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Selma Lagerlöf
Legends about Christ
1858–1940
Old childhood hat
(About Selma Lagerlöf)
“Most people shed their childhood like old hat, and they forget it, like a telephone number that has become unnecessary. Real man only one who, having become an adult, remains a child.” These words belong to the famous German children's writer Erich Köstner.
Fortunately, there are not many people in the world who forgot or did not want to throw off the old hat of childhood in their youth. Some of them are storytellers.
A fairy tale is the first book that comes to a child. First, parents and grandparents read fairy tales to children, then children grow up and begin to read them themselves. How important it is that good fairy tales fall into the hands of adults - because they are the ones who buy and bring books into their homes.
Swedish parents are very lucky in this regard. Folk tales, legends and fairy tales have always been loved in Sweden. It is on the basis folklore works, works of oral folk art, a literary, or author's, fairy tale was created in the North.
We know the names of Selma Lagerlöf, Zacharius Topelius, Astrid Lindgren and Tove Jansson. These storytellers wrote on Swedish. They gave us books about Nils Holgersson, who went on a trip to home country together with the gander Martin (or Morten), fairy tales about Sampo the Loparenka and the tailor Tikka, who sewed Sweden to Finland, funny stories about the Kid and Carlson, about Pippi Longstocking and, of course, the magical saga about the Moomintroll family.
Perhaps the work of Selma Lagerlöf is least known in our country. She is considered primarily an “adult” writer. However, this is not at all true.
Selma Lagerlöf became famous throughout the world (and in our country) primarily as children's writer his book “The Amazing Journey of Nils Holgersson with wild geese in Sweden" (1906–1907), which used fairy tales, traditions and legends from the provinces of Sweden. But did you know that this book is not just a fairy tale, but a novel, and even a real geography textbook for Swedish schools?
This textbook for a long time were not accepted in schools, teachers and strict parents believed that there was no need for their children to enjoy studying. However, the writer Lagerlöf had a different opinion, because she was brought up in a completely unusual late XIX century family, where older generation There was no doubt about the need to develop imagination in children and tell them magical stories.
Selma Louise Ottilie Lagerlöf (1858–1940) was born into a friendly and happy family a retired military man and teacher, in the Morbakka estate, located in the south of Sweden, in the province of Värmland.
Life in Morbakka fabulous atmosphere old Swedish manor left an indelible mark on Selma’s soul. “I would never have become a writer,” she later admitted, “if I had not grown up in Morbakka, with her ancient customs, with its wealth of legends, with its kind, friendly people.”
Selma's childhood was very difficult, although she was surrounded loving parents, four brothers and sisters. The fact is that at the age of three she suffered infantile paralysis and lost the ability to move. Only in 1867, at a special institute in Stockholm, the girl was able to be cured, and she began to walk independently, but remained lame for the rest of her life.
However, Selma did not lose heart, she was never bored. Her father, aunt and grandmother told the girl the legends and fairy tales of her native Värmland, and the future storyteller herself loved to read, and from the age of seven she already dreamed of becoming a writer. Even at such a young age, Selma wrote a lot - poems, fairy tales, plays, but, of course, they were far from perfect.
The home education received by the writer was beyond all praise, but it had to be continued. And in 1882, Selma entered the Royal Higher Teachers' College. That same year, her father dies, and her beloved Morbakka is sold for debts. It was a double blow of fate, but the writer was able to survive, graduate from college and become a teacher at a girls' school in the city of Landskrona in southern Sweden. Now in the city there is a memorial plaque hanging on one of the small houses in memory of the fact that it was there that Lagerlöf wrote her first novel, thanks to which she became a writer, “The Saga of Göst Berling” (1891). For this book, Lagerlöf received the Idun magazine award and was able to leave school, devoting herself entirely to writing.
Already in her first novel, the writer used the tales of her native Southern Sweden, known to her from childhood, and subsequently invariably returned to the folklore of Scandinavia. Fabulous, magical motives appears in many of her works. This is a collection of short stories about the Middle Ages “Queens of Kungahella” (1899), and a two-volume collection “Trolls and People” (1915–1921), and the story “The Tale of a Country Estate”, and, of course, “The Amazing Journey of Nils Holgersson with Wild Geese Sweden" (1906–1907).
Selma Lagerlöf believed in fairy tales and legends and could skillfully retell and invent them for children. She herself became a legendary figure. So, they say that the idea of “The Amazing Journey of Nils...” was suggested to the writer by... a gnome who met her one evening in her native Morbakka, which the writer was able to buy out, already famous, in 1904.
In 1909 year Lagerlöf the Nobel Prize was awarded. At the award ceremony, the writer remained true to herself and, instead of being serious and judicious, acceptance speech told... about a vision in which her father appeared to her “on the veranda in the garden, full of light and flowers, over which birds were circling.” Selma, in a vision, told her father about the prize being awarded to her and about her fear of not living up to the enormous honor bestowed upon her by the Nobel Committee. In response, the father, after a little thought, slammed his fist on the armrest of the chair and menacingly answered his daughter: “I’m not going to rack my brains over problems that cannot be solved either in heaven or on earth. I'm too happy with what they gave you Nobel Prize, and don't intend to worry about anything else."
After the award, Lagerlöf continued to write about Värmland, its legends and, of course, about family values.
She loved children very much and was a wonderful storyteller. She managed to tell even the most boring things, such as a Swedish geography course, in a fun and interesting way.
Before creating “The Amazing Journey of Nils...”, Selma Lagerlöf traveled almost the entire country and carefully studied folk customs and rituals, tales and legends of the North. The book is based on scientific information, but it is presented in the form of an adventure novel. Nils Holgersson looks like Thumb, but he is not a fairy-tale hero, but a naughty child who brings a lot of grief to his parents. Traveling with a flock of geese allows Nils not only to see and learn a lot, to get to know the animal world, but also to re-educate. From an angry and lazy tomboy he turns into a kind and sympathetic boy.
