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Then, the last kind of story, is the most traditional of the stories, and they're the ones that are often referred to as the fairy tales, even though they don't have any fairies in it.
You know, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, a lot of ... Hmmm? (Student Comment) All of those stories fall into that theme of the fairy tales.
And here is where you see all of these values and things very typical of stories. Every culture in the world no matter where you go have these kinds of stories. This is not unique to Norway, or Europe, or the Americas, you find them everywhere in the world.
And the other thing you find that's very typical are certain kinds of values and certain ideas and themes that are repeated. And one of them that you see a lot of, in this is, the youngest child triumphs against all odds. Right?
Everybody else thinks the youngest kid is stupid, isn't going to make it, turns out to be the hero. Just like in "Home Alone"? "Home Alone" is a modern fairy tale. Very much so. That's why it was so popular. ... there's soemthing...
So you have, there's always the number three that's repeated, things tend to happen in threes. As you've noticed, all stories begin and end with a formula. "Once upon a time, a long, long time ago ..." Right?
Always begins that way. And in English they end, "And they lived happily ever after." In Norway, that's the formula we use. (Points to Board) Okay, so they always have a traditional beginning and a traditional ending.
You'll find that all the characters are stereotypes. You're either young or you're old, you're good or you're bad, you're pretty or you're ugly, you're mean or kind, you know, you're either generous, or not.
Love always conquers hate, greed is contrasted with generosity, you see all those kinds of things are repeated again and again and again in those stories.
And I wanted to tell you...is it 30 or 35? It used to be 35. Okay, so hopefully, I'll get it in just as the bell rings.
I'll tell you one last story, which is a classic fairy tale of that genre. And most countries of the world have Cinderella stories and Norway does not. Norway has Cinderlad, or Ashlad stories.
Okay, so it's never a girl, it's a boy. And he doesn't have to battle evil stepmothers, he has to battle trolls, because you know this is Norway. So I'm going to end with that story.
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago in a far, far away country called Norway, there lived a father and a mother who had three sons. The father was a woodcutter who did a great job cutting down all these huge trees around his property.
But one day when he was out in the woods, he was going at it so vigorously he threw his back out and could just hardly walk home. He just crawled home, into bed, hoping to get better, but weeks went by, and nothing improved.
Finally, they ran out of money, and almost out of food, and there weren't any banks, or social security, or social services to help anybody in those days, so you know, either he was going to get his sons to work, or they were going to starve.
So, he thought, "Pffft. You guys got to work." And they're like, "No, Dad, you're just 60 years old, you're not that old, you'll get better in no time, we don't want to chop down trees, it's too much work, it's boring, and besides, there's trolls out there."
The father couldn't believe it. He said, "Come on, don't tell me you're frightened of trolls. When I was your age, I dealt with trolls all the time. Those creatures are stupid! Don't you know?"
They were whining, but he was going after them, and told them about how they could do it, and finally he got them around to his way of thinking.
So the first one to go out was the oldest. He was a very cool kid, definitely cool. He rolled up his sleeves, pulled up an axe, walked off into the woods. After awhile, he got to a place where there were really big, big trees.
So he got his axe, and he started to get ready to chop. Ooh! He had no sooner cut the first blow then out of the woods comes this great big huge troll, screaming and roaring at him. "If you're cutting down my trees I'm going to kill you and eat you!"
And the boy was so frightened he flung his axe aside, he ran home as fast as he could and when he got home, he was sweating and panting
and said "Mom, Dad, you don't know how lucky you are that I'm still alive! There was this great big huge troll and he was ready to kill me and eat me!"
"I can't believe it! You call yourself my son and you run away from the troll? Why, when I was your age, I dealt with trolls all the time,
but you, you just stick your tail between your legs like a cowardly dog. I'm ashamed to call you my son." There wasn't much the boy could say to that so he went over to the corner and sat down.
So the next one to go out was the second brother, equally cool, got another axe, off into the woods, got to that place and started chopping. Ohh! He had no sooner struck the first blow
when out of the woods again comes this great big huge troll, screaming and roaring "If you're cutting down my trees I'm going to kill you and eat you up!" and he just flung his axe and he ran home and he was out of breath, sweating, crying,
"Mom, Dad, you don't know how lucky you are I'm still alive! There's a troll out there and he wanted to kill me and eat me!"
