly, working their spells and making their mischief to the terror and delight of the presumably human reader.
Delving into Theodor Kittelsen’s work, I found myself descending into an ancient, mystical world, not unlike that of Tolkien, inhabited by giants, witches, merfolk, and, of course, trolls. But what sets Kittelsen’s work apart from his contemporaries’ is his perceptual authenticity. While other illustrators painted fantastical landscapes and characters, those paintings were mere daydreams for children to play in. Kittelsen documented a skewed moment in reality, almost as if he was witness to the hidden horrors that escaped the senses of common folk. The glowing eyes of the nøkk peering from the bog, the creepy crawly emerging from the woods, and the lone maiden blowing her horn—these are not mere fairytales. These are truths. Dark. Hidden. Truths.
Gris Grimly
Across the stillness of the sprawling mountain heath, the shadow of the mighty forest falls, its wildness calling to the child in all of us. Here the Hidden Folk assemble: the stalwart little nisse, farmyard spirit and irrepressible prankster; the seductive hulder, with her crown of flowers and cow’s tail; the fiddling fossegrim, summoning the music of wind and water; and most fearsome and enchanting of all, the one-eyed troll, head high above the treetops. A veritable bestiary of Nordic folk creatures was conjured by artist Theodor Kittelsen, whose late nineteenth-century paintings and illustrations gave these macabre and magical figures their enduring forms.
In this book, first published as Troldskab in 1892, Kittelsen spins tales of wonder around creatures rumored to haunt the fields, forests, and waterfalls of Norway. Striding, gamboling, and slithering across these pages are witches and gnomes and sea monsters, fiery dragons waking from their stiff-winged slumber, mermaids rising from the deep, and the sly, shapeshifting nøkk. But first and foremost are the trolls, hapless, horrible, or just plain silly, working their spells and making their mischief to the terror and delight of the presumably human reader.
Tailoring his whimsical artistic style to each tale, Kittelsen’s stories, in Tiina Nunnally’s nimble translation, reveal a Nordic world of wonder, myth, and magic as real as the imagination allows.
Delving into Theodor Kittelsen’s work, I found myself descending into an ancient, mystical world, not unlike that of Tolkien, inhabited by giants, witches, merfolk, and, of course, trolls. But what sets Kittelsen’s work apart from his contemporaries’ is his perceptual authenticity. While other illustrators painted fantastical landscapes and characters, those paintings were mere daydreams for children to play in. Kittelsen documented a skewed moment in reality, almost as if he was witness to the hidden horrors that escaped the senses of common folk. The glowing eyes of the nøkk peering from the bog, the creepy crawly emerging from the woods, and the lone maiden blowing her horn—these are not mere fairytales. These are truths. Dark. Hidden. Truths.
Gris Grimly
In considering Theodor Kittelsen’s highly captivating Troll Magic—presented here in Tiina Nunnally’s excellent translation and accompanied by Kittelsen’s own inimitable illustrations—I thought less of the iconic fairy tales of Grimm or Andersen and more of the strange, sometimes quirky, always powerful retellings and reshapings of traditional lore by Amos Tutuola in The Palm Wine Drinkard or Lafcadio Hearn in Kwaidan. And yet Kittelsen’s criminally under-known tales of magical beings have a stamp and style all their own, one no doubt informed by being set ‘up north, where the vast, bare surroundings allow the eye and the mind a wild freedom.’ I’m very excited that others will now have a chance to discover, through both word and image, this striking work by a singular imagination. I would wager that most readers, like me, will have a hard time putting it down.
Laird Hunt
Kittelsen's striking ink drawings are variously haunting and raucous, combining wit and menace in such a way as to anticipate the work of later illustrators, such as Edward Gorey, Maurice Sendak, and Jeffrey Alan Love.
Wall Street Journal
In Troll Magic, you can almost hear the quiet voice of the late-night storyteller, who begins once the hearth fire has burned down to glowing coals, who dares us to contemplate the unseen, or seen fleetingly. Some of his stories are humorous, others thoughtful and prosaic, but he devotes plenty of time as that late-night storyteller trying to give you the “creepy-crawlies.”
The Norwegian-American
The examples of wonderful language, lesson, and symbol could go on and on, but if I put all of them in the review, you wouldn’t need to read the book and would miss all the enjoyment. Troll Magic is the kind of book you will want to reread from time to time and see something you didn’t see the first time.
UP Book Review
What’s striking about this book is Kittelsen’s beautiful black-and-white drawings that bring to life these creatures in a Nordic world of wonder, myth, and magic.
Pioneer Press
Anyone who wants to know more about the traditional supernatural creatures of Norway will appreciate the verbal texts Kittelsen offers and especially his wonderful illustrations.
Journal of Folklore Research Reviews
Lyrical, comical, scary and sly—[Troll Magic] is sheer delight, and it’s wonderful to be able to read Kittelsen’s words as well as to lose oneself in his glorious illustrations.
Gramarye
Contents
Translator’s Note
Troll Magic
The Forest Troll
On the Way to a Feast at the Troll Castle
The Fossegrim
The Dragon
Supernatural Creatures I
Supernatural Creatures II
The Nisse
The Hulder
The Mermaid
The Witch
On Mount Kolsaas
A Sea Troll
The Nøkk
The Draug
The Sea Serpent
The Troll Bird
A Jutul Battle
The Dying Mountain Troll
A Chronology of the Life of Theodor Kittelsen