Selma Lagerlöf herself was exactly such an obedient and sweet child as a child. Her parents not only loved their children, they tried to raise them correctly, to instill in them faith in God and the desire to live according to God’s commandments.
Selma Lagerlöf was a deeply religious person, and therefore Christian legends occupy a special place in her work. These are, first of all, “Legends of Christ” (1904), “Legends” (1904) and “The Tale of a Fairy Tale and Other Tales” (1908).
The writer believed that by listening to fairy tales and stories from adults in childhood, the child develops as a personality and receives basic ideas of morality and ethics.
The image of Jesus of Nazareth is clearly or invisibly present in all the writer’s works. Love for Christ as the meaning of life is the main motive in such works as the short story “Astrid” from the “Queens of Kungahella” series, in the book “Miracles of the Antichrist” and the two-volume novel “Jerusalem”. In Jesus Christ Lagerlöf saw central image human history, its meaning and purpose.
“Legends of Christ” is one of the most important works Selma Lagerlöf, written in a simple and accessible manner for children.
This cycle is important for understanding not only Lagerlöf’s entire work, but also the personality of the writer herself, for it is in “Legends of Christ” that the image of one of Lagerlöf’s most beloved people appears - her grandmother.
Little Selma, deprived of the opportunity to run and play with her peers, was always an enthusiastic listener to her grandmother's stories. The world of her childhood, despite the physical pain, was filled with light and love. It was a world of fairy tales and magic, in which people loved each other and tried to help their neighbors in trouble, lend a helping hand to the suffering and feed the hungry.
Selma Lagerlöf believed that you need to believe in God, honor and love Him, know His teachings about how to relate to the world and people in order to live holy, achieve salvation and eternal bliss. She was convinced that any Christian should know the Divine teaching about the origin of the world and man and what will happen to us after death. If a person does not know any of this, the writer believed, then his life is deprived of all meaning. One who does not know how to live and why one should live one way and not another is like one walking in darkness.
State the doctrine Christian faith and it is very difficult to make it understandable to a child, but Selma Lagerlöf found her way - she created a cycle of legends, each of which reads as an independent fascinating story.
Lagerlöf turns in turn to the gospel events of the earthly life of Jesus Christ: this is the worship of the Magi (“Well of the Wise Men”), and the massacre of the infants (“The Child of Bethlehem”), and the flight to Egypt, and the childhood of Jesus in Nazareth, and His coming to the temple, and His suffering on the cross.
Every event in the life of Jesus Christ is presented not in a strict and dry canonical form, but in a manner that is fascinating to a child, often from a completely unexpected point of view. Thus, the sufferings of Jesus on the cross are narrated by a small bird from the legend “Redthroat”, and the reader learns about the story of the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt from... an old date palm.
Often a legend grows from just one detail or mention that is in Holy Scripture, nevertheless, the writer invariably follows the spirit of the gospel descriptions of the earthly life of Jesus.
Since not everyone now knows the story of the life and ascension of Jesus Christ, we consider it necessary to tell here briefly about His earthly days, since preliminary information will help you better understand the legends of Selma Lagerlöf.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and God, who lived on earth as a man for 33 years. Until the age of 30, He lived in the poor Galilean city of Nazareth with His Mother Mary and Her betrothed Joseph, sharing his household labors and craft - Joseph was a carpenter. Then He appeared on the Jordan River, where he received baptism from His Forerunner (predecessor) - John. After baptism, Christ spent forty days in the desert in fasting and prayer; here He withstood temptation from the devil and from here He appeared into the world with a sermon about how we should live and what we should do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Sermon and everything earthly life Jesus Christ was accompanied by numerous miracles. Despite this, the Jews, convicted by Him of their lawless life, hated Him, and the hatred increased to the point that after many torments, Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross between two thieves. Having died on the cross and buried by secret disciples, He, by the power of His omnipotence, resurrected on the third day after His death and after His Resurrection, over the course of forty days, He repeatedly appeared to believers, revealing to them the secrets of the Kingdom of God. On the fortieth day, in the presence of His disciples, He ascended into heaven, and on the fiftieth day He sent them the Holy Spirit, enlightening and sanctifying every person. On the part of the Savior, suffering and death on the cross were a voluntary sacrifice for the sins of people.
The Lord wanted man to change, to learn to live in love and humility, and therefore the writer ends her cycle of legends about Him with the story “The Candle from the Holy Sepulcher” - about the transfiguration violent temperament Crusader knight. He is reborn, becomes a completely different person, kind and meek, ready to sacrifice for the good of another person.
Selma Lagerlöf, who never forgot the old hat of childhood, always believed that a person can change for the better, like the knight Raniero di Ranieri or like Nils Holgersson.
Try to change yourself by reading this book!
Natalia Budur
Holy night
When I was five years old, I experienced a very great sorrow. Perhaps this was the greatest grief that has ever befallen me. My grandmother died. Until her death, she spent all her time sitting in her room on the corner sofa and telling us fairy tales. I remember very little about my grandmother. I remember that she had beautiful hair, white as snow, that she walked completely hunched over and was constantly knitting a stocking. Then I also remember that, while telling some fairy tale, she would put her hand on my head and say: “And all this is true... The same truth as the fact that we are seeing each other now.”
I also remember that she knew how to sing nice songs, but she didn’t sing them often. One of these songs talked about some kind of knight and mermaid. This song had a chorus:
And across the sea, and across the sea, a cold wind blew!
I remember another prayer and psalm that she taught me. I have a faint, vague memory of all the fairy tales she told me, and only one of them I remember so clearly that I can retell it. This small legend about the Nativity of Christ.
