Historical sketches of the major literatures

Sweden

Scandinavia, but especially Sweden, inevitably suggests a question as to why a group of small, sparsely populated countries ranks directly after England and the United States for the variety, vigor, and even genius of its children’s literature. Hazard’s north–south theory describes; it does not explain. A few possible factors may be listed: the inspiration of the master Andersen—yet he does not seem greatly to have inspired his homeland; the appearance in 1900 of the Swedish Ellen Key’s two-volume Barnets århundrede (Eng. trans., The Century of the Child, 1909), pivotal in the history of the discovery that children really exist; a general modern atmosphere of social enlightenment; welfare statism tempered by regard for the individual; a school and library system, notably in Sweden, of extraordinary humanity and efficiency; perhaps even the long, lively career of the Stockholm Children’s Theatre, a center of creative activity. Yet the mystery persists. Since the first half of the 19th century, Scandinavia produced Andersen, Zacharias Topelius, Jørgen Moe, Henrik Wergeland, Helena Nyblom, Selma Lagerlöf, Elsa Beskow, Astrid Lindgren, Tove Jansson, Maria Gripe, Anna Lisa Warnlöf, Lennart Hellsing, Karin Anckarsvärd, Inger Sandberg, plus a school of critics and historians second only to that of Germany, plus many talented illustrators.

Children’s literature in Sweden for centuries reflected that of Germany, of which Sweden was a cultural province during the Reformation and even through the Enlightenment period. The historian Göte Klingberg traced some kind of religious-instructive reading for children back to 1600. There is a record, though the manuscripts have vanished, of children’s plays produced at the country manors during the 1700s and into the following century. The tradition of children’s theater has always been stronger in Sweden than elsewhere in Europe.

National and modern literature

A true native literature is usually dated from 1751-53, when the tutor Count Carl Tessin wrote his “Old Man’s Letters to a Young Prince” (Gustav III), in which instruction was tempered by the first fairy tales written for Swedish children. The German influence, however, persisted until about the middle of the 19th century, when Fredrika Bremer, traveller and feminist, tried to stimulate the work of indigenous children’s writers. The dominant influence of the Finnish-born but basically Swedish Topelius, of Hans Christian Andersen, and of the romantic spirit in general was felt at this time. Later in the century two followers of Andersen—Helena Nyblom and Anna Wahlenberg—enriched the tradition of the fairy tale. The former’s Sagokrans (1903; Eng. trans., The Witch of the Woods, 1968), preserves a rare charm.

The great landmark, however, is Miss Lagerlöf’s world classic Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, 2 vol. (1906–07; Eng. trans., The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, 1907; Further Adventures of Nils, 1911). Written (at the request of the state ministry of education) as a school geography, it is the rare example of an officially commissioned book that turned out to be a work of art. Nils, for all its burden of instruction, is a fantasy. At the same time, a realistic breakthrough was achieved by Laura Fitinghoff, whose historical novel about the famine of the 1860s, Barnen från Frostmofjället (1907; Eng. trans., Children of the Moor, 1927), ranks as a classic.

According to the historian Eva von Zweigbergk, didacticism (“diligence, obedience, and moderation”) obtained up to the 1920s, though she also views the period 1890–1915 as Sweden’s Golden Age. It included not only Nils but the emergence of a school of creators of picture books for small children headed by Elsa Beskow, whose work in pictures and text, extending over the years from 1897 to 1952, was decisive in its influence. This pre-modern period also saw many good writers for grown-ups devoting their talents to juvenile fiction. The sailing story Mälarpirater (1911; “The Pirates of Lake Mälaren”), by the novelist Sigfrid Siwertz, is a still-remembered example.

