Fascinations from the childhood

I remember my parents having a huge book (I think it's still there in their bookshelf), bounded in light-brown leather with paintings and drawings from Theodor Kittelsen inside, a Norwegain illustrator/painter with a lot of motives from Norwegian nature and folk-tales.

"Echo"



My first years I would just look in the book, without having learned how to read, and some of the pictures could be really scary, especially those with motives from the Great Plague that wiped out close to 2/3rds of the Norwegian population in the mid 1400.
He had personified the plague as an old lady with a skull-face or as a black owl.
I remember having nightmares sometimes after looking in the book before going to bed...




He is also the man who has set certain standards on how we picture the trolls from the Norwegian forests and mountains.


More information on Theodor Kittelsen