Walking along the waterfront in Landskrona, near the old citadel, you come across her: a small, energetic woman with short hair, wearing a long dress with a high-necked blouse, looking out over the water. She shields her eyes with her left hand and holds a book in her right, which seems less exciting to her than the view of the Öresund. Is she looking for wild geese? Is she enjoying the sunset? Or is she looking at the small Öresund island of Ven? Selma Lagerlöf lived in Landskrona for ten years and, as the story goes, often walked along here. Today, the Selma Lagerlöf Way leads from the center of Landskrona to her favorite place by the water.
Selma Lagerlöf is one of the best-known Swedish writers alongside Astrid Lindgren. In 1881, she defied her father’s wishes and moved to Stockholm to train as a primary school teacher at the Royal College of Teachers. Her father died in 1885, and in the same year she began teaching at a girls’ school in Landskrona.
Nobel Prize for Literature
From 1895, Selma Lagerlöf lived from her writing. She left Landskrona and devoted herself to writing. In 1907, the University of Uppsala awarded her an honorary doctorate. In 1909, she was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature and was admitted to the Swedish Academy in 1914. Lagerlöf was committed to women’s rights and pacifism. She fought for better working conditions and the right to vote for women. She led an independent life, never married and loved women. Her books depict Swedish landscapes and artfully interweave old sagas with the everyday life of her time. In the citation for the Nobel Prize for Literature, her imaginative stories and lively, modern language were praised.
Nils Holgersson and the bird’s eye view
Selma Lagerlöf wrote her best-known book in 1906: “The Wonderful Journey of Little Nils Holgersson with the Wild Geese”. The story is about a 14-year-old boy who is turned into an imp as punishment for his bad behavior towards animals and travels through Sweden with the wild geese. The Swedish Association of Primary School Teachers commissioned the book to be used as a reading book in schools. Similar to the fairy tale, many of her works begin with a departure and are conceived as a novel of development or a search for meaning. Little Nils Holgersson changes from a human to a bird’s eye view on the back of the wild geese. His journey with the wild geese through Sweden’s provinces paints an affectionate picture of the country at the beginning of the 20th century. The book has been published in 30 languages and has been made into several films.
Just before sunset, the wild geese fly into the shallow waters of the Öresund. Did Selma Lagerlöf watch them? Did she get the idea for the wonderful journey with the wild geese in Landskrona? During her time there, she traveled for the first time: to Copenhagen, to Visby on Gotland and even to Sicily. She later visited Cairo and Jerusalem.
The double Nils
In 1907, Selma Lagerlöf gave her famous novel character a foster son called Nils Holgersson. Due to the similarity of the name, it was probably considered a sign of fate to place the little boy in the care of the famous writer. She put a lot of effort into his upbringing. But her plans to turn the boy into a well-educated man and possible heir to her Måbacka estate in the province of Värmland came to nothing. No intellectual flight of fancy, no flight with a wild goose, but this Nils Holgersson still managed to fly high: he became a construction worker, emigrated to America and built skyscrapers in Chicago.
Selma Lagerlöf remained an important writer and political and humanitarian activist into old age. She donated her gold Nobel Prize medal to support the Finnish population during the Winter War in 1939. She helped German Jews to flee Nazi Germany, including the German-Swedish writer and later Nobel Prize winner Nelly Sachs. Selma Lagerlöf wrote not only novels throughout her life, but also short stories, tales and legends. Many of her works deal with social changes in the subtext and question traditional gender relations. She was therefore ahead of her time and is still considered a modern writer today.
The research was supported by Visit Landskrona
More Sweden Stories
Landskrona in the province of Skåne offers nature and culture. The world-famous writer Selma Lagerlöf wrote her first novel here. The Landskrona Photo Festival showcases the old fortress town every two years. Just opposite Landskrona is the Öresund island of Ven, a very popular excursion destination. The Stockholm Metro is considered the longest art exhibition in the world and every year in December is Nobel Prize Week. The Swedish city of Uppsala, 80 kilometres north of Stockholm, is one of the most important in the country. Many centuries before Stockholm was mentioned as a small trading post, Uppsala was the pagan centre of the Vikings. We report on cult and culture in Gamla-Uppsala and on the entertaining messages of the Swedish rune stones and reveal Stockholm’s secret eye-catchers.
