«History of Education & Children’s Literature», X, 1 (2015), pp. 299-316 ISSN 1971-1093 (print) / ISSN 1971-1131 (online) © 2015 eum (Edizioni Università di Macerata, Italy)

Technology and the shaping of a Swedish national identity in the educational work of Selma Lagerlöf, 1900-1907 Cecilia Axell Department of Social and Welfare Studies, Linköping University (Sweden) [email protected] Jonas Hallström Department of Social and Welfare Studies, Linköping University (Sweden) [email protected]

ABSTRACT: In the early 1900s Sweden saw an unprecedented societal transformation through ongoing industrialisation, urbanisation, democratisation and new technologies. In 1906-1907 the celebrated Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf published a book subsequently read by thousands of elementary school children, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. Although Lagerlöf’s book was mainly seen as a novel, she was commissioned to write it as a textbook in geography for the Swedish elementary school. One of the aims on the part of the commissioner – the Swedish Association of Elementary School Teachers – was for the book to induce Swedish nationalist sentiment and boost the feeling of a national identity in schoolchildren. The aim of this study is to describe and analyse how various representations of technology were utilised to create the sense of a Swedish national identity in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. A hermeneutic method is employed to analyse the book in relation to the historical context of early 20th century Sweden. It is concluded that technology and human settlements are natural elements of the various landscapes of Sweden, thereby making them as much a part of building a national identity around the physical environment as woods, plains, lakes, animals and plants. The message of the book seems to be that technology is interwoven with society and nature in the formation of modern Sweden. It is impossible to describe the nation and impart nationalism in children without also incorporating technology; it is a human creation and as much a force in shaping the nation as other human endeavours and nature. EET-TEE KEYWORDS: Children’s Books; History of Education; Nationalization; Science and Technology; Selma Lagerlöf, Sweden; XX Century.

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Introduction Industrialisation came relatively late to Sweden, compared to the rest of Europe and North America. It was not until the 1890s that the agricultural population began decreasing in absolute numbers, and consequently this decade is generally seen as the breakthrough for industrialisation1. The industrial breakthrough meant a much more increased pace of growth in the whole Swedish economy, as well as a marked expansion of the industrial sector’s share of the economy2. The process of industrialisation was coupled with an optimistic faith in modern technology and economic development3, which led to a radical restructuring of the nation of Sweden on various levels. The share of people living off agriculture thus decreased, which was caused not only by the technical development within agriculture itself but also by people switching to other trades as well as emigration to America, which amounted to over one million people between 1850 and 19204. New communications technologies connected cities and regions and thereby people in various parts of Sweden. Through railways it became easier to travel and transport goods, at the same time as the building of railroads also gave people work. Rails were also often laid through the unexploited countryside, which led to the establishing of new towns in conjunction with the erection of new railway stations5. Nationalism became an important factor in the development of Swedish society around 1900. Apart from the contribution of the emerging industrialism, the dissolution of the 90-year-old union with Norway in 1905 also contributed to nationalist sentiment. Nationalism evolved into an ideological force meant to unite the people of the nation of Sweden into a community of countrymen within the country’s borders. Institutions such as the school, the army and the media had as their primary mission to homogenise the nation; Swedish nature 1 U. Olsson, Industrilandet, in B. Furuhagen (ed.), Äventyret Sverige. En ekonomisk och social historia, Utbildningsradion & Bokförlaget Bra Böcker, Stockholm, 1993, p. 61; J. Svensson, S. Godlund, K. Godlund, Norrköpings ekonomiska och sociala historia 1870-1914, in B. Helmfrid, S. Kraft (edd.), Norrköpings historia V. Tiden 1870-1914, Norrköpings stads historiekommitté, Stockholm, 1972, p. 180. The research on which this article is based has also partly provided material for C. Axell, J. Hallström, Representations of Technology in Educational Children’s Fiction in Sweden in the Early 20th Century: The Example of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, in K. Stables, C. Benson, M.J. de Vries (edd.), PATT 25: Cript 8: Perspectives on Learning in Design & Technology Education, Goldsmiths, University of London, London 2011. 2 L. Magnusson, Sveriges ekonomiska historia, Stockholm, Rabén Prisma-Tiden Athena, 1996, pp. 301-302. 3 T. Frängsmyr, Svensk idéhistoria: bildning och vetenskap under tusen år. D. 2, 1809-2000, Stockholm, Natur och Kultur, 2000, p. 102. 4 M. Morell, Jordbruket och industriomvandlingen, in E. Giertz (ed.), Då förändras Sverige: 25 experter beskriver drivkrafter bakom utvecklingen, Studentlitteratur, Lund, 2008, p. 34; A. Åberg, Vår svenska historia, Stockholm, Natur och Kultur, 1993, pp. 419-432. 5 Frängsmyr, Svensk idéhistoria: bildning och vetenskap under tusen år. D. 2, 1809-2000, cit., pp. 102-103.

