In this chapter Onda sagor is put into the context of the Scandinavian tradition of literary fairy tales (folk collections, Andersen, Topelius, Lagerlöf, Strind¬berg). First, the salient points of Lagerkvist’s avant-garde manifesto are discussed. Subsequently, the analysis employs a double optic: viewing Onda sagor as fairy tales (correspondences, departures); and regarding them as avant-garde Lagerkvist fictions. I will ask how this marriage of genre/form with an avant-garde aesthetic-political program works out in the end. Specifically, I examine how, in the name of an avant-garde agenda, Lagerkvist both empties the traditional fairy tale formula of meaning and recycles stylistic strategies from traditional storytelling in his Onda Sagor. Ultimately, I will ask, too, what Lagerkvist achieved by his avant-garde refashioning of the fairy tale, and his corresponding fairying of the avant-garde.