Viktor Rydberg (1828–1895)

Viktor Rydberg, whose 1881 poem about a tomten on a remote Swedish farm - tomtes (known as nisse in Norway and Denmark) are diminutive dwarf or gnome-like beings from Scandinavian mythology, said to look after farms and farm-dwellers - was the inspiration for Astrid Lindgren's beloved picture-book, The Tomten, was also the author of a short story featuring a tomten, first published in 1871, in the pages of a local newspaper. Lille Viggs äventyr på julafton (literally, "Little Vigg's Adventures on Christmas Eve"), is adapted here by Linda M. Jennings, from a translation done by Lone Thygesen and George Blecher, and sets out the story of a young orphan named Vigg, who anxiously awaits the return of his adoptive parent, Mother Gertrude, one Christmas Eve. Watching at the window, Vigg is surprised to see a small sleigh, pulled by tiny horses, pulling up before his cottage, and even more surprised to find himself confronted with the Christmas Tomten, who invites him to join in a magical journey as he (the tomten) dispenses holiday gifts to both worthy and unworthy. Eventually finding their way to the Hall of the Mountain King, Vigg and the Christmas Tomten are witness to a yearly ritual, in which the world's good and evil deeds are balanced against one another, with the fate of the beautiful princess hanging in the balance. Will Vigg's thoughtless ingratitude, when offered a useful (rather than playful) gift tip the scales the wrong way? Or will Mother Gertrude's many kindnesses even things out...?

A sweet holiday tale, once which draws upon traditional Swedish folk beliefs, The Christmas Tomten is an interesting mix, to my way of thinking, of old-fashioned morality, and progressive optimism. On the one hand, you have the climactic judgment scene, with its explicitly didactic purpose of inculcating gratitude in young people, for the blessings they do enjoy - I was reminded of the conclusion of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, in which the heroine's eventual fate depends on children being good or bad - but on the other hand, you have the episode in which the Christmas Tomten convinces a runaway farm tomten to return to his post, despite the drunkenness of the father of the family, and the shrillness of its mother, holding out the hope that help (in the form of kindness and gifts) might change them for the better. The artwork, done by Harald Wiberg - whose other tomten-related titles include Astrid Lindgren's The Tomten and The Tomten and the Fox, as well as his own Christmas at the Tomten's Farm - is just lovely, as one would expect. I think that the scenes here are a little more colorful, than in some of Wiberg's other books, but that doesn't surprise, as so many of them are indoors, and feature a different kind of light, than the winter-night landscapes so common in the others. Recommended to all young tomten lovers, and to anyone who enjoys Wiberg's artwork!… (more)