My Heroines: Ronja rövardotter

In this third entry to My Heroines series, I stay in Astrid Lindgren's universe. I have a hard time not loving her books. They have meant so much to me since I was very little and Ronja rövardotter (Ronja the robber's daughter) (1981) and Madicken were both among the first books I read all by myself. Madicken has already got her own entry on this blog and this will focus on the character of Ronja.

Ronja is born in the Mattis castle a stormy night when the harpies (That is the translation I have seen for vildvittror.) roamed the sky. She is the daughter of the robber's cheif Mattis and his wife Lovis. Mattis loves his daughter right from the very beginning and is kind of over-protective, but at the age of about 11, Ronja is free to roam the Mattis forest around the castle on her own. He tells her to beware of certain things however and Ronja spends her day watching out for those things. She also meets a boy called Birk Borkason. He was born the same stormy night as herself in another robber's castle. As his name indicates, he is the son of Mattis's archenemy Borka. However, Ronja befriends him and the start playing together in the forest.

Skalle-Per: "Mitt hjärtas fröjd och glädje. Vart är du på väg?" ("My heart's delight and joy. Where are you going?")
Ronja: "Jag ska gå och akta mig för att trilla i älven." ("I am going to beware of falling into the river.")
Skalle-Per: "Och var ska du göra det då?" ("And where are you going to do that?")
Ronja: "Ja, jag måste ju göra det vid älven om det ska vara någon nytta med det." ("Well, I have to do it by the river if there will be any point to it.")

Vildvittror

Ronja is kind of a Romeo and Juliet type of story and can definitely be viewed as fantasy even adults can enjoy. Reading it now as an adult I did have a totally different view of the story's focus then I did as a child. When I was little I always saw Ronja and Birk friendship as the main focus, but nowadays I kind of think that it is more Ronja's relationship with her father that is most important.

Astrid Lindgren seldom wrote about "traditional" heterosexual love between an adult male and an adult female (There are exception for example in Samuel August i Sevedstorp och Hanna i Hult, which is a biographical story about her parents love.). It is obvious that Ronja and Birk love each other, but it is never openly addressed. They call each other sister and brother and their love seems to be totally asexual and there is never any pressure for them to marry. I think this is natural since they are both 11 and I have always had a hard time thinking many people (either boys and girls) think about getting married so early. I certainly did not. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, Ronja and Birk do not commit suicide. Instead they work together to make their fathers stop fighting.

"Du barn, i de där små händerna håller du redan mitt rövarhjärta. Jag begriper det inte, men så är det." ("You my child, you already hold my robber's heart in those small hand. I don't understand it, but it is the truth.")

~ Mattis

Mattis and Ronja

The lack of "traditional" heterosexual relationships in her stories, does not mean that they lack love all together. Quite the contrary! They are full of love. Lindgren's focus on the children means that the love she portrays is types that is closest to them: the love of a sibling or a parent (or parental figure). The latter is especially true in Ronja rövardotter and the love between Mattis and Ronja is probably one of the strongest in her authorship. It seems to be so strong that it physically hurts them from time to time and the most emotional parts of the story are about them and the love they share.

The fact that Mattis and to a somewhat lesser extent Lovis is fully fletched characters, important to the plot makes them quite unique in Lindgren's authorship. You can argue that the adults in Emil in Lönneberga and Madicken are ever present in the story, but not at all to the extent of Mattis and Lovis. In fact, most of the time the parents are put in the background even though it is evident that they do care and love their children.

"Ta av dej min skinnrem först", sa Ronja och reste sej. "Jag vill inte vara hopbunden med dej längre än nödvändigt." ("Take of my leather strap first", said Ronja and rose up. "I don't want to be tied to you longer than necessary.")
(---)
"Nej, det förstås", sa [Birk]. "Men efter det här är jag kanske bunden till dej ändå. Utan rem." ("No, of course", [Birk] said. "But after this I might be tied to you anyway. Without the strap.") 

The settings in Ronja are kind of characters in their own right. The Mattis castle is the first milieu we encounter as it is where Ronja grows up. Symbolically enough, it is split in two by the lightning the night she is born (as it turns out, Birk is also born that same stormy night), creating a deep gorge in between called Helvetetsgapet (the Gap of Hell). Ronja goes up to the top to "beware" of it (as Mattis has told her to) and meets Birk for the first time. He and the other Borka robbers have just moved into the part of the castle not occupied by the Mattis's robbers since the knights are after them in their own castle and forest. Ronja and Birk spend their first meeting jumping across the Gap of Hell and one of the foundation stones for their firendship is when Ronja saves Birk when he has fallen down into the gorge. Like her emotions throughout the book, she thinks that she will literally split in two.

