In the nineteenth century the famous Norwegian duo P.C. Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe travelled all round rural Norway collecting tales, legends, and fables. Most of these stories were published at the time they were collected and written down, but there was also a significant number of other tales that were suppressed and hidden away due to their explicit depiction of the sexual side of human experience. The manuscripts stayed hidden from the public in the archives of the University of Oslo for nearly a century before being brought to light and published in Norway for the first time in 1977 under the title Erotiske Folkeeventyr fra Norge (Erotic Folktales from Norway). It was a huge success, and it was obvious that people took a great interest in the adult stories as well as those which were already well-known. The Norwegian edition included a number of illustrations by Finn Graff, Morten M. Kristiansen, Hans Normann Dahl and Rune Johan Andersson.

In 1978 the Stockholm publisher Wahlström & Widstrand published a Swedish translation of Erotiske Folkeeventyr fra Norge, titled Brudprovaren: Erotiska Folksagor från Norge (Bride-Testing: Erotic Folktales from Norway), and commissioned Svenolov Ehrén to produce sixteen new illustrations. His trademark strong linocuts evoke precisely the robust qualities of the tales, which include ‘The Princess that No-one Could Tame’, a highly eroticised version of Cinderella.