Short Fiction
Translated by Various translators
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This collection offers a masterful blend of Nordic folklore and psychological realism, revealing timeless truths about human nature through eerie, beautifully crafted tales.
Edition details
Book Summary
Jonas Lie's short fiction collection immerses readers in the stark, supernatural world of coastal Norway, where folklore and harsh reality collide. Through tales of draugs, huldrefish, and magical bargains, Lie explores human struggles with love, greed, and fate against a backdrop of unforgiving nature and rigid social hierarchies.
The collection spans interconnected stories set in Norwegian fishing and farming communities. In 'The Grey,' Gjermund and Sigrid's forbidden love is thwarted by a land feud. 'The Fisherman and the Draug' follows Elias, who buys a cursed boat and drowns after a phantom race. Jack of Sjöholm outwits a Gan-Finn to return home, while 'Tug of War' shows a boy using a stone to banish a Draug. 'The Earth Draws' depicts a salesman lured by a magical ring into an underground realm. 'The Cormorants of Andvaer' features a girl who tests suitors with a deadly quest. Bardun in 'The Wind-Gnome' becomes a tyrant after capturing a wind-gnome's daughter. 'The Huldrefish' sends Nona on a terrifying subterranean dream-journey. 'Finn-Blood' explores cultural tension as Eilert befriends a Finn girl. 'The Homestead Westward in the Blue Mountains' traps a drummer with supernatural maidens. 'It's Me' shows servant Toad's greedy rise and fall. Throughout, characters face supernatural forces, moral dilemmas, and the relentless power of nature.
Reading guide
Go deeper in Short Fiction
Character guides, themes, chapter companions — plus Character Web, narrative arc, and theme heatmap teasers that unlock fully beside the text in BetterReads.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
The emotional and psychological peak occurs when the farmer’s son, after a day of wearying drumming and a rest…
Jack of Sjöholm
A shipwrecked boatman from Sjöholm who, taken in by a Finn family, cannot stop redesigning their boat even as the Finn girl Seimke falls in love with him.
Eilert
A fisherman's son drawn to the Finn family across the promontory, torn between his parents' contempt for them and his fascination with Zilla and her tales of Draugs and Mermen.
Gjermund Strömshagen
A debt-ridden young farmer of Strömshagen, proud and quick-fisted, whose boyhood friendship with Sigrid Evjen survives the lawsuit that ruined his family.
Bardun
A Finmark strongman who outlasted every magistrate sent to rule him, only to find his daughter's officer husband quietly taking the reins of power he thought secure.
Elias
A boatman who buys a Fembøring on the builder's strange condition that he never alter it, then sails his family home into a rising gale.
Isaac
A fisherman haunted by a leather jacket and sea-boot he dredged up, whose stubborn insistence on a proper funeral earns him a reputation for second sight.
Supernatural and Folklore
The stories are deeply rooted in Norse and Sami folklore, featuring draugs, huldrefish, gan-finns, wind-gnomes, and other mythical beings that interact with and often disrupt human lives.
Class and Social Hierarchy
Wealth, land ownership, and social standing drive conflict, as seen in the feud between the Strömshagen and Evjen farms, the power of the rich Bardun, and the marginalization of Finns and poor fishermen.
Love and Sacrifice
Romantic love often requires great personal risk or sacrifice, such as Gjermund and Sigrid's forbidden love, the suitors risking death for the cormorant girl's ring, and Jack's perilous journey for Seimke.
Human vs. Nature
The harsh, unforgiving Nordic environment—raging seas, storms, treacherous mountains—poses constant threats to fishermen and farmers, testing their resilience and often leading to tragedy.