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played a particularly significant role in this unifying of the nation6. Furthermore, the early 20th century was in many ways formative in the sense that there was also an increased spread and use of technology in society7. An investigation of educational children’s literature can be seen as an important approach to the responses of the current culture in general and the school in particular to the role of technology in underpinning nationalist sentiment. Children’s literature has sometimes been regarded as uninteresting in cultural history due to its ‘simplicity’ and low status. Hintz, on the other hand, claims that it is precisely because of this that children’s fiction should be the object of historical and cultural studies. According to Hintz, the implicit norms and values of a society at a particular historical moment are often hidden in the more sophisticated adult texts, but explicitly expressed in texts for children. Therefore, it is just the simplicity and overly educational message that most clearly reflect the prevailing culture8. Even Kelly points to the significance of children’s literature in the study of attitudes, since literature contributes to the child’s socialisation and adaptation to society9. The aim of this study, therefore, is to describe and analyse how various representations of technology were utilised to create the sense of a Swedish national identity in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. This was Selma Lagerlöf’s sole, influential work of educational children’s fiction10. The reason for selecting this book is its nationalist content and the fact that it was selected to be part of a body of literature for the Swedish elementary school in the early 1900s. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils consequently constitutes a lens through which various early 20th century views of nationalism, education and the role of technology can be studied, for it was written for schoolchildren of the time and was subsequently read by the thousands in early to mid-twentieth century Swedish schools. The primary source material is consequently made up of Selma Lagerlöf’s The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. A hermeneutic method, that is, a method 6 C. Nordlund, Naturen och det nationella i det tidiga 1900-talets Sverigelitteratur, in A-K. Hatje (ed.), Sekelskiftets utmaningar, Carlsson, Stockholm, 2002, p. 74; N. Edling, Det fosterländska hemmet: egnahemspolitik, småbruk och hemideologi kring sekelskiftet 1900, Diss., Stockholm, Stockholm University, 1996, p. 369. 7 J. Hallström, Technical knowledge in a technical society: elementary school technology education in Sweden, 1919-1928, «History of Education», n. 4, 2009, pp. 455-474. 8 E.S. Hintz, Heroes of the laboratory and the workshop: Inventions and technology in books for children, 1850-1950, in M.M. Elbert (ed.), Enterprising youth: Social values and acculturation in nineteenth-century American children’s literature, Routledge, New York, 2008, pp. 197-211. 9 R.G. Kelly, Literature and the Historians, «American Quarterly», 1974, pp. 141-159. 10 S. Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Translated by Velma Swanston Howard. Project Gutenberg E-book, 1906-07/2004, (accessed December 5, 2014, pagination for iPad e-book). With assistance from Lagerlöf, Swanston Howard edited and shortened certain chapters of the original Swedish version of the book, which is why a few quotes from the original have been translated into English by the authors of this article.

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of text interpretation, is employed. Hermeneutics is a theoretical approach to interpreting and understanding the underlying meaning of a text. The hermeneutic sciences seek possible meanings of their study objects, which must in turn be studied in their context(s) to be understood. To clarify the meaning is the main purpose of the interpretation, and the meaning of a part can only be understood if it is related to the context. At the same time the context is composed of the parts. This relationship between the parts and the whole gives rise to the hermeneutic spiral. The spiral shows the relationship between what is interpreted, the pre-understanding that exists and the current context within which interpretation occurs. Thus, single texts are related to the whole body of texts, the genre(s) and the historical context in a reciprocal, reinterpretive way11. The definition of technology (Swedish teknologi) prevalent in the early 20th century was narrower than today and included primarily industrial appliances and processes, machines and inventions12. In line with the hermeneutic approach, when analysing representations of technology and views of technology in Nils we are also influenced by the broader definition of technology common today; it comprises technology as a way of solving problems in all facets of society, not just the industrial domain13. In the existing historical research on the relationship between literature, technology and society, children’s literature for a younger audience is generally not included and thus sparsely explored. The limited previous research which deals with the subject is mainly from the UK and the US, and it mainly examines literature written before 1900. A likely reason for this is that many researchers find the time when Western society was being industrialised as particularly interesting to investigate from this perspective. In children’s literature technology has historically also served as an agent for discovering the unknown, for example, through air and space travels, which began emerging after 1900. A large part of the existing research is therefore about how inventors and aviators have been acting as heroes and role models to instill morality, patriotism and traditional values in the young readers14. Pandora explores the connections between childhood, nature and scientific citizenship15. She does this by analyzing some key texts about nature, science 11 P. Burke, History and Social Theory, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1992; P.-J. Ödman, Tolkning, förståelse, vetande. Hermeneutik i teori och praktik, Stockholm, Norstedts, 2007. 12 E. Schatzberg, Technik comes to America. Changing meanings of technology before 1930, «Technology and Culture», n. 3, 2006, pp. 486-512. 13 J. Hallström, M. Hultén, D. Lövheim, The study of technology as a field of knowledge in general education: historical insights and methodological considerations from a Swedish case study, 1842-2010, «International Journal of Technology and Design Education», n. 2, 2014, pp. 121-139. 14 C. Axell, Barnlitteraturens tekniklandskap. En didaktisk vandring från Nils Holgersson till Pettson och Findus, Diss., Linköping, Linköping University, Dept. of Social and Welfare Studies, 2015. 15 K. Pandora, The children’s republic of science in the Antebellum literature of Samuel

