West of the Moon (26 page)

Briggs, Katharine.
The Vanishing People: Fairy Lore and Legends
. New York: Pantheon Books. 1978.

Gesme, Ann Urness.
Between Rocks and Hard Places: Traditions, Customs, and Conditions in Norway During the 1800s, Emigration from Norway, the Immigrant Community in America
. Hastings, MN: Caragana Press. 1993.

Hamsun, Knut.
Growth of the Soil
. Translated by W. W. Worster. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1921.

Koren, Elisabeth.
The Diary of Elisabeth Koren, 1853–1855
. Translated and edited by David T. Nelson. Northfield, MN: Norwegian-American Historical Association. 1955.

Kvideland, Reimund, and Henning K. Sehmsdorf, editors.
Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend.
Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. 1988.

Lees, J. A., and W. J. Clutterbuck.
Three in Norway by Two of Them
. Oslo, Norway: Aschehoug. 1995 (first published in 1882).

Lovoll, Odd.
The Promise of America: A History of the Norwegian-American People
. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. 1984.

The Lutheran Hymnal.
Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. 1941.

Milford, John
. Norway and Her Laplanders in 1841
. London: John Murray. 1842.

Preus, Linka.
Linka's Diary: A Norwegian Immigrant Story in Word and Sketches
. Edited by Marvin G. Slind and Gracia Grindal. Minneapolis, MN: Lutheran University Press. 2008.

Preus, Linka.
Linka's Diary on Land and Sea, 1845–1864.
Translated and edited by Johan Carl Keyser Preus and Diderikke Margrethe Preus. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House. 1952.

Rustad, Mary, editor and translator.
The Black Books of Elverum.
Lakeville, MN: Galde Press. 2010.

Simpson, Jackson, editor and translator.
Scandinavian Folktales
. London: Penguin. 1988.

Stokker, Kathleen.
Remedies and Rituals: Folk Medicine in Norway and the New Land
. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press. 2007.

INTERVIEWS

Lovoll, Odd. Personal interview. St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN: November 29, 2012.

Acknowledgments

I
owe both gratitude and apology to P. C. Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, whose collected Norwegian folk stories I freely pillaged. The same goes to my great-great-grandmother Linka Preus, from whose diary I borrowed without her permission or approval.

Thank you to all those who helped with information and expertise, including Kathleen Stokker for her wonderful books about Norway, especially
Remedies and Rituals: Folk Medicine in Norway and the New Land
. A shout-out to immigration expert Odd Lovoll, a hearty handshake to Dr. Scott Wolff, and
tusen takk
to infectious disease and Norwegian ephemera expert Dr. Johan Bakken.

Thanks to Rachel Vagts at the Luther College Library for help with and permission to use images from Linka's sketchbooks. Thanks also to Lutheran University Press for permission to use snippets of
Linka's Diary.
And thanks to the fabulous Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum just for existing.

To all those who read and commented on the story as it progressed, including my writing group, especially Ann Treacy, thank you. May you each possess a pair of scissors that
snips and plays in the air, and everywhere it goes, it edits. To readers Jean Walsh, Kathy Bogen, Catherine Preus, enthusiastic husband Arno, and especially to astute young readers Emma Kathleen Connell and Laurel McBeath Clark, I wish you bookshelves that never run out of books. To my magic-working agent, Stephen Fraser, may you possess a mailbox to which you only have to say, “Mailbox, stuff thyself,” and it will be full of fabulous manuscripts.

I am over the moon to have the privilege of working with the wonderful folks at Abrams/Amulet. Thanks to Sara Corbett and Chad Beckerman for spinning magic with book design, and to Lilli Carré for working more magic with cover art. For weaving it all together, thanks to Jason Wells, Laura Mihalick, Jen Graham, and especially to Howard Reeves, whose like cannot be found east of the sun or west of the moon.

MARGI PREUS

is the author of the Newbery Honor winner
Heart of a Samurai
and
Shadow on the Mountain
, which
School Library Journal
gave a starred review and called a “gripping tale that keeps readers riveted to the end.” She has traveled the globe to research her novels and, along the way, has made friends in Japan, Norway, and many other places. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota. Visit her online at
margipreus.com
.

T
his book was designed by Sara Corbett and art directed by Chad W. Beckerman.

The cover illustration was created by Lilli Carré.

Its production was overseen by Kathy Lovisolo.