Moa Martinson - Fjäderbrevet

When I was little there were this series of very small children's books called Pixiböcker (Pixi books) with short stories and lots of pictures. I have really fond memories of them and was therefore pleasantly surprised when I noticed the small short story books by more or less famous writers from Novellix at Pocketshop. They are kind of like Pixibooks for adults!

I have been sick with a cold these past few days, so it was nice to relax with a short story in the meantime. I chose Moa Martinson's Fjäderbrevet (The feather letter)* mostly because I liked the cover, but it turned out to be a quite interesting read.

My past experiences with Martinson's authorship has actually been quite mixed. When I was 15 and was "forced" to read her book Mor gifter sig (1936) in school I found it quite boring which might be because I was so young and I read it as a school assignment. Therefore I will not talk much about it. The second book I read by Martinson was a much more pleasant read: Kvinnor och äppelträd (1933). It is definitely up there among my favourite books of all time and I will give it its own entry in the future.

Moa Martinson

Fjäderbrevet is an autobiographical text which was first published in the antalogy Armén vid horisonten (1942). It is about her grandparents (the soldier and his wife) going to the priest to get their unmarried daughter's newborn daughter (i.e. Moa) baptist in november 1890. Her grandfather has already fought to keep them at the croft before his granddaughter was born. Then there is a jump in time to nine years later when the child's aunt and uncle come to visit her, her mother and her stepfather and they follow them back to the widowed grandmother in the croft. In an interesting story telling technique, which I have never encountered before, Martinson lets the mother tell much of the plot to her child.

När mor berättade om knekttorpet, där både hon och jag var födda, och då hon drog sig till minnes historier hennes mormor som var född på sjuttonhundratalet hade berättat, så fick jag det intrycket att det var knekthustrurna, knetsystrarna och knektmödrarna som var armén (When mother told about the soldier's croft, where both she and I were born, and when she remembered stories her grandmother who was born during the 18th century hade told, I got the feeling that it was the soldiers's wives, sisters and mothers who were the army.)

I really enjoy Moa Martinson's language. Her portrayal of her contemporary society and the people at its bottom (especially the women) is so raw and straight forward. It really gets you into the hardship of the society of that time (late 19th-early 20th century Sweden). Martinson belongs to the Swedish working class authors of the first half of the 20th century and I think it is very important for people today to read that type of literature in a way. It is raw and humanistic and paints a picture of a society that people today are rather unaware of existed only about a 100 years ago. Yes, Martinson's main focus is the poor, but that does not mean that she does not have feelings for the rich. Quite the contrary actually:

Man står inte ut med ens i fantasin att en människa, okunnig om sin ondska, sin girighet och hårdhet, inte ska få tillfälle till bättring. Livets egen happy end är ju döden för varenda varelse som föds. (You cannot stand even in your imagination that a human being without knowledge of his/her malignity, his/her greed and hardness will never have the opportunity to do right. The life's own happy end is death for every living being that is born.)

*Urgent post delivery was up until the 1870's in Finland and Sweden marked by feathers and therefore called Fjäderbrev

My Heroines: Ronja rövardotter

In this third entry to My Heroines series, I stay in Astrid Lindgren's universe. I have a hard time not loving her books. They have meant so much to me since I was very little and Ronja rövardotter (Ronja the robber's daughter) (1981) and Madicken were both among the first books I read all by myself. Madicken has already got her own entry on this blog and this will focus on the character of Ronja.

Ronja is born in the Mattis castle a stormy night when the harpies (That is the translation I have seen for vildvittror.) roamed the sky. She is the daughter of the robber's cheif Mattis and his wife Lovis. Mattis loves his daughter right from the very beginning and is kind of over-protective, but at the age of about 11, Ronja is free to roam the Mattis forest around the castle on her own. He tells her to beware of certain things however and Ronja spends her day watching out for those things. She also meets a boy called Birk Borkason. He was born the same stormy night as herself in another robber's castle. As his name indicates, he is the son of Mattis's archenemy Borka. However, Ronja befriends him and the start playing together in the forest.

