Tomten (poem)

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.

Tomten
by Viktor Rydberg
Title illustration by Jenny Nyström 1881
CountrySweden
LanguageSwedish
Publication date1881 (1881)

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] In 2007 the German film Tomte Tummetott and the Fox was made, based on the stories by Astrid Lindgren.[11]

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

See also

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.
  11. "Tomte Tummetott és a róka / Tomte Tummetott and the Fox".
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