author
Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen
b. 1873
A Norwegian-born storyteller and educator, she helped bring Scandinavian folktales to American children through lively retellings and a deep belief in the power of oral storytelling.
1 Audiobook
East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon : with other Norwegian folk tales
by Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Jørgen Engebretsen Moe
About the author
Born in Trondheim, Norway, on April 8, 1873, Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen later moved to the United States as a teenager and built a career as a teacher, lecturer, and storyteller. She became especially known for sharing Norwegian folklore with English-speaking readers and listeners.
Her books include East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon and Other Norwegian Folk Tales, along with other collections and retellings drawn from Nordic tradition. She was also influential in the early storytelling movement in schools and libraries, where she encouraged stories to be told with warmth, rhythm, and imagination rather than treated only as texts to be studied.
Thorne-Thomsen died in 1956. Though she is not as widely known today as some later children's authors, her work helped preserve and popularize Norwegian folk literature for American audiences.