Skalle-Per: "Mitt hjärtas fröjd och glädje. Vart är du på väg?" ("My heart's delight and joy. Where are you going?")
Ronja: "Jag ska gå och akta mig för att trilla i älven." ("I am going to beware of falling into the river.")
Skalle-Per: "Och var ska du göra det då?" ("And where are you going to do that?")
Ronja: "Ja, jag måste ju göra det vid älven om det ska vara någon nytta med det." ("Well, I have to do it by the river if there will be any point to it.")

Vildvittror

Ronja is kind of a Romeo and Juliet type of story and can definitely be viewed as fantasy even adults can enjoy. Reading it now as an adult I did have a totally different view of the story's focus then I did as a child. When I was little I always saw Ronja and Birk friendship as the main focus, but nowadays I kind of think that it is more Ronja's relationship with her father that is most important.

Astrid Lindgren seldom wrote about "traditional" heterosexual love between an adult male and an adult female (There are exception for example in Samuel August i Sevedstorp och Hanna i Hult, which is a biographical story about her parents love.). It is obvious that Ronja and Birk love each other, but it is never openly addressed. They call each other sister and brother and their love seems to be totally asexual and there is never any pressure for them to marry. I think this is natural since they are both 11 and I have always had a hard time thinking many people (either boys and girls) think about getting married so early. I certainly did not. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, Ronja and Birk do not commit suicide. Instead they work together to make their fathers stop fighting.

"Du barn, i de där små händerna håller du redan mitt rövarhjärta. Jag begriper det inte, men så är det." ("You my child, you already hold my robber's heart in those small hand. I don't understand it, but it is the truth.")

~ Mattis

Mattis and Ronja

The lack of "traditional" heterosexual relationships in her stories, does not mean that they lack love all together. Quite the contrary! They are full of love. Lindgren's focus on the children means that the love she portrays is types that is closest to them: the love of a sibling or a parent (or parental figure). The latter is especially true in Ronja rövardotter and the love between Mattis and Ronja is probably one of the strongest in her authorship. It seems to be so strong that it physically hurts them from time to time and the most emotional parts of the story are about them and the love they share.

The fact that Mattis and to a somewhat lesser extent Lovis is fully fletched characters, important to the plot makes them quite unique in Lindgren's authorship. You can argue that the adults in Emil in Lönneberga and Madicken are ever present in the story, but not at all to the extent of Mattis and Lovis. In fact, most of the time the parents are put in the background even though it is evident that they do care and love their children.

"Ta av dej min skinnrem först", sa Ronja och reste sej. "Jag vill inte vara hopbunden med dej längre än nödvändigt." ("Take of my leather strap first", said Ronja and rose up. "I don't want to be tied to you longer than necessary.")
(---)
"Nej, det förstås", sa [Birk]. "Men efter det här är jag kanske bunden till dej ändå. Utan rem." ("No, of course", [Birk] said. "But after this I might be tied to you anyway. Without the strap.") 

The settings in Ronja are kind of characters in their own right. The Mattis castle is the first milieu we encounter as it is where Ronja grows up. Symbolically enough, it is split in two by the lightning the night she is born (as it turns out, Birk is also born that same stormy night), creating a deep gorge in between called Helvetetsgapet (the Gap of Hell). Ronja goes up to the top to "beware" of it (as Mattis has told her to) and meets Birk for the first time. He and the other Borka robbers have just moved into the part of the castle not occupied by the Mattis's robbers since the knights are after them in their own castle and forest. Ronja and Birk spend their first meeting jumping across the Gap of Hell and one of the foundation stones for their firendship is when Ronja saves Birk when he has fallen down into the gorge. Like her emotions throughout the book, she thinks that she will literally split in two.

The symbolically gap is also important when Mattis kidnaps Birk in a desperate way of trying to get Borka to leave the Mattis castle. Ronja becomes so angry with him, yelling that she has no objections to him stealing money and things, but he cannot steal humans. She then throws herself across the Gap of Hell, letting herself get caught by the Borka robbers. This is a huge betrayal to Mattis and when Borka says that they now can switch children, he gives Birk back, but tells him he does not have a child anymore. Up until this point the castle has provided Ronja with comfort, security and stability, but the quarell with her father takes all that away and Ronja feels entrapped. Therefore she flees out into the second important setting of the book: the Mattis forest.

