The Brothers Lionheart
Astrid Lindgren
 9 year old Karl Lejon has found out that he is going to die. His adored big brother, 13 year old Jonatan, calms him down and starts telling him about life after death. In the afterlife, all men will go to a land on the other side of the stars, known as Nangijala, where they're still in "the campfires and storytelling times". But Karl is not happy; it could still be over 90 years until Jonatan joins him there. Jonatan assures Karl that time is different in Nangijala and that 90 years will only feel like a few days to Karl. Some time later a fire spreads throughout their home. Jonatan rescues his little brother by carrying him on his back and jumping out the window, but is fatally injured in the fall. During Jonathan's funeral, the priest saints him "Jonathan Lionheart" to tribute his courageous act. Karl is left alone, and starts to wonder if the story about Nangijala is really true. A white pigeon appears one night on his window sill, and Karl interprets it as a confirmation that it is. Two months after his brother Jonatan, Karl dies of his illness. Right before he dies, he leaves a message for his mother: "Don't cry mother, we'll see each other again in Nangijala". Immediately after his death he finds himself standing outside a small cottage. He is no longer sick, and runs down to a river, where his brother is sitting and fishing. Jonatan tells him that they will be living at the Riders farm in the Cherry Valley. They each have a horse, Grim and Fjalar, and a short time of peace and joy follows, with fast riding and discovery expeditions. They have finally come to Nangijala, a land which seems to be remicent of the earlier Swedish Middle Ages. Karl meets Sofia, whose rose garden Jonatan tends. He is gradually informed that there are problems even in Nangijala. On the other side of the mountains lies Törnrosdalen (the Thorn Rose Valley) which has been occupied by the evil Tengil, who has descended from the country of Karmanjaka with his men and built a wall around it. He has enslaved the original inhabitants. With the dragon Katla at his service, he appears unbeatable. Jonatan does not wish to tell Karl about Katla, since he fears knowledge of her would frighten Karl. The people of the Cherry Valley, led by Sofia, help the resistance movement in the Thorn Rose Valley, but they know a traitor exists in the village. Someone from the Cherry Valley is helping Tengil, as Sofia's white doves, which fly with secret messages between the valleys, are being shot down with a bow and arrow. One day Jonatan leaves for the Thorn Rose Valley, where the resistance leader Orvar has been arrested and sits in custody in the Katla cave. His sense of duty makes him go, igoring the dangers. Karl is left alone, and after a few days he attempts to follow his brother. One night he hides in a cave, and later. two of Tengil's men wait outside it to meet the traitor, who turns out to be Jossi the tavernkeeper and not Hubert, as Karl had expected due to his shrewd and open contempt for Sofia and his skills as a marksman. Jossi is branded with the "Katla mark" on his chest to demonstrate his allegiance. In the morning, Karl is discovered by the two soldiers. They are suspicious and bring him to the Thorn Rose Valley. Karl tells them he lives with his grandfather, and the soldiers demand that he show them his house and his grandfather. Luckily an old man is standing outside a small house with a white dove, and Karl throws himself into the old man's arms. The soldiers are satisfied. The old man, Mattias, is also part of the resistance movement, and inside the house Karl finds Jonatan asleep. A happy reunion ensues when the two brothers meet again. Mattias' house lies right next to the high wall, and there are constantly guards from Tengil snooping around to see if someone is doing something forbidden, with capital punishment for a wide range of offenses, including keeping weapons and traveling outside after dark. Jonatan is digging an underground tunnel which will go from Mattias' house, under the high wall and end in a forest on the inside. When Tengil himself shows up in the Thorn Rose Valley, everyone has gathered in the square. He is dressed in black, rides on a black horse and looks cruel. All the men in the village have to get in a line and Tengil picks out the ones who will be brought to Karmanjaka as slaves to build his impenetrable fort, on which they will work until they are too weak and then they are given to Katla. A married man who is chosen protests and publicly denounces Tengil, claims that he will die as well and spits on him. The man is quickly subdued and executed on the spot. Jonatan has almost completed the underground tunnel. The brothers manage to escape the valley. As they stop to bathe in the river, they must hide from groups of soldiers. One of the soldiers rides out into the fast-flowing river to show his bravery, but almost drowns. Jonatan shows empathy with the enemy soldier by saving him and his horse from drowning. When they sit down to camp at the Karma Falls, Karl gets to see Katla - who turns out to be a firebreathing female dragon - for the first time, the dragon that Tengil uses to terrorize and control the people. Tengil controls Katla with the help of a trumpet, which he called to rally more men to his defence when Katla woke from a near-eternal sleep and entered his castle. The next day the brothers cross the river, using the suspension bridge that connects the Thorn Rose Valley from Karmanjaka. The entrance to the Katla cave is guarded by Tengil's soldiers, but Jonatan manages to find a second entrance. Deep in the mountain they arrive at the Katla cave where Orvar is kept. They manage to release Orvar from his wooden cage moments before he is to be collected and fed to Katla, and their escape is soon discovered. They ride back as fast as they can towards the Karma Falls and the bridge, but the pursuing soldiers start overtaking Karl and Jonatan, who are both riding on Grim. Karl throws himself off the horse and hides in a ditch so that Jonatan and Orvar can escape and start planning the rebellion. When the pursuing soldiers have gone away, Karl moves on to the place where they went swimming, and hides in a tree. At dusk three familiar people show up: Sofia, Hubert and the traitor Jossi. When Karl tells Sofia that Jossi is the traitor, she gets angry. Once Jossi's shirt is forced off, and everyone can see the branding on his chest, they understand. Desperate, Jossi escapes by throwing himself into a small boat, but the current catches him and takes him to certain death in the waterfall, upon which Karl cannot resist crying despite his treason. Shortly thereafter, the people of the Thorn Rose Valley rise up against Tengil and his men, and Jonatan reluctantly agrees to join the fighting despite his pledge never to take a life, even if it ment the loss of his own. Orvar mocks him, claiming that if everyone were like him evil would prevail forever, but Karl points out that if everyone were like Jonatan, evil would not exist. The battle commences and claims the lives of Veder, Kader, Mattias, Hubert and many others, before Tengil shows up with Katla, who he (being ignorant of the rebellion until this point) brought to punish the people of Thorn Rose Valley. All seems lost, but Jonatan manages to attack Tengil himself and pull the horn out of his hands. As Katla no longer fears Tengil, the dragon instead attacks him and his men, and finally kills the tyrant. Having turned the tide of the battle in favour of the liberators, Katla comes under the tenuous control of Jonatan. Once the fight is won, Orvar asks Jonatan to bring Katla back to the Katla cave, and vows to kill her himself when starvation has weakened her enough to be approached safely. When Jonatan and Karl rides over the suspension bridge, their horse Grim gets frightened and Jonatan drops the trumpet down into the river. Katla then chases them up the mountain. They finally hide high up on a cliff where Jonatan pushes a big rock down on Katla. Katla falls backwards into the river, and a fight breaks out between Katla and the (male) lindworm Karm. The two beasts, who have been waiting for this battle since the beginning of times, savagely kill each other. Jonatan and Karl set up a camp and Jonatan explains that during the fight he was burned by Katla's fire, and that he will soon become totally paralysed. Jonatan tells Karl about the land that lies after Nangijala called Nangilima, a land of light where there are only happy adventures. Karl does not want to be separated again from his brother so he carries him on his back to a cliffdrop and they jump together. Karl's last words while falling are: "Oh, Nangilima! Yes, Jonatan, yes - I see the light! I see the light!"