Fritiof Nilsson Piraten (1895-1972) was both a distinguished writer and a brilliant oral storyteller. He himself claimed that "speaking and writing are two different things" - but was he telling the truth? The fondness for traditional oral storytelling has left clear traces in the large amount of folklore found in his texts. It is also striking how Piratens main oral arena and the circle of listeners he addressed there, the tavern and the brothers of the table, are repeatedly written into the authorship.