Mattis and Ronja

The forest to Ronja is freedom. Mattis lets her loose on her own to roam free there and it is where she grows and develops into an independent and confident human being. It is also there she is free to elaborate her friendship with Birk, far away from their fighting fathers. After the kidnapping incident, Ronja and Birk set up camp in the bear cave in the forest, but with time it becomes evident that the danger of the forests prohibits Ronja to be fully happy. The winter is lurking around the corner and she needs the stability and comfort of the castle (and Mattis).

Rumpnissar

I have always loved Ronja. Like Madicken and most of the other Astrid girls, she is allowed to be independent, strong and confident. I think it is sad that most people consider Astrid Lindgren to be only a children's author. The books are still interesting for adults and can give them much better understandings of the world and themselves.

Mattis and a harpy

Fun fact: The costumes in the Swedish film from 1984 was inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry.
In the Swedish film, Ronja is played by Hanna Zetterberg.

Hermione Granger and the power of knowledge

You probably have seen a lot of memes on the Internet in the last couple of years. Often these are made to joke about or ridicule something. Some of them are really fun and clever and some of them just do not seem to understand the thing they are trying to ridicule. Like this Harry Potter one I came across awhile ago:

If you do not know who she is. The girl sitting on the books is Emma Watson who plays the part of Hermione Granger, one of the main characters in the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling.

In the third book: Prisoner of Azkaban, she has chosen so many subjects that she needs to time-travel to be able to get to all of her classes. Time-traveling always brings an ambivalence to stories because it gives the characters a tool to go back and remake everything. This fact has also become memes which say that someone could have gone back to save Harry's parents since Harry and Hermione could go back to save the hippogriff Buckbeak.

I will not go further into this here, but I have always tought about it like they created a parallel timeline in which they do things they had already done once. Why? Because they actually interact with themselves. Harry thinks he sees his father casting a patronus to save himself, Hermione and Sirius Black, but he really sees his future self casting it.

Now back to the meme above posted on Mugglenet's facebook page. I usually like the Mugglenet's indept analysis of the books and the films. Therefore I was a little surprised to see both the meme together with the comment "She still needs to sort out her priorities"a hint to a conversation between Ron and Hermione in the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

The standpoint does not surprise me. Our society today seems to have a huge disregard for knowledge and this is dangerous! Knowledge is actually a very powerful weapon against hate and ignorance. This is also one of the greater themes in the Harry Potter books, which is very clear if you bothered to read and reflect on them. Harry defeats the evil Lord Voldemort not because he is stronger or more powerful. He defeats him because he has taken the time to do research beforehand, This is what the 6th book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is all about! Him and Albus Dumbledore exploring where Voldemort comes from. This means he has gained knowledge that Voldemort is to insensitive (and egocentric) to care about. Harry has also reflected on this knowledge, which means he understands the situation (and who is the owner of the Elder Wand).

Unfortunatelly this theme has been reduced to barely nothing in the films and the 6th film is more devoted to the "love square" Harry-Hermione-Ron-Lavender which I have long wonder if it is an influence from the Twilight films that were released at the same time.

Harry Potter are really smart books and they have a lot to teach us if we really reflect on what they want to get across to us. Hermione is also one of the best role models for young people of both genders. She is often seen as nerdy and a little weird because she wants to spend so much time studying, but I think it is so great to see a female character interested in gaining knowledge more or less just because she thinks it is fun to learn! She is not portrayed as a geek everyone wants to bully either but a multifaceted character who sometimes is downright cool! She also uses her knowledge and understanding to her great advantage. I think it is great that Albus Dumbledore and McGonagall goes to such length to encourage her throughout the books.

Nerdiness

As you might have realised, I post usually on Mondays on this blog. However, I recently had a discussion with an old friend of mine about nerdiness so I thought I should share some of my thoughts on the subject with you. It is a subject that matters a lot to me and this post will contain personal experience to an extent that I will probably not be sharing so much in other posts.

