Piggy Friends

By : Annette Bach

Seen from the outside, the Danes appear to get on rather well with pigs, at any rate if the approach is via Danish children’s literature. These doughty and amusing pigs turn up in all kinds of variations, most recently in a new book by Thorstein Thomsen, with illustrations by Lillian Brøgger, published by Carlsens.

Entitled Grisens hus (The Pig’s House), it tells of little Prince Knud, who makes friends with a little pig. But as Knud grows up, becomes king and subject to stress, he simply forgets his little pig, and some years have to elapse before he realises that he has forgotten the fun there is in life and his old friend.<

There is a good moral to the story, which tells with a matter-of-fact humour of the process Knud has to go through. However, at the same time, the story is loyal to Knud as a person, and in this way Thorstein Thomsen shows turning into an adult and becoming stressed are not necessarily the result of ill will. It all happens without your noticing it, so that you must be on guard and remember to remember your old friends. The story is accompanied with Lillian Brøgger’s spirited illustrations which in line and detail match the wry humour and the game being played.

This article was published in Danish Children’s Literature no 14

Translated by W. Glyn Jones