A Journey Through Josefine Ottesen’s Universe

By : Tove Roed

Josefine Ottesen trained as an actor and a clown in the United States; since 1977 she has worked in children’s theater as an actor, director, and playwright. She made her literary debut in 1983 with the illustrated story Prinsesse Morgenrøde og Lindormen (Princess Dawn and the Dragon). 

Her major works are without a doubt the wonderful stories Eventyret om Fjeren og Rosen (The Tale of the Feather and the Rose) from 1986, Dragens kys (Kiss of the Dragon) from 1993 (reissued in 1999), and Regnbuestenen (The Rainbow Quartz) from 1999.  For her pioneering fairytale Eventyret om Fjeren og Rosen, Josefine Ottesen received the Children’s Book Prize in 1986, awarded by the Ministry of Culture.  It is a story in which Ottesen establishes the theme which she would continue to develop in her next books: a sense of discord and suspicion that makes some people seem good while others seem evil. Only when there is mutual understanding can what is truly evil be conquered: reptiles, dragons, and drought.

In Regnbuestenen, as in other fantasy stories, the reader is led into a universe that cannot be identified in terms of specific time or place -- a society which is quickly revealed to be profoundly out of balance.

For a long time the little island community of Liban has been suffering from drought.  It is ruled by the Master Singer Durri, who is assumed to possess special powers. The Master Singer was chosen because he is able to make contact with the Sealas, the shy people of the hidden valley.  But lies, suppression, and abuse of power reign in the little community.  The Master Singer admits to being an impostor in a confidential conversation with Tinka, the island’s scribe.  For a long time he has been unable to hear the voices of the Sealas; in fact, he no longer believes they exist.  The rituals, the sacred songs and dances with the Rainbow Quartz and the Master Singer in the center, have all turned hollow and meaningless.  They lack the dimension that only the Sealas can give them.  And the Rainbow Quartz is cracked; the rainbow, which brings the life-giving water, can no longer be conjured forth.

Our heroine is Leela, a girl who is 13 or 14 years old.  When we meet her, she is sitting in the sacred area, where she is one of Tinka’s students.  Her assignment is to copy down what on the surface seems to be maintaining the society: the verses of the sacred songs.  Leela is clearly not properly integrated into the society.  She doesn’t speak, she has no parents, and no one knows where she came from.  In fact, she has only one real friend: Tai, the Master Singer’s son.  The other children regard her with suspicion: Is she crazy because she can’t talk, or does she actually possess hidden powers?

Gradually it becomes apparent to both Leela and the reader that she does have special powers.  When this also becomes apparent to the Master Singer, she has to flee.  She ends up among the poorest in society, with the street children who survive by stealing and playing music in the marketplace.  Only when she feels safe in these surroundings does she give up her isolation and regain her ability to speak.

But the Master Singer has not forgotten her, and she has to flee once again. Through her encounter with various helpers, she becomes able to take on her real mission: to re-establish the balance between what is visible and what is invisible in society.  Before reaching this point, Leela must undergo a personal transformation; she must learn to have full trust in herself and her special powers.  After a long period of inner resistance she decides to believe in the Sealas and subsequently seeks them out.  Here she finally learns her own story.  She is the daughter of the former Master Singer and his wife, a Seala, who died when Leela was born.  She becomes an apprentice with these shy people who have almost no powers left; in this way she will be able to make the crucial journey over the Rainbow to find a new, whole Rainbow Quartz.  Only then can she take up the battle against the false Master Singer and seize her place as the new, true Master Singer.

Regnbuestenen can be read as a thought-provoking allegory about a society that is ruled by the desire for growth and progress at all costs.  But it is also possible for the reader to be simply swept away by this fantastical universe, experiencing Leela’s travails and triumphs along with her.

Josefine Ottesen demonstrates a completely different side of her talents in the illustrated book De artigste børn i verden (The Best Behaved Children in the World) from 1999.  The illustrator Julie Kyhl expands the grotesque dimensions with her choice of ironic elements, with her salute to illustrations of the 1950s, and with her use of intense colors.

In this story the parents assume the traditional role of children: They play, make noise, and create a mess!  The children, on the other hand, wish only to be the best behaved children in the world; they are so well-behaved that they even ask permission to blink their eyes or to swallow.  They set the breakfast table for their parents, make coffee, and put out the food -- without a single argument.  When the children get fed up with their parents, they set off into the world; soon they meet a beautiful rich woman who wants to pretend these well-behaved children are her own.  But alas, the world can be too regulated, even for well-behaved children.  So Petra Frederikke and Bent Hugo return home, and both the children and the parents have been changed by the separation. The parents have become normal parents -- at least they have cleaned up the house -- and now the children dare to be “normal” children.

In her popular fairytales for children, both big and small, Josefine Ottesen hints that there are many ways of looking at life.  Through her main characters she shows that people must learn through their own experiences that the world cannot be simply divided up into good and evil, truth and lies.  The person you think is your enemy may turn out to be your ally in the process of re-establishing balance in the world.

This article was first published in Danish Children’s Literature no 17

Translated by Tina Nunnally