Utopia in the belly of the earth

On Niels Klim

By : Steffen Larsen

Ludvig Holberg's venerable polemic against intolerance is just right for children

With a boathook under his arm, a learned man falls into a hole in the ground outside of Bergen, Norway, and disappears for 12 years. This is the setting for Ludvig Holberg's classic and controversial novel Niels Klim's Journey to the World Underground, which was published in 1741.
   The book was written in Latin and published anonymously in Leipzig. Nevertheless, it was very nearly banned by the very religious King Christian VI (1730 – 46). And Niels Klim is very much an attack on spiritual thick-headedness and intolerance in Holberg's time or, indeed, in all times. A theme just as vital then as it is today.
   The novel about Niels Klim belongs to a well-established branch of European literary tradition. Gulliver's Travels and Montequieu's Persian Letters were published at the beginning of the century, and Niels Klim also became a bestseller on the European market – Holberg's greatest success. Even without book fairs, the novel was translated into all the major European languages in just a few years.
   Now, it is 250 years later, and Agertoft Publishing has had the bright idea of uniting Denmark's foremost political author for children with Dorte Karrebæk, the great illustrator and connoisseur of human foibles. Niels Klim's Journey to the World Underground is being published in four big volumes of which three have already been issued.
   Kåre Bluitgen retains the Latin verbosity and antiquated tenor of the language. There are many strange people, trees and lands in this world in the belly of our own.
   Kåre Bluitgen faithfully relates all the strange places and customs which Klim encounters during his long journey among talking trees and itinerant bass fiddles, among other things. It is incredible how much they resemble us! There are only a few lines on each land. The erudite Niels Klim with his papers from the University of Copenhagen has, perhaps, his happiest encounters in the land of the young oak trees in our inner world of Nazar. But he is bored, for its inhabitants all stand completely still just like oak trees. His most dreadful adventure, however, is in the land ruled by women – which Klim contemplates often. Beyond its political aspirations, Niels Klim is also a philosophical book, ruminating on the idea of happiness and the best form of society.
   Most of the space is devoted to Dorte Karrebæk's zesty commentaries on the text. There is no attempt here, either, to update or modernize the narrative. Her drawings are rendered with a distinctive humour, pleasing to the eye and, sometimes, violent. They have depth and clarity. Many of the trees hearken back to the toes that are a Dorte Karrebæk specialty. They strut about in stylish form – these trees. And as Niels Klim gradually grows accustomed to this new world, something wooden also begins to stick out from beneath his shirt. Certainly, Holberg would not have objected to the depiction of Niels Klim's penis, but he would have been surprised that it was necessary.
   Niels Klim is one of the most energetic attacks on intolerance and spiritual stupidity in world literature.
   Of course, we have become much wiser in 250 years, but has the threshold of our tolerance also become higher? That is the question this revered writer of comedies asks the children of today. Kåre Bluitgen and Dorte Karrebæk have captured and passed along his message.

From Danish Children's Literature 17, Spring 2000

Translated by Russel Dees