Fridtjov & Ingebjørg

In collaboration with Oddvar Torsheim

Jon Fosse The Nobel Prize

Original title: Fridtjov & Ingebjørg
Publisher: SKALD, 2014
Genre: Children
Pages: 104 pages

Fridtjov & Ingebjørg is a story about friendship and power, and at the same time, one of the most entertaining sagas about and from the Viking Age. The book is a richly illustrated and simplified version of the well-known Norse saga of Fridtjov the Bold.

The saga recounts the tale of Fridtjov from Sogn and his love for Ingebjørg, daughter of King Bele. After the king dies, Fridtjov and Ingebjørg’s brothers come into conflict. The brothers oppose a marriage between Ingebjørg and Fridtjov. They drive Fridtjov away from the farm and eventually marry their sister off to the much older King Ring. But Fridtjov is wise, and in the end, he wins both Ingebjørg and King Ring’s great kingdom.

In recent decades, this part of Norwegian cultural heritage has been difficult to access. A new translation of the entire Old Norse text was published in modern language by Jon Fosse, The Saga of Fridtjov the Bold (SKALD, 2013).

With the illustrated and easy-to-read Fridtjov & Ingebjørg, the action-filled Romeo and Juliet-like story from the Viking Age is published in a family edition for the first time.

With illustrations by Oddvar Torsheim.

Awards

Silver in the Most Beautiful Books of the Year 2015, Grafill

Oddvar Torsheim’s exuberant illustrations draw us into a world of rare vitality and playful energy. […] The sagas are never truly “old;” that is their hallmark. But each generation must make them their own, as Jon Fosse, in masterly fashion, has done.

Vårt land

The illustrations have been allowed generous space, moving freely across the pages. This creates a pleasing rhythm, with a nice variety in the interplay between text and images.

From the jury’s statement, The Year’s Most Beautiful Books 2015, Grafill

Jon Fosse

Photo: Agnete Brun

Nobel Prize-winner Jon Fosse (b. 1959), is widely considered one of the most important writers of our time. For almost forty years, he has written novels, plays, poems, stories, essays, and children’s books. His award-winning work has been translated into more than fifty languages and his plays have been staged over a thousand times all over the world.

Jon Fosse grew up in Strandebarm, a small village in the western part of Norway, he now lives in the Grotten, an honorary residence in Oslo, as well as in Hainburg, Austria, and Frekhaug, Norway.

Fosse was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2023 and has received numerous prizes, both in Norway and internationally through the years.