He is best known for the Norske Folkeeventyr, a collection of Norwegian folk tales which he edited in collaboration with Peter Christen Asbjørnsen.

[2] Starting in 1841, Moe traveled almost every summer through the southern parts of Norway, collecting traditions and stories from the people living in the mountainous areas.

[1] At his first parish he found inspiration for many of his most famous poems, like den gamle Mester (The Old Master) and Sæterjentens Søndag (Sunday at the Mountain Pastures).

Moe also published a delightful collection of prose stories for children, I Brønden og i Tjernet (In the Well and in the Tarn), 1851; and En liden Julegave (A Little Christmas Present), 1860.

It was usual that the vigor came from Asbjørnsen and the charm from Moe, but it seems that from the long habit of writing in unison they had come to adopt almost precisely identical modes of literary expression.

His son, Moltke Moe, continued his father's work in folklore and fairy tales and became the first professor of the subject at Christiania University.

Askeladden (Ash Boy), a character whose creativity and resourcefulness always wins him the Princess and half the Kingdom, is seen as something typically Norwegian.