Dragons, trolls, heroic women (Following folktales around the world 51. - Denmark)

Today I continue the blog series titled Following folktales around the world! If you would like to know what the series is all about, you can find the introduction post here. You can find all posts under the Following Folktales label, or you can follow the series on Facebook!

While many people think Andersen when they hear the term "Danish folktale," Andersen stories are at best literary re-imaginations of traditional stories. It is important to know that there are many, many actual folktales collected from Denmark, and they are pretty great too.

The Danish Fairy Book
Clara Stroebe, Frederick H. Martens
Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1922.

The volume contains twenty-nine classic folktales collected from various parts of Denmark. The tales have been translated and re-told in English, so some of the names are also English ("Jack") instead of Danish - but all in all, they seem to have retained their original flavor. Each story comes with Notes that include the place of collection, the source of the text, the tale type, and some interesting observations on certain ancient or common elements of the tale. The book is by no means a scientific publication, but it does give credit where credit is due.

Highlights

By far the best tale in the book bears the misleading title The Pig, which completely conceals that the story is a version of Bluebeard. Chasing a magical pig, three sisters end up captured by an evil man, one after the other. The youngest sister does not only manage to trick the man, but she even rescues her two sisters before she ends up rescuing herself.

The story of the Lindworm (here titled King Dragon) is a fairly well-known tale among storytellers. A queen gives birth to a dragon which wreaks havoc in the royal court until a brave servant girl manages to convince it to take off all his layers of dragon skin, and turn into a prince. This Danish version also have a sequel, in which the Dragon King wrongly exiles his wife, and then goes to find her - and when he does, he makes sure to ask again if she wants to go home with him at all (yay, consent!). By the way, I really recommend hearing this story in the enchanting performance of Louisiana storyteller Danielle Bellone, if you get the chance.
I also found the tale of The Princess on the Island interesting, and more than a little dark. In it, a Danish princess was hidden away in an island fortress by her father, to keep her from marrying an English prince coming to invade the country. All the princess' servants starved to death, and she lived on eating mice until she managed to break free (!). She did marry the prince in the end.
It was noted as a typically Danish element in the stories that villains often ended their career by "bursting into pebbles out of sheer anger." I found this poetic justice very appealing.

Connections

Since these are European stories, most of the types were familiar to me from many other sources - but that does not mean I did not appreciate the Danish take on each of them. The book contains several of my favorite folktale types: The clever girl that outsmarts a bunch of trolls three times (Ederland, the Poultry Maid); the Golden-haired Gardener, who in this case is helped by a magic horse and a non-magical lion, and has golden locks that reach his heels (Jack with the Golden Hair); and the Dancing Princesses, or in this case, single princess, who dances with a troll each night, until she is followed and rescued by the hero, who also kills the troll and turns the forests of silver, gold, and diamond back to people.
Even beyond my favorites, there were some very fun takes on familiar stories in the book. I liked Trillevip, the Danish variant of Rumeplstiltskin, who, once his name was guessed, actually helped the girl trick her own husband so that she would not have to spin anymore. I enjoyed the ending of Peter Redhat, the Danish Prince Thrushbeard, who managed to win the haughty princess, but her parents never forgave him for humiliating her. The Magic Hat was reminiscent of Irish fairy stories (it made its wearer able to see invisible trolls), while The mill at the bottom of the sea is a very common Baltic and Scandinavian story type, explaining why seawater is salty.

Where to next?
Norway!