I have always been a nerd! To me, that means that I can care to much and be very passionate about different things. It can be anything from a particular subject to a film I have seen. Today I am very proud of my nerdiness and of the subjects I am passionate about. The ones I have at the moment, can be seen in the picture above:

• Horrible Histories
• Osteology (symbolised by the skull of Sweden's national saint Erik, since today is his death day)
• the Vasa family (symbolised with the princess and pirate Cecilia Vasa)
• Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries 
• Archaeology/History (since my main research interest involves the Early Middle Ages in Northern Europe it is symbolised with a picture of the mounds in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden)
• Yonderland.

The discussion I had with my friend got me thinking a lot about the social stigma that still exists around nerds and nerdiness. My friend seems to have her first ever experience of nerdiness, finding a subject that has really swept her away and consumed her. However she seems both scared and embarrassed by her passion. I find this very sad even though a small part of me still have somewhat of an understanding for her feelings.

I grew up in a small town and was the only nerd in my class. I got passionate about different things all the time and I did not exactly know how to handle all the feelings I had. This made me appear quite odd and I realised I could not talk about my passions or feelings as much as I wanted to with anyone of my classmates. (Part of why I started this blog is actually so I would finally have a forum where I can talk all about my nerdiness without someone getting angry.)

When I grew up, during the 1990's, there were not that many role models for nerds. On TV and films the nerds were usually depicted as ugly boys with thick glasses who never got any friends or girlfriends (even though they can be described as over-sexual). They were seldom the main focus of the show or film. Just side-characters who's only purpose were to be ridiculed by the audience. There are exceptions to this i.e. Carlton in Fresh Prince in Bel Air and Stig-Helmer Olsson in the Swedish Sällskapsresan films. The former is actually a pretty good depiction of a real-life nerd, because the writers did not exaggerate his nerdiness. The latter is exaggerated in his nerdiness, but I think he still works better because he gets to be the main focus of the Sällskapsresan films and even though he is a dork, neither of the six films limits the things he can do. He also always gets the girl at the end!

Girl-nerds were (and still are) not as common in the 1990's. The only two I can recall at the moment is Laney from She's all that and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Neither of them have the same problem as the male nerdy characters. They are not as "in your face" with their nerdiness. In fact, it is not even expressed. Laney in the beginning of the film is deeper then most characters and the problems I have with her have more to do with the fact that the film's theme is all about changing her so she can be popular. This more or less just because a man wants to win a bet. (I know Zack changes a lot as well, but it is still not a good message for nerdy girls.) Sabrina is actually a pretty good portrayal of the nerd. Mainly because her nerdiness is not her main (or only) trait. She is multi-faceted, smart, funny and has both friends and a boyfriend even if it is pointed out that she is not part of the popular crowd, but placed in the group of freaks.(The boys called nerds are as stereotypical depicted as all the other male nerds from the 90's.)

In later years we have had shows like The Big Bang Theory which gives a much more varied and better depiction of nerds than other shows. I love the show, but I think it is sad that the female charcters on the show is not allowed to be as "nerdy" as the boys. Sure Amy Farrah Fawler is quite nerdy, but none of the girls actually engage in or even as much as try to understand the whole "nerd culture" with Star Wars, Star Trek, comic books, video games etc.

To me there were two characters who, more than any else, got me proud to be a nerd: Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books and Rory Gilmore of Gilmore Girls. I intend to talk about them much more in other posts, so I do not want to give it all away here. They are not exaggerations of nerdy stereotypes and they are also allowed to be nerdy throughout their plotlines without being ridiculed or having to go through make overs to make them "more pretty" or "popular". They actually seem very confident in their nerdiness. This I think is very important. I think it is great for female nerds to have characters like this who are confident with their nerdiness to look up to. Good role models are a necessit for everyone!

My Heroines: Madicken

My Heroines is one of the series of posts I intend to have on this blog. It will be about females I have at some point in life looked up to in one way or another.

