between the mountains

I have done a post about some of these images before, but the whole Death-theme over at told_tales gave it new relevance. So I've added lots more images, and some text which ended up expanding the post quite a bit.

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In Norway there are many legends and stories about the Black Death. They all usually start with: "The Black Death came to Norway in 1348, and when it left there was hardly a person alive"

My favourite story was the one later illustrated by Theodore Kittelsen, and it goes something like this; During the Black Death the plague took the shape of an old woman, who hobbled from village to village, farm to farm. She’d be in old, raggedy clothes and carried a rake and a broom. If you saw her use the rake that meant that some of the people in the area would die. If she used the broom then everyone, yourself included, would be swept away.

( The Black Death )

Troll kalla mik
tungl sjötrungnis,
auðsug jötuns,
élsólar böl,
vilsinn völu,
vörð náfjarðar,
hvélsvelg himins –
hvat's troll nema þat?


They call me Troll;
Gnawer of the Moon,
Giant of the Gale-blasts,
Curse of the rain-hall,
Companion of the Sibyl,
Nightroaming hag,
Swallower of the loaf of heaven.
What is a Troll but that?
- from Skáldskaparmál


I've once mentioned that I'm not too fond of trolls. This is true to a point, but to be precise, what I'm not fond of is the stupid, blundering troll. The sinister, creepy troll on the other hand? They are a whole other category. So I thought – why not make a tribute to the trolls I do like? Well, here is my attempt at an audio-visual tribute to trolls.


The water troll Noekken by Theodor Kittelsen

( here there be trolls )

This will be a post about Norwegian fairytales. There will be pictures, but there will be little to no trolls. I’m not that fond of trolls. I am on the other hand fond of fairytale illustrations – and how they deal with the problem of painting the supernatural, that which they have never seen and can only have imagined.

The fairytale illustrations, or sci-fi/fantasy for that matter, seem to work best when they capture a mood, a sense of presence, rather than elaborating details and striving for a realistic look. Maybe because they then allow the viewer to partake in the imagining – to be part of the storytelling process? If a picture is too elaborate, too detailed nothing is left to the imagination. And fairytales, legends, myths - and sci-fi/fantasy – depends greatly on the viewers’ imagination. More so I would say than fiction based in the real world – where references can be anchored in more tangible things than “imagine a hag in a dark, dark wood”.

These pictures generate mood by using nature, and more precisely nearly empty landscapes. When I watch them I feel like a lonely traveller, getting a glimpse of that which is normally hidden. I love these pictures, in the way you love things you have grown up with – a sort of irrational, nostalgic love. Ergo I’d like to share them. This post is also to the sweet alexandral who expressed a wish to see the pictures.

The paintings are all made by Theodor Kittelsen (1851-1914), a Norwegian painter. He spent his whole life illustrating fairytales and legends. His possibly best work was a series of paintings depicting the Black Death. There’s a small post on them here.

( cut for pictures, as this will be very image heavy )

The story goes something like this. During the Black Death the plague took the shape of an old woman, who hobbled from village to village, farm to farm. She’d be in old, raggedy clothes and carried a rake and a broom. If you saw her use the rake that meant that some of the people in the area would die. If she used the broom then everyone, yourself included, would be swept away.

( pictures of the scary old woman )