Jørgen Moe
Jørgen Moe was a significant Norwegian folklorist born in 1813, renowned for his collaboration with Peter Christen Asbjørnsen in collecting and publishing Norwegian folktales. Their joint efforts led to the creation of "Norske folkeeventyr," a collection that featured a diverse range of stories, from magical fairy tales to trickster tales, and was instrumental in shaping the Norwegian literary landscape during a time of burgeoning nationalism. Moe's literary skill enhanced the accessibility of these tales, ensuring they resonated with readers while preserving their folkloric essence.
The stories often evoke the presence of a storyteller, reminiscent of the works of Hans Christian Andersen. Moe's contributions were particularly valuable during a period when Norway was seeking to establish a distinct national identity, having endured cultural dominance from Denmark and later Sweden. His work not only influenced Norwegian literature but also reached audiences in other countries, reflecting the cultural heritage of Norwegian emigrants. Moe passed away in 1882, but his legacy continues to impact literature and folklore studies today.
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Subject Terms
Jørgen Moe
Poet
- Born: April 22, 1813
- Birthplace: Moi Hole parsonage, Sigdal Ringerike, Norway
- Died: 1882
Biography
Jørgen Moe, a Norwegian folklorist, was born in 1813. In collaboration with Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, he collected numerous Norwegian folktales and set them in written form. Like the brothers Grimm, who collected and published traditional German folktales, Moe and Asbjørnsen have since become household names in Norway.
Asbjørnsen was the scholar, who collected the stories in their original forms, often from elderly persons in isolated communities; Moe provided the necessary literary acumen and sense of style to capture the folkloric character of the stories without allowing them to become overburdened with dialect and thus inaccessible to many readers. The resultant tales often create the illusory sense of a genuine storyteller’s presence, anticipating many of the stories of Hans Christian Andersen, whose stories read as though they were being told to the reader.
The work of Moe and Asbjørnsen often is credited with the development of the Norwegian literary language at a time when nationalism was prevalent throughout Europe and countries sought to establish their own distinctive literature. Norway in particular had long suffered from dominance by Danish forces and had been able to achieve only limited autonomy after it passed into Swedish hands in 1814, at the close of the Napoleonic Wars. As a result of these long periods of cultural eclipse, the Norwegians were particularly eager to create a national identity for themselves, and they latched onto the folkloric work of Moe and Asbjørnsen with particular eagerness.
When their first collection of fairy tales, Norske folkeeventyr, came out in 1841, it was so successful that it was followed by three other volumes. In addition to giving the tales a modern literary form, Moe also wrote the scholarly introductions to a compilation that was published in 1851. The stories in the various volumes run the gamut from wonder stories of fairies and magic to trickster tales. Of special note are the stories of the huldre, beings believed to live in the mountains who could be benevolent or malevolent depending on the needs of the story in question. In some ways they resemble the faerie folk of Irish lore, although they are more likely to become interwoven with various legendary elements. While some of these stories seem to have been told by people who actually believed in the huldre, other storytellers seem to have used them as metaphors for exploring otherness and the phenomenon a later generation would term “culture shock.”
Moe died in 1882, but his work continued to have profound effects upon Norwegian literature, both in Norway and in other countries where Norwegian emigrants had settled, as evidenced by O. E. Rölvaag’s novel, Giants in the Earth (1927).