The inspiration for this, I have taken from Samantha Ellis's book How to Be a Heroine: Or, What I've Learned from Reading Too Much (Or in Swedish, since I read the translation: Mina hjältinnor. Eller vad jag lärt mig av att läsa för mycket.) that you can see over here to the right. (I will probably talk more about this book in later posts.)

In her book, Ellis talks about the female literary characters that have influenced her in life. Even though I am Swedish, I too have read many of them. I like how Ellis tells stories from her life in relation to the characters and how they have influenced her. Her book really made me inspired to tell you about my own heroines.

As might be pretty obvious based on my first post in this serie about Phryne Fisher, I will not limit myself to my childhood heroines. I still pick them up from time to time. Even though Phryne is a character from a book serie, I still haven't been able to read any of Kerry Greenwood's books about her. Therefore I will also include characters I have picked up solely from TV shows and films as well. I intend to analyse them and their books/films/TV shows, but I will use seperate entries also for only presenting them. This because there might be people who has not had the chance to meet them yet. Phryne, for example, is not so well known to a Swedish audience and the girl I want to dedicate this entry to is probably mostly known to the Swedes. Her name is Madicken and she is the main character of two books by Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren: Madicken (1960) and Madicken och Junibackens Pims (1976).

Illustration by Ilon Wikland

Madicken lives at Junibacken with her parents Jonas and Kajsa, her little sister Elisabet (generally called Lisabet) and their maid Alva. The family also has a dog named Sasso and a cat called Gosan. Madicken's real name i Margareta Engström, but everyone calls her Madicken. It's only when she has been naughty that people call her Margareta (so it actually happens pretty often...). She is seven years old and just about to start school when we first meet her.

"Stolts jungfrun på Junibacken, hon har ett ädelt hjärta"("The fair maiden at Junibacken, she has a nobel heart")

~ Farbror Nilsson 

Madicken takes place during the First World War. She comes from a quite wealthy family, her father being the editor of the news paper. "Like other girls", she plays with dolls, wears pretty dresses and collects nice things (the super nice ones, she calls salighetssaker/things of bliss). But never let you be fooled by those traits! She is probably the most badass 7-year-old there is!

Astrid Lindgren climbing a tree

Madicken was the nickname of Astrid Lindgren's best friend for nearly 80 years (up until Madicken's death in 1991): Anne-Marie Ingeström (married Fries). But some of her traits, book-Madicken probably borrowed from Astrid too. Among other, the fascination for climbing!

"Du är inte klok Madicken!" ("Madicken, you're mad!")

~ Lisabet

Madicken really seems to love climbing. In the first book, we are told, she usually climbs on top of the woodshed and walks on the roof to pick pears from the neighbours's pear tree. Later she and Lisabet have a picnic on that same roof and Madicken, being fascinated by airplanes wants to try to fly with an umbrella like the neighbour boy Abbe has told her they do in the war (It is their understanding of a parachute.). She goes to pick up her father's umbrella and jumps of the roof... It does not end well and she ends up with a concussion.

"Var glad att du lever! Det är så många som är döda." ("Be happy that you live! There are so many who are dead")

~ Linus-Ida

In the second book Madicken ends up walking on a roof again. The much poorer girl in her class, Mia, challenges her to walk across the school roof. Madicken wins and Mia steals the wallet from the headmaster.

But it is not only roof Madicken climbs up on! She also loves climbing in trees and on the mother's birthday, the whole family end up having picnic in trees because of some young bulls chasing them.

"Den ungen har aldrig haft förstånd att vara rädd" ("That child has never had sense enough to be scared")

~ Kajsa Engström

Besides all the climbing, Madicken can also punch you in the face if she wants to and she makes up a boy called Rikard to blame for whatever mischiefs she is up to in school. She is often described as being more like a boy and/or like her father than a girl. Lisabet, however, is described as similar to their mother. She is much calmer than her older sister and is often just dragged along on whatever mischeif Madicken is up to at the moment. But that does not mean she cannot be caught up in trouble herself. For example, she gets a pea stuck in her nose and hitchhike on a strange man's sleigh ending up in the middle of the forest. She collects naughty words which she says in the closet... but sometimes those words tend to get out of the closet too. Especially when the snobbish, proud and rather rude wife of the mayor is around.