That, it seems, is all I remember about my grandmother, except, however, the feeling of terrible grief that I experienced when she died. This is what I remember best. It’s like it was yesterday - that’s how I remember the morning when the sofa in the corner suddenly turned out to be empty and I couldn’t even imagine how this day would go. I remember this quite clearly and will never forget.
I remember how they brought us to say goodbye to our grandmother and told us to kiss her hand, and how we were afraid to kiss the deceased, and how someone said that we should thank her in last time for all the joys that she brought to us.
I remember how all our fairy tales and songs were put together with my grandmother in a long black coffin and taken away... taken away forever. It seemed to me that something had disappeared from our lives then. It's like a door to a wonderful place, magical land, where we used to roam freely, has closed forever. And then no one managed to open this door.
We children gradually learned to play with dolls and toys and live like all other children. And from the outside, one might think that we had stopped grieving about our grandmother, had stopped remembering her.
But even now, although forty years have passed since then, a small legend about the Nativity of Christ, which my grandmother told me more than once, clearly emerges in my memory. And I myself want to tell it, I want to include it in the collection “Legends of Christ.”
* * *
It was on Christmas Eve. Everyone except grandma and me went to church. It seemed like just the two of us were left in the whole house. One of us was too old to go and the other was too young. And we were both sad that we wouldn’t have to hear the Christmas carol and admire the glow of Christmas candles in the church. And grandmother, in order to disperse our sadness, began to tell.
- One day dark night“,” she began, “one man went to get some fire.” He walked from one house to another, knocked and said: “Help me, good people! My wife gave birth to a baby... We need to light a fire and warm her and the baby.”
But it was at night, everyone was already asleep, and no one responded to his request.
And so the man who needed to get fire approached the sheep and saw that three big dogs. At his approach, all three dogs woke up, opened their wide mouths as if about to bark, but did not make the slightest sound. The man saw how the hair on the dogs’ backs stood on end, how their white teeth sparkled, and how they all rushed at him. He felt that one dog grabbed his leg, another grabbed his arm, and the third grabbed his throat. But the jaws and teeth did not obey the dogs, and they, without causing him the slightest harm, moved aside.
Then the man headed towards the fire, but the sheep were pressed so tightly together that it was impossible to get between them. Then he walked along their backs to the fire, and not one of them woke up or even moved.
Until now, my grandmother had been talking without stopping, and I had not interrupted her, but then a question involuntarily escaped me:
- Why, grandmother, did the sheep continue to lie quietly? Are they so shy? - I ask.
– Wait a little, you’ll find out! - says the grandmother and continues her story.
“When this man almost reached the fire, the shepherd raised his head. He was a gloomy old man who was suspicious and unfriendly towards everyone. When he saw a stranger approaching him, he grabbed a long, pointed staff, with which he always followed the herd, and threw it at him. The staff flew with a whistle straight towards the stranger, but, before reaching him, it deviated and, flying past, fell into the field with a ringing sound.
Grandma wanted to continue, but I interrupted her again:
“Why didn’t the staff hit this man?”
But the grandmother, not paying attention to my question, already continued the story:
“Then the stranger approached the shepherd and said to him: “Help me, my friend. Give me some light. My wife gave birth to a baby, and I need to light a fire to warm her and the baby!”
The shepherd wanted to refuse him, but when he remembered that the dogs could not bite this man, the sheep were not afraid and did not run away from him, and the staff did not touch him, he felt terrible, and he did not dare refuse the stranger.
“Take as much as you want!” - said the shepherd. But the fire had almost burned out, and not a single log, not a single twig was left - only a large pile of hot coals lay, and the stranger had neither a shovel nor a bucket in which to carry them.
Seeing this, the shepherd repeated: “Take as much as you want!” - and rejoiced at the thought that he would not be able to carry the heat with him. But the stranger bent down, scooped out the coals from under the ashes with his hand and put them in the hem of his clothes. And the coals did not burn his hands when he took them out, and did not burn through his clothes. He carried them as if they were not fire, but nuts or apples.
At this point I interrupt my grandmother for the third time:
“Why, grandma, didn’t the coals burn him?”
- You will hear, you will hear! Wait! - says the grandmother and continues to talk further.
“When the angry and gloomy shepherd saw all this, he was very surprised: “What kind of night is this that evil shepherds don’t bite, the sheep don’t get scared, the staff doesn’t kill, and the fire doesn’t burn?!”
He stopped the stranger and asked him: “What kind of night is it today? And why is everyone treating you so kindly?”
“If you don’t see it for yourself, I can’t explain it to you!” - the stranger answered and went his way to quickly make a fire and warm up his wife and baby.
The shepherd decided not to lose sight of the stranger until he found out what it all meant, and followed him until he reached his camp. And the shepherd saw that this man did not even have a hut, and his wife and baby were lying in an empty cave, where there was nothing but bare stone walls.
And then the shepherd thought that the poor innocent child might freeze in the cave, and although he did not have a tender heart, he felt sorry for the baby. Deciding to help him, the shepherd took his bag from his shoulder, took out a soft white sheepskin and gave it to the stranger so that he could place the baby on it.
And at that very moment, when it turned out that he, a hard-hearted, rude man, could be merciful, his eyes opened, and he saw what he could not see before, and heard what he could not hear before.
He saw small angels with silver wings standing in a tight ring around him and each of them holding a harp, and heard them singing loudly that on that night a Savior was born who would redeem the world from its sins.
And then the shepherd understood why no one could harm the stranger that night.
Looking around, the shepherd saw that angels were everywhere: they were sitting in a cave, descending from a mountain, flying across the sky; They walked along the road in huge crowds, stopped at the entrance to the cave and looked at the baby.
And everywhere reigned joy, rejoicing, singing and gentle music... And the shepherd saw and heard all this on a dark night in which he had not noticed anything before. And he felt great joy because his eyes were opened, and, falling on his knees, he thanked the Lord.
