Michel from Lönneberga
Michel from Lönneberga ( Swedish Emil i Lönneberga ) is a children's book fictional character by Astrid Lindgren . The stories about his person were published from 1963 and filmed in the early 1970s. In book form, as a radio play, as a television series and through three feature films, they became classics of children's and family entertainment across Europe. The German translations of the Michel stories are by Karl Kurt Peters , Anna-Liese Kornitzky and Senta Kapoun . The novels have been translated into 52 languages. More than 30 million books have been sold worldwide.
In the Swedish original, the figure Michel is named Emil . The name was changed in German to avoid confusion with the children's book character Emil Tischbein from Emil und die Detektiven and Emil and the three twins by Erich Kästner .
content
Michel Svensson lives at the end of the 19th century or the beginning of the 20th century (see also the section "Narrated times" below) on the Katthult farm in the village of Lönneberga in Småland in Sweden together with father Anton, mother Alma, his sister Klein-Ida, the servant Alfred and the maid Lina. There and all over Småland, Michel gains a reputation for constantly doing all sorts of mischief .
Whenever Michel has done something, he is locked in the carpenter's shed or escapes into it himself, where he then carves little wooden men out of boredom. Since he does a lot of jokes, a considerable collection of wooden men emerges over time.
Some of Michel's mishaps are mistakenly interpreted as insidious pranks by the adults, just because the consequences are associated with a great deal of inconvenience for the parents and the residents of Lönneberga. For example, Michel accidentally swallows a coin or falls from stilts through a window into a bowl of blueberry soup , he sets up a mousetrap that his father steps into, or he ignorantly locks his father in the toilet block.
On the other hand, Michel is very helpful and kind. For example, he tries in many ways to pull a tooth from the maid Lina or he invites the people from the poor house to a festive dinner on Christmas Day. Michel receives special recognition when he takes the seriously ill servant Alfred alone in the horse-drawn sleigh to the doctor in Mariannelund in the worst snowstorm and thus saves Alfred from the fatal outcome of severe blood poisoning .
characters
Astrid Lindgren chooses the perspective of an authorial narrator for the Michel novels , who uses the alleged records of Michel's mother as a source. This doubling of perspective creates the possibility of switching between simply retelling the original (the mother's notes) and interspersed comments by the narrator.
It can also be seen that Astrid Lindgren poses the figures very differently: While people like the maid Lina and, to a large extent, the father are portrayed in their actions in a predictable and stereotypical manner, she is particularly interested in a highly differentiated representation with Michel as the main character.
The relationship with the father and the potential for conflict lying dormant in it are an essential drive for many of the situations told. Occasionally - especially clearly at the end of the chapter on the auction in Backhorva - it becomes apparent that Astrid Lindgren modeled the relationship between Michel and his father according to the classic model of the conflict between a young genius and an old master.
Told time
The portrayal of details of rural life and the absence of motorized vehicles suggest that the history should be placed at the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th century.
This temporal classification can be concretized using two real events that went into the Michel stories:
- Towards the end of the first volume, the villagers collect money for Michel's parents and want to get the parents to "send him to America" because they see him doing too much mischief. The motif is taken up at the beginning of the second volume by the maid Lina. She argues against such a deportation to the USA: She read about the great earthquake over in America in the “Vimmerby Post”, and both together - that is, Michel and an earthquake - cannot be expected of the Americans. This note most likely relates to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake .
- Another story in the second volume (dated October 31st) takes place in the Vimmerby market. Its visitors are afraid of the coming of a large comet, which is rumored to hit the earth and cause the end of the world. The mood portrayed in this story pretty much hits the real doomsday fear that prevailed in many parts of the world before the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1910.
Furthermore, the author stated in an interview at the turn of the millennium that she reproduced the atmosphere of her own happy childhood in rural Vimmerby in Michel ; Astrid Lindgren was born in 1907.
However, Lindgren said in another interview that the world Michel lived in was only similar to her own childhood, but exactly like the world her father lived in when he was little. Lindgren's father was born in 1875.
Therefore, both the childhood of the father and her own childhood were considered the basis for the Michel novels, which makes an exact chronological classification of the stories hardly possible.
background
Michel from Lönneberga was born when Lindgren was watching her three-year-old grandson, who was screaming with all his might. Astrid Lindgren asked the boy if he knew what Michel had done one day. Since the boy wanted to know this, he had to be quiet and listen. So it happened that Lindgren kept telling the boy about Michel and later wrote the stories down.
According to Astrid Lindgren, her father, Samuel August Ericsson, used to be just like Michel. Ericsson told Lindgren about his experiences in Småland, many of which Lindgren incorporated into her stories. So one day the pastor comes to Katthult. The servants and maidservants must have a good knowledge of the Bible. However, the maid Lina fails when she answers the question about the first people with Thor and Freya . Ericsson had told his daughter about just such a survey, in which the maid replied the same as Lina.
