Swedish
Since I have come to realize that some people are actually quite interested in learning Swedish, I thought I’d start a little series: Today’s Swedish word. I’ll post one Swedish word and explain it briefly. Just a word of warning – even if it’s called Today’s Swedish word, it doesn’t mean I’ll be posting every day. I’ll post whenever I feel inspired, as usual.
Martin Stenmarck – again
More Swedish. 🙂
Martin Stenmarck – Hundra ĂĄr frĂĄn nu (Blundar och hĂĄller andan lite till)
The title means A hundred years from now (I close my eyes and hold my breath a little longer.)
Niclas Wahlgren – another Swedish song
Another Swedish song: Niclas Wahlgren – I himlen har jag aldrig varit (I’ve never been to heaven)
I love this guy and I love this song, that he wrote for his son, Tim. Fatherly advice for a kid growing up.
If you’re interested, check out this video, to see what Niclas looked like in the mid 1980’s. The clip is from a movie, so taken out of context it will most likely be incomprehensible, but it will show you the young Niclas. Here is another one (you don’t need to watch the whole clip) from the late 1990’s, of Niclas and his sister Pernilla. Finally, this clip is from last year, again you’ll see Niclas and his sister.
Martin Stenmarck – Seven Mile Paces
First I have to warn my readers (listeners/viewers) that this song is in Swedish. It’s a great song, by a guy I’m crazy about. His girlfriend will have to forgive me. LOL.
Another Swedish mystery writer
I suppose I might mention Anna Jansson too. A few years ago, I read some of her books and thought they were quite ok, but at the time, I was busily devouring other, more interesting books – Barbara Nadel’s mysteries and Eliot Pattison’s among others – so I wasn’t particularly impressed. This summer I got my hands on a few other books by her and either she’s improved or I’m in a different mood right now. Last year one of her mysteries was turned into a tv series, which I quite liked.
Anna Jansson is a nurse who turned to writing mysteries. Her books are set on the island of Gotland. The setting is one reason I find these books so interesting. Gotland is a very special place, with a fascinating history. Her heroine is female cop Maria Wern. She seems quite intelligent, but not particularly tough, not like the tv version, played by Eva Röse, who is an excellent Swedish actress. In a few of the books, there’s a medical theme, which seems appropriate.
Wallander
Since the (originally) Swedish Wallander mysteries have been successfully exported to the UK, I thought I’d put in my two cents’ on this topic. In an earlier post, I’ve already mentioned that they’re not quite my thing. What I would like to discuss is something else. In the UK reviewers are raving about Kenneth Branagh in Wallander. After seeing what seems to be season 1 of that, I must say I enjoyed it more than the Swedish version.
What I’m reacting to is just one thing that keeps being repeated over and over again, in the reviews, in the UK and even in the US. Sweden is gloomy. What? Ok, I’ll admit that the north, far away from Wallander’s Scania, could be described as gloomy, especially during the dark season, which, frankly, lasts almost all the year around. That’s the north, not Scania. If you went to Scania presumably you’d notice that much of Sweden is pretty ordinary. The scenery is beautiful. (I just had to mention that. After all, I live here. I like the scenery.) But let’s get this straight once and for all, Scanians are not gloomy. Not generally. Sure, anyone can get gloomy, especially if you work hard all day tracing killers and dealing with gruesome murders. Are the British sleuths any more cheerful?
This is how the rest of us Swedes (or Goths, as I am – and no, I’m not dressed in black, we’re called goths anyway and there’s a fascinating linguistic or semantic explanation to why there are so many goths worldwide, especially throughout history) view Scania and the Scanians:
They’re jolly, positive people. They love to eat and drink. Kind of, if you allow the metaphor or simile, like hobbits, though not as short and fat, well some might be, but then so can anyone. Scania is usually green and smiling, rather than gloomy, though personally I tend to agree that the area around Ystad might be described as gloomy, especially during the winter.
Swedish mysteries
Right now, Europe is discovering Swedish crime novels. I just read an article on the Guardian’s website which mentioned, among others, Stieg Larsson, Liza Marklund and Camilla Läckberg. The UK has already taken Henning Mankell’s Wallander mysteries to their heart.