At these words, the grandmother sighed and said:
- If we knew how to look, then we could see everything that the shepherd saw, because on Christmas night angels always fly across the heavens...
And, putting her hand on my head, my grandmother said:
– Remember this... This is as true as the fact that we see each other. The point is not in candles and lamps, not in the moon and the sun, but in having eyes that could see the greatness of the Lord!..
Selma Lagerlöf
Legends about Christ
Holy night
When I was five years old, I experienced great grief. It seems like I haven’t known a stronger one since then: my grandmother died. Until her death, she spent her days sitting in her room on the corner sofa and telling us stories.
Grandma told them from morning to evening, and we children sat quietly next to her and listened. It was a wonderful life! No other children had as good a life as we did.
Only a little remains in my memory of my grandmother. I remember that she had beautiful hair, white as snow, that she walked completely hunched over and was constantly knitting a stocking.
I also remember that, having finished telling some tale, she usually put her hand on my head and said:
And all this is as true as the fact that we see each other now.
I also remember that she knew how to sing wonderful songs, but she did not sing them often. One of these songs was about a knight and a sea princess, and it had a chorus: “A cold, cold wind blew over the sea.”
I also remember a short prayer and psalm that she taught me.
I have only a pale, vague memory of all the fairy tales she told me. I remember only one of them so well that I could retell it now. This is a little legend about the Nativity of Christ.
That's about all I can remember about my grandmother, except what I remember best is the feeling of great loss when she left us.
I remember that morning when the sofa in the corner was empty, and it was impossible to imagine when this day would end. I will never forget this.
And I remember how we, the children, were brought to the deceased so that we could say goodbye to her and kiss her hand. We were afraid to kiss the deceased, but someone told us that this was the last time we could thank our grandmother for all the joys that she brought us.
And I remember how fairy tales and songs left our house with my grandmother, packed in a long black box, and never returned.
Something disappeared from life then. It’s as if the door to the wide, beautiful, Magic world, in which we formerly roamed freely. And no one was found who could unlock this door.
We gradually learned to play with dolls and toys and live like all other children, and it might seem that we no longer yearn for our grandmother or remember her.
But even at this moment, many years later, when I sit and remember all the legends I have heard about Christ, the legend about the Nativity of Christ, which my grandmother loved to tell, appears in my memory. And now I want to tell it myself, including it in my collection.
It was on Christmas Eve, when everyone had gone to church except grandma and me. We were, it seemed, alone in the whole house. They didn't take us because one of us was too young, the other was too old. And we both grieved that we could not attend the solemn service and see the glow of Christmas candles.
And when we were sitting alone with her, grandmother began her story.
Once upon a time, in a dead, dark night, one man went out into the street to get some fire. He went from hut to hut, knocking on doors, and asked: “Help me, good people!
My wife just gave birth to a baby and I need to start a fire to keep her and the baby warm.”
But it was deep night and all the people were sleeping. Nobody responded to his request.
When the man approached the sheep, he saw that three dogs were lying and dozing at the shepherd’s feet. At his approach, all three woke up and bared their wide mouths, as if about to bark, but did not make a single sound. He saw how the fur stood on end on their backs, how their sharp, white teeth sparkled dazzlingly in the light of the fire, and how they all rushed at him. He felt that one grabbed his leg, another grabbed his arm, and the third grabbed his throat. But the strong teeth seemed to disobey the dogs, and without causing him the slightest harm, they moved aside.
The man wanted to go further. But the sheep lay so closely pressed together, back to back, that he could not get between them. Then he walked forward straight along their backs, towards the fire. And not a single sheep woke up or moved...
Until now, my grandmother had been telling the story without stopping, but here I couldn’t resist interrupting her.
Why, grandmother, did they continue to lie quietly? Are they so shy? - I asked.
“You will soon find out,” said the grandmother and continued her story: “When the man came close enough to the fire, the shepherd raised his head.” He was a gloomy old man, rude and unfriendly to everyone. And when he saw the stranger approaching him, he grabbed the long, pointed staff with which he always followed the herd, and threw it at him. And the staff flew with a whistle straight at the stranger, but without hitting him, it deflected to the side and flew past, to the other end of the field.
When grandma got to this point, I interrupted her again:
Why didn't the staff hit this man?
But my grandmother did not answer me and continued her story:
The man then approached the shepherd and said to him: “Friend, help me, give me fire! My wife just gave birth to a baby and I need to start a fire to keep her and the baby warm!”
The old man would have preferred to refuse, but when he remembered that the dogs could not bite this man, the sheep did not run away from him and the staff flew past without hitting him, he felt uneasy, and he did not dare refuse his request.
“Take as much as you need!” - said the shepherd.
But the fire had almost burned out, and there were no more logs or branches left around, only a large heap of heat lay; the stranger had neither a shovel nor a scoop to take the red coals for himself.
Seeing this, the shepherd again suggested: “Take as much as you need!” - and rejoiced at the thought that a person could not take fire with him.
But he bent down, picked out a handful of coals with his bare hands and put them in the hem of his clothes. And the coals did not burn his hands when he took them, nor did they burn through his clothes; he carried them as if they were apples or nuts...
Here I interrupted the narrator for the third time:
Grandma, why didn’t the coals burn him?
“Then you will find out everything,” the grandmother said and began to tell further: “When the angry and angry shepherd saw all this, he was very surprised: “What kind of night is this when dogs are meek like sheep, the sheep know no fear, the staff does not kill and Doesn’t the fire burn?” He called out to the stranger and asked him: “What kind of night is this? And why are all animals and things so merciful to you? “I can’t explain this to you, since you don’t see it yourself!” - the stranger answered and went his way to quickly make a fire and warm his wife and baby.