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and technology, written by some of the most popular children’s authors at the time before the American Civil War of the 1860s: Samuel Griswold Goodrich and Jacob Abbott. The two writers believed that through their literature they could contribute to shaping America’s future citizens and have an influence on the future destiny of the Republic. They regarded their work as useful in school classrooms and teaching as well as in the home. The authors’ aim was not to create scientists, but for each citizen to achieve a sense of scientific citizenship in order to gain access to the rights and privileges of such a status. Abbott’s progressive pedagogical approach was that teachers and parents should seek knowledge together with the children, but adults should not always have the answers. Abbott argued that it was the search for knowledge that was important. In line with this children’s fiction books became tools by which young readers could be made to seek knowledge. The goal was, in Pandora’s words, «a children’s republic of science»16. Eric Hintz’s study is another similar example of the previous problematic. In the anthology Enterprising Youth: Social Values and Acculturation in Nineteenth-Century American Children’s Literature (2008) he examines a number of biographies written between 1850 and 1900. One of his aims is to find out what the writers may have wanted their readers to learn about technology when they chose inventors as main characters in the books. Hintz notes that the inventor Thomas Edison became popular in biographies written for the younger generation around the turn of the century; their primary purpose was to inculcate morality in the young readers. Hintz study shows that the inventors not only were to set an example for and instill values of their profession, but also a large number of other social values such as Christian asceticism, temperance and patriotism. These values were expressed through examples that would have been familiar to the children of the time, for example, the homes of the inventors, their families, schooling, clothes and food. Hintz concludes by saying: «In the transitional world of the late nineteenth century, inventors were the new heroes straddling the old and the new, simultaneously creating a new technological society while demonstrating traditional morals and values»17. John McCannon’s research explores a technological context outside the Western world. McCannon studied the ways in which children’s writers used technology and science as tropes to create visions of the USSR as a modernist utopia (2001). The literature examined is from 1921 to 1932. According to McCannon the authorities in education and culture during Lenin’s and Stalin’s regimes were convinced that children’s literature could be used to shape the Griswold Goodrich and Jacob Abbot, in C.E. Harrison, A. Johnson (edd.), National identity: The role of science and technology, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2009. 16 Ibid., p. 75. 17 Hintz, Heroes of the laboratory and the workshop: Inventions and technology in books for children, 1850-1950, cit., p. 209.

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young Soviet citizens and was therefore developed to become an educational tool under the Communist regime. In Samuil Marshaks children’s book War with the Dnieper (1931), the construction of a hydroelectric dam is depicted as a war against the river. The goal of the dam is to tame the river’s water to provide electricity to the region. The river is mighty but the real «heroes» are the machines, the steam excavator and the crane. McCannon claims that the Soviet regime used children’s literature as a tool to convey that they had reached the goal of creating a socialist utopia. At the same time there is a message that technology is humanity’s strongest weapon to conquer and triumph over nature18.

1. Technology and Nationalism in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Around the turn of the century 1900 a significant educational shift was taking place within the Swedish community of elementary school teachers. They questioned the influence of the church on the school, and they also started producing their own textbooks. This was also a renaissance period for children’s literature generally, and there was a growing literature published for the specific purposes of schooling. The elementary school therefore became a vehicle for the spread of new children’s literature, general as well as educational19. In January 1901 the Swedish Association of Elementary School Teachers appointed a committee that was to produce a modern reading book for the elementary school, and they soon contacted the celebrated writer Selma Lagerlöf. She was their choice not only because of her writing skills but also her background as an elementary teacher20. Alfred Dalin, the association’s representative, had in mind a collection of instructive texts such as stories, tales, legends and poems, which described the country and people of Sweden21. Lagerlöf was generally positive but questioned the outline of the project. She wanted to focus what every child needed to know about – the country of Sweden – but she was critical of the fact that the children would not gain any

18 J. McCannon, Technological and scientific utopias in Soviet children’s literature, 19211932, «Journal of Popular Culture», n. 4, 2001, pp. 153-169. 19 M. Ekholm, Den hållbaraste läroplanen – 1919 års undervisningsplan för rikets folkskolor, «Vägval i skolans historia. Tidskrift från föreningen för svensk undervisningshistoria», n. 3-4, 2006, pp. 3-5; T. Englund, Tidsanda och skolkunskap, in G. Richardson (ed.), Ett folk börjar skolan. Folkskolan 150 år 1842-1992, Allmänna Förlaget, Stockholm, 1992, pp. 95-103. 20 V. Edström, Uppdrag läsebok Nils Holgersson. Presentation och urval av Vivi Edström, Falun, Rabén & Sjögren, 1996, pp. 9-10. 21 E. von Zweigbergk, Barnboken i Sverige 1750-1950, Stockholm, Rabén & Sjögren, 1965, p. 310.

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coherent knowledge22. Therefore she gave Dalin a more progressive counterproposal: Animals and plants should also be included, but all of them integrated in the kind of landscape where one would expect that they typically live. To the extent that nine-year-old children would follow, they should be familiar with life in the mine, in the forest […] at fishing and hunting, log-driving and farming, and, why not, at the factory and in the city23.

At the end of 1903 Lagerlöf started collecting information for her book. In 1905 she got the idea through Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book to animate the landscape with talking animals, and Nils could make rapid progress since he was flying on a goose24. In 1906 the first part of the extensive children’s book The Wonderful Adventures of Nils was published in Sweden, and during 1907 the publisher could print 100,000 copies of the school edition since practically every elementary school introduced it as a reading book. The book was a great success, not only as a textbook but later also as a literary classic. Hardly any Swedish book has attracted so great an audience and captured so many readers of all ages and all nationalities. By its position as an officially commissioned textbook Nils was extremely influential on generations of Swedish schoolchildren, thereby constituting an important tool for the dissemination of nationalist views of technology and nature in line with the development of modern, industrial Sweden25. The book is about the fourteen-year-old boy Nils. In the beginning of the book he is lazy, disobedient and cruel to animals, and he does not want to learn anything in school. One day his parents go to church, but Nils refuses to come along and is required to read Luther’s sermons instead. He finds them boring and the beautiful spring weather outside makes him sleepy. Then suddenly a little elf pops up and Nils captures him. The elf asks to be set free and he offers Nils some valuable items in compensation if he gives him freedom. Nils does not think there is much to offer, but lets him go free anyway. The moment he does so he gets a slap in the face and becomes unconscious. When he wakes up he discovers that he himself has turned into a little elf who also understands the language of animals. A flock of wild geese flies past and after some commotion Nils follows them on a journey through Sweden, flying over countryside as well 22 S. Lagerlöf, Selma Lagerlöf. Brev 2 1903-1940 i urval utgivna av Ying Toijer-Nilsson, Selma Lagerlöf-sällskapet Skrifter 8, Malmö, Gleerups, 1969. 23 S. Lagerlöf, Selma Lagerlöf. Brev 1 1871-1902 i urval utgivna av Ying Toijer-Nilsson, Selma Lagerlöf-sällskapet Skrifter 7, Malmö, Gleerups, 1967, p. 252 (our translation). 24 Lagerlöf, Selma Lagerlöf. Brev 2 1903-1940 i urval utgivna av Ying Toijer-Nilsson, cit.; E. von Zweigbergk, Barnboken i Sverige 1750-1950, p. 312. 25 E. Erlandson-Hammargren, Från alpromantik till hembygdsromantik. Natursyn i Sverige från 1885 till 1915, speglad i Svenska Turistföreningens årsskrifter och Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, Stockholm, Gidlunds Förlag, 2006.

