Author | Vilhelm Moberg |
---|---|
Original title | Utvandrarna |
Translator | Gustaf Lannestock |
Language | Swedish |
Genre | Historic drama |
Publisher | Bonniers (Swedish edition) |
Publication date | 1949, 1952, 1956, 1959 |
Publication place | Sweden |
Published in English | 1951, 1954, 1961, 1961 |
Media type | |
Pages | 1780 (in total, Swedish edition) |
The Emigrants is the collective name of a series of four novels by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg:
Written in the mid-20th century, they explore the large Swedish emigration to the United States that started about a century earlier. Many of the first immigrants settled in the Midwest, including the Minnesota Territory:
All of the books have been translated into English, in addition to numerous other languages. The novels are generally considered to be among the best works of Swedish literature.
The first novel describes conditions in Sweden that caused people to become emigrants and make the long and strenuous journey. A party of assorted people living in the province of Småland, Sweden, is explored as they decide to emigrate to the United States in 1850. (Later novels deal with their journey and settling in the Minnesota Territory.) They are among the first significant wave of Swedish emigration to the United States.
The novel focuses primarily on Karl Oskar Nilsson and his wife, Kristina Johansdotter, a young married couple who live with their four small children (Anna, Johan, Lill-Märta, and Harald) and Karl Oskar's parents and his rebellious younger brother Robert. The family lives on a small farm at Korpamoen, where the soil is thin and rocky and so growing crops extremely difficult. Robert works for a neighbouring farm family, which mistreats him. He and with his friend Arvid first come across accounts of going to America. When he talks with Karl Oskar about the idea, his brother says that he too is intrigued by pamphlets that state that farmers' conditions in North America are much better. Also, they will be able to homestead to acquire land. Kristina, however, adamantly opposes emigrating since she does not want to leave her homeland or to risk the lives of her children during the journey.
In the winter of 1849, the family has very little food. To celebrate the christening of their youngest child, Harald, Kristina prepares a large bowl of barley porridge and puts it into the basement to cool. Although she is told to wait, their eldest child, four-year-old Anna, helps herself to so much porridge that she becomes ill. Her parents send for Beata, a healing woman, but she says that Anna's stomach has burst and that she cannot be saved. After Anna dies, Kristina agrees to leave with her husband for America.
As they prepare to emigrate, the young Nilssons are joined by Kristina's uncle and aunt, Danjel and Inga-Lena Andreasson, and their four children. Danjel is the pastor of a local conventicle of the Radical Pietistic Åkianer sect. He has suffered severe persecution by the established state-controlled Church of Sweden. Andreasson seeks religious freedom in the United States. His family is joined by Ulrika of Västergöhl, a former prostitute and member of the conventicle who wants to start a new life with her illegitimate teenage daughter, Elin. Andreasson is paying for the passage of Ulrika and Elin and for Robert's friend Arvid, who worked for him as a farmhand. The last member of the party is Jonas Petter, a friend of Karl Oskar, who is fleeing an unhappy marriage.
The party sets off by wagon for the Swedish port city of Karlshamn, on the Baltic Sea, where they board the brig Charlotta, bound for New York City.
By 2013, the four novels in total had sold nearly two million copies in Sweden and been translated into more than 20 languages. [1]
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the series was adapted for other forms of representation: three films, and television series, and musical theatre.
Two Swedish movies based on the books, directed by Jan Troell and starring Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann as Karl Oskar and Kristina, were released in the 1970s:
The American television series The New Land (1974) starred Scott Thomas, Bonnie Bedelia, and Kurt Russell, and was broadcast by ABC. The series was loosely based on the 1971 and 1972 film adaptations. 13 episodes were produced, but only 6 aired.
The Swedish musical Kristina från Duvemåla (1995) was based on the novels. It was created by former ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. It was successful in Sweden and abroad.[ citation needed ]
Another Swedish film adaptation, titled simply The Emigrants (2021), starred Gustaf Skarsgård, Lisa Carlehed and Tove Lo. Its screenplay was written by Siv Rajendram Eliassen and Anna Bache-Wiig, and the film was directed by Erik Poppe. [4] It was released on digital platforms in August 2023. [5]
The Emigrants is a 1971 Swedish drama film directed and co-written by Jan Troell, and starring Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Eddie Axberg, Allan Edwall, Monica Zetterlund, and Pierre Lindstedt. It and its 1972 sequel, The New Land (Nybyggarna), which were produced concurrently, are based on Vilhelm Moberg's The Emigrants, a series of novels about poor Swedes who emigrate from Småland, Sweden, in the mid-19th century and make their home in Minnesota. This film adapts the first two of the four novels, which depict the hardships the emigrants experience in Sweden and on their journey to America.
