A folktale is a fictional story, passed down over thousands of years. They are stories to teach a lesson or to entertain…but sometimes, as with the story of Odin and the three Norns…a folktale can help young people find their way.
Folktales
Folktales is a 2025 documentary film, directed and produced by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. It premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and is now in theatres and also streaming on Prime. The documentary begins with a story about Odin demanding a happy life from the three Norns. But, in fairytales as in real life, you must earn the gifts bestowed by the Fates.
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady concentrate their documentary around three specific students at the Pasvik Folk High School in Finnmark: Hege, a 19-year-old girl who is dealing with her father’s death, Bjorn Tore, 19, who has trouble making and keeping friends, and finally Romain, 18, a high school dropout who suffers from social anxiety and who just can’t get his mind in the right place.
Hege, Bjorn, and Romain join other students to take a gap year after graduation to participate in Pasvik’s program that features dog sled training, hunting, and surviving in the wild. The school is located near the world’s largest forest and in the middle of the Arctic wilderness.
The two dog sled teachers at the Dog Camp are Iselin and Thor Atle. Calling on the tales of Norse mythology involving Odin and the Norns, Iselin and Thor Atle merged the handling of the sled dogs and the surrounding beautiful but harsh nature, to teach these young people the art of camaraderie and survival without the use of modern technology.
The students must first learn to bond with the dogs and then train them on the sleds. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. Humans and canines must work as a single unit to keep the sled upright and the participants unharmed. As the documentary progresses, we watch Hege, Bjorn, Romain, and the other students learn not only survival tactics of camping in the freezing woods during the Polar nights that last for two months, but also realize that they are not losers, and that they (both dogs and humans) have worth.
Conclusion
In Norse mythology, Odin wanted the Norns to give him a happy life, but as they weaved their thread around the tree, Odin learned that their gifts had to be earned. There is a connection between the tree and the weaving that the students do at the camp, which reveals itself at the end of the documentary.
It isn’t just the success and failures of the students that we are observing, but also the learning curve and fate of the dogs, in particular Sautso and Odin. Hege, Bjorn, and Romain do evolve after this year-long course…
…and the Norns have kept their promise to Odin and to we the observers…we are granted the gift of knowledge, wisdom, and a great story.
