The Brave Tailor, Danish Version
Join me for a tale of adventure with a very unlikely hero – a little tailor who dreams big but has trouble with the reality of dangerous situations. This Grimm Brothers folktale was collected in Denmark in the late 1800s and features hungry giants, a not so friendly unicorn, and a ferocious wild boar. Why do the people he meets think he’s heroic material? How does our hero even survive, let alone succeed? And how do you define success, anyway? This tale also goes by “Seven at One Blow”, “The Valiant Tailor”, and “Brave Against His Will” (the Danish-translated-to-English version).
We also hear a hardanger “quartet” with instruments built by Lynn Berg (see our previous podcast) – with the nearly one-of-a-kind hardanger viola and cello. They play the rousing Ulrik Polka….which has a secret song hidden within it. Can you help us figure out what that is?
Two important corrections to the show: 1. Linda’s last name is “Caspersen-Andresen” (not ‘Andersen’), and 2. , Linda played cello in the quartet and David Loberg-Code played fiddle, not the other way around. So David wasn’t composing that clever cello line for himself to play; he is nevertheless quite a musician.
Please check out the nordicontap.com website where extra links, photos, and recordings are available for each of our podcasts. If you’re reading this while on the website, thanks for coming! Take our Listener Survey to help us make of what you you’d like to hear. You get two screen backgrounds for mobile or desktop as a reward for completing the survey.
Links
Read this folktale called “Brave Against His Will” and others in the online version of Danish Fairy & Folk Tales: A Collection of Popular Stories and Fairy Tales. From the Danish of Svend Grundtvig, E.T. Kristensen Ingvor Bondesen, and L. Budde, translated by Jens Christian Bay. Includes the original illustrations!
Danish fairy and folktales at fairytalez.com is one of the best sources of folktales for any culture. This collection includes the stories of Hans Christian Anderson.
Information about the “Hardingquartettet” and Karen Loberg Code’s hardingfele tunes on their Harding Tones CD. The site includes excerpts from several pieces on the CD.
Words and music for the traditional Danish children’s song, “Se Min Kjole“.
Illustrations