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as city, important historical sites as well as industrial establishments. The book is a kind of bildungsroman in the tradition of Rousseau’s Émile, and during his travels Nils evolves into a nice and responsible young man. This positive development mainly happens as Nils discovers all the wonderful things that humans have achieved in Sweden, and in many of the book’s passages various inventions and technologies are celebrated26. Lagerlöf has been described as the most technology-friendly of the Swedish writers at the beginning of the 20th century. Edström writes that Nils is «amazed by all the new technology that he discovers during his journey: rail roads and factories, sawmills and ironworks»27. Hägg stresses the importance of the chapter on the ironworks of Bergslagen and all the good things that iron has given man28. Sundmark claims that Lagerlöf was a firm believer in progress: technological, economic and social. Things would always get better. Lagerlöf shows her enthusiasm over, for instance, sawmills, mines and ironworks. In Sundmark’s interpretation, even the poorest parts of the country would benefit from this progress; as such, technology would contribute to developing the nation29. Elenius sees the story of Nils as an illustration of the ideal picture of the nation of Sweden around the turn of the century 1900, or, alternatively, as a merger of several different ideals from different parts of the country. Furthermore, Northern Sweden – Norrland – received quite a prominent place in the book since 21 out of the 96 chapters take place in the northern region. The direction Nils is going is from south to north, which Elenius regards as a metaphor of modernity and progress being in the north while tradition and retrospection are to be found in the south30: Amid all the objects in motion there was only one that stood still: that was a railway train. […] The locomotive sent forth smoke and sparks. The clatter of the wheels could be heard all the way up to the boy, but the train did not seem to move. The forests rushed by; the flag station rushed by; fences and telegraph poles rushed by; but the train stood still. A broad river with a long bridge came toward it, but the river and the bridge glided along under the train with perfect ease. Finally a railway station appeared. The station master stood on the platform with his red flag, and moved slowly toward the train. When he waved his little flag, the locomotive belched even darker smoke curls than before, and whistled

Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, cit. Cf. V. Edström, Selma Lagerlöf. Livets vågspel, Stockholm, Natur och Kultur, 2002. 27 Edström, Uppdrag läsebok Nils Holgersson. Presentation och urval av Vivi Edström, cit., p. 23 (our translation). 28 G. Hägg, Det nygamla riket – det industriella genombrottets avspeglingar i svenskt kulturliv, in P. Elmlund, K. Glans (edd.), Den välsignade tillväxten. Tankelinjer kring ett århundrade av kapitalism, kultur och vetenskap, Stockholm, Natur och Kultur, 1998, pp. 53-54. 29 B. Sundmark, Citizenship and Children’s Identity in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and Scouting for Boys, «Children’s Literature in Education», 2009, pp. 109-119. 30 L. Elenius, Selma Lagerlöf och Norrland: Nationella idealbilder i Nils Holgerssons underbara resa, in A-K. Hatje (ed.), Sekelskiftets utmaningar, Carlsson, Stockholm, 2002, pp. 16-38. 26

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mournfully because it had to stand still. All of a sudden it began to move toward the south, like everything else. The boy saw all the coach doors open and the passengers step out while both cars and people were moving southward. He glanced away from the earth and tried to look straight ahead. Staring at the queer railway train had made him dizzy […]31.

In the above passage, Nils’ experience is that the train beneath them stands still – it is the landscape which is moving towards the train, not the other way around – since he is travelling with the geese at the same speed as the train. Thus it would seem that the northern parts of Sweden are sliding closer and closer to the southern parts. The various parts of the country are being connected, and this process is taking place without any kind of difficulty or resistance. Technology – the railway – is a link that ties together the nation and Nils travels in the same direction as the train: towards Norrland where important natural resources are to be found. Around the turn of the century 1900 Sweden was involved in an international industrial race for market shares. It was therefore thought by engineers and representatives of forest companies and industries that a national unified ideology of economic development would be a competitive advantage for Swedish interests in this struggle. An important part of this ideology was the utilization of the great natural resources of northern Sweden32. Extended communications networks were a prerequisite for connecting the various regions into a unified nation, and what made it possible to utilize the natural resources was the railroad. At the same time roads and steam boat lines were also expanded, so it became possible to travel to the farthest ends of Sweden much more easily than ever before, both for the more and less wealthy. Northern Sweden was looked upon with great optimism and especially the iron ore deposits made industrialists talk about the region as a treasury33. In The Wonderful Adventures of Nils it is with the help of the railroad that the wilderness of the north is conquered; this technological system can even be interpreted as a metaphor for the colonisation of Norrland by the Government in Stockholm. The passage below is one example in the book of a patriotic and nationalist view of the northern natural resources. Nature is viewed as a resource for humans, whereas the untouched wilderness and the Lapps who live there are considered insignificant:

Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, cit., pp. 458-459. K. Johannisson, Det sköna i det vilda: En aspekt på naturen som mänsklig resurs, in T. Frängsmyr (ed.), Paradiset och vildmarken: Studier kring synen på naturen och naturresurserna, Liber Förlag, Stockholm, 1984, pp. 69-70; S. Sörlin, Framtidslandet: debatten om Norrland och naturresurserna under det industriella genombrottet, Diss., Stockholm, Carlsson, 1988. 33 Sörlin, Framtidslandet: debatten om Norrland och naturresurserna under det industriella genombrottet, cit.; Id., Norrlandsfrågan: Idéer och debatt i samband med det industriella genombrottet, in T. Frängsmyr (ed.), Paradiset och vildmarken: Studier kring synen på naturen och naturresurserna, Stockholm, Liber Förlag, 1984, pp. 265-319. 31 32

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See, it had been so, that although people very long had known that there was a large iron ore field near Gellivare, the mining had really been started only a few years ago, when the railway was completed. By then, several thousand people flocked up there at once […]. There was the railway and electric light and large machine buildings, one could go on tramway deep inside the mountain through a tunnel, which was illuminated by small light bulbs. It was the mightiest movement everywhere, and one train with iron ore after another was sent from the station. But all around was the vast wilderness, where no field was plowed and no houses built, where there was nothing else than the Lapps, who wandered around with their reindeer34.

In the description of the Gellivare iron ore mining industry it is the railroad that has enabled both the utilisation of these natural resources and technological development in the wake of the mining industry such as electric light. As all this takes place we find the Laps in the backdrop, only as a part of the surrounding scenery. The colonisation of the wilderness and minority peoples in the name of progress, technology and the nation was only natural, in line with the evolutionary thinking of the time. Darwinism, of course, gave a kind of scientific legitimacy to this development, although it was really one of several evolutionary lines of thought that had developed in the late 19th century as an industrial society arose all over Europe. Utopian socialists, scientists and influential writers such as Robert Owen, William Morris, Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer all outlined their views of a future ideal society, in which struggle and competition were seen as integral parts35. Hård and Jamison are of the view that the most important view or ideology was that of Karl Marx, whose most significant source of inspiration was Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin presented the basic laws of nature based on his observations of the natural world, while Marx presented his theories of societal evolution. Marx was driven by his strong belief that science and technology could transform society and release human creativity. Inventiveness is one of the most characteristic traits of industrial society, according to Marx36. Human – and in particular Swedish – inventiveness is a recurring theme and something that is even applauded in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. When

34 S. Lagerlöf, Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige. Bd 2, Stockholm, Bonnier, 1908, pp. 567-568 (our translation). 35 T. Frängsmyr, Framsteg eller förfall: Framtidsbilder och utopier i västerländsk tanketradition, Stockholm, Allmänna förlaget, 1990, pp. 188; K. Berg, Livingstone och Stanley. Synen på Afrikas natur, in T. Frängsmyr (ed.), Paradiset och vildmarken: Studier kring synen på naturen och naturresurserna, Liber Förlag, Stockholm 1984, pp. 159-197; P.J. Bowler, The earth encompassed: a history of the environmental sciences, New York, Norton, 1992, pp. 310-314; B. Skovdahl, Förlorad kontroll: den ifrågasatta framstegstanken, Stockholm, Institutet för framtidsstudier, 2010, pp. 61; D. Worster, De ekologiska idéernas historia, Stockholm, SNS, 1996, pp. 130-137. 36 M. Hård, A. Jamison, Hubris and hybrids: A cultural history of technology and science, New York, Routledge, 2005, pp. 65-66.

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Nils comes to the town of Karlskrona he is fascinated by the fact that such great and beautiful war ships have been built in Sweden: Soon they came into a large hall, which was filled with tackled and full-rigged little ships. The boy understood without being told, that these were models for the ships which had been built for the Swedish navy. There were ships of many different varieties. There were old men-of-war, whose sides bristled with cannon, and which had high structures fore and aft, and their masts weighed down with a network of sails and ropes. There were small island-boats with rowing-benches along the sides; there were undecked cannon sloops and richly gilded frigates, which were models of the ones the kings had used on their travels. Finally, there were also the heavy, broad armour-plated ships with towers and cannon on deck – such as are in use nowadays; and narrow, shining torpedo boats which resembled long, slender fishes. When the boy was carried around among all this, he was awed. «Fancy that such big, splendid ships have been built here in Sweden!» he thought to himself37.

Through all the innovations and technical solutions that Nils encounters during his travels he thus becomes aware of human inventiveness, an important asset in forming the nation. As Nils is walking around in another town he sees a sowing machine. For a short moment he forgets that he is an elf, and climbs up to the driver’s seat to pretend that he is driving the machine38. During his walk trough the town he gets to see more things that confirm his notion of human inventiveness: He walked by the post-office, and then he thought of all the newspapers which came every day, with news from all the four corners of the earth. He saw the apothecary’s shop and the doctor’s home, and he thought about the power of human beings, which was so great that they were able to battle with sickness and death. He came to the church. Then he thought how human beings had built it, that they might hear about another world than the one in which they lived, of God and the resurrection and eternal life. And the longer he walked there, the better he liked human beings39.

