Selma Lagerlöf - Peace on Earth

The most beautiful Christmas stories
By Selma Lagerlöf
Collaboration and translation: Holger Wolandt and Marie Franzos

144 pages with numerous Christmas pictures. Hardcover. 18 cm.

Among the most beautiful of the well-known Christmas stories by the Swedish Nobel Prize winner, this edition includes a story that has never been published in German before and which can also be counted among her most successful: Peace on Earth .
Using her own powerful visual language, the author conveys the central Christmas message. Seven Christmas paintings by the Swedish artist Carl Larsson complete the atmospheric gift ribbon.

Table of contents:
Peace on Earth
The Holy Night
The Legend of the Christmas Rose
Peace of God
A Christmas guest
The Mousetrap
The skull

Reading sample:
"The household members sit together in the living room on Christmas Eve, holiday peace in their hearts. The cattle have had their feed, the bath is over, a thin layer of straw has been spread on the floor, the best clothes have been put on, two tallow candles are burning on the table, and at the end of the table sits the head of the household reading from God's Word.
As he reads about the adoration of the shepherds and the angels' greeting of peace, the door opens—not all the way, but just enough so that someone standing outside can peer in without being seen. Immediately afterwards, a creature scurries like lightning into the living room, pulls the door firmly shut behind him, and slides the hook and bolt in place. The head of the house, who is reading aloud, notices that someone has come in, but doesn't interrupt his reading. But the married daughter, sitting next to him, puts her hand on his arm in alarm. 'Father,' she whispers, 'look, Father!'" From: Peace on Earth

Selma Lagerlöf , born in 1858, immersed herself as a child in the legends of her native Värmland. Her first novel, "Gösta Berling," is now one of the world's most widely read Swedish books. She achieved worldwide fame with her "Christ Legends," "Jerusalem," and "Nils Holgersson." In 1909, she became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In 1881, against her father's wishes, she ventured to Stockholm to train as a teacher, thus beginning her journey into the world. She became a teacher in Landskrona, southern Sweden, and from there undertook her first travels. She shared a friendship and love with Sophie Elkan, with whom she traveled extensively, and equally with Valborg Olander, who shared her daily work life in Värmland. The busy writer and landowner campaigned for women's suffrage, and from 1914 for peace and pacifism, and from 1933 for refugees from Germany such as Nelly Sachs. During the Winter War of 1939, her commitment was to supporting Finland before she died on March 16, 1940, on her estate in Mårbacka.

Holger Wolandt , born in Würzburg in 1962, studied Nordic philology in Munich and has lived in Stockholm for many years as an author, translator, and editor. Among other works, he edited Selma Lagerlöf's short stories in three volumes. He published the biography "Selma Lagerlöf - Värmland and the World" with Urachhaus, edited the correspondence "Dear Sophie - Dear Valborg - A Love Triangle in Letters," and translated numerous novels by Selma Lagerlöf.

Marie Franzos (1870–1941) was a translator, women's rights activist, and librarian. After passing the French state examination, she began to learn languages ​​as a self-taught scholar, including Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Italian, and Spanish. Marie Franzos made a name for herself primarily as a translator of the works of Scandinavian writers. She also gave lectures and chaired conferences on Scandinavian literature. For her efforts, she was awarded the Golden Medal Litteris et Artibus by King Oscar of Sweden and Norway in 1905.

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