Books
From 1963 a large number of different media with the stories of Michel from Lönneberga appeared. The most important publications for the German-speaking area are listed below.
Novels
- Michel in the soup bowl . Original title: Emil i Lönneberga, Stockholm 1963, illustrations by Björn Berg; in German by Verlag Friedrich Oetinger in Hamburg 1964, translation: Karl Kurt Peters, cover and illustrations by Rolf Rettich.
- Michel has to make more males . Original title: Nya hyss av Emil i Lönneberga, Stockholm 1966, illustrations by Björn Berg; in German published by Friedrich Oetinger in Hamburg 1966, translation: Karl Kurt Peters, cover and illustrations by Rolf Rettich.
- Michel puts the world in order . Original title: Än lever Emil i Lönneberga, Stockholm 1970, illustrations by Björn Berg; in German published by Friedrich Oetinger in Hamburg 1970, translation: Karl Kurt Peters, cover and illustrations by Rolf Rettich.
The three novels are also available as a complete edition with the title Always this Michel ( Stora Emilboken , 1972).
Short stories and picture books
The following new short stories were later published:
- When little Ida wanted to do mischief once ( När lilla Ida skulle göra hyss , 1984)
- Michel's nonsense number 325 ( Emils hyss nr 325 , 1985)
- Just don't skimp, said Michel from Lönneberga ( Inget knussel, see Emil i Lönneberga , 1986)
These three stories are also contained in the anthology Michel and Klein-Ida from Lönneberga ( Ida och Emil i Lönneberga , 1989).
Four picture book editions of the most famous Michel stories with drawings by Björn Berg have also been published so far :
- Michel from Lönneberga ( Den där Emil , 1972)
- More from Michel from Lönneberga ( När Emil skulle dra ut Linas tand , 1976)
- The day Michel wanted to be especially nice ( Emil med paltsmeten , 1995)
- When Michel put his head in the soup bowl ( Emil och soppskålen , 1996)
The four picture books are summarized in the book The large picture book by Michel from Lönneberga .
Audio books
- Michel in the soup bowl , read by Ursula Illert. 2 CDs. Oetinger Audio. Unabridged reading. ISBN 9783837309591
- Michel has to make more males , read by Ursula Illert. 2 CDs. Oetinger Audio. Unabridged reading. ISBN 9783837309911
- Michel puts the world in order , read by Ursula Illert. 3 CDs. Oetinger Audio. Unabridged reading. ISBN 9783837310146
- Michel's nonsense number 325 , read by Manfred Steffen. 1 CD. Oetinger Audio. Reading. ISBN 9783837302165
Radio plays
Two episodes of Michel from Lönneberga appeared as a radio play. The two episodes Always this Michel and Michel must make more males date from 1986 and were delivered on compact cassette .
In the Swiss version of the radio play Immer dä Michel , Michel's stories have been adapted to local circumstances: his name was changed to Michel vo der Schwand and the stories were transferred to Entlebuch . The radio play director Geri Dillier was responsible for the transmission in dialect , while the narrator is Emil Steinberger . The children's radio play was released in 1998/99 on the three cassettes or compact discs De Michel i de Suppeschüssle , E Sougschicht and Es bsunders Fäscht .
Film adaptations
- 1971: Always this Michel 1. - Michel in the soup bowl
- 1972: Always this Michel 2. - Michel has to make more men
- 1973: Always this Michel 3. - Michel puts the world in order
Jan Ohlsson plays Michel in all of the above films . The shooting took place in Gibberyd , a place in Rumskulla , in the parish of Vimmerby .
- 1985: Emīla nedarbi, Latvia, director: Varis Brasla
- 2013: Michel & Ida from Lönneberga , Sweden, directed by Alicja Jaworski and Lasse Persson Per Åhlin
Television series
In 1973, the German-Swedish series version of the films was made under the name of Michel from Lönneberga .
Web links and sources
- When Pippi with Michel ...
- Astrid Lindgren website from Oetinger Verlag
- More details about the books
- Information about the Katthult farm
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Swedish children's book hero Michel from Lönneberga is 50 ; in: Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung from May 24, 2013
- ↑ The story behind the Michel from Lönneberga. .
- ↑ Why Michel is called Emil in Lönneberga. .
- ↑ Waldemar Bergendahl (producer) and Roland Skogfeld & Per Olof Ohlsson (camera): Astrid Lindgren tells from her life . (Film) In: Astrid Lindgren's 100 Years Anniversary Edition. DVD. Universe movie.