The symbolically gap is also important when Mattis kidnaps Birk in a desperate way of trying to get Borka to leave the Mattis castle. Ronja becomes so angry with him, yelling that she has no objections to him stealing money and things, but he cannot steal humans. She then throws herself across the Gap of Hell, letting herself get caught by the Borka robbers. This is a huge betrayal to Mattis and when Borka says that they now can switch children, he gives Birk back, but tells him he does not have a child anymore. Up until this point the castle has provided Ronja with comfort, security and stability, but the quarell with her father takes all that away and Ronja feels entrapped. Therefore she flees out into the second important setting of the book: the Mattis forest.

Mattis and Ronja

The forest to Ronja is freedom. Mattis lets her loose on her own to roam free there and it is where she grows and develops into an independent and confident human being. It is also there she is free to elaborate her friendship with Birk, far away from their fighting fathers. After the kidnapping incident, Ronja and Birk set up camp in the bear cave in the forest, but with time it becomes evident that the danger of the forests prohibits Ronja to be fully happy. The winter is lurking around the corner and she needs the stability and comfort of the castle (and Mattis).

Rumpnissar

I have always loved Ronja. Like Madicken and most of the other Astrid girls, she is allowed to be independent, strong and confident. I think it is sad that most people consider Astrid Lindgren to be only a children's author. The books are still interesting for adults and can give them much better understandings of the world and themselves.

Mattis and a harpy

Fun fact: The costumes in the Swedish film from 1984 was inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry.
In the Swedish film, Ronja is played by Hanna Zetterberg.

Hermione Granger and the power of knowledge

You probably have seen a lot of memes on the Internet in the last couple of years. Often these are made to joke about or ridicule something. Some of them are really fun and clever and some of them just do not seem to understand the thing they are trying to ridicule. Like this Harry Potter one I came across awhile ago:

If you do not know who she is. The girl sitting on the books is Emma Watson who plays the part of Hermione Granger, one of the main characters in the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling.

In the third book: Prisoner of Azkaban, she has chosen so many subjects that she needs to time-travel to be able to get to all of her classes. Time-traveling always brings an ambivalence to stories because it gives the characters a tool to go back and remake everything. This fact has also become memes which say that someone could have gone back to save Harry's parents since Harry and Hermione could go back to save the hippogriff Buckbeak.

I will not go further into this here, but I have always tought about it like they created a parallel timeline in which they do things they had already done once. Why? Because they actually interact with themselves. Harry thinks he sees his father casting a patronus to save himself, Hermione and Sirius Black, but he really sees his future self casting it.

Now back to the meme above posted on Mugglenet's facebook page. I usually like the Mugglenet's indept analysis of the books and the films. Therefore I was a little surprised to see both the meme together with the comment "She still needs to sort out her priorities"a hint to a conversation between Ron and Hermione in the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

The standpoint does not surprise me. Our society today seems to have a huge disregard for knowledge and this is dangerous! Knowledge is actually a very powerful weapon against hate and ignorance. This is also one of the greater themes in the Harry Potter books, which is very clear if you bothered to read and reflect on them. Harry defeats the evil Lord Voldemort not because he is stronger or more powerful. He defeats him because he has taken the time to do research beforehand, This is what the 6th book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is all about! Him and Albus Dumbledore exploring where Voldemort comes from. This means he has gained knowledge that Voldemort is to insensitive (and egocentric) to care about. Harry has also reflected on this knowledge, which means he understands the situation (and who is the owner of the Elder Wand).

Unfortunatelly this theme has been reduced to barely nothing in the films and the 6th film is more devoted to the "love square" Harry-Hermione-Ron-Lavender which I have long wonder if it is an influence from the Twilight films that were released at the same time.

Harry Potter are really smart books and they have a lot to teach us if we really reflect on what they want to get across to us. Hermione is also one of the best role models for young people of both genders. She is often seen as nerdy and a little weird because she wants to spend so much time studying, but I think it is so great to see a female character interested in gaining knowledge more or less just because she thinks it is fun to learn! She is not portrayed as a geek everyone wants to bully either but a multifaceted character who sometimes is downright cool! She also uses her knowledge and understanding to her great advantage. I think it is great that Albus Dumbledore and McGonagall goes to such length to encourage her throughout the books.