AN IMAGINATIVE STORY TELLER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2921, 9 March 1910, Page 77

AN IMAGINATIVE STORY TELLER.

SELMA LAGERLOF, WHO WON THE NO BEI PRIZE OF £7OOO FOR LITERATURE. “Selma Lagerlof, who won the Nobel prize for literature of over £7OOO in 1909, belongs to the class of idealistic writers,’’ says the Independent. “Selma Lagerlof is the third woman to receive a Nobel prize, Hie others being Madame Curie, for the discovery of radium, and Baroness von Suttner, for l her peace novel, ‘Lay Down Your Anns.’“She is -the- literary descendant of Hans Christian Andersen, who need not have been ashamed to own ‘The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.’ Tiiis is the story of a little boy who was carried, away on the back of a. wild goose and learned a great deal about geography and the ways and thoughts of animals and birds in his travels. It was written ati the request of the National Teachers’ Association, and has become popular in the ■Swedish schools. —Sweden’s Prose Poet. — “The Swedish people have the greater affection for her,” says the Outlook, “regarding her as their prose poet n the sense in which Schiller is the verse-poet of the German people, and her popularity is great throughout Scandinavia Her work expresses in a rare degree the spirit and genius of Sweden, and has exerted” a positive influence upon the national •character. The prize was awarded, not to any single book, but in recognition of her substantial work as a writer.

"A Swedish critic, in reviewing her 'Christ Legends,' (says: 'She: came to us in an age of psychological prying, and discovered the child in us." At a time when literature of the Continent partakes so ■ largely of the introspective and mor bid, iliss Lagerlof has been an apostle of optimism, discerning in the characters ip her stories the spark of divinity which.' redeems even crudity and sordid surroundings. Ir "Costa Berliiig's Saga' Miss Lagerlof made her native province, Vermland, classical; and in her 'Jerusalem' she revealed to tin people of Delecarlia the inner spirit of their own province. —Selma Lagerlof.—

" 'The .Wonderful Adventures of Nils,' as already veporited, is a book which has endeared her to all Swedish children, to whom she Is a kind of fairy godmother, lightening their school hours and their tasks w"th her deJightful insight and humour.

"She is described as a modest and rather shy woman, of verv attractive personality, living with her mother in a pretty, old-fashioned cottage in the suburbs of the city of Falun, surrounded by a flower garden and an orchard. | She has also an estate in Vermland, her native province, where most of her writing' is' done. She is an ardent lover of Nature, with a passion for flowers and the abiilitj to 'diffuse their par fume through her books. . , ■ ..

—Miracles of Antichrist. —

"In 'The Miracles of Antichrist,' she is kind enough to give the key to the interpretation, calling upon the Pope, aa Browning does in "The King and the Book,' to deliver judgment in the end. Antichrist "is modern atheistic Socialism, and in general the materialistic reform movement which in this age performs many of the mighty works of primitive Christianity, but without being inspired by its spirit. Antichris brings plenty, upon earth, but makes people forget heaven. Ho preaches the love of man, but the hatred of God. He heals the sick and inspires martyrs, and rich men come from, far to lay offerings at his feet. The allegory is based on the .Sicilian legend: ."' 'When Antichrist comes he shall seem, as Christ. There shall be great want, arid Antichrist shall go. from land to land an* give bread to the poor. And he shall find many followers.'

—-Wonder-working Bambino. —

-"According to the story, a counterfeit has been made of the wonder-working bambino of the Church of Articceli oh the Capi- ' to] at Rome, and the two images have become counfounded. No one can tell whether the true Christ-child is in Borne or Sicily. So they put it to the same test of genuineness as the three rings of Nathan the Wise. The village of Diamante, which holds the: rival image, prospers exceedingly, more than Rome, in fact. There com© to it hospitals, factories, and schools, and, as the final and crowning blessing, a railroad up Mount Etna, bringing crowds of" tourists. "But the priest of . the village watching the people comes to the conclusion that they have become idolaters instead of Christians. They prayed for lottery, tickets and good years and daily bread! and health and money, and they got them, but none came to the church to pray for. the forgiveness of his sins or for the Deace of his soul. So he takes the image of Antichrist down from the altar and attempts to burn it in the market place. This, however, he is prevented from, doing, and the Pope, who is evidently not' Pius X, rebukes him for it, telling him that _he should rather have brought' the two images together, which, to come to bald language, means that through Christian Socialism' the probler k to ba solved." ' —A Wonderful Stor-y.— | Here is a story taken from the book [called "Invisible Bonds," and summarised by Mr W. L. Courtney in the Telegraph : "An old. .hermit, Hatto, is,so enraged with the wickedness of mankind that he beseeches the good; God to annihilate the whole human rao>. He goes further than this: he,, makes a vow'to keep his arm stretched up towards the sky from morning to ni"ht until t)\e Destroyer of Sodom asid GVr."'»-.•;■ h shall have " granted hia prayer. Manv days pass, and his arm i*

still erect and immobile. So motionless is it that in time the little water-wagtails come and build their nest in the hollow of hrs- hand. And slowly the heart of this rugged saint is changed. •■The marvels of the little life enclosed between his fingors, the activity, the patience of the parents, the twittering anxiety of the young brood—these things impress him and soften his heart. And when the women come to him, bringing tigs and milk for his sustenance, die does not insult them any more ; and when a hawk menaces the young brood in his band he has another hand ready to defend his proteges. Well,' the moral n obvious enough. Old Hatto begins to understand how God holds human beings in the hollow of His hand and will not destroy them at any fierce hermit’s prayer. For good or for evil, He lets them live, according to the inscrutable designs o' P : « Providence. That is one instance of the tender idealism of Selma Lagerhof, and many others could he quoted. —The Dead of the Eternal Glaciers.— “In another story the aged Agneta is forced to live alone on the side of a mountain covered with snow. The creed of the neighbourhood is that all the condemned, all those who have forfeited the grace of heaven, have to endure their punishment on the eternal glaciers which overhang her little cottage. She is frightened when she thinks she sees their shadows driven and tortured along the mountain side bj r the wind ; they are so cold and so helpless. What is it they want? Perhaps a moment or two of rest and warmth. And the good old woman gets rid of her superstitions terror, because at given moments she throws open the door of her house, and keeps the re lit in her parlour, where the dead may warm their shivering limbs. It is a beautiful and tender mysticism with which Selma Lagerlof is full, and it is all on the side of the angels.”