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SimonRoyHughes

@[email protected]

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

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Bloggity blog.

“The Curious Incident of the Dog and the Sailor”

Is the gay fairy tale really based on suppressed gay Danish folklore? I looked at the sources.

https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-and-the-sailor

@folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

In the north, St John’s Eve (23. June) coincides with the old midsummer’s night, and is popularly celebrated by people congregating around bonfires. Peter Christen Asbjørnsen connects the new (Christian) celebration to old (pagan) celebrations: witches – Bloksberg – the devil – the wild hunt – Holda – huldre – Odin – Valkyries – and ultimately, to Freya herself.

@folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

In 1851, Benjamin Thorpe made an ill-considered statement, doubting the authenticity of Peter Christen Asbjørnsen's Norwegian Hulder Tales and Folk Legends.

In his preface to the second edition of the first volume of these Norwegian stories (1859), Asbjørnsen takes issue with Thorpe's comment, demonstrating a provenance of European folklore that goes back to the worship of Freya among the Germanic peoples.

165 years later, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen's defence of the Norwegian legend has all-but negated my ability to suspend disbelief when reading modern fantasy or fairy tales. Many of these stories, disconnected from their folkloric roots, now ring hollow.

How will you fare?

@norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

“The Girl Who Stole the Troll’s Bellweather Cow” is an unpublished variant of “Askeladden Who Stole the Troll’s Silver Ducks, etc.” in which there is very little male participation; the lead is a girl who is advised by a crone in the forest to travel to a troll’s mountain, where she kills the troll’s daughter, the troll’s wife, and then the troll, before taking the sun back to the king. There is no romantic interest.

@norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

15. June: Is your work child or teen-friendly, or does it contain themes more suited for mature audiences?

Let me see: Prejudice. Racism. Familial treachery. Mockery. Bullying. Sedition. Heresy. Astrology. Necromancy. Satanism. Pre-marital sex. Implied cross-species sex. Misogyny. Kidnapping. Accidental and intentional injury. Death by misadventure. Torture. Murder. Dismemberment. Decapitation. Accidental and intentional cannibalism.

So yes. It is certainly child- and teen-friendly, for it contains themes more suited for mature audiences. We still read folktales and legends for our children, n’est-ce pas?

@norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

I have committed a blog again.

This time, I write briefly about the provenance and transmission of the folktales and legends we know so well, and how I believe that the great age and broad distribution of the stories obligates us to treat the old stories with the greatest respect.

https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/final-push

@norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Dearest reader: I have blogged yet again.

This time I have written a short account of how Moltke Moe added two of his own folktales to the Asbjørnsen & Moe collection.

https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/today-you-learned-1-not-all-asbjornsen-moe-is-asbjornsen-moe

@norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

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. Release date: 2024-10-01

Announcement and details here: https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/the-complete-norwegian-folktales-and-legends-of-asbjornsen-moe

@norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

The Complete Norwegian Folktales and Legends of Asbjørnsen & Moe, edited and translated by Simon Roy Hughes.

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

The unannotated edition is ready to go. Forthcoming 1. September, together with the annotated edition.

@norwegianfolktales @folklore @folklorethursday

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 @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

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 @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 @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to writingcommunity
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

For writers and publishers who, like me, do not want to allow to leech off their hard work. Here's how they say you can exclude your book from their project of systematic :

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/9689820

@writingcommunity

SimonRoyHughes OP ,
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

@writingcommunity Sucks that this is opt out only; apparently, theft is a mainstay of American society, supported by the obsequious US Supreme court.

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 @folklore @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to writers
@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 @writers @writingcommunity @translators

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 @folklore @folklorethursday

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

18+ AimeeMaroux , to antiquidons
@AimeeMaroux@mastodon.social avatar

Since @aurochs asked if there are "merwomen" with human genitals, this is the closest image that I personally know of: a Nereid swimming right behind the chariot of Neptunus / Poseidon.

Maybe the @phistorians know any art of female tritones?

@antiquidons

18+ SimonRoyHughes ,
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

@AimeeMaroux There is one (as yet unpublished) Norwegian folktale that I know of, in which the hero meets a mermaid whose top is fish and bottom woman. But he rejects her for being the wrong way around.

@aurochs @phistorians @antiquidons

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

- 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 @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 @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!

@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 @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.

@folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday

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

SimonRoyHughes , to writingcommunity
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Readers Digest = Volksbücher

@literature @reading @writingcommunity

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

@folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Mountain Scenes: A Reindeer Hunt in the Rondane Mountains

@folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

“There is no mention of the devil in the oldest accounts of these women who fare abroad in Holda’s company by night; he was only introduced later. But the whole thing is reminiscent of Odin when the witches are called caped riders. Their intercourse with the devil, and his choice of the one he likes best as witch queen on Walpurgis night is probably associated with the wedding feasts of Odin and Freya, which were celebrated at these times. It is likely that folklore has attached to these wedding dances the idea that the witches dance the snow off Bloksberg on the night of 1st May.”

— Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, 1859.

@folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Smack him!

@folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore Norwegian Bokmål
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

You can't always get what you want...🎶

@folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday

"Swill and scraps and sleep in a sty."