The shepherd decided not to lose sight of this man until it became clear to him what it all meant. He stood up and followed him to his very abode. And the shepherd saw that the stranger did not even have a hut to live in, that his wife and newborn baby were lying in a mountain cave, where there was nothing but cold stone walls.
The shepherd thought that the poor innocent baby might freeze to death in this cave, and although he was a stern man, he was touched to the depths of his soul and decided to help the baby. Taking his knapsack off his shoulders, he took out a soft white sheepskin and gave it to the stranger so that he could lay the baby on it.
And at that very moment, when it turned out that he, too, could be merciful, his eyes opened, and he saw what he could not see before, and heard what he could not hear before.
He saw that angels with silver wings were standing around him in a dense ring. And each of
Selma Lagerlöf
Legends about Christ
1858–1940
Old childhood hat
(About Selma Lagerlöf)
“Most people throw off their childhood like an old hat and forget it, like a telephone number that has become unnecessary. A real person is only one who, having become an adult, remains a child.” These words belong to the famous German children's writer Erich Köstner.
Fortunately, there are not many people in the world who forgot or did not want to throw off the old hat of childhood in their youth. Some of them are storytellers.
A fairy tale is the first book that comes to a child. First, parents and grandparents read fairy tales to children, then children grow up and begin to read them themselves. How important it is that good fairy tales fall into the hands of adults - because they are the ones who buy and bring books into their homes.
Swedish parents are very lucky in this regard. Folk tales, legends and fairy tales have always been loved in Sweden. It was on the basis of folklore works, works of oral folk art, that a literary, or author's, fairy tale was created in the North.
We know the names of Selma Lagerlöf, Zacharius Topelius, Astrid Lindgren and Tove Jansson. These storytellers wrote in Swedish. They gave us books about Nils Holgersson, who went on a trip to his native country with the gander Martin (or Morten), tales about Sampo-Loparenok and the tailor Tikka, who sewed Sweden to Finland, funny stories about the Kid and Carlson, about Pippi Longstocking and , of course, the magical saga about the Moomin family.
Perhaps the work of Selma Lagerlöf is least known in our country. She is considered primarily an “adult” writer. However, this is not at all true.
Selma Lagerlöf became famous throughout the world (and in our country) primarily as a children's writer with her book “The Amazing Journey of Nils Holgersson with Wild Geese in Sweden” (1906–1907), which used fairy tales, traditions and legends from the provinces of Sweden. But did you know that this book is not just a fairy tale, but a novel, and even a real geography textbook for Swedish schools?
This textbook was not accepted in schools for a long time; teachers and strict parents believed that there was no need for their children to enjoy studying. However, the writer Lagerlöf had a different opinion, because she was brought up in a family that was completely unusual for the end of the 19th century, where the older generation had no doubt about the need to develop imagination in children and tell them magical stories.
Selma Louisa Ottilie Lagerlöf (1858–1940) was born into a friendly and happy family of a retired military man and a teacher, on the Morbakka estate, located in southern Sweden, in the province of Värmland.
Life in Morbakka and the fabulous atmosphere of the old Swedish manor left an indelible mark on Selma’s soul. “I would never have become a writer,” she later admitted, “if I had not grown up in Morbakka, with its ancient customs, with its wealth of legends, with its kind, friendly people.”
Selma's childhood was very difficult, although she was surrounded by loving parents and four brothers and sisters. The fact is that at the age of three she suffered infantile paralysis and lost the ability to move. Only in 1867, at a special institute in Stockholm, the girl was able to be cured, and she began to walk independently, but remained lame for the rest of her life.
However, Selma did not lose heart, she was never bored. Her father, aunt and grandmother told the girl the legends and fairy tales of her native Värmland, and the future storyteller herself loved to read, and from the age of seven she already dreamed of becoming a writer. Even at such a young age, Selma wrote a lot - poems, fairy tales, plays, but, of course, they were far from perfect.
The home education received by the writer was beyond all praise, but it had to be continued. And in 1882, Selma entered the Royal Higher Teachers' College. That same year, her father dies, and her beloved Morbakka is sold for debts. It was a double blow of fate, but the writer was able to survive, graduate from college and become a teacher at a girls' school in the city of Landskrona in southern Sweden. Now in the city there is a memorial plaque hanging on one of the small houses in memory of the fact that it was there that Lagerlöf wrote her first novel, thanks to which she became a writer, “The Saga of Göst Berling” (1891). For this book, Lagerlöf received the Idun magazine award and was able to leave school, devoting herself entirely to writing.
Already in her first novel, the writer used the tales of her native Southern Sweden, known to her from childhood, and subsequently invariably returned to the folklore of Scandinavia. There are fairy-tale and magical motifs in many of her works. This is a collection of short stories about the Middle Ages “Queens of Kungahella” (1899), and a two-volume collection “Trolls and People” (1915–1921), and the story “The Tale of a Country Estate”, and, of course, “The Amazing Journey of Nils Holgersson with Wild Geese Sweden" (1906–1907).
Selma Lagerlöf believed in fairy tales and legends and could skillfully retell and invent them for children. She herself became a legendary figure. So, they say that the idea of “The Amazing Journey of Nils...” was suggested to the writer by... a gnome who met her one evening in her native Morbakka, which the writer was able to buy out, already famous, in 1904.
In 1909, Lagerlöf was awarded the Nobel Prize. At the award ceremony, the writer remained true to herself and, instead of a serious and judicious speech of gratitude, spoke... about a vision in which her father appeared to her “on the veranda in a garden full of light and flowers, over which birds were circling.” Selma, in a vision, told her father about the prize being awarded to her and about her fear of not living up to the enormous honor bestowed upon her by the Nobel Committee. In response, the father, after a little thought, slammed his fist on the armrest of the chair and menacingly answered his daughter: “I’m not going to rack my brains over problems that cannot be solved either in heaven or on earth. I am too happy that you have been given the Nobel Prize to worry about anything else.”
