In Scandinavia as elsewhere in Europe collecting and publication of folktales started in the early part of the nineteenth century. However there are folktale motifs and indications that the fairy tale existed in Scandinavia in the Middle Ages, although we have no complete texts. About 1200 Oddr Snorrason claims in the foreword to his saga of Óláfr Tryggvason (1932) that it is better to listen to his story than to stories about stepmothers told by shepherds; no one can tell whether they are true or not, and they do not tell of any glorious feats of the kings. About the same time Abbot Karl Jó nsson in Sverris saga (7) compares the fate of King Sverri with old stories told about the children of kings who have been cursed by their stepmothers.

Most of the reminiscences of folktales found in Old Norse literature are difficult to classify as known tale types. They are found in the sagas of the kings of Norway, and in the mythical-heroic sagas (fornaldar sögur), as well as in the poems of the Edda. In the saga of Harald Fairhair as told in Ágrip (end of twelfth century), Heimskringla (early thirteenth) and Flateyjarbók (fourteenth century), we find three stories related to folktales: Harald makes a vow not to comb or cut his hair until he has conquered the whole of Norway (AT 314 ‘Goldener’); he is said to have been fostered by a giant who had stolen his father's food (AT 502: ‘The Wild Man’); and he sat by the dead body of his wife Snæfríðr for three years (AT 709: ‘Snow White’) (Mundal 1997). In Óláfs saga helga (85) in Heimskringla the tale of the Uglier Foot is known otherwise only in modern Irish tradition, indicating Irish influence in Iceland (Almqvist 1991).

The central motif of AT 300 (‘The Dragon-Slayer’) is found in Völsunga saga and in Saxo Grammaticus, in the episode of the slaying of Fáfnir by the hero Sigurðr. In Vigkæns saga Kúahirðis there is a story about the hero Vigkænn who gets hold of a magic needle, kills three giants and takes all their treasures, conquers an enemy army and inally wins a princess. This cannot be classiied as an international tale type, but has motifs in common with AT 314 (‘Youth Transformed into a Horse’) and AT 301 ('The Three Stolen Princesses’).