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Beware the nisse.

@folklore @norwegianfolktales @folklorethursday

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Hm! I appear to be finished. I'll fiddle with the introductory and conclusory paragraphs for a bit, and then start sending them off for editing.

Publication late this summer?

@norwegianfolktales @folklore

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

The biggest billy-goat taunts the troll that has just threatened him, with a rhyme:

Come on, then! My two spears shall fly,
And they shall put out your eyes!
I have two great boulder-stones,
They shall crush both marrow and bone!

I suspected I knew the answer to my question about the indentity of the stones, but without some kind of corroboration, I wasn't going to mention genitals in reference to what many perceive as a children's tale.

So, here it is: a corresponding folktale from Germany leaves us in no doubt at all.

The folktale is "Wie die Ziegen nach Hessen gekommen sind" ("When the Goats Came to Hessen," Translated by D. L. Ashliman here: https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type0122e.html#hessen )

Here, the wolf (not troll) asks the ram: "what are those big spikes on your head, and what is that bag for between your legs?"

The ram replies: "the spikes are a pair of pistols, and the bag is where I carry my powder and lead."

So now we know what kind of stones the billy-goat threatens to beat the troll to death with.

As ever, this children's tale was not necessarily aimed at children while still on the oral record.

@norwegianfolktales @folklore

Tommy from Guy Richie’s Snatch is pointing a large revolver at someone out of frame, and asking: "You want to see if I've got the minerals."

ClaireFromClare , to histodons
@ClaireFromClare@h-net.social avatar

A shift from agricultural employment to manufacturing accelerated a century before the steam engine & the boom in coal usage: intriguing findings from 20 years of archival research in England & Wales.

New technologies? (eg in printing?) The ideas thus spreading? Hard-working immigrants? Any ideas here for an energy-efficient but prosperous future?

https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/nation-of-makers-industrial-britain
https://www.economiespast.org/

@histodons

SimonRoyHughes ,
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

@ClaireFromClare @histodons It may be revealing to look at the growth of the triangular trade and colonialism.

SimonRoyHughes , to writers
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Writing is a means to learning.
Writing is a means to thinking.
Writing is a means to remembering.
Writing is a means to organising.
Writing is a means to communicating.

@writingcommunity @writers

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Walpurgisnacht is fast approaching. If you want to fly to Blokksberg to meet the devil, but you’ve mislaid your greasehorn, this is the stuff you need to anoint your beesom with.

@folklore @norwegianfolktales

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

I have committed a blog.

This one is on Peter Nicolai Arbo's artistic production, and how it shows a connection between witches, the wild hunt, valkyries, and the Old Norse goddess Freya.

https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/freya-valkyries-and-witches-oh-my

@folklore @norwegianfolktales

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

A cat that reaches twenty years old will turn into a witch. A witch that reaches 100 years old will turn back i to a cat.

@folklore @norwegianfolktales

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Uses Google Translate to ensure the passage is the one I'm looking for.

Dies laughing.

@folklore @mythology @norwegianfolktales

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

“Don’t worry,” I thought, “it's only a preface; it won’t take more than an evening to translate. Put it off until later.”

It’s later.

The preface is 22 pages long. The language is old-fashioned, the argument is convoluted. It’s taken me a week so far, and I’m still only ⅔ of the way through.

On the other hand, it is one of the most interesting texts I have ever read, documenting the connection between (modern) folkloric witches and their familiars, valkyries, and the goddess Freya. The , , and writing communities need to read it.

@folklore @norwegianfolktales @writingcommunity

A footnote from the text: A German journalist and poet [Julius Hammer] states in truth: “There are no poetic flowers that are so difficult to imitate as folktales and legends. Artificial flowers of this kind betray themselves as soon as they are made, even if they come from the most skilled hand.”

SimonRoyHughes OP ,
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

@WagesOf Indeed. It should be out some time later this year.

@folklore @norwegianfolktales @writingcommunity

SimonRoyHughes OP ,
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

And this text brings Peter Nicolai Arbo’s artistic production into perspective. He published paintings of valkyries, and the Asgårdsreie, and illustrated Asbjørnsen’s witch legends. He "got" the connection.

@folklore @norwegianfolktales

NatureMC , to writers
@NatureMC@mastodon.online avatar

beware: "Every new seems to have some kind of companion book, some book that's trying to steal sales." AI-generated , summaries and even books appear shortly after the moment your book is published! It's reputational and financial harm. https://www.npr.org/2024/03/13/1237888126/growing-number-ai-scam-books-amazon @writers

SimonRoyHughes ,
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

@NatureMC Fools being soon parted from their hard-earned cash is not my responsibility as a conscientious writer selling worthwhile books. The only measure I might take is a brief note on my copyright page, to the effect of disclaiming association with any works purporting to be derivative.

@writers

SimonRoyHughes ,
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

@NatureMC @writers By all means, warn away.

SimonRoyHughes , to folklore
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

A woman convicted of riding as a mare by night should be taken out to sea, hewed across the spine, and sunk in the water.

Only women were ever suspected of being nightmares. This is one reason we need .

@folklore

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