Is it not a universal habit of tyrants that they proclaim themselves liberators? From what, I would like to ask: from freedom of movement? Freedom of choice? Peace? I still feel a shiver down my spine when I think of the boys sneaking in behind enemy lines, using the password:Īll makt åt Tengil, vår befriare!" "All power to Tengil, our liberator!" Nobody will be surprised to hear that the novel was published at the height of the Cold War. So far, so kitsch.īut of course Nangijala is a dark place as well, with a village behind a wall, reigned by the evil Tengil and his soldiers, supported by a superpower weapon, a dragon called Katla. And shortly afterwards, the boys reunite in the wonderful fairytale world of Nangijala. Things develop differently, however, and Jonathan dies himself, trying to save his brother from a fire. Devastated, he confides in his older brother Jonathan, who reassures him that there is a wonderful adventurous life after death, in Nangijala, and that he will just be waiting there until Jonathan joins him. The first chapter is of the kind that makes you cry helplessly: a poor boy with a deadly illness, probably tuberculosis, overhears his mother talking about his expected death. What remains with me are two things: the power of storytelling to make life bearable, and the recurring pattern of human society, regardless of plot, setting, characters and purpose of the story. And I have read quite a few reflections on the book, as well - mostly discussions about whether or not she was right to break the taboo of death in a children's adventure book. I have watched the film, listened to the magical audiobook in which Astrid Lindgren herself reads the story, in that slow, humoristic voice of hers, indicating her Småland dialect ever so little. I must have read it about ten times by now, several times as a child, and several times with my own children, and students. For all those times, Astrid Lindgren wrote The Brothers Lionheart. There are times when you wish you would not have to face what is actually happening.
There are times when reality is hard to bear!
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