The first thing one is struck by when reading Leif Esper Andersen’s
stories is his ability to focus on theme, while at the same time getting right
in under the skin of his main characters. He guides his reader through a
well-structured, exciting story using clear and simple language, the separate
parts of which contribute in clarifying the whole elegantly and with ease. His
themes are timeless. The fact that since his death he has been three times
among the top 25 writers with most books on Danish library shelves is probably
due precisely to this timelessness. His works ”Træl og fri” (Slave and Freeman) and ”Heksefeber” (Witch Fever), and to a certain extent ”Fremmed” (Alien) have become standard
school texts when teaching Danish.
Leif Esper Andersen started by writing a couple of easy readers about
the Viking period. He followed this with his first full-length novel, ”Witch Fever”(1973), for which he was
awarded the Danish Teachers’ Society Children’s Book Prize on the occasion of
their one hundred year jubilee in 1974. ”Witch
Fever” takes place round about 1500. It is about a boy named Esben, whose
mother is a so-called wise woman or nature healer who gets accused and burnt
for being a witch. Esben manages to escape. As luck would have it he is found
by Wise-Hans, another nature healer, who he subsequently lives with. Here,
Esben gets the opportunity of gradually telling his story. However, the idyll
is broken again when Wise-Hans is in turn accused of being in league with the
Devil. The theme of the book is struck in a little prologue: ”Maybe they are
frightened. No, not maybe. People are frightened. When one is frightened one
has to find something to protect oneself with. And if one doesn’t know what one
is frightened of, one has to find somrthing to protect oneself against.” The
story in ”Witch Fever” starts
characteristically enough at full speed with lots of excitement: ” His mouth
was open, and he gasped for breath as he ran over the meadows along the fiord. He
still had the smoke and heat from the bonfire in his nose and lungs. And the
screams still filled his head and threatened to blow it open.” Though the novel
does not end happily it is a beautiful, moving story that is hard to forget. Both
in ”Witch Fever”, but also in his
later novel ”Slave and Freeman” it is
to a large degree the respect for and involvement in surrounding nature in the
book that helps open the children’s minds and enables them to find some kind of
balance in their lives.
Leif Esper Andersen’s next novel was ”Alien”
(1975), which won him the Ministry of Culture’s Children’s Book Prize in
1976. It is a tremendously harsh story about a 15-year-old Yugoslavian boy
named Josef who moves to Denmark with his family. Here he meets the first big
love of his life, but also xenophobia, a hatred that is too unbearable. A theme
that Leif Esper Andersen used again in the short easy reader ”Du skal ikke tro, du er noget” (Remember
you’re a nothing) (1977), about a big-city boy who moves to a village -
also a harrowing story with no happy ending. Leading left-wing critics of the
day criticised the book for going too near the problem without pointing out a
solution. In reality it can also be said that this is exactly where the
strength of the book lies. It comes close and describes reality without
colouring it, and it manages to involve the reader also after the book is
finished.
His third longer novel was ”Slave
and Freeman” (1979) that was published posthumously. It is a beautiful
moving story about two boys, one a slave the other the son of a chief, set in
the Viking period. They are the only survivors of a violent attack on their
settlement, after which they have to manage alone for many months until the men
return home from their expedition. The theme of the story is slavery. The son
of the chief quickly realises that he cannot go on treating the slaveboy as
such if they are going to survive. and he also realises that the slaveboy has
not always been a slave: ” This means that it’s always the strongest who
believes he has the right to make others slaves, because he’s the strongest. That
might is right. But that’s not true. Might is wrong.”
As the weeks and months pass by a friendship develops between the boys,
and the suspense grows as the return of the Vikings approaches. What is going
to happen to the slave?
Leif Esper Andersen was a qualified school teacher, who had in effect
only eight active years as a writer before he died of an illness. His book ”Journaler” (Journals) (1979) describes
his illness and all of his hospitalisations. Nevertheless, he managed to write
more than 25 books in his short period as a writer – many of them easy readers,
including the series about Ditte - a delightful lively series about a 6-year-old
girl, intended for children who have just learnt to read. He has also tried his
hand at the fairytale genre, with modern pastiches of some of Grimm’s
Fairytales: ” The Tale of the Prince who wanted to work” and ”How Soeren became
King.” They are entertaining and comply to the world of fairytale and its
rules.
A number of Leif Esper Andersen’s books have been translated for example
to Japanese, Russian, German, Swedish, and Norwegian. His books clearly have international
character, as he is able to handle human problems regardless of place and time
by focusing on what is essential.
(2001)
