Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson, Småstykker: Trond [Small Pieces: Trond]

Kathy Rees (Independent Scholar - Europe)

Ed. by Susan Brantly, University of Wisconsin
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.5: Norwegian Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Kjerstin Moody (Gustavus Adolphus College), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London), Anja Tröger (University of Edinburgh)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1860

Places

Norway (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

The depiction of an emotional crisis is an unusual subject for folk literature. However, in

Trond

Bjørnson experiments with the representation of the protagonist’s psychological state within the form of the traditional folk tale. To convey Trond’s mind-set, Bjørnson uses motifs from Norwegian legends and folk tales.

Trond lives with his parents and their servant on a very isolated farm, fourteen miles from the nearest settlement. Like many of the boys in Bjørnson’s peasant tales, Trond is “rather afraid” of Alf, his father (113). Alf often relates the story of Blessom, a man who had been on business in Copenhagen, and was returning home to Vaage, and who was conveyed through the air on the sleigh of a “jutul”, a malevolent mountain giant. The jutul appeared in human form,

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

930 words

Citation: Rees, Kathy. "Småstykker: Trond". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 September 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35806, accessed 23 April 2024.]

Save this article