Lisabet hinner ändå säga vad hon tänker till borgmästarinnan, när hon går förbi henne. (Lisabet still has time to tell the wife of the mayor what she's thinking as she passes by her)
"Nu var du allt bra dum!" ("Now you were really stupid!")
(---)
"Du fick inte säja att hon var dum, även om hon var det. Gå nu och säj till henne att du är lessen för det." [säger Alva] ("You cannot say she was stupid even though she was. Go say that you are sorry for it." [says Alva])
(---)
Då ropar [Lisabet] med sin gällaste röst: (Then [Lisabet] shouts out in her most high-pitched voice:)

"Jag är lessen för att du är dum!"  ("I'm sorry that you are stupid!")

~ Madicken of Junibackens Pims

Madicken's closest neighbour is the 15-year-old boy Abbe Nilsson. He comes from a much poorer family. He bakes pretzels which his mother sells at the market and his father is lazy and often drunk. Madicken has a huge crush on Abbe, but since she is seven, it is unrequited. He treats her more like a little sister and sometimes plays rather cruel pranks on her. Once he tricks her into believing she can see ghosts and another time he tricks her into thinking she has sold Lisabet into slavery. Abbe has lots of adventurous dreams like boarding a ship or becoming a pilot. Because of his family's lack of money he is probably never likely to fulfill them, but Madicken lets him fly in an airplane at the air show instead of herself.

Madicken is not just headstrong and adventurous. She has a big heart and a strong sense of justice. She tries to help out wherever she can. The books are filled with social commentary and despite her growing up in a wealthy family, she thinks and cares a lot about the poor. Her father is a good role model in this. When his wife is worried that Madicken hangs out to much at the Nilsson's house, he tells her that he wants his daughters to understand that not everyone is as wealthy as they are. In the second book, it becomes evident that his wife actually shares his opinions. Kajsa invites Alva to the mayor's formal ball, much to the wife of the mayor's chagrin and when Mia's lice find their way onto Madicken's head, she takes in Mia and her little sister Mattis, to get rid of the lice on all girls.

However, Madicken stands for some of the strongest social issues episodes herself. One is when the Nilssons do not have money to pay their loan to the factory owner Lind, Mrs Nilsson sells her body to the doctor. This so he can do whatever he wants with it after her death. Madicken worries about it, because she knows Mrs Nilsson wants a good funeral. At the same time as this happens, Madicken wins money at a lottery. She uses it to buy back Mrs Nilsson's body.

The other episode regards Mia. Her family (Her single mother and Mattis.) is really poor and Mia does not bring lunch to school nor does she and Mattis get any christmas presents. In the beginning Mia is much like an antagonist to Madicken and they fight a lot. Once physical and even if Madicken wins the fight, Mia manages to punch her on the nose. As said above does Mia challenge Madicken to walk across the school roof. On their way up, they go past the headmaster's window and Mia steals his wallet. She gets caught and is supposed to be spanked by the headmaster.

"Det kommer du att tacka mej för en gång", säjer överläraren. ("You are going to thank me for it", says the headmaster.)
Och hennes kamrater ska få titta på, säjer han, så att de lär sej hur det går för den som stjäl. (And her friends vill watch, he says, so they see what happens to those who steal.)
"Det blir en hälsosam läxa för er alla", tror han. ("It will be a good lesson for you all", he thinks.)
(---)
"Böj dej framåt", ryter [överläraren]. Mia böjer sig lydigt, och så kommer rottingen vinande och träffar hennes magra stjärt med en fasansfull klatsch. Inte ett ljud hörs från Mia. Men alla i klassen snyftar, och fröken håller handen för ögona. ("Bend over", [the headmaster] roars. Mia bends over and the cane hits her small bottom. Mia does not make a sound. But everyone in the class sobs and the teacher holds her hands in front of her eyes.)
Överläraren höjer rottingen igen, och då är det verkligen någon som skriker. Men det är inte Mia. (The headmaster raises the cane again and then there is someone who screams. But it is not Mia.)
"Nej, nej, nej, nej, nej", skriker Madicken med tårarna sprutande ur ögona. ("No, no, no, no, no", yells Madicken with tears running from her eyes.)
Överläraren tittar argt på henne, nu kom han av sej. Handen med rottningen sjunker ner, det är som om han tänkte efter. (The headmaster angrily looks at her. Now he lost his concentration. It looks as if he thinks for a moment.)

