Nordic Childhoods 1700–1960

From Folk Beliefs to Pippi Longstocking

Reidar Aasgaard, Marcia Bunge, Merethe Roos, Reidar Aasgaard, Marcia Bunge, Merethe Roos

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351865913
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This volume strengthens interest and research in the fields of both Childhood Studies and Nordic Studies by exploring conceptions of children and childhood in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). Although some books have been written about the history of childhood in these countries, few are multidisciplinary, focus on this region as a whole, or are available in English. This volume contains essays by scholars from the fields of literature, history, theology, religious studies, intellectual history, cultural studies, Scandinavian studies, education, music, and art history. Contributors study the history of childhood in a wide variety of sources, such as folk and fairy tales, legal codes, religious texts, essays on education, letters, sermons, speeches, hymns, paintings, novels, and school essays written by children themselves. They also examine texts intended specifically for children, including text books, catechisms, newspapers, songbooks, and children's literature. By bringing together scholars from multiple disciplines who raise distinctive questions about childhood and take into account a wide range of sources, the book offers a fresh and substantive contribution to the history of childhood in the Nordic countries between 1700 and 1960. The volume also helps readers trace the historical roots of the internationally recognized practices and policies regarding child welfare within the Nordic countries today and prompts readers from any country to reflect on their own conceptions of and commitments to children.

1Introduction

Reidar Aasgaard and Marcia J. Bunge

Today, Nordic countries and the “Nordic models” are receiving growing attention around the world. The five countries that are called “Nordic”—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—are often hot topics in the news and international debates because they rank so highly in many measures of well-being. For example, they are ranked among the top countries in the world for economic success, political stability, and quality of life. The Nordic countries also earn top scores in studies of global happiness. They are often referred to as “welfare states” because they provide many services to the entire population, have a marked involvement of the state in the lives of its citizens, and nurture a strong sense of shared civic responsibility. They have universal health care, low poverty rates, small income gaps, well-developed social networks, and a high level of trust among the people and between the people and the civil authorities. Gender equality has also been given high priority. In 1906, Finland was the first European country to give women the right to vote, and many women have top positions within political, economic, and cultural life. Thus, the “Nordic model” and the “Nordic welfare states” are in many contexts referred to as “ideal,” “exceptional,” or even “nearly perfect.”¹ Of course, these countries are far from perfect, but they are nonetheless in many respects flourishing and well functioning. Thus, other countries are taking notice and paying attention to various Nordic “models,” as they seek to strengthen their own social, economic, and political life.

Along with these and other dimensions of “the Nordic,” these five ­countries are also internationally recognized for their long-standing commitments to child protection, child welfare, and children’s rights. The Nordic countries have a long history of providing health care to all children and are ranked highly in all categories of child well-being. They provide extensive prenatal care, social services, and generous paid leaves for new parents. Denmark, for example, allows parents to take nearly a year of paid leave to care for their newborns. Since the 1930s, the Finnish government has been sending all expectant mothers a maternity package with clothes and baby goods. Sweden was the first country to outlaw physical punishment of children. And Norway was the first country globally to appoint a national, state-funded ombudsman or public advocate charged with representing the interests of children. The Nordic countries have also been important supporters of not-for-profit agencies that provide for the needs and rights of children around the world, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children, and SOS Children’s Villages.

The Nordic countries also capture international attention because they are among the top in the world in terms of literacy and education. Literacy rates stand at 100 percent, and the countries’ educational systems score very highly in terms of quality and equal access. Finland, for example, has been ranked among the top five in global educational assessments of fifteen year olds, and the other Nordic countries are not much further down the list.² Primary and secondary educations are free of charge and open to all. Basically, all children attend the same common schools and those with special needs, such as disabilities, are given additional support. The educational opportunities are equal for girls and boys, the school system is similar both in urban and rural areas, and all schools use a common curriculum. Equal numbers of boys and girls enter college, and college students, regardless of class or gender, pay nothing for tuition. Although historically the countries have been relatively poor, they have had a long-standing commitment to education, which is reflected in the history of their legislation. Norway had its first educational act in 1739 as part of Denmark. Denmark introduced universal education for all children in 1814, Sweden in 1842, Finland in 1866, and Iceland followed in 1907.