The father said ... "You call yourself my son and you run away from a troll. I can't believe it. You know when I was your age I dealt with those creatures all the time,
but you, you're nothing but a chicken." There wasn't much he could say so he went over to the corner and sat down.
Well now, the next one to go out was the youngest of the three, and him they had nicknamed the Ashlad because he liked to sit around and poke in the ashes. Oh, the brothers teased him to no end.
They said "What? You go out and deal with a troll? Get serious! We all know the only thing you're good for is sitting around at the fireplace poking in the ashes, or hanging on to your mama's skirt! Give us a break! But he didn't pay any attention.
He just went to his mother and asked for some food, some provisions. She had not much, but she had some big juicy white cheese curds that she gave him. And these he put in his backpack, put his pack on, got another axe, and walked off into the woods.
There he found those big trees, put his backpack down, got the axe and started to chop. Ooh! He had no sooner struck the first blow when again out of the woods comes this great big huge troll. "If you're cutting down my trees I'm going to kill you and eat you!"
But this boy, he wasn't as slow-witted as the others. He went over to his backpack, got out one of his cheese curds and held it up saying, "If you don't watch it, I'm going to squeeze you the way I'm squeezing the water out of this white rock I have here!"
"Oh, ho-ho, I didn't know you were so strong. Uh, listen, would you spare my life if I help you cut down the trees?"
"Well, sure, that's a good idea. Suit yourself." So that's what they did. They cut down trees for the rest of that day, and when they were all done, the troll, very hungry by now, said "oh, ho-ho-ho, why don't you come to my place and we'll have a bite to eat together?"
"Good idea," said the Ashlad, because there was nothing at his house. So off they went, through the woods, until they got to the mountain in the blue where the troll lived.
And they went inside and the troll said "Now I would like a nice pot of porridge. So why don't you go outside and get the bucket and get water from the well and I'll make up fire."
So the Ashlad went outside, but when he saw the bucket, it was the hugest thing, it was made out of cast iron and he couldn't even budge it. So he had to think really fast.
After a bit he had an idea and he said, "Hey, you know I don't think there's any point going for water in that little thimble of a bucket you have out there. I'm bringing in the whole well."
"Oh, no, no, no, I can't afford to lose my water. Listen, forget about it. Why don't you just make up the fire, and I will go and get water in the bucket." "Well, suit yourself," said the Ashlad. So that's what they did.
The Ashlad made up the fire, the troll got the big huge bucket and filled it with water and they filled that whole thing with porridge.
And when they were ready to sit down, the troll said, "Ho-ho, this will be nice! I'm so hungry!" and he grabbed that big pot and he carried it over.
And before he sat down, the Ashlad said, "Hey, how about it? Why don't you and I have an eating competition?"
"Whoa-ho! That's a great idea!" thought the troll. "I'm on!" And he thought he was going to have a nice piece of Ashlad for dessert. So he sat right down in front of that great big pot.
But before the Ashlad sat down, he snuck over, and he got his backpack, and he tied it around his stomach with the pack part in the front, and then he sat down to eat. And they ate, and they ate, and they ate.
And after awhile, instead of the food going in his mouth, he opened the pack, and put his food in the pack. And when the pack was full, he got out his knife, and he ripped a hole in it, and then he continued filling it.
The troll saw something was going on, but he was too stupid to figure out what it was. So he just kept on eating and eating and eating and finally said "I am sorry, I can't eat another bite."
"Come on! I'm not even half full yet!" said the Ashlad. "I don't get it! How do you do it! You're such a little fellah. How could you eat so much?"
"Well it's easy. You get out your knife, you put it to your stomach, and you rip a hole in your stomach. And that way you can eat as much as you want." "Uh, won't that hurt?"
"Big old guy like you? I don't think so." "Oh," said the troll. And of course he didn't want to be a lesser man. So he got out his knife, he put it too his stomach and he ripped a hole in it!
With that he fell over dead as a doornail, crumbled up into a thousands of pieces of rock, so it looked like gravel on the floor there, and the Ashlad was safe. And he jumped down from his seat, ran inside the castle,
and got all the gold and diamonds and silver that he could carry, out of the castle and brought it home to his parents. And with that, they lived in the greatest of comfort and safety to the end of their days.
Oh...Snipp snapp snute her er eventyret ute!
I did it! I got it done in time. I had to shorten it a little bit. It worked. So there's a classic, you know, sort of youngest kid. Everybody thinks he's stupid and he turns out to figure it out.