Tuesday 12 August - Part 1
Vimmerby
Näs - Astrid Lindgren's Childhood Home
The main tourist attraction that we had planned on visiting on the fourth day of our trip was the childhood home of Astrid Lindgren, Sweden's world famous author of classic children's books. I doubt there are many readers of this blog who aren't familiar with at least some of her books and characters - like Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga, Karlsson-on-the-Roof, the Bullerby Children ("Children of Noisy Village"), Mio My Son, Ronia the Robber's Daughter or The Brothers Lionheart... Some of them very "down to earth", others belonging more in the children's fantasy genre.
Astrid Lindgren (born Ericsson) was born on 14 November 1907. She grew up in Näs, near Vimmerby, Småland, Sweden. She was the daughter of Samuel August Ericsson and Johanna (Hanna) Sofia Jonsson; and she had an older brother and two younger sisters. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a journalist and secretary. In 1926, at age 19, she also had a son, Lars, born "out of wedlock". (He was in foster care for four years but then returned to live with her.)
In 1944, Astrid won second prize in a competition held by a book publishing company with a novel entitled Britt-Marie lättar sitt hjärta (The Confidences of Britt-Marie). In 1945 she won first prize with Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking) - which had first been rejected by another publishing company. No doubt they regretted that, as since then Pippi has become one of the most beloved children's books in the world and has been translated into around 100 languages!
Astrid's childhood home is now a museum, surrounded by a park with more buildings and things to remind of her books. Neither my brother nor I had been there before, and we ended up spending around three hours there, including a guided tour of the cottage where she lived back in her childhood, but we also had lunch at the restaurant there, and finished off with a walk through various areas of the park.
We were in luck as we arrived shortly before a guided tour was about to start, which we were allowed to join. The house is rather small and it is only shown by a guide to a limited number of people at a time. The tour was about an hour long, with a lot of interesting info. All in Swedish, but in spite of that, at least half this group of visitors seemed to consist of tourists from Germany and the Netherlands. Usually at Swedish tourist attractions there are signs in Swedish and English - but here, signs in German were actually more common than English! (Something which I can't recall ever having seen anywhere else!)
Astrid's parents worked on the estate belonging to a vicarage - the house above. The guide started telling her story about the family outside of that house. (Inside, there was an art exhibition that we visited on our own later.)
From there, we walked on to the cottage where Astrid lived with her parents and three siblings. From what I understood, they
all just lived in one half of that house, though - basically a kitchen + one room that served both as bedroom and living room for them all!
We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but one thing that stuck with me from the guide's stories was that some games mentioned in books like Pippi Longstocking, and The Bullerby Children, originated from Astrid's own childhood games with her siblings. Like in the Pippi books, a game called "Don't touch the floor", involving jumping around the room from one piece of furniture to another, was actually invented (and practiced!) by Astrid and her three siblings in the small combined bed/living room in that cottage...
In a barn nearby, there are some carved wooden figures on display, reminding of those that Emil of Lönneberga used to make. They were also showing scenes from those films - with subtexts in German. Like Emil's sister Ida dangling from the top of the flag pole:
In a field nearby there is an impressive huge old tree which inspired the tree in Pippi's garden where she used to hang bottles of soda for the children.
There are also winding paths to follow around the park, with intricate wooden fences and gates appearing here and there.
Before we left, I bought two books in the gift shop:
One is book Astrid wrote about her parents ("a love story"), which I have heard about, but I don't think I ever read it. (Our guide quoted from it quite a lot.) And I also bought a cheap paperback version of Mio, without illustrations, as I'm not sure I ever read that one in full either. (I know I have seen it set up as a play at the theatre, though - years ago.) I have not yet found the time to read them after I got back home; but I will!All in all, the place was well worth the visit!
PS. There is also another theme park in Vimmerby called Astrid Lindgren's World, more focused on activities for children; while this one, with her actual childhood home, is probably the more interesting choice for adults without children. (Even if there were families with children visiting this park as well.)
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