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Astrid Lindgren

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Astrid Lindgren.jpg

Astrid Lindgren (14 November 190728 January 2002) was a Swedish author and screenwriter.

Lindgren wrote three children's books in the genre of fantasy: Mio, min Mio (1954; Mio, my Son), Bröderna Lejonhjärta (1973; The Brothers Lionheart), and Ronja Rövardotter (1981; Ronia the Robber's Daughter). The first two novels might be caracterized as stories of fantasy reminiscent of The Hobbit, where the heroes return home after a perilous adventure. And the latter, Ronia the Robber's Daughter, has been described as a work reminding of the genre High fantasy.[1]

In the late 1940s, when J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was translated to Swedish as Hompen, Lindgren was responsible for the department of Children's literature at Rabén & Sjögren (the publishers of the translation).[2]

However, apparently the works of Tolkien did not have a direct influence on Lindgren's own works. While she has been attributed saying that Tolkien had a great impact on her work[3], other informed sources claim that Lindgren in several interviews denied any influence by Tolkien and that she had not even read The Lord of the Rings[2].

External links


  1. Johan Sandberg, "Svensk fantasy svälter" ("Swedish Fantasy is Starving") in Tolkiens Arda, issue 14, 2003.
  2. 2.0 2.1 The committee for the Astrid Lindgren Society (Astrid Lindgren-sällskapet), through Lena Törnqvist (librarian and responsible for the Astrid Lindgren Archive at the National Library of Sweden); private correspondance as of 6 August 2010
  3. Lars-Terje Lysemose, "On the founding of Imladris", in Athelas (the English annual), 1994.