Ingri Mortenson and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire met at art school in Munich in 1921. Edgar's father was a noted Italian portrait painter, his mother a Parisian. Ingri, the youngest of five children, traced her lineage back to the Viking kings.

The couple married in Norway, then moved to Paris. As Bohemian artists, they often talked about emigrating to America. "The enormous continent with all its possibilities and grandeur caught our imagination," Edgar later recalled.

A small payment from a bus accident provided the means. Edgar sailed alone to New York where he earned enough by illustrating books to buy passage for his wife. Once there, Ingri painted portraits and hosted modest dinner parties. The head librarian of the New York Public Library's juvenile department attended one of those. Why, she asked, didn't they create picture books for children?

The d'Aulaires published their first children's book in 1931. Next came three books steeped in the Scandinavian folklore of Ingri's childhood. Then the couple turned their talents to the history of their new country. The result was a series of beautifully illustrated books about American heroes, one of which, Abraham Lincoln, won the d'Aulaires the American Library Association's Caldecott Medal. Finally they turned to the realm of myths.

The d'Aulaires worked as a team on both art and text throughout their joint career. Originally, they used stone lithography for their illustrations. A single four-color illustration required four slabs of Bavarian limestone that weighed up to two hundred pounds apiece. The technique gave their illustrations an uncanny hand-drawn vibrancy. When, in the early 1960s, this process became too expensive, the d'Aulaires switched to acetate sheets which closely approximated the texture of lithographic stone.

In their nearly five-decade career, the d'Aulaires received high critical acclaim for their distinguished contributions to children's literature. They were working on a new book when Ingri died in 1980 at the age of seventy-five. Edgar continued working until he died in 1985 at the age of eighty-six. »

The Terrible Troll-Bird

Written and illustrated by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire

One summer's eve Ola, Lina, Sina, and Trina leave their village to gather firewood in the forest, when they're surprised by the hideous call of the terrible troll-bird, a giant rooster who pops up out of the treetops and swoops down to devour their beloved horse Blakken. Little does the terrible troll-bird know that in Ola, Lina, Sina, and Trina he has finally met his match: his terrible days of terrorizing are over. Before long the whole village is celebrating the monster's demise, and even the gnomes and hulder-maidens are coming out of their hiding places in the woods to participate in a great feast. All celebration is cut short, though, with the startling appearance of two monstrous moss-grown trolls even more terrible than the terrible troll-bird himself. Luckily, the children rise to the occasion once more, saving the day before they set out on a splendid new adventure.

Filled with vibrant illustrations and telling a story of childhood ingenuity and bravery, The Terrible Troll-Bird is a delightful companion to Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire's more comprehensive books of Norwegian folklore, D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths and D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls.

Reviews

Another standard from the Caldecott Award–winning d'Aulaires, The Terrible Troll-Bird, tells how a group of Norwegian villagers defeated the titular avian (effectively a huge rooster intent on stealing livestock) and its owners, a pair of nasty trolls.
— Publishers Weekly

The d'Aulaires have…created magical, luminous illustrations that capture the humor of this Norwegian folk tale.
— School Library Journal

The d'Aulaires were, of course, the singularly gifted author-illustrators, creators, by the score, of timeless children’s books... a number of their books... are still in print, classics that make for perfect gifts each and every year.
— Smithsonian Magazine

Also see:

D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths By Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire Preface by Michael Chabon The Caldecott medal-winning d'Aulaires once again captivate their young audience with this beautifully illustrated introduction to Norse legends.

D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls By Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls, the spectacularly illustrated and delightfully entertaining companion volume to the much-acclaimed D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths.

D'Aulaires' Book of Animals Written and illustrated by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire This remarkably beautiful volume unfolds into an 8-foot long two-sided panoramic work of art on which the animals of the world are rendered in vibrant color and the moonlit shades of night.

The Two Cars Written and illustrated by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire On a moonlight night an old jalopy and a shiny new sports car race through the streets to find out who is the fastest and best. The d'Aulaires, whose books of Greek and Norse myths have enchanted older children for generations, present younger children with a modern take on the fable of the tortoise and the hare.

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