Ulvehunger
By: Elise Fagerli
Publisher: Cappelen, Norway, 1995
Hardcover
When little Red Ridinghood gets very, very hungry...
Hold on to your red hood, because if the cover and first page of "Ulvehunger" leads you to think you are going to meet the sweet, little girl from the original Grimm fairy tale, you are in for a surprise...
The first page of this book is page of text, taken verbatim from a traditional Norwegian translation of Little Red Riding Hood. The picture next to the text is also traditional, a mother giving her cute little girl a basket of goodies to bring to her grandmother. The last sentence of text is little Red Riding hood promising to remember to be good and careful.
The rest of the book is anything but traditional. A fearless and very hungry Red riding hood eats the entire contents of her grandmother´s basket, the wolf, and even considers eating her grandmother - the only other text appears in the double-spread of her grandmother´s bedroom, where she stares at her nanny and says: "Du er for seig" ("You are too chewy"). In the last double spread, we see her greeting her mother with a big "Rap" ("Burp").
The illustration matches the level of drama in the story. Fagerli´s bold black and white woodcuts, with the red hood as the only splash of color, are stunning. Woodcuts do not allow for the smallest of details, but Fagerli still manages to portray so much meaning and expression just through the different expressions in Red riding hood´s eyes.
For Norwegians, the title is somewhat of a giveaway. "Ulvehunger" is lost in translation to English, a term combined of the two words "ulv" (wolf) and hunger ("hunger"). It is used as a term for being ravenously hungry, like a wolf would be - but it could also mean to be hungry for a wolf.
The book is out of print, but I found it quite easily available at antiquarians. A digital copy is also available at the Norwegian National Library, free for all to read. "Ulvehunger" won second prize in a national picturebook competition, no small feat for a silent book in Norway.
Elise Fagerli was a Norwegian illustrator. She died way to early in a traffic accident, only 26 years old. Because of that, "Ulvehunger" was her only picturebook published.