The period from 1940 on has called forth a bewildering array of talented writers and artist-writers. In the field of humor and nonsense there are Åke Holmberg, with his parodic Ture Sventon detective series; the outstanding poet Lennart Hellsing, with Daniel Doppsko (1959); Astrid Lindgren, successful in a half dozen genres but perhaps best known as the creator of the supergirl Pippi Longstocking; Gösta Knutsson, with her well-liked Pelle svanslös (1939; Eng. trans., The Adventures of the Cat Who Had No Tail). The psychological realistic novel, delving deeply into the inner lives of children, has been developed by Maria Gripe, whose Hugo and Josephine trilogy may become classic; Gunnel Linde’s Tacka vet jag Skorstensgränd (1959; Eng. trans., Chimney-Top Lane, 1965); and Anna Lisa Warnlöf, writing under the pseudonym of “Claque,” whose two series about Pella and Fredrika show an intuitive understanding of lonely and misunderstood children.

Harry Kullman and Martha Sandwall-Bergström are among the few Swedish writers who have used working class industrial backgrounds successfully. Kullman is also a historical novelist. The prolific Edith Unnerstad has written charming family stories, with a touch of fantasy, as has Karin Anckarsvärd, whose Doktorns pojk’ (1963; Eng. trans., Doctor’s Boy, 1965) is a quietly moving tale of small-town life in the horse-and-buggy days. The Sandbergs, Inger and Lasse, have advanced the Beskow tradition in a series of lovely picture books. Fantasy has been well served by Lindgren, Edith Unnerstad, Holmberg, Hellsing, and others. Children’s poetry is a lively contemporary art, one distinguished poet being Britt G. Hallqvist.

By most criteria of development the Swedes rank high among those creating a children’s literature that is both broad and deep.

Norway

Norway cannot boast a genius of worldwide fame. But, beginning with the 1830s when a new literary language, based on spoken Norwegian, was forged, Norway has possessed an identifiable children’s literature. From 1837 to 1844 Asbjørnsen and Moe, the Grimms of Norway, published their remarkable collection of folk stories, and thus created not only a literary base on which the future could build but a needed sense of national identity. Moe also wrote specifically for children. His poems are part of Norwegian childhood, and his nature fantasy I brønden og i tjernet (“In the Well and the Lake,” 1851) made Viggo and his little sister Beate familiar for more than a century. Equally enduring are the fairy tales and children’s verse of Norway’s greatest poet Henrik Wergeland.

The Norwegian critic Jo Tenfjord believes that the 30 years from 1890 to 1920 represented a golden age. With this period are associated Dikken Zwilgmeyer, author of the “Inger Johanne” series about a small-town little girl; Barbra Ring, creator of the popular “Peik” stories and of a play The Princess and the Fiddler, which was produced yearly at the National Theatre in Oslo; Gabriel Scott; and the fairy-tale writer Johan Falkberget.

Among the more prominent and well-loved moderns are Halvor Floden, whose most famous work, centered on a gypsy waif, is Gjenta fra lands vegen (“The Girl from the Road”); the nonsense versifier Zinken Hopp; the poet Jan-Magnus Bruheim, three of whose collections have won state prizes; Finn Havrevold, whose toughminded boys’ teenage novel Han Var Min Ven became available in English translation as Undertow in 1968, and who also wrote successfully for girls; Leif Hamre, specializing in air force adventures; the prolific, widely translated Aimée Sommerfelt, whose works range from “puberty novels” to faraway stories set in Mexico City and northern India; Thorbjørn Egner, who is the author of, among other books, a tiny droll fantasy, Karius and Baktus (1958; Eng. trans. 1962), which will actually persuade small children to brush their teeth; and Alf Prøysen, creator of Mrs. Pepperpot, a delightful little old lady who never knows when she is going to shrink to pepperpot size. Fantasy of this kind seems less characteristic of contemporary Norway than does the realistic novel, especially that designed for older children.

Denmark

Without Hans Christian Andersen, Danish children’s literature might have fared better. It is not that his fellow Danes deify him, as much as it is that the outside world does. Indeed, because modernized versions of his tales do not exist, his now rather antiquated Danish tends to outmode him. Yet his gigantic shadow must have intimidated his literary descendants, just as Dante and Cervantes intimidated theirs. Doubtless other forces also account for the sparseness and relative conventionality of Danish children’s literature.