Franconia Township is a township in Chisago County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,805 at the 2010 census, up from 1,128 in 2000. The township is home to the Franconia Sculpture Park.
Lindström is a city in Chisago County, Minnesota, United States, located 35 miles northeast of the Twin Cities. The population was 4,888 at the 2020 census. Lindström's motto is America's Little [Sweden]. U.S. Highway 8 serves as a main route for the community.
Emmaboda Municipality is a municipality in Kalmar County, in south-eastern Sweden. Its seat is located in the town Emmaboda.
Karl Artur Vilhelm Moberg was a Swedish journalist, author, playwright, historian, and debater. His literary career, spanning more than 45 years, is associated with his four‑volume series The Emigrants. The novels, published between 1949 and 1959, deal with the Swedish emigration to the United States in the 19th century. They have been adapted for a total of three movies, and a musical.
Emmaboda is a locality and the seat of Emmaboda Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden. It had 4,824 inhabitants in 2010.
Monica Zetterlund was a Swedish jazz singer and actress. Through her lifetime, she starred in over 10 Swedish film productions and recorded over 20 studio albums. She gained international fame through her collaborative album with Bill Evans, Waltz for Debby.
Kristina från Duvemåla("Kristina from Duvemåla") is a Swedish musical written by former ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus (lyrics) and Benny Andersson (music). It is based on a series of four novels by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg detailing a family's poverty-driven migration from Sweden to America in the mid-19th century: The Emigrants (1949), Unto a Good Land (1952), The Settlers (1956), and The Last Letter Home (1959).
The New Land is a 1972 Swedish film co-written and directed by Jan Troell and starring Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Eddie Axberg, Allan Edwall, Monica Zetterlund, and Pierre Lindstedt. It and its 1971 predecessor, The Emigrants (Utvandrarna), which were produced concurrently, are based on Vilhelm Moberg's The Emigrants, a series of four novels about poor Swedes who emigrate from Småland, Sweden, in the mid-19th century and make their home in Minnesota.
An emigrant is a person who has participated in emigration
The Emigrants is a novel by Vilhelm Moberg. It is the first of his four-novel series entitled The Emigrants. In these he explores the causes and process of the major Swedish emigration to the United States beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, and their settling in such frontier areas as the Minnesota Territory.
Unto a Good Land is a Swedish novel by Vilhelm Moberg. It is the second of his four-novel The Emigrants series.
The Settlers is a novel by Swedish writer Vilhelm Moberg. It is the third and the longest part of his four novels in the series The Emigrants.
The Last Letter Home is a 1959 historical novel by Swedish writer Vilhelm Moberg. It is the fourth and final novel of his The Emigrants series. It is the shortest book of the four and has a faster pace.
Chisago Lakes is an area of Chisago County, Minnesota, along Highway 8. The Chisago Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce includes the combined areas of Shafer, Center City, Chisago City, Almelund, Taylor's Falls, and Lindström.
Johan Allan Edwall was a Swedish actor, director, author, composer and singer, best-known outside Sweden for the small roles he played in some of Ingmar Bergman's films, such as Fanny and Alexander (1982). He found his largest audience in the Scandinavian countries for playing lovable characters in several of the film and TV adaptations of the children's stories by Astrid Lindgren. He attended Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Training Academy from 1949 to 1952. During his long career he appeared in over 400 works. At the 10th Guldbagge Awards in 1974, he won the award for Best Actor for his role in Emil and the Piglet.
Samfundet De Nio is a Swedish literary society founded on 14 February 1913 in Stockholm by a testamentary donation from writer Lotten von Kraemer. The society has nine members who are elected for life. Its purpose is to promote Swedish literature, peace and women's issues. It mainly presents a number of literary awards. It was started as an alternative to the Swedish Academy and is often compared to its more noted cousin.
Swedish Emigrant Institute was a research center and museum designed to preserve records and memorabilia relating to Swedish-American migration.
The titles Hovsångare for men and Hovsångerska for women are awarded by the Swedish monarch to a singer who, by their vocal art, has contributed to the international standing of Swedish singing. The formal title was introduced by King Gustav III of Sweden in 1773, with the first recipients being Elisabeth Olin and Carl Stenborg. The position as such, however, dates back to the 17th century, when Anne Chabanceau de La Barre and Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre were singers at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden.
Fredrik Olaus Nilsson, also known as F. O. Nilsson, was a pioneer Swedish Baptist pastor and missionary who founded Sweden's first free church, a Baptist congregation. He married Ulrika Sophia Olsson (1812–1903) on 7 June 1845.