After the award, Lagerlöf continued to write about Värmland, its legends and, of course, about family values.
She loved children very much and was a wonderful storyteller. She managed to tell even the most boring things, such as a Swedish geography course, in a fun and interesting way.
Before creating “The Amazing Journey of Nils...”, Selma Lagerlöf traveled almost the entire country, carefully studying the folk customs and rituals, fairy tales and legends of the North. The book is based on scientific information, but it is presented in the form of an adventure novel. Nils Holgersson looks like Thumb, but he is not a fairy-tale hero, but a naughty child who brings a lot of grief to his parents. Traveling with a flock of geese allows Nils not only to see and learn a lot, to get to know the animal world, but also to re-educate. From an angry and lazy tomboy he turns into a kind and sympathetic boy.
Selma Lagerlöf herself was exactly such an obedient and sweet child as a child. Her parents not only loved their children, they tried to raise them correctly, to instill in them faith in God and the desire to live according to God’s commandments.
Selma Lagerlöf was a deeply religious person, and therefore Christian legends occupy a special place in her work. These are, first of all, “Legends of Christ” (1904), “Legends” (1904) and “The Tale of a Fairy Tale and Other Tales” (1908).
The writer believed that by listening to fairy tales and stories from adults in childhood, the child develops as a personality and receives basic ideas of morality and ethics.
The image of Jesus of Nazareth is clearly or invisibly present in all the writer’s works. Love for Christ as the meaning of life is the main motive in such works as the short story “Astrid” from the “Queens of Kungahella” series, in the book “Miracles of the Antichrist” and the two-volume novel “Jerusalem”. In Jesus Christ, Lagerlöf saw the central image of human history, its meaning and purpose.
“Legends of Christ” is one of the most important works of Selma Lagerlöf, written in a simple and accessible manner for children.
This cycle is important for understanding not only Lagerlöf’s entire work, but also the personality of the writer herself, for it is in “Legends of Christ” that the image of one of Lagerlöf’s most beloved people appears - her grandmother.
Little Selma, deprived of the opportunity to run and play with her peers, was always an enthusiastic listener to her grandmother's stories. The world of her childhood, despite the physical pain, was filled with light and love. It was a world of fairy tales and magic, in which people loved each other and tried to help their neighbors in trouble, lend a helping hand to the suffering and feed the hungry.
Selma Lagerlöf believed that you need to believe in God, honor and love Him, know His teachings about how to relate to the world and people in order to live holy, achieve salvation and eternal bliss. She was convinced that any Christian should know the Divine teaching about the origin of the world and man and what will happen to us after death. If a person does not know any of this, the writer believed, then his life is deprived of all meaning. One who does not know how to live and why one should live one way and not another is like one walking in darkness.
:star: What do you tell your children about the Nativity of Christ? Are they waiting for this day?
A short story Selma Lagerlöf, one of the most famous children's writers, "Holy Night" brings us to the essence of the holiday. But this is not the only good thing about the story. Selma Lagerlöf remembers her grandmother with warmth and trepidation. It was she who found the right words and told the girl the story of the birth of Christ.
We invite you to read the story with your children before going to bed. Perhaps they will remember this evening and in a few years they will tell their kids about Christmas with the same love.
***
:stars: When I was five years old, great grief befell me. I don’t know if I subsequently experienced greater grief than I did then.
My grandmother died. Until that time, every day she sat on the corner sofa in her room and told wonderful things.
I don’t remember any other grandmother than sitting on her sofa and telling stories from morning to night to us children, hiding and quietly sitting next to her; we were afraid to utter a single word from our grandmother’s stories. It was charming life! There were no children happier than us.
I vaguely remember the image of my grandmother. I remember that she had beautiful, chalk-white hair, that she was very hunched over and was constantly knitting her stocking.
I also remember that when my grandmother finished the story, she put her hand on my head and said:
“And all this is as true as the fact that I see you, and you see me.”
I remember that my grandmother knew how to sing beautiful songs; but my grandmother did not sing them every day. One of these songs talked about some knight and a sea maiden; there was a chorus to this song:
“How cold the wind blows, how cold the wind blows across the wide sea.”
I remember a little prayer that my grandmother taught me, and the verses of the psalm.
I have only a faint, unclear memory of all my grandmother’s stories. I remember only one of them so well that I can tell you. This - short story about the Nativity of Christ.
That's almost all that I remember about my grandmother; but what I remember best is the grief that overwhelmed me when she died.
I remember that morning when the corner sofa was empty and it was impossible to imagine how to spend a long day. I remember this well and will never forget.
We children were brought to say goodbye to the deceased. We were afraid to kiss a dead hand; but someone told us that this is the last time we can thank our grandmother for all the joys that she brought us.
I remember how the stories and songs left our house, nailed up in a long black coffin, and never returned.
I remember how something disappeared from life. It was as if the door had closed to a wonderful magical world, access to which we had previously been completely free to access. Since then, there has been no one who could open this door again.
I remember that we, children, had to learn to play with dolls and other toys, like all children play, and gradually we learned and got used to them.
It might seem that new amusements have replaced grandma for us, that we have forgotten her.
But even today, forty years later, while I am analyzing the stories about Christ that I collected and heard in a distant foreign country, a small story about the Nativity of Christ that I heard from my grandmother vividly appears in my memory. And I am pleased to tell it again and place it in my collection.
***
It was on Christmas Eve. Everyone went to church except grandma and me. I think we two were alone in the whole house; only my grandmother and I couldn’t go with everyone, because she was too old and I was too young. We were both sad that we wouldn't hear Christmas carols or see the sacred lights.
When we sat down, alone, on grandma’s sofa, grandma began to tell:
"One day late at night the man went to look for fire. He walked from one house to another and knocked;
- Good people“help me,” he said. “Give me hot coals to make a fire: I need to warm the newly born Baby and His Mother.”
