The Role of Folkore in Shaping National and Linguistic Identity: The Case of Norway

The Norwegian Folktales, collected, transcribed and re-written by Per Christian Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe from 1841 onwards, had a pivotal role in the shaping of a cultural and linguistic identity in what was the emerging nation-state of Norway. After four centuries of ‘union’ where Denmark and Sweden were the dominant partners, Norway was finally declared to be an independent nation state only in 1914. The folktales, handed down orally through the generations across the country, embodied important symbolical, cultural and linguistic characteristics from the rural environment that were adopted and re-created to inspire a new, independent Norwegian cultural identity. At the peak of the Romantic Nationalist movement, deeply inspired by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the tales came to symbolize core features of what were considered to be specific to Norway and distinct from Denmark and Sweden. This was played out at the level of plot, characters, themes and values. This paper discusses the role of the Norwegian Folktales as a potent symbol of and vehicle for discourse related to the nation-trope, examining its role in the construction of a cultural and linguistic national identity and as an example of 'inventing tradition'.