Asbjørnsen and Moe

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe collected the Norwegian folk tales together, and they met long before either of them thought of doing it. They were fourteen, at school at Norderhov rectory, and they stayed friends for the rest of their lives.

The two went in different directions. Asbjørnsen (1812–1885) became a zoologist and surveyed the Norwegian coast for the university in Oslo. Moe (1813–1882), from Ringerike, studied theology, worked for years as a tutor and ended his life as bishop of Kristiansand.

What they did together was Norske Folkeeventyr. The first installment appeared in 1842 and 1843, a second volume followed in 1844, and a further collection came in 1871. The tales they wrote down, the trolls and the poor boys and the three billy goats crossing a bridge, are the ones Norway still tells.