This passage refers to both older and newer technologies that are important for the cohesiveness of a society: communications technologies such as newspapers and, in this context, the church for voicing central national values connected to Lutheran Christianity, as well as health care. Both the last passages are also permeated with a strong belief in progress and technological development. There is a section in Nils that is often referred to as an example of Lagerlöf’s positive attitude to industrialization and innovation, namely when Nils is in Bergslagen and is taken captive by a family of bears40. The bears discuss the ironworks and the fact that they no longer feel comfortable living there. They wonder where to go in order to escape humans. Father Bear then gets an idea. Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, cit., p. 136. Ibid., p. 108. 39 Ibid. 40 Hägg, Det nygamla riket – det industriella genombrottets avspeglingar i svenskt kulturliv, pp. 53-54. 37 38

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Since Nils tried to frighten the bears by lighting a match stick Father Bear realises what kind of power Nils has when he can utilise fire. The bear then gives Nils an ultimatum; Nils will live if he sets the rolling-mill on fire. Nils asks for a little time to do some thinking: «“Very well, do so”, assented Father Bear. “Let me say to you that iron is the thing that has given men the advantage over us bears, which is another reason for my wishing to put an end to the work here”»41. Nils reflects upon the great use that humans have had from iron, which is used in all sorts of technology: There was iron in the plough that broke up the field, in the axe that felled the tree for building houses, in the scythe that mowed the grain, and in the knife, which could be turned to all sorts of uses. There was iron in the horse’s bit, in the lock on the door, in the nails that held furniture together, in the sheathing that covered the roof. The rifle which drove away wild beasts was made of iron, also the pick that had broken up the mine. Iron covered the men-of-war he had seen at Karlskrona; the locomotives steamed through the country on iron rails; the needle that had stitched his coat was of iron; the shears that clipped the sheep and the kettle that cooked the food. Big and little alike – much that was indispensable was made from iron. Father Bear was perfectly right in saying that it was the iron that had given men their mastery over the bears42.

But Nils attaches even greater importance to iron: «Perhaps it was because they had thought so much about the iron that intelligence had been developed in mankind, until finally they became so advanced that they were able to build great works like these. The fact was that men owed more to the iron than they themselves knew»43. This quote is interesting bearing in mind that Swedish export at the time was becoming increasingly dependent on the iron ore deposits in the north44. Sweden thus owed more to the iron than most people knew, which was why iron gained such a prominent position in a book for elementary schoolchildren. Iron and the bear can be seen as metaphors for the struggle between industrialisation and technology (iron) and nature (the bear). Even though the bear claims that he and his ancestors have inhabited this region of Sweden since the beginning, it is humans with their superior intellect that are the winners of the fight45. And Father Bear confirms this interpretation with the words: «“[i] t’s because of the iron that men have become so much wiser than we bears”»46.

Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, cit., p. 348. Ibid., p. 349. 43 Ibid., p. 350. 44 Cf. B. Berner, Professional or Wage Worker? Engineers and Economic Transformation in Sweden, in P. Meiksins, C. Smith (edd.), Engineering Labour: Technical Workers in Comparative Perspective, London & New York, Verso, 1996, pp. 173-174. 45 Cf. Erlandson-Hammargren, Från alpromantik till hembygdsromantik. Natursyn i Sverige från 1885 till 1915, speglad i Svenska Turistföreningens årsskrifter och Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, cit. 46 Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, cit., p. 349. 41 42

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After some reflection Nils makes a decision: «No plan of escape had as yet come to his mind, but this much he knew – he did not wish to do any harm to the iron, which was so useful to rich and poor alike, and which gave bread to so many people in this land»47. Iron technology was thus considered so crucial for the development of the nation, across all socio-economic boundaries of society, that it required sacrifice on the part of the protagonist. The fascination of human inventiveness and ability to create technology is what makes Nils forget for a moment about the life-threatening situation: Father Bear let the boy watch the gorgeous spectacle until the blowing was over and the flowing and sparkling red steel had been poured into ingot moulds. The boy was completely charmed by the marvellous display and almost forgot that he was imprisoned between a bear’s two paws48.

Furthermore, the message conveyed here is that industry, especially iron and steel production, is something beautiful and «natural», a «marvellous display». Technology is also often depicted as seamlessly interwoven with nature since it is surreptitiously integrated with the various Swedish landscapes: The great ironworks, with many tall buildings, stood at the edge of a waterfall. High chimneys sent forth dark clouds of smoke, blasting furnaces were in full blaze, and light shone from all the windows and apertures. Within hammers and rolling mills were going with such force that the air rang with their clatter and boom. All around the workshops proper were immense coal sheds, great slag heaps, warehouses, woodpiles, and tool sheds. Just beyond were long rows of workingmen’s homes, pretty villas, schoolhouses, assembly halls, and shops. But there all was quiet and apparently everybody was asleep. The boy did not glance in that direction, but gazed intently at the ironworks. The earth around them was black; the sky above them was like a great fiery dome; the rapids, white with foam, rushed by; while the buildings themselves were sending out light and smoke, fire and sparks. It was the grandest sight the boy had ever seen!49

In one passage of the book Nils experiences three different Swedish landscapes or communities from the back of the goose. The first one is the valley with its deep troughs and rivers, on which there are steamboats, timber rafting, large cargo vessels and on the adjacent waterfront sawmills. In the second landscape are the farms, villages and churches. Here the farmers sow and there are green meadows, grazing cattle, meandering roads and hissing railway engines. The third landscape is the forest with elks, lynx and squirrels as well as mines and ironworks, which are portrayed in an idyllic fashion:

47 48 49

Ibid., p. 351. Ibid., p. 346. Ibid., p. 344.

