Liljecrona's home
Liljecronas Heimat (original title: Liljecronas hem , literally: Liljecronas Heim) is a novel by the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf . The novel was published in 1911 and is about a young girl who has to suffer from a wicked stepmother and who, through her love, redeems a sad young man, namely the eponymous hero.
action
On Boxing Day 1800 , thirteen-year-old Eleonora, known as Lilljänta (little girl), started her job at the Lövdala rectory in the Swedish province of Värmland . Pastor Erik Lyselius lives there with his seventeen year old daughter Maja Lisa. Her mother died when Maja Lisas was born. Past summer Pastor Lyselius married again, Anna Maria Raklitz, daughter of a German trumpeter.
Lilljänta soon realizes that her stepmother Maja hates and bullies Lisa. Maja Lisa confesses that she herself got to know the evil in her own soul when she abused her stepmother. Concerned for her father's health, however, she cannot confide to him how much she suffers from her stepmother.
One day Maja Lisa meets the smith of the Henriksberg estate. She is immediately drawn to him, but notices that there is something dark and melancholy about him. Shortly afterwards, Maja Lisa and Lilljänta visit an aunt. Here she meets pastor Liljecrona, who tells her about his brother Sven Liljecrona: He is the manager of the Henriksberg estate, but his whole passion is playing the violin. When Sven Liljecrona once played so gorgeous that his fiancée fell dead while dancing, he became melancholy and has not touched a violin since. Shortly afterwards, Sven Liljecrona also arrives at Maja Lisa's aunt: It is the same man who once pretended to be the blacksmith of Henriksberg.
Maja Lisa's stepmother threads an underhand intrigue against Maja Lisa with the help of an anonymous letter, which almost led to Maja Lisa being rejected by her father. But Lilljänta can bring the truth to light at the last second. Maja Lisa and her father are reconciled, the angry stepmother disappears and never returns.
At a meeting Maja Lisa realizes that she loves Sven Liljecrona. But shortly afterwards her father dies. The morning after his death, Maja Lisa hears a desperate and terrifying violin playing in front of her window. Sven Liljecrona made it through to play for her. But while playing, all of his despair and sadness broke through again. He warns Maja Lisa: He is a melancholy person who is unbearable. But then Maja Lisa realizes how she can help him: Liljecrona needs a home. What her beloved Lövdala is to her, music is to Liljecrona. She asks Liljecrona to play again. And now love breaks through with Liljecrona's violin playing. Maja Lisa's love healed Liljecrona.
meaning
Liljecronas hem ties in with Gösta Berling , Selma Lagerlöf's first novel, in many ways : Liljecronas hem is set in the same landscape as Gösta Berling , many places and people known from Gösta Berling appear again. This applies in particular to the title hero, Sven Liljecrona, who appeared in Gösta Berling . In Gösta Berling there is even a chapter called Liljecronas hem . The novel dealt with here is, as it were, the prehistory of this chapter. Liljecrona's engagement is dealt with in the novel Liljecronas hem , while in Gösta Berling Liljecrona appears as a married family man.
In the novel, Selma Lagerlöf essentially describes real people and events: Sven Liljecrona was modeled on Selma Lagerlöf's paternal grandfather Daniel Lagerlöf, regimental clerk, estate manager and passionate violin player. (He should not be confused with Lieutenant Erik Liljecrona from The Emperor of Portugal , who is modeled on Selma Lagerlöf's father.) Maja Lisa's father bears some features of Selma Lagerlöf's own father, in Maja Lisa Selma Lagerlöf portrays her paternal grandmother Lisa Maja Lagerlöf, née Wennerwik, the Lövdala rectory is a reflection of Mårbacka , the estate of Selma Lagerlöf's family, which actually used to be the rectory, and in the relationship between Maja Lisa and the younger, loyal Lilljänta, Lilljänta is something of Selma Lagerlöf's relationship with her younger sister Finding Gerda.
In terms of tone and subject matter, Liljecronas hem is of course very different from Gösta Berling . The exuberant, pathetic tone has given way to a more sober language, and instead of romantic adventures and fantastic legends, Liljecronas hem offers a factual and vivid description of the life of the farmers in Värmland. (The pastor Lyselius also has to do agriculture in order to make a living, just like Selma Lagerlöf's ancestors.) Selma Lagerlöf's aim has always been to describe the way of life on her parents' estate and in her homeland, and thereby preserve it for future generations . Liljecronas hem is part of this project.
First and foremost, Liljecronas hem is about the happiness and security that a home provides. Selma Lagerlöf herself had such a home in her parents' Mårbacka, and Maja Lisa, after almost losing her home to her wicked stepmother, provides such a home for her beloved Liljecrona and thereby heals him. The victory of love over the dark and the evil: the central theme for Selma Lagerlöf and especially in Liljecronas hem .
In the first part of her autobiography, Mårbacka , published in 1922, Selma Lagerlöf tells the story of her paternal grandparents again, albeit much shorter and now with the real names. It can be seen that she has changed very little in Liljecronas hem (the most important difference is that Ms. Raklitz did not actually disappear, but lived a long time and became reconciled with Maja Lisa), but that Selma Lagerlöf often does things in the novel has literarily pointed.
literature
- Vivi Edström, Selma Lagerlöf , Stockholm 1991
- Rejo Rüster and Lars Westmann, Selma på Mårbacka , Stockholm 1996