Something alive for the lame Peter (story)
Something alive for the lame Peter ( Swedish Nånting levande åt Lame-Kal ) is a story by Astrid Lindgren .
action
It's a week before Christmas Eve. Annastina and her little sister Stummelchen are longingly waiting for the Schnorrchen cat to have their young. They love cats. Only the sixteen-year-old Lahm Peter, who lives upstairs in the attic, likes cats better than the two of them. Peter fell ill as a small child and has had lame legs ever since. Annastina and Stummelchen often visit Peter to cheer him up while his mother goes cleaning. For Christmas Peter desires nothing more than something alive, an animal, but he has wished for it so often and never received one. Therefore, he has almost given up hope. Shortly afterwards, Schnorrchen had her young, who are called Sadrach, Mesach and Abednego.
Since Peter's mother also has to go cleaning on Christmas Eve, Peter himself is alone that evening. Annastina and Stummelchen come into the room and they carry Sadrach the kitten in their basket. They give these to Peter. This one is overjoyed and will never be lonely again.
Annastina's and Stummelchen's mother explains to the girls that they cannot have as many cats as they want. A little later, Mesach and Abednego are buried by the girls.
background
Astrid Lindgren published a similar story in 1940 in the magazine Mors hyllning . The story is called Också en Morsdagsgava ( Also a Mother's Day Gift ). Here the sisters Annastina and Lillstumpan want to give their mother a little cat for Mother's Day. They later give her the kitten Ab-nego. Peter doesn't even appear in the story.
The story of the lame Peter was first published in Sweden in 1950 in the short story collection Kajsa Kavat (1952, German collective August and other children ). Astrid Lindgren later read the Swedish audio book on the story herself. In the Swedish original, Stummelchen is called Lillstumpan. The names of the three kittens Sadrach, Mesach and Abednego (Swedish: Sadrak, Mesak and Ab-nego) come from the Old Testament .
filming
Magnus Nanne shot the eponymous film adaptation of the story in 1988.
Published in Germany in
- Collective August and other children, 1952, Verlag Friedrich Oetinger, Hamburg
- Astrid Lindgren tells, 1971, Verlag Friedrich Oetinger, Hamburg
- Stories, 1990, Verlag Friedrich Oetinger, Hamburg
- The Mirabell Doll and Other Stories, 2006, Verlag Friedrich Oetinger, Hamburg
- Stories and fairy tales, 2007, Verlag Friedrich Oetinger, Hamburg