Printable Scandinavian Children's Literature(Folklore & Fairy Tales) and Lessons

Sweden:

Selma Lagerlof, a Swedish writer wrote many wonderful Swedish fairy tales for children around the turn of the century. One of her books, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson, published in 1909 was likened to Hans Christian Anderson. A very popular book of "Scandinavian culture of which reflects many of the traditional values of Scandinavian culture, such us love for nature, tolerance and playful learning. As a geography reader for elementary schools, Nils Holgersson's adventures transmit information to the children through interest, imagination and humour. As Nils travels over Sweden, children became familiar with the nature, climate, geography and culture, learning at the same time the importance of friendship, tolerance, and the belief in a good world." ~ Scandinavica.com.

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson with illustrations and without(downloadable version).

Lesson plan for The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson.

Further Adventures of Nils

Shorter adapted selections from The Adventures of Nils from Children's Readers with discussion questions:

Jarro the Wild Duck, seventh grade.

The Story of Jarro, sixth grade.

Quotation lesson from The Essentials of English: Jarro the Duck

Hatto the Hermit, seventh grade.

The Elf from Evenings with Grandpa(not a reader), there is a bit of a discussion and built up before grandpa begins the story.

The Captive, fifth grade. We read this yesterday - very cute story about a squirrel.

The Winston Readers, four stories, third grade.

More from Selma Lagerlof:

Christ Legends (elementary - middle school)

The Outlaws(high school)

The Rat Charmer, followed by a Portrait of Selma Lagerlof. Fifth grade reader.

Glory Goldie's Fishing, fifth grade reader.

The City at the Bottom of the Sea, fifth grade reader.

Other Swedish stories:

For the Story Teller: Story Telling and Stories to Tell: The Cap that Mother Made. Elementary school.

Norway:

By author Peter Asbjornsen:

The Queen at the Bottom of the Sea, Little Fred and His Fiddle and, The Cock and the Fox(elementary school)

Tales from the Fjeld

Winston Third Grade Reader: The Little Ram and the Pig and East of the Sun West of the Moon, pages 112 - 123.

The Elson Third Grade Readers: The Princess Who Never Laughed

Third grade reader: The Princess Whom Nobody Could Silence.Lesson plan.

The Easy Road to Reading(second grade): GoodBrand

Fourth Grade Reader: The Ram and His Friends

Finland:

Snowdrops, Finland idyls for children

Whisperings in the wood, Finland idyls for children

Finnish Legends for English Children by R. Eivind

Denmark:

Hans Andersen's Stories

Danish Fairy & Folk Tales

Iceland:

The Yellow Fairy Book: PRINCE RING, WITCH IN STONE BOAT, and HERMOD AND HADVOR More under Andrew Lang's Fairy Tale Index(below).

Icelandic Legends

The Children of Odin

Collections of Scandinavian tales:

A Selection from the Norse Tales for the Use of Children

Round the yule log, Norwegian folk and fairy tales

Riverside Third Grade reader: The Farmer and the Hill-Man

Andrew Lang's Fairy Tales Index: Europe

Folk-Lore and Legends; Scandinavian

Popular Tales from the Norse

Viking Tales(elementary school)

All are free and in public domain. Printing Google Books: Follow the link, right click on the image of the page and print picture. It will print as a full sized page. Entire books are also downloadable.

What we(fourth grade) do with our printable stories:

- Underline all unfamiliar words
- Use dictionary to write definitions
- Write summary of story
- Proofread, correct and discuss
Easy and fun!