The earliest books were written for the children of the nobility. Not till the passage of the Education Act of 1814 did the poorer ones have access to any suitable reading matter, and this, obedient to the prevailing European fashion, was dour in tone. The climate, of course, relaxed when Andersen appeared with his phenomenal series, still the finest of their kind, of invented or reworked fantastic tales. In 1884 H.V. Kaalund published a picture book of “Fables for Children” based on the popular verse narratives (1833) of a Thüringian pastor, Wilhelm Hey. Three years later an unidentified Danish humorist added three cautionary tales to a translation of six Struwwelpeter stories. Though it does not seem to have appeared as a picture book until 1900, Christian Winther in 1830 wrote a pleasing trifle, with an unusual fantastic touch, called “Flugten til Amerika” (“Flight to America”). It is still ranked as a classic. Such are some of the 19th-century oases.

Denmark’s general tendency has been to over-rely on translations or adaptations, drawn especially from its neighbor Germany. As against this, it can point to an excellent original tradition of nursery and nonsense rhymes. The first such collection, made as early as 1843, stimulated not only Andersen but such other 19th-century figures as Johan Krohn, whose “Peter’s Christmas” remains a standard seasonal delight. The tradition is relayed to the 20th century by Halfdan Rasmussen, whose collected Bjørnerim (“Verse for Children”) won the 1964 Danish Children’s Book Prize, and Ib Spang Olsen, with his nonsense picture book The Boy in the Moon (1962). As for the complementary prose tradition of fireside tales, Denmark had to wait (Andersen was artist, not scholar) for its Grimm until 1884, when a collection made by Svend Grundtvig, the son of N.F.S. Grundtvig, a great bishop-educator, was posthumously published.

As compared with other Scandinavian countries, post-World War II developments lagged. Picture books exhibited much more originality than did teenage literature. Jytte Lyngbirk’s girls’ novels, notably the love story “Two Days in November,” however, are well reputed, as are the realistic fictions, laid against an industrial background, of Tove Ditlevsen. Perhaps Denmark’s boldest original talent is Anne Holm, who aroused healthy controversy with her (to some) shocking narrative of a displaced boy’s journey to Denmark, the novel David (1963; Eng. trans., North to Freedom, 1965).

Some informed observers ascribe Denmark’s only moderate performance to domination by the teaching profession, to the lingering influence of conventional didacticism, and to the lack of the economic-social forces that stimulate professional writers. As late as 1966 the Minister of Culture commented on the scarcity of Danish juvenile authors, and this at a time when the rest of Scandinavia was, as it remained, in the full flood of the modern movement.

Finland

Although its language and people are not of European origin, Finland is loosely conceived as part of the Scandinavian bloc. Only since December 6, 1917, has it been formally independent. During much of its history Swedish was the language of the educated class. Thus its two outstanding premodern children’s writers, the father figure Zacharias Topelius and Anni Swan, wrote their fairy tales and folktales primarily for a Swedish-reading audience. Their works however were promptly translated into Finnish and became part of the native heritage. The same is true of the contemporary Tove Jansson, 1966 Andersen Medal winner, whose series of novels about the fantastic self-contained world of Moomintrolls, though less successful with English-reading children, enchants young readers throughout northern and central Europe.

The labors of Topelius in the children’s field and of Elias Lönnrot (compiler of the great Finnish epic-miscellany the Kalevala, 1835) in the field of national folklore constituted the soil from which Finnish children’s literature was eventually to derive nutriment. But that literature emerged as an identifiable whole only after World War I. It is largely folktale rooted. Indeed this small country became an international focus of folklore research. One student has said that it probably possesses the largest number of folktales in existence, some 30,000 of them. In the early 1960s a fairy tale competition yielded 795 manuscripts, a phenomenal statistic in view of Finland’s sparse population.

Finland, despite the fact that its language tends to limit its audience, is part of the main current of children’s literature, even though only Jansson has won anything like an international reputation. Two children’s poets, Aila Meriluoto and Kirsi Kunnas, have achieved renown.