{"id":20821,"date":"2025-06-13T20:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T00:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=20821"},"modified":"2025-06-13T20:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T00:07:07","slug":"troll-valley-and-dalebu-jonsson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=20821","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Troll Valley&#8217; and Dalebu Jonsson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kanaan &amp; \u00c6vestaden - Dalebu Jonsson (Live from Norsk Folkemuseum)\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8Shw7nDPo8Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Finished reading Chapter 19<\/strong> of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Troll-Valley-Lars-Walker-ebook\/dp\/B006WNC4J4\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=BN4H3LHU8OLJ&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.egOEWrwYYcNMbIjz4SF-QA.Z7aqzhy-5uKrnMvAB9-dFQrevTArUVU-QSq03Q0KOCE&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=troll+valley+lars+walker&amp;qid=1749858904&amp;sprefix=troll+valley%2Caps%2C177&amp;sr=8-1&amp;tag=brandbooks-20\">Troll Valley<\/a><\/em> today for the audiobook iteration. Chapter 19 was a bear. It took three days (one-hour sessions) to record, edit, and master the whole thing. I was a little fuzzy on the concept of chapter length back when I wrote the book, and I let that one get out the barn door and off across the pastures into the corn. I start it with Chris, our hero, in the fictional town of Tuscany, Colorado, getting a visit from his brother Fred. Then Fred takes him to the ghost town where their father has settled down for a hermit\u2019s life, and they have quite a lengthy reunion, getting to know each other better than they ever did back home in Minnesota, and revealing some secrets. Then Fred, who\u2019s now an outlaw, has a confrontation with a lawman, after which he must go on the run again. Then Chris says goodbye to his father, has a couple supernatural experiences that change his personality, and gets in a fight in a brothel, in which he is injured. After recovering from his wounds, he heads home to Epsom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I were writing it today, I\u2019d make that at least two chapters. Possibly three. But in spite of that, I have to admit that \u2013 contrary to my expectations \u2013 I think <em>Troll Valley<\/em> isn\u2019t a bad book at all. I was pretty young when I wrote it, and I\u2019m sure I\u2019m a better artist now, but it\u2019s still a good book. There\u2019s stuff in there I\u2019d completely forgotten about, and it mostly works. If somebody else had written it, and I were reading it for review, I think I\u2019d recommend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At one point, when the Anderson boys are gathered with their father, they sing the song posted above, a Norwegian folk song called <em>Dalebu Jonsson<\/em>. It\u2019s about a man who kidnaps a princess, then singlehandedly fights off 7,000 warriors her father sends to rescue her. Finally the king is so impressed that he agrees to let him marry her \u2013 \u201cYou can have little Kjersti; you are worthy of her.\u201d (Or words to that effect.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I know the song from a recording by a male Norwegian group called \u201cVandrerne,\u201d which no longer exists. They did it in a very rousing style, sort of like an Irish drinking song in spirit. When I got to the part of the text where I include the first verse, in Norwegian, my full intention was to just read the words straight. But as I was reading, I found myself sliding into music, so I ended up singing it. I translated that verse, \u201cOh, Dalebu\u2019s love was a beautiful maid; he won her with steel and sharp iron blade.\u201d (Which I think is a jolly translation; not literal, but it nails the spirit of the thing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The arrangement embedded above is nothing at all like the song as I know it, but I couldn\u2019t find a better one and I thought somebody might be interested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finished reading Chapter 19 of Troll Valley today for the audiobook iteration. Chapter 19 was a bear. It took three days (one-hour sessions) to record, edit, and master the whole thing. I was a little fuzzy on the concept of chapter length back when I wrote the book, and I let that one get out &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=20821\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8216;Troll Valley&#8217; and Dalebu Jonsson<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,1,17],"tags":[4784,5590,3201],"class_list":["post-20821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-book-narration","tag-dalebu-jonsson","tag-troll-valley"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20821"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20823,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20821\/revisions\/20823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}