The night was deep, all the people were sleeping, and no one answered him.
The man walked further and further. Finally he saw a light in the distance. He headed towards it and saw that it was a fire. Many white sheep lay around the fire; The sheep were sleeping, an old shepherd was guarding them.
A man seeking fire approached the herd; three huge dogs lying at the shepherd’s feet jumped up when they heard someone else’s steps; they opened their wide mouths as if they wanted to bark, but the sound of barking did not break the silence of the night. The man saw how the fur rose on the backs of the dogs, how sharp teeth of dazzling whiteness sparkled in the darkness, and the dogs rushed at him. One of them grabbed his leg, the other grabbed his arm, the third grabbed his throat; but the teeth and jaws did not obey the dogs, they could not bite the stranger and did not cause him the slightest harm.
A person wants to go to the fire to take some fire. But the sheep lay so close to one another that their backs were touching, and he could not go forward any further. Then the man climbed onto the backs of the animals and walked along them towards the fire. And not a single sheep woke up or moved.”
Until now, I had listened to my grandmother’s story without interrupting, but then I couldn’t resist asking:
- Why didn’t the sheep move? - I asked my grandmother.
“You’ll find out a little later,” answered the grandmother and continued the story:
“When the man approached the fire, a shepherd noticed him. He was an old, gloomy man who was cruel and harsh to all people. Seeing a stranger, he grabbed a long, pointed stick with which he was driving his herd, and threw it forcefully at the stranger. The stick flew straight at the man, but without touching him, it turned to the side and fell somewhere far away in the field.”
At this point I interrupted my grandmother again:
“Grandma, why didn’t the stick hit the man?” I asked; but my grandmother didn’t answer me and continued her story.
“The man approached the shepherd and said to him:
- Good friend! Help me, give me some fire.
A Baby has just been born; I need to make a fire to warm the Little One and His Mother.
The shepherd would most readily refuse a stranger. But when he remembered that the dogs could not bite this man, that the sheep did not scatter in front of him, and the stick did not hit him, as if it did not want to harm him, the shepherd felt terrible and he did not dare refuse the stranger’s request.
“Take as much as you need,” he told the man.
But the fire has almost gone out. The twigs and branches had long since burned away, only blood-red coals remained, and the man was thinking with care and bewilderment about how to bring the hot coals to him.
Noticing the stranger's difficulty, the shepherd repeated to him again:
- Take as much as you need!
He thought with gloating that man would not be able to take fire. But the stranger bent down, took hot coals from the ashes with his bare hands and put them in the hem of his cloak. And the coals not only did not burn his hands when he took them out, but did not burn his cloak either, and the stranger walked calmly back, as if in his cloak he was carrying not hot coals, but nuts or apples.”
Here again I could not resist asking:
- Grandmother! Why didn’t they burn the coals of the man and burn through his cloak?
“You’ll find out soon,” the grandmother answered and began to tell further.
“The old, gloomy, angry shepherd was amazed at everything he had to see.
“What kind of night is this,” he asked himself, “in which dogs don’t bite, sheep don’t get scared, sticks don’t hit and fire doesn’t burn?”
He called out to the stranger and asked him:
- What a wonderful night it is today? And why do animals and objects show you mercy?
“I can’t tell you this if you don’t see it yourself,” answered the stranger and went his way, hurrying to make a fire to warm the Mother and Baby.
But the shepherd did not want to lose sight of him until he knew what it all meant. He got up and followed the stranger, and reached his home.
Then the shepherd saw that this man lived not in a house or even in a hut, but in a cave under a rock; the walls of the cave were bare, made of stone, and a strong cold came from them. Here lay Mother and Child.
Although the shepherd was a callous, harsh man, he felt sorry for the innocent Baby who could freeze in the rocky cave, and the old man decided to help Him. He took the sack from his shoulder, untied it, took out a soft, warm, fluffy sheepskin, and handed it to the stranger to wrap the Baby in.
But at the same moment, when the shepherd showed that he too could be merciful, his eyes and ears were opened, and he saw what he could not see before, and heard what he could not hear before.
He saw that the cave was surrounded by many angels with silver wings and snow-white robes. They all hold harps in their hands and sing loudly, praising the Savior of the World born that night, who will free people from sin and death.
Then the shepherd understood why all the animals and objects that night were so kind and merciful that they did not want to harm anyone.
Angels were everywhere; they surrounded the Baby, sat on the mountain, soared under the skies. Everywhere there was rejoicing and fun, singing and music; dark night now sparkled with many heavenly lights, glowed bright light emanating from the dazzling robes of the angels. And the shepherd saw and heard all this on that wonderful night, and was so glad that his eyes and ears were opened that he fell to his knees and thanked God.”
Then the grandmother sighed and said:
“What the shepherd saw then, we could also see, because angels fly over the earth every Christmas night and praise the Savior, but if only we were worthy of it.”
And grandma put her hand on my head and said:
- Note to yourself that all this is as true as the fact that I see you, and you see me. Neither candles, nor lamps, nor the sun, nor the moon will help a person: only pure heart opens the eyes with which a person can enjoy seeing the beauty of heaven.
:black_nib: Selma Lagerlöf. Holy Night (from the collection “Legends of Christ”)
Selma Ottilie Lovesa Lagerlöf (1858-1940)
Selma Lagerlöf born 1858 in Sweden in a large family. Selma’s family belonged to the oldest noble family. Father girls - retired military man, mother- teacher.