Related perhaps to their high literacy rates and strong educational systems, the Nordic countries have a rich history of literature for and about children. This literature includes fairy tales of oral as well as literary origin, children’s songs in a variety of genres, and poems and stories written for children. Reading is regarded an important part of good childhood, and book stores cater to both adults and children. In central parts of this varied body of children’s books, children—both girls and boys—have been depicted as active and in control of their own lives; a significant example in this literature is the famous Pippi Longstocking. The Nordic countries are also well known for children’s books of high aesthetic quality, produced by prominent artists.

Research on the History of Children and Childhood in the Nordic Countries

In spite of the long-lasting commitments of Nordic countries to children and child well-being, limited attention has been given to the history behind these matters and to the history of childhood itself. Contemporary commitments to children in the Nordic countries did not emerge in a vacuum or arrive on the scene “full blown.” Nordic policies and practices regarding child protection and education arose out of long and sometimes bitter debates and power-struggles. Nordic literature for and about children took different forms over the centuries, reflecting shifting perceptions of boys and girls. Furthermore, even though the countries share many common features and perhaps from an international perspective appear to be quite similar, they are each distinctive. They have unique and complex characteristics, policies, and histories. For example, Norway was not even an independent country until 1905; it was once part of Denmark and later Sweden. For a long time, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Sweden and Denmark were rivals, and even enemies. Parts of present-day Finland were at points under the control of Russia or Sweden. Iceland was under the rule of Norwegian and then Danish kings until 1944.

The complex histories and distinctive features of the Nordic countries are reflected in several excellent recent studies of the history of children and childhood. However, most of these studies are highly specialized, tend to focus on one place or historical period alone, and deal with individual countries. Furthermore, very few are available in English. As for research on historical periods, for example, more attention has been given to the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century or to the explosion of children’s literature in the late twentieth century than to the period between 1700 and the early twentieth century. Of the studies that do examine the eighteenth, nineteenth, or early twentieth centuries, most focus on a particular figure or country and draw few comparisons among the Nordic countries. These studies, too, are often addressed to experts in a specific field, and thus are less accessible to scholars in other fields, or to others who are interested in children and the history of childhood. Some substantive studies by Nordic scholars, including many in this volume, are addressed to a broader audience but are published in Nordic languages. The select bibliography at the end of this volume includes many of these scholarly works. Although a number of works in English can be found in the bibliography, particularly some articles and book chapters, research literature on Nordic childhoods in English is still quite limited.³ Finally, very few texts in the field of Nordic studies or childhood studies are multi-disciplinary—although this has been changing over the last few years—and the range of sources they explore is thus often limited.

Aim and Guiding Questions of This Volume

The aim of this volume is to address this gap in the literature and to strengthen research in the fields of both childhood studies and Nordic studies by offering a book in English that explores Nordic perspectives on children between 1700 and c.1960 from a variety of sources and disciplines. The volume contains essays from scholars in diverse fields, including social sciences, literature, history, religious studies, cultural studies, Scandinavian studies, music, art history and intellectual history. Since these scholars come from various disciplines, they also examine the history of childhood from a wide variety of sources, such as folk tales, legal codes, speeches, hymns, poems, paintings, novels, and school essays written by children themselves. The contributors also examine a variety of texts aimed specifically at children, including text books, catechisms, newspapers, journals, songbooks, and novels for children.

Building on these varied kinds of sources and employing their own disciplinary methods, the authors of this volume seek to address the following overarching questions:

1What do their sources reveal about conceptions of the nature, role, or status of children and about issues of gender, race, socio-economic status, minority status, or religious identity?

2How do the sources speak about the treatment of children, individual and communal obligations to children, and children’s own agency and responsibilities?

3What are some of the questions, figures, and themes regarding children that are significant in each author’s particular discipline?

4What clues, if any, do the sources give about the historical background for present-day commitments to child