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Cableways ran through the air, on which baskets, loaded with iron ore, slowly went along. In all rapids wheels were spinning, electric wires stroked through the silent forest, and immensely long railway trains came rolling with sixty, seventy wagons, loaded with iron ore and coal, or with iron bars, sheets and steel wire50.

Thus in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils technology is intertwined with the pastoral landscape, which contributes to the image of a nation with various landscape types where technology and industry always have a natural place. In the following passage about the Östergötland plain, the integration of nature and technology even takes on an aesthetic dimension, which was an important part of the forming of a national landscape at the time51: But the people must have been contented on the plain, because it was generous and kind, and they had tried to decorate it in the best way possible. High up – where the boy rode by – he thought that cities and farms, churches and factories, castles and railway stations were scattered over it, like large and small trinkets. It shone on the roofs, and the windowpanes glittered like jewels. Yellow country roads, shining railway-tracks and blue canals ran along between the districts like embroidered loops. Linköping lay around its cathedral like a pearl setting around a precious stone; and the gardens in the country were like little brooches and buttons. There was not much regulation in the pattern, but it was a display of grandeur, which one could never tire of looking at52.

The nationalisation of Swedish nature of the early 20th century, of which the diffusion of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils to Swedish elementary schools was an integral part, consequently also included technology. David Nye claims that the machine, the railway engine, the steamboat and the telegraph were all seen as part of the sublime landscape at the time; they could therefore be incorporated in pastoral paintings as a harmonious part. This mix of nature and technology was something that was supported by railway owners, and paintings of this kind were therefore promoted53. Michael L. Smith uses well-known lithographies from the 1860s to the 1950s as examples of how trains were used as positive metaphors of progress; technology is portrayed as a train rushing towards the unknown future beyond the picture54. At the same time Earl G. Ingersoll and Leo Marx show how the railway metaphor was used in the opposite way, that is, as a reaction to industrialisation and progress. These kinds of illustrations and paintings instead portray a quiet pastoral landscape

Lagerlöf, Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige. Bd 2, p. 356 (our translation). Cf., for example, C. Nordlund, Det upphöjda landet. Vetenskapen, landhöjningsfrågan och kartläggningen av Sveriges förflutna, 1860-1930, Diss., Umeå, Umeå University, Dept. of Historical Studies, 2001, pp. 260-279. 52 Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, cit., pp. 267-268. 53 D.E. Nye, American technological sublime, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1994, p. 59. 54 M.L. Smith, Recourse of empire: landscapes of progress in technological America, in M.R. Smith, L. Marx (edd.), Does technology drive history? The dilemma of technological determinism, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1994, pp. 37-52. 50 51

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being brutally invaded by a steam locomotive55. In The Wonderful Adventures of Nils it is mainly the former type of positive metaphors of technology that are being used, as was shown above. In the part of Nils about the region of Småland, Osa interrupts Little Mats when he complains about how lean and barren the landscape is, as she does not agree: «And don’t you remember», continued Osa, «the school teacher said that such a lively and picturesque district as that bit of Småland which lies south of Lake Vettern is not to be found in all Sweden? Think of the beautiful sea and the yellow coast-mountains, and of Grenna and Jönköping, with its match factory, and think of Huskvarna, and all the big establishments there!» «Yes, that’s true enough», said little Mats once again. «And think of Visingsö, little Mats, with the ruins and the oak forests and the legends! Think of the valley through which Emån flows, with all the villages and flour-mills and sawmills, and the carpenter shops!» «Yes, that is true enough», said little Mats, and looked troubled56.

Thus when technology is integrated in the landscape there is no separation of humans, nature and technology in the forming of the nation; together they form a cohesive and indivisible whole. Through inventiveness and the striving for progress humans create something beautiful and natural, which is reinforced by metaphors from nature: «This country is clothed in a kirtle of spruce and greystone sweater», the boy thought to himself. «But around the waist it wore a belt, which has not its equal in costliness, for it is embroidered with distant blue lakes and flowering meadows, the large iron works adorn it as a series of precious stones, and as buckle it has a whole town with castles and churches and large clusters of houses»57.

In the ironworks other metaphors are used, making the bars of iron into snakes: But while the first bar of iron was being pressed, a second was taken from the furnace and placed under the rollers, and when this was a little along, a third was brought. Continuously fresh threads came crawling over the floor, like hissing snakes. The boy was dazzled by the iron. But he found it more splendid to watch the workmen who, dexterously and delicately, seized the glowing snakes with their tongs and forced them under the rollers. It seemed like play for them to handle the hissing iron58.

Through metaphors and similes technology becomes a part of nature and not something that disturbs the idyllic portrayal of the landscape. In the section E.G. Ingersoll, Representations of science and technology in British literature since 1880, New York, Peter Lang, 1992, p. 2; L. Marx, The machine in the garden: technology and the pastoral ideal in America, New York, Oxford University Press, 1964. 56 Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, cit., p. 196. 57 Lagerlöf, Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige. Bd 2, cit., p. 499 (our translation). 58 Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, cit., p. 347. 55

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where Nils passes over the railway station technology is even brought to life in an anthropomorphic way: The station master stood on the platform with his red flag, and moved slowly toward the train. When he waved his little flag, the locomotive belched even darker smoke curls than before, and whistled mournfully because it had to stand still. All of a sudden it began to move toward the south, like everything else59.

