25 min. for 6+ year old
Once upon a time, there lived a poor farmer with his wife in the countryside of Iceland. They had a cow named Búkolla that they loved dearly and a son that they weren’t all too fond of. And no wonder! The cow was absolutely lovely. She had a beautiful red coat with snow-white patches and gave plenty of creamy milk every day when the farmer’s wife came to milk her. The son however, gave no milk at all and was rather plain to look at.
One morning, when the farmer’s wife went to Búkolla’s stable, she found to her horror that the beloved cow was gone!
The story of Búkolla, possibly Iceland’s most beloved traditional fairy tale, features a magical cow named Búkolla and her boy pitted against two evil troll-sisters.
The music, by Austrian/Icelandic composer Helmut Neumann, uses elements of traditional Icelandic chant including numerous parallel, open 5ths within the context of an adapted “Klangreihen” compositional technique after Otmar Steinbauer. The illustrations, by American/Austrian artist Judann Weichselbraun, are traditional watercolor paintings including views of traditional Icelandic landscapes as well as a beautiful red cow and larger-than-life trolls.
