Book Report: The Tomten

39. Astrid Lindberg, from a poem by Viktor Rydberg, with illustrations by Harald Wibert, The Tomten (1960) (1/8/19)

A while back there was a discussion on FB about favorite children's books, and a friend mentioned The Tomten by Astrid Lindberg. I had never heard of it. So of course I ordered it: it's someone's favorite!

It's a sweet story about a little gnome who wanders around a snow-covered farm one night, talking to the inhabitants in tomten language (a "silent little language" that everyone but adult humans can understand) about how spring will soon be on its way. He visits the cows, the horse Dobbin, the sheep and their lambs, the chickens, the dog Caro, and even the humans (the children, if they were to awake, would be able to understand him—but they sleep on). At the end of his rounds he returns to his corner of the barn, and the cat, leaving behind only "a line of tiny footprints in the snow."

Here is the original Swedish poem on which Lindberg's book is based, with a translation.

I especially enjoyed this story for its illustrations, which remind me fondly of my sister-in-law's home place and her brother's farm: it's all so Norwegian. (Well, okay, this tomten is actually Swedish, but I'm familiar with Norwegian farms, and they're quite similar.) Here are the few I could find online:

Curiously, I am unable to learn anything from the Swedish Wikipedia page on Astrid Lindgren (who also wrote the Pippi Longstocking books, one of which my Norwegian language partner and I are currently tackling) about the original Tomten book. She wrote a heckuva lot of books and won a heckuva lot of awards, though, I'll say that.

A tomte is the Swedish version of a Danish or Norwegian nisse, a mythological creature associated with the winter solstice. He was once believed to be the "soul" of the first inhabitant of the farm, the one who cleared the tomt (house lot).

As Lindberg writes of this one, "He is an old, old tomten who has seen the snow of many hundreds of winters. No one knows when he came to the farm. No one has ever seen him, but they know he is there. Sometimes when they wake up they see the prints of his feet in the snow. But no one has seen the Tomten."

Thanks to Andrew for the recommendation. I love knowing there are tomtens out there, watching over things.