Thøger Birkeland

By : Bent Rasmussen

Thøger Birkeland, born in Kalundborg in 1922, is the ’grand old man’ of Danish children’s books. He was only 21 years old when he completed his training as a teacher in 1943, but got tuberculosis after only three months’ teaching. Fortunately the sanitarium for tuberculosis had an old typewriter, which Thøger Birkeland began using. He was thrilled to discover that it gave him a lot of pleasure.
   He studied Danish, psychology, and education at Denmark’s Institute for Teachers (now Denmark’s University of Education) after being declared fit and well, and took up teaching again after that. Thøger Birkeland stopped working as a teacher in 1979, a career that included ”twenty-five years as a playground supervisor!” as a book about him is entitled. Since then he has been a full-time writer and lecturer.
   Thøger Birkeland made his debut in 1958 with his children’s novel Drengene fra Stenborgen (The Boys from Stone Castle). However, he had already written quite a bit in the years prior to this, amongst other things brief story outlines, short stories, and feature articles. Everything he wrote had something to do with children. Some of the writings from this period were accepted in the literary magazine ”Hvedekorn” (Grains of Wheat), the publishing house Politiken’s ”Magasinet” (The Magazine), and ”Hjemmet Søndag” (At Home on Sunday).
   His second children’s novel, Når hanen galer (When the Cock Crows), which was originally submitted to a publishing house competition but failed to win, was published in 1961. The manuscript nevertheless got published. It was a successful gamble, as the following year this very book won Thøger Birkeland The Ministry of Culture’s Children’s Book Prize. It is probably also the book that is (still) his own favourite. He simply feels that it is the most spontaneous story he has ever written. This is, for example, distinctly experienced in the crazy inventiveness among the child characters, and the far more manifold presentation of a school and its teachers than was usual practice then. Showing the children solidarity – and especially the weaker ones – is – and has been – Thøger Birkeland’s most distinctive ”trademark” , and something that characterizes all of his books!
   His principal inspiration has come from being together with children in school. There are glimpses of school life in almost all of his books, but newspapers, books, films, as well as lots of conversations with many different people have also been important sources of inspiration to him. For example, he lets Dennis, one of the characters in ”Ghost Cliff”, steal a fully-loaded beer lorry so that his mates can quench their thirsts. The story has its roots in reality, and was told him by a member of staff at Kofoed’s School in Copenhagen. Andy in ”the Lulli Books” is another example of how Thøger Birkeland gathers material to form a character. He had three central events in mind that all determined how Andy became Andy. 1) A boy who always drew war planes bombing no matter what the set task happened to be in his art lessons 2) Once when Thøger Birkeland was a passenger on the boat to Norway, he met three boys who had run away from home. They really wanted to go to Sweden, but because they thought that the ship to Norway looked more impressive they boarded that. 3) A boy talked on a radio programme about changing schools, about being nicknamed ”Stinker”, and about the loneliness one feels when nobody comes to one’s birthday.
   Thøger Birkeland always tries to give an optimistic ending to his books. He also tries to give his characters at least a glimpse of hope in his more serious books. He has once said the following:
   ”I picture it as a long iron pipe, which has to have a light burning at the end of it, even if it’s no bigger than a candle off a birthday cake!”
   Thøger Birkeland’s main characters are mostly types that are a little frightened and unsure of themselves. This is especially the case for many of the boys in his books. His works contain a long list of excellent portraits of boys. This includes Lasse in Dage med Hvæs (Hissing Days 1985), Mathis i Saravastoja (Mathis in Saravastoja 1989), Valdemar in Valdemar i livsfare (Valdemar in Peril 1990), Martin in Otte tusser og en kat (Eight Toads and a Cat 1990), Karl Ejnar in Klejnar og hans bedste ven (Klejner and his Best Friend 1991), and Johan in Johan (Johan 1995).
   The books about the Krumborg family, alias the Crumbgolds, are central in his production. The first in the series, entitled Krummerne (The Crumbgolds), was published in 1969 and has since been re-printed four times reaching a total publication of 115,000 copies!
   The book is about a very lively family consisting of father, mother, and three children. Father Krumborg is a teacher, mother Krumborg is an infant teacher, big sister Stine and Mads, who is called Krumm, go to school, and baby brother ”Grunk” – the only sound he can utter – is really called Bertel. It would be reasonable to think that Thøger Birkeland has got a lot of inspiration from his own family!!
   All of the main characters in Thøger Birkeland’s novels, including Mads Krumborg, are in fact ”anti-heroes” and not tough guys who just take care of everything with no problem; but they manage even so. Another characteristic in Thøger Birkelands writing is the humour, which plays a central role in all his books. The humour is a way of surviving and it runs through his authorship in a nice way. There are eight books about the Crumbgolds including Julekrummer (Christmas Krumms 1981) that tells eight stories about the Krumborg family’s strange way of celebrating Christmas.
   The ”Krumm books” have a total publication of 250,000 copies!
   Thøger Birkeland has also written crime stories. Among these is ”Ghost Cliff” (1984) in which a couple of teenagers named Rie and Gorm get unintentionally in the way of a band of smugglers, and V som Viktor (V for Victor 1986), where we once again meet Detective Inspector Steen Bertelsen and his squad from ”Ghost Cliff” in a case that this time ends in kidnapping. A number of Thøger Birkeland’s books belong to the crime genre. Saftevandsmordet (The Lemonade Murder 1968) is a particularly elegantly compiled story about three brothers and sisters playing with the idea of doing away with their awful cousin. The reader is left in doubt as to whether or not there really was poison in the bottle of lemonade intended for cousin Peter, even after finishing the book.
   As well as having won the Ministry of Culture’s Children’s Book Prize Thøger Birkeland has also received Denmark’s School Librarian Association’s Children’s Book Award (1980), the Danish Bookshop Assistant Association’s Children’s Book Award (1981), and the Hans Christian Andersen Grant (1982). In 1983 a very large number of school children chose him as the most popular writer for 10 to 13-year-olds by. The same year he received Denmark’s School Librarian Association’s Children’s Book Award together with Bjarne Reuter, who he had also written a book together with, entitled Natten i Safarihulen (The Night in the Safari Cave).
   Thøger Birkeland has not written lengthy novels in recent years, but he has written a number of short easy-readers with exciting stories for the youngest readers who are well into reading. ”The group one writes for becomes younger and younger, as one gets older and older,” he commented some years ago. It is, however, characteristic of him that all his stories are always about significant problems children can relate to. Nothing is hidden from view, but the stories are at the same time positive and show solidarity, with a built-in hope that it ought to be possible to change something for the better. This has through all the years precisely been the special hallmark of Thøger Birkeland’s extensive and impressive production of about 80 works.

Translated by Ian Lukins