Cover not available

In:Transnational Books for Children 1750-1900: Producers, consumers, encounters
Edited by Charlotte Appel, Nina Christensen and M.O. Grenby
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 15] 2023
► pp. 157–175

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 7
The journey of “Lille Alvilde”

The fluid life of a children’s classic

 | University of Oslo
 | University of Oslo
Published online: 8 August 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.15.07bjo
Abstract
Maurits Hansen’s short story “Lille Alvilde” (Little Alvilde, 1829), about a small girl’s idyllic encounter with a bear, is considered a Norwegian classic. Since it was first published, it has been reprinted numerous times in several Norwegian publications. Its extensive publishing history made it available to a large readership and ensured its canonization. Moreover, Hansen’s story was distributed abroad, and translated versions were printed in England and the United States. In this chapter, we present the journey of “Lille Alvilde”, from Norway to England and the United States, and back again. By tracing the transnational publishing and translation history of the original text into the different English versions, we unpack the distribution, translation, and transformation of Hansen’s canonized story.
Article outline
  • “Lille Alvilde” in England
  • “Lille Alvilde” in the United States
  • Adapting Alvilde
  • Circulation and fluidity in the life of the literary work
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (36)
References
Primary sources
Alette and the Bear. 1912a. Chatterbox. Edited by J. Erskine Clarke. Boston: Dana Estes & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1912b. Chatterbox. Edited by J. Erskine Clarke. London: Wells Gardner Darton & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1914. The Palmyra Spectator. 29 April 1914. Palmyra, Missouri.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andersen, Rasmus (ed). 1872. Forord. Julegave. Et udvalg af Eventyr og Fortällinger, 3–6. Chicago: Amerikas forlag/Skandinavens Boghandel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bjørnen og Barnet. 1871. Børnenes Blad. Illustreret Ugeskrift for Ungdommen. Kristiania: Th. Friis Hansens forlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjort. 1889. Little Alvilda. A Norse story freely retold. St. Nicholas. December 1889. New York: Century Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1894. Little Alvilda. A Norse story freely retold. Norseland Tales, 228–247. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1906. Little Alvilda. The Hill Readers. Edited by Daniel Harvey Hill & Frank Lincoln Stevens, 143–160. Boston: Ginn & Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hansen, Maurits. 1829. “Lille Alvilde. (Idyl)”. Den norske Huusven. Et Ugeblad af blandet Indhold og for alle Stænder 1, 5 December 1829. Christiania: Mauritz [sic] C. Hansen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Helfjord, Mette & Lancelot, Toril B. (eds). 1991. Min bamsebok. Oslo: N. W. Damm & Søn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lille Alvilde. 1872. Julegave. Et udvalg af Eventyr og Fortällinger. Edited by Rasmus Andersen, 33–37. Chicago: Amerikas forlag/Skandinavens Boghandel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Little Alvilde. A true story. 1872. Aunt Judy’s Magazine. Edited by Mrs. Alfred Gatty, Horatia K. F. Gatty Eden & Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing. London.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Child and the Bear. A Norwegian Story. 1869. The Children’s Prize. No. 10. London: William Macintosh.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1870a. The Church. Vol. 13, March. London: Elliot Stock.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1870b. The Children’s Hour. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: T. S. Arthur and Son.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1870c. The Weekly Enterprise. 19 February 1870. Oregon City, Oregon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Secondary sources
Andersen, Per Thomas. 2012. Norsk litteraturhistorie. 2nd ed. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asbjørnsen, Peter Christen. 1874. King Valemon, the White Bear. Tales from the Fjeld. A Second Series of Popular Tales. Translated by George Webbe Dasent, 353–363. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asbjørnsen, Peter Christen & Moe, Jørgen. 2019. East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe. Translated by Tiina Nunnally, 182–191. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bieder, Robert E. 2005. Bear. London: Reaktion Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bryant, John. 2002. The Fluid Text. A Theory of Revision and Editing for Book and Screen. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drotner, Kirsten. 1988. English Children and Their Magazines, 1751–1945. New Haven, CT: Yale UP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gatty, Margaret. 1867. Editor’s address. Aunt Judy’s Magazine 19: 13. London: W. Clowes and Sons.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grigely, Joseph. 1991. The textual event. In Devils and Angels. Textual Editing and Literary Theory, Philip Cohen (ed), 167–194. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnsen, Ida. 2021. Bjørn and børn: Queer interspecies kinship in Norway’s first text for children. Scandinavia Studies 93.2: 167–186. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kastan, David Scott. 2006. The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGann, Jerome. 1985. Ulysses as a postmodern text: The Gabler edition. Criticism 27.2: 283–306.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. A Critique of Modern Textual Criticism. Revised ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Anja. 2013. Introduction: Adapting canonical texts in and for children’s literature. In Adapting Canonical Texts in Children’s Literature, Anja Müller (ed), 1–8. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Newham, Jane. 1997. Bear facts and fiction in 19th and 20th century children’s books. New Review of Children’s Literature & Librarianship 3.1: 65–74. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rauch, Alan. 1997. Parables and Parodies. Margaret Gatty’s Audiences in the Parables from Nature. Children’s Literature 25: 138–150. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rem, Tore (ed). 2003. Bokhistorie. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shillingsburg, Peter L. 1999. Scholarly Editing in the Computer Age. Theory and Practice. 3rd ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. How literary works exist. Implied, represented, and interpreted. In Text and Genre in Reconstruction. Effects of Digitalization on Ideas, Behaviours, Products and Institutions, Willard McCarthy (ed), 165–182. Cambridge: OpenBook Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Skjønsberg, Kari. 1979. Hvem forteller? Om adaptasjoner i barnelitteratur. Oslo: Tiden.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stephens, John. 2013. Retelling stories across time and cultures. In The Cambridge Companion to Children’s Literature, M. O. Grenby & Andrea Immel (eds), 91–107. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue