PETER ASBJORNSEN
(1812-1885)
JORGEN MOE
(1813-1882)
Norwegian authors
Biography:
Closely united in their lives and work, the two men are rarely named separately. Although they came from different family origins, they both became tutors and began collecting folktales. In 1827 they met and ten years later, their first compillation of Norwegian Folklore appeared (its title was Nor). In 1841 Norske Folkeeventyr was published and it was widely translated in Europe (the English translation appeared in 1859). Like Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, they became very successful because of their use of simple language, and thus they could save the dialectal problems of Norwegian without losing the richness of oral tradition.
Separately, Asbjornsen published Norwegian fairy Tales and Folk Legends between 1845-1848. Moe became one of the finest Norwegian romantic poets with his Digte (a compillation of poems published in 1850) and the following year he published a Norwegian Children's classic: I Broden og i Tjaernet (In the Well and the Pond).
Their best-known stories are East of the Sun and West of the Moon and The Three Billy-Goats Gruff.