Selma born with a wound on the hip. At three years old she paralyzed legs, and only at nine did she begin to move with difficulty around the estate and the surrounding area... When little Selma was broken at the age of three paralysis, These stories about her estate, which were told by her grandmother and father, became her life. At times the pain became so severe that even attempts to move her into the living room had to be abandoned. So she grew up separately from other children, and even the flight of a fly became an event for her. While sisters and brothers (in total in the family there were five children) frolicked on the street, she listened eagerly old tales or composed her own. Grandmother was the main person in her life.She often sat on her bed and weaved, like lace, stories about gnomes and elves inhabiting the surrounding area, about beautiful ladies and gentlemen of the past... Grandmother died when Selma was five years old, but her aunt moved to the estate - and the stories continued. The fairy tales remain, but the main thing has disappeared - the person. The fairy tale settled in her soul - and Selma will search for it all her life. TO nine years old when the girl was returned ability to move, she already knew for sure that she would become a writer.
Making incredible efforts, the future writer learned to walk again, leaning on a stick, which forever became her faithful companion. But despite this, it was now that the girl felt that Big world opened his doors for her.
However, surviving in a huge society turned out to be very difficult. Each movement required great physical effort, and the people around were sometimes hostile. But Selma Lagerlöf did not give up in the face of difficulties. This proves her perseverance, hard work and resilience.
WITH big world Selma will meet in eighteen years: Father finds out that there is a Gymnastics Institute, where - albeit without guarantees - but they will take treatment and rehabilitation his daughter. Oh, for Selma it was a time without a fairy tale - a time of reality. First encounter with the possibilities of progress. It was painful, almost unbearable. But a year later she left the institute on her own two feet. True, a “third” will forever be added to them - cane. At the lyceum they will tease her like that "three-legged". And also “old woman”.
With a large gap from peers in their Twenty-three years old Selma enters the Stockholm Lyceum. And a year later, in spite of all those who called her overgrown and crippled, the girl was enrolled in the Higher Royal Teachers' Seminary.
After successful studies Lagerlöf successfully finds my first job. This teacher position in a girls' school, located in a small town in southern Sweden. Extraordinary and educated, she quickly finds mutual language with your students. Her lessons are always interesting and exciting. Teacher Lagerlöf Selma does not force children to memorize familiar material, but turns lessons into entertaining performances. In such classes, numbers become not so boring, historical characters look like fairy-tale heroes, and geographical names are easier to remember in the form unusual places on maps of magical worlds.
However, in real life For a simple provincial teacher, not everything is so beautiful. After the death of the person closest to her - her father - Selma tries her best not to lose composure. But trouble does not come alone. After his father's death, the Morbakka family estate, which had belonged to the family since the 16th century, was sold at auction due to huge debts. And then zeal appeared through thick and thin save old ones family legends . This is what the purposeful and accustomed to difficulties Selma Lagerlöf decided for herself.
Every evening, secretly from everyone, the young teacher Lagerlöf writes her first novel "The Saga of Yeste Berling". The hero of the work is a traveler who, having visited an ancient estate, gets acquainted with its real inhabitants and their ancient legends. Many of Lagerlöf’s colleagues considered such creativity irrelevant in times of rapid development of science. Despite such unflattering remarks, the young teacher still decided to send her manuscript to a competition in a famous newspaper. Much to the surprise of those around her, it was Lagerlöf Selma who became the winner! Members of the competition jury noted the extraordinary creative fantasy writers. It is this fact that inspires the girl and helps her believe in her own strength.
Over the next fourteen years, Lagerlöf became widely known by the author historical novels . The success of her works helps the writer get royal scholarship. However, every girl’s victory is perceived in society more as luck than as a result hard work And great talent. It's not so easy to break old stereotypes that women can't be great writers.
The novels "Miracles of the Antichrist" and "Jerusalem" are becoming very popular in Sweden. Also, these works are imbued with deep religiosity, in which Selma Lagerlöf was brought up from childhood. “Holy Night”, “Baby of Bethlehem”, “Candle from the Holy Sepulcher” and other stories included in the collection “Legends of Christ” are clear confirmation of this.
Although Lagerlöf wrote many works, world fame It was the fairy tale “Nils’s Wonderful Journey with the Wild Geese” that brought her. Interestingly, it was originally conceived as tutorial for schoolchildren. In such a fun way, children had to study the geography and history of Sweden, its culture and traditions. However, the appearance of such a book helped the children not only improve their knowledge school curriculum, but also, together with the main character, learn to sympathize with the unfortunate and rejoice good times, protect the weak and help the poor. It became fashionable in the courtyards to play “goosenauts” - that’s how Nils was nicknamed. At the same time, Selma Lagerlöf felt great support from children, which could not be said about adults. Critics vied with each other to publish devastating articles sharply condemning the author. Despite all the ill-wishers, the book received recognition not only in the writer’s homeland, but throughout the world.
Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to receive one of the highest international awards in literature in 1909. “For noble idealism and wealth of imagination” the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize. The gold medal, diploma and cash check were presented to her by King Gustav V of Sweden himself. And this is not just an accident. After all, by this time Lagerlöf had already published more than thirty books and was loved far beyond the borders of her country. It should be noted that the most famous of her works was still the fairy tale about a boy who was able to see Sweden from a bird's eye view.
After receiving the Nobel Prize, Lagerlöf was able to buy out the family estate, in which she lived until the end of her days, because it was thanks to Morbakka that she had the idea of creating a fairy tale about Nils. Latest most large works Selma Lagerlöf's paintings were written from 1925 to 1928. These are three novels about the Levenskiolds - “The Levenskiold Ring”, “Anna Sverd” and “Charlotte Levenskiold”.
Even at an advanced age and suffering from a serious illness, Selma Lagerlöf could not remain aloof from the troubles that plagued Europe. IN war time between Finland and Soviet Union she gave me hers gold medal Swedish National Fund for Finland.
In the thirties, the storyteller repeatedly took part in saving writers and various cultural figures from Nazi persecution. Organized through her efforts charitable foundation saved many talented people from prison and death. These were the last good deeds of the writer.
IN March 1940 Selma Lagerlöf passed away.