2. Concluding Discussion

The educational ideas of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils are progressive, focusing the integration of knowledge rather than each knowledge domain by itself and for the children of the time to learn about the nation of Sweden by experiencing it. Lagerroth writes: «The difference between The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and textbooks […] of a traditional kind is that the landscape in […] Nils is experienced while that in the usual textbooks is understood»60. It is interesting that Nils’ moral development mainly happens as he discovers all the wonderful inventions and technologies that humans have created, which also becomes an example for the children who read the book. Nils includes passages about technological artefacts and systems of different kinds – axes, knives, nails, locks, needles, kettles, rifles, mines, ironworks, sawmills, factories, railways, etc. – and when meeting Father Bear, Nils and the readers are introduced to the processes of the iron industry in detail. Older, and for the readers probably familiar, technology from the agricultural sector is interspersed with new technology connected to the industries and modern society. But even though industrialisation is a major motif cities do not dominate the narrative since in Sweden industries were initially located in the countryside. Through metaphors the old and new are linked together and industrialisation is portrayed as a development of agriculture and not as a threatening competitor. Meanwhile a thread of nostalgia also runs through the story. Throughout the book views of technology, society and nature are seamlessly integrated in the educational story, so as to form a narrative of the nation. Frängsmyr has studied images of the future and utopian visions in Western thought during the 19th century61. He describes a polarisation between what he calls the effective society and the good life, the former being an Enlightenment

Ibid., p. 459. E. Lagerroth, Landskap och natur i Gösta Berglings saga och Nils Holgersson, Uppsala, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1958, p. VII-VIII (our translation). 61 Frängsmyr, Framsteg eller förfall: Framtidsbilder och utopier i västerländsk tanketradition, cit. 59 60

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ideal with a strong belief in technology, societal progress and of subduing nature while the latter is rather a utopian Romanticist idea of harmony with nature. The views expressed in Nils seem to have included items that reminded of both a belief in progress and a utopian vision, celebrated technological development and rule over nature while at the same time wanting adaptation to nature62. It is a bit surprising that few scholars have picked up this ambiguity and ambivalence in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Erlandson-Hammargren being an exception63. He certainly agrees that an instrumental view of nature lies behind the description of the Swedish woodland. On the other hand, he points to other parts of the book where there is criticism against devastation of forestland. Other examples of a view that advocates adaptation to nature are the description of the polluted and dead lake Tisken and the part about lake Tåkern64. This ambiguity about industrial and technological development is not surprising because there was in fact growing concern about pollution from industries and urban sewer systems, criticism toward modernisation as well as an incipient nature protection movement at the turn of the century 1900, in Sweden as well as in other Western countries65. The nationalist sentiment is very evident in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, for instance, in the ways that nature is portrayed. First of all, since Nils is flying on a goose’s back through practically the whole country he also shows the readers what the country looks like and where its borders lie. Secondly, the national landscape with all its variety almost becomes a national trait – the varied natural and cultural landscapes underneath Nils is Sweden. Thirdly, nature is seen as a resource for industrial and thereby societal development, and certain resources such as iron ore are portrayed as specifically Swedish66. Technology occupies a very central place in this description of the nation. Communications technologies connect the various parts of Sweden, particularly in bringing the natural resources of Norrland to practical use for industrialising and developing the whole nation. Human inventiveness is a significant asset in this regard; industrialisation, improvement of public services with technology,

Ibid., pp. 234-236. Erlandson-Hammargren, Från alpromantik till hembygdsromantik. Natursyn i Sverige från 1885 till 1915, speglad i Svenska Turistföreningens årsskrifter och Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, cit. 64 Ibid. 65 J. Hallström, Constructing a Pipe-Bound City: A History of Water Supply, Sewerage, and Excreta Removal in Norrköping and Linköping, Sweden, 1860-1910, Diss., Linköping, Dept. of Water and Environmental Studies, Linköping University, 2002; M. Stolare, Kultur & natur. Moderniseringskritiska rörelser i Sverige 1900-1920, Göteborg, Göteborg University, 2003; D. Worster, Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994. 66 Nordlund, Det upphöjda landet. Vetenskapen, landhöjningsfrågan och kartläggningen av Sveriges förflutna, 1860-1930, cit., pp. 260-279. 62 63

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and the bringing of jobs to rich and poor alike all depend on (technological) ingenuity67. This incorporation of industry and technology into a positive narrative of the nation is important given the fact that especially conservative groups saw big business and industry as threats to the nation and their own power base, while social democrats blamed capitalism and thereby indirectly industrialism for evils detrimental to the nation such as import of foreign labour, the extensive emigration to America, and social inequality in general68. The great contribution of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils in this regard was to reconcile the nationalism of the political right and left, which was probably why it was so successful as a novel as well as educational children’s book in the school. In conclusion, in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils technology and human settlements are natural elements of the various landscapes of Sweden, thereby making them as much a part of building a national identity around the physical environment as woods, plains, lakes, animals and plants. The message of the book seems to be that technology is interwoven with society and nature in the formation of modern Sweden. It is impossible to describe the nation and impart nationalism in children without also incorporating technology; it is a human creation and as much a force in shaping the nation as other human endeavours and nature. Finally, the story of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils can be summed up by what Nils notes from Gorgo’s, the eagle, back: «“It is a great country that we have! Wherever I go, there is always something new for people to live upon”»69.

67 Cf. C. Mitcham, Thinking through Technology. The Path between Engineering and Philosophy, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 1994. Mitcham’s concept of volition acknowledges the important role that human will, ingenuity and creativity play in technological development. In his four-fold description of the dimensions of technology, even technology as knowledge, activity and object permeate the narrative of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. See Axell, Barnlitteraturens tekniklandskap. En didaktisk vandring från Nils Holgersson till Pettson och Findus, cit. 68 C. Strahl, Nationalism & socialism. Fosterlandet i den politiska idédebatten i Sverige 18901914, Diss., Lund, Lund University, Dept. of History, 1983, pp. 156-165. 69 Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, cit., p. 445.