Tomten (poem)

Tomten 
by Viktor Rydberg
Country Sweden
Language Swedish
Publication date 1881 (1881)

Tomten, also known as "Midvinternattens köld är hård", is a poem written by Viktor Rydberg, and originally published in Ny Illustrerad Tidning in 1881. While outwardly being an idyllic Christmas poem, the poem asks about the meaning of life.

A short film, Tomten, was recorded in 1941 by Gösta Roosling, where Hilda Borgström reads the entire poem.[1]

Lotta Engberg's 2009 Christmas album Jul hos mig closes with a final, hidden, bonus track with Sven Wollter reading the poem.[2]

The poem has also been recorded as an audio book, with Torgny Lindgren reading it.[3][4]

In English

Rydberg's poem has been translated into English by Charles Wharton Stork,[5] Anna Krook,[6] Elias Gordon[7] and Judith Moffett.[8] In 1961 Astrid Lindgren published a prose version of the story with illustrations by Harald Wiberg.[9][10]

Set to music

  • Julens önskesångbok, 1997, under the lines "Traditionella julsånger", with music by Lyyli Wartiovaara-Kallioniemi.

References

  1. ↑ Hilda Borgström reads Tomten youtube.com Retrieved: December 29, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Jul hos mig" (in Swedish). Svensk mediedatabas. 2009. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
  3. ↑ Viktor Rydberg, Torgny Lindgren (2003). Tomten. Pan hörböcker.
  4. ↑ Torgny Lindgren reads Tomten youtube.com Retrieved: December 29, 2013.
  5. ↑ Anthology of Swedish lyrics by Charles Wharton Stork, (New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1917).
  6. ↑ Songs of the North by Anna Krook, (Helsingfors, Söderström & Co., 1926).
  7. ↑ Bards of the North by Elias Gordon, (New York: American Cultural Federation Press, 1936).
  8. ↑ The North! to the North! by Judith Moffett, (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001).
  9. ↑ The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren, (New York: Coward-McCann, 1961).
  10. ↑ Astrid Lindgren adaptation youtube.com Retrieved: December 31, 2013.
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