It seems almost petty to mention that they’ve just scratched the surface. In all honesty, I haven’t read Stieg Larsson or Liza Marklund. I have however read Mankell, Nesser and Läckberg and I must say I wasn’t impressed. For instance, take the latter – when you write a ‘mystery’ that is so predictable that someone like me – a writer wannabe, but still just an amateur – knows exactly who is the killer, why he did it and how it all happened when I’m reading the first couple of lines of the second chapter – what does that tell you about the quality of the book?
Forget all of the above writers (the Whiskas people books – Whiskas people are those who go for the most popular of anything, in case you’re wondering). I’ll tell you about my favorites instead. Since we’re talking about Swedish mystery writers, I won’t go into my Finnish favorite, at least not here, or the British, American or French books I like. So, here goes…
Emma Vall. She’s really three persons using the same pen name. They’re reporters, and so is their main character Amanda Rönn. She investigates crimes in the northern town Sundsvall. Emma Vall also writes mysteries for kids, about a girl named Svala (she’s originally from Iceland, hence the unusual name). The mysteries for kids are as well written as the others. My only problem with the kids’ books, is that they’re a little predictable. The basis is as follows: Svala makes a few new friends (or reconnects with some old friends) who have a problem. She starts to investigate to help them. That’s it. Don’t let that stop you from reading them, if you like books for older kids. They’re still good, even if the writers might want to vary the ‘recipe’ a little. If I have to criticize anything about the ‘grownup’ mysteries, it’s the fact that while Amanda Rönn is relatively young – just over 30 – she prefers men who are around 60. I think that’s because one of the writers is about that age herself and creates love interests of her own age. All their books are well written and definitely worth reading.
Arne Dahl. Pen name for a man named Jan Arnald. In addition to writing mysteries he’s also a short story writer, editor and critic. His mysteries are about a fictitious group investigating serious crime – the A group. The group employs quite a few people, so chances are you’ll find a main character you’ll like. For instance out of the roughly ten people involved, I primarily like two of them, both male, but there’s no one I absolutely can’t stand. These books are well written and fascinating, but once in a while, Arne Dahl tends to get a little too fanciful (I noticed this in Hidden Numbers (Mörkertal).
Thomas Kanger. He’s a reporter too, just like the women behind Emma Vall. His main character is young cop Elina Wiik who works in VästerĂĄs in eastern Sweden. Just like most cops, she’s single and trying to find time to date in the midst of her busy professional life. I used to like these books and I still like most of them. However, in The Borderland (Gränslandet) he just gets too fanciful for my taste. There’s absolutely no logic in the ending. It stops being a mystery and turns into speculative fiction and that just isn’t appropriate, without any warning. The earlier books are still fine, but I won’t recommend The Borderland.
Ă…sa Nilsonne. She’s actually a psychiatrist and medical doctor, but also writes excellent mysteries about the cop Monika Pedersen, working in Stockholm. Monika Pedersen is single (is there any cop who isn’t either single or divorced?), but has a close male friend, who is gay. Most of the cases are investigated in central Stockholm, but in the last book Monika goes to Ethiopia to follow up on a lead.
Storm
For me, who lives in a small town, being able to watch all the movies I want is not something I can take for granted. Now I’ve taken care of that. That’s why I’ve seen more movies in the past couple of years, than I have for ages. Nice. It’s always fun to get a little variety. Otherwise it’s usually mainly tv (besides books, music and so on).
This time, I’d like to comment on a Swedish movie, Storm. The main characters are played by Eric Ericson (The Befallen/De drabbade), Eva Röse (The Befallen/De drabbade) and Jonas Karlsson (Once in a lifetime/Livet är en schlager). Since I live in the west of Sweden, I recognize some of the places the movie were shot in, and of course that’s fun. By chance, I walked by when the scene in the town square was shot (the one with the merry-go-rounds and so on). At the time, I had no idea what it was about.