 ~ Madicken och Junibackens Pims

To understand this scene properly, one needs to understand the role Astrid got in Swedish politics over the years. She was probably one of the most powerful non-politicians in Sweden during her lifetime. She was very opinionated, standing up for both human and animal rights and even made the Swedish Social Democrats lose an election back in the 1970's. Anyway, Astrid was very clear that she did not like the idea of spanking children. One of her most famous quotes is: "Man kan inte piska något i barn, men man kan smeka fram mycket ur dem." ("You can never whip something into a child, but you can caress much out of them."). She is very anti-violence in general, which is evident in her authorship. Madicken grows up in somewhat of an idyll, but there are people like Mia who manages to break through it. This episode is among the strongest ones I think. It shows the conseqences of violence in a child and Madicken shows strengh in her ability to call the headmaster off.

Astrid won a German peace prize back in 1978 and used her acceptance speech to share her view of spanking, which was still legal in Germany at the time. I will most likely be telling you more about Astrid in future posts on this blog, because she has meant so much to me throughout my own life. This post I will, therefore, conclude with that speech:

In the films, Madicken is played by Jonna Liljedahl.

Historical Women: Kristina Nilsdotter Gyllenstierna

Statue of Kristina at the castle in Stockholm

Let me present to you a quite remarkable woman from 16th century Sweden. Her name was Kristina Nilsdotter and she belonged to the noble family Gyllenstierna with roots in Denmark, but she was also the great granddaughter of Swedish King Karl Knutsson (Bonde). She was born in the late 15th century (probably 1494) and the aunt of Gustav Eriksson (Vasa).
Since 1397, all the Nordic countries of today (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland) were united in the so called Kalmar union (which I probably will have reason to come back to in future posts as well).

Queen Margareta was the founder, but really none of the Danish rulers were able to get total control over all of Sweden. The only one to succeed seems to have been queen Filippa. She died suddenly in 1430 and only a few years later Sweden (mostly the peasantry actually) rebelled against the Danes. This rebellion continued throughout the rest of the 15th and begining of the 16th century with Danish kings and Swedish regents taking turns ruling for shorter time periods.

Sten Sture (the younger) was regent of Sweden 1512-1520 and Kristina's husband. They married in 1511 and they got six children. Sten fought with the Swedish archbishop Gustav Trolle and was badly injured in a battle against the Danes at Bogesund in the province Västergötland (today the town is called Ulricehamn). Sten died on the way back to Stockholm.

As Sten Sture's widow, it was Kristina's job to overtake her husbands position as regent of Sweden and leader of the Swedish resistance. Many people from the high nobility turned against her, supporting the Danish king Kristian II instead, but she collected followers among the lower nobility and among the farmers. When the ice melted on the Baltic Sea Kristian arrived and besieged Stockholm. Kristina fought for about five months and probably also lost her youngest child, the son Gustav, who was only one years old during the siege. In september 1520, she was forced to give up. She, however, negotiated with the Danes and she and the people loyal to her and her husband got amnesty.

At first, Kristian seemed to keep his promice and invited everyone to his coronation in November that same year. Unfortunatelly, this turned out to be a trap. 82 men were beheaded (No women were executed, but it Kristina was close to becoming the only one.). Kristian also dug up Sten Sture's and his and Kristina's son's graves and burned their bodies together with the rest of the victims. This incident has been known as the blood bath of Stockholm. Kristina and the rest of the women involved, were spared and put in Danish prison while Kristian and his men continued to make more blood baths across both Sweden and Finland (the latter being a part of Sweden up until 1809).