The plot is centered around Donny (“DD”). He’s a pretty slimy guy, who slides around the trendy, cool places in Stockholm. Life and people around him are merely props and background for his constant chase after easy, quick experiences like free drinks and shared cocaine. He doesn’t date, because he considers that too expensive. Instead he studies hot women, so he can recall them later, when, as he puts it, he wants ‘a cozy moment’.
Suddenly, his comfortable, shallow life is turned upside down when a mysterious woman more or less lands on his cab. By then, Donny’s already seen her lower herself from a passageway crossing his street, down to his level. Since he doesn’t want to get involved with anyone else, Donny’s more concerned with his own safety, but despite that, he gets drawn into the mystery woman – Lova’s (pronounced Lor-vah) – adventures.
At times things get really menacing. An ominous man in dark clothes follows Lova everywhere she goes, and seems intent on silencing her for good. Now that Donny is involved too, he too has to run from the dark man.
After a while, Donny begins to realize that it’s far from a coincidence that he’s been pulled into the dramatic and mysterious incidents. Everything seems to be connected to his past. Eventually he needs to choose between trusting the dark man or Lova. The choice will have major consequences for his future.
I won’t say more about the plot, but the movie is really exciting and interesting. It does look a bit like a computer game, but I think it’s rather well done. Some people who have seen the movie complain about the dialogue, but I think you get a reasonable explanation as to why it sounds like it does. Watch the movie and you’ll find what it’s about.
When I rated the movie at some movie sites, I gave it a four, out of five. You might not agree, but I think you’ll find the movie worth watching.
Language – Swedish
Here’s the next installment in my little series of posts about my language studies.
First I’d like to mention Swedish. To someone who isn’t Swedish, or lives in Sweden, it might be difficult to explain what is so cool about it. It’s a small language, spoken only by about 9 -10 million people. But it’s an interesting, and, to some people’s ears, beautiful language. I can’t tell if Swedish is beautiful or not. If you’ve heard a language spoken since before you were born, it’s hard to think of it in terms of beautiful or ugly.
Many people here in Sweden tend to think of Swedish as ‘the worst language in the world’. That’s not true, but I’m afraid I thought something like that when I was younger. I was convinced that soon Swedish would die out, swallowed up by a flood of anglicisms. What’s the point of having different languages if they all sound like English, or rather Anglo?
Swedish is expressive, functional, and just as good as any other language in the world. It might be difficult to learn, but again, I can’t tell you how difficult it is. After all, I was born with it.
Swedish might not be spoken on several continents, but it is quite an important language on a smaller scale, around the Baltic sea. It’s spoken by 9 million people in Sweden and 300 000 in Finland. Apart from that, it’s used as a second or third language by the Finnish speaking Finns in Finland, and by many Estonians (that’s in Estonia, to the south of Finland).
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a dialect and a language. Well, one definition I’ve read is that if you can understand what the other guys are saying (without study), then you’re speaking different dialects, and if not, different languages. And since we in Sweden understand the Norwegians (in Norway) and with some effort, the Danes (in Denmark), but not the Icelanders (in Iceland) or the Finns (in Finland), then in fact, we might be speaking different dialects of Nordic. Perhaps East Nordic.
What we call Swedish is not entirely made up of Ancient Nordic (which might have sounded a bit like Icelandic). In medieval times, Swedish was heavily influenced by German. In fact, back in those days, people in Iceland, Greenland, the British Isles, all of Scandinavia and at least the northern part of Germany understood each other, a bit like Swedes and Danes can understand each other with a bit of effort. I think that’s kind of cool.
Neither do I speak American, as spoken in the US, or Canadian (as spoken by Canadians, at least some of them). Hence Anglo. If you have a better suggestion, please get in touch and let me know.
Swedish, along with the other Nordic languages, other Germanic languages (like German, English and Dutch, Romance languages (like French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese) and even Greek, all belong to the Indo-European language group.
Languages like Finnish, Estonian, Samish (Lap) and Hungarian do not. They belong to the Fenno-Ugrian language group. There are several of these language groups, but I’ll only mention one more, just as an example – the Semitic-Hamitic language group (Arabic and Hebrew).