The fight was not lost however and only a few years later (1523), Kristina's nephew Gustav was coronated king of Sweden. Once she was released from the Danish prison in 1524, Kristina, however, fought for her eldest son Nils's (who she had sent to Poland after her husband's death) right to the throne. Because of this, Gustav forced her to marry Johan Turesson of the noble family Tre Rosor. This meant she was not first and foremost Nils Sture's mother (and Sten Sture's widow) but her husbands wife. Even though Johan was forced to flee the country only two years after their wedding because of disloyalty against the king, she remained loyal to Gustav throughout the rest of her life. She died in 1559.

My Heroines: The Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher

In this first "real" entry I want to talk about one of my newest heroines: the Honourable miss Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis). She is the main character in the Australian TV series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which is based on a series of books by Kerry Greenwood. I have understood there are some differences between the TV series and the books in considerations to both characters and plots. This entry will however be entirely about the character from the TV series, because unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to read any of the books (yet).

It seems that both versions of Phryne Fisher's "adventures" are quite popular in a lot of other countries throughout the world, but none of them have been given the attention they deserve over here in Sweden. The TV series is broadcasted on somewhat obscure channels, which probably contributes to this lack of interest, but not even sites like tvdags.se have talked about it that much other than a shorter article that does not say much about the show or its characters other than comparing it to Downton Abbey. There does not seem to be any interest in the third season either. It has neither been shown on TV nor is it up on Swedish Netflix. This is all a shame since it is such an amazing show!

The series is about Phryne Fisher (played by Essie Davis) who in the first episode arrives back in her native Australia, after having spent many years in England, to prevent the man in prison for kidnapping her little sister Jane (but who has never admitted to the crime) when they were children being released. Phryne is a wealthy lady after having inherited money and a title after the First World War, but has grown up very poor. She loves to dress up in fancy clothes (Her costumes in the show are amazing!) and jewellery, but because of her upbringing, she is not at all cheap! She understands what it is like to be poor. She often helps out friends, family (or other people she meets) if they have economic difficulties.

Phryne as a character is headstrong, independent, hedonistic, quirky, kind and somewhat reckless. She enjoys solving crimes and starts helping the police. In the course of the series, she develops a “special” sort of relationship with Detective Inspector Jack Robinson.

Jack is first married to Rosie Sanderson, but they get a divorce at the end of season one. It is clear, early on in the show that he and Phryne have a total attraction to one another, but Jack is quite shy and probably afraid of getting hurt and therefore is not exactly willing to commit to Phryne. It is also clear that Phryne is not going to wait around for him to make a move.

Phryne: “So, do you want to come have another look at the body with me?”

Jack:      “Is that an invitation?”

Phryne: “Well, I could wait all day for yours.”

~ Episode 3x1, Death Defying Feats

Phryne loves men, but is never dependent on them. She has sexual relations with various of different partners and is not ashamed to admit it. Jack does not handle this very well and is often openly jealous, but he understands that it is a part of who Phryne is and that he cannot change it. (Probably some of this contributes to his fear of commiting to her.) I also think that this sexual side of Phryne is really well portrayed in the show. It is always shown from her perspective (because it is totally her show!). This gives her an opportunity to be sexual, without being sexualized.

Phryne and Jack

One aspect I especially like about Phryne as a character is how "feminine" she is allowed to be. In popular culture of today (especially when it comes to the mystery genre), so called "strong women" are often masculinised. Lately I have started wondering why only those characters are enhanced in feminist debates. Actually creating female version of the stereotypical "macho man" does not really help women or society to become more equal. In this perspective, so called "female" characteristics are still given a lesser value than "male" ones. There is nothing wrong with being caring, loving, helpful and showing empathy towards others. Actually I think we need more characters with these characteristics (both male, female and other types of gender).

These characteristics does not prevent Phryne from enjoying a wilder side of life either. Actually she is often seen doing traditionally "male" activities such as flying an airplane, participating in a car rally and being physically active. She also seems to know quite a lot about sports such as (Australian) football, tennis and boxing. Besides all of this, she owns a pistol (golden and with a pearl handle) and keeps a dagger in her garter. This is really what makes her a whole person and not just a stereotypical "tomboy" or "girly girl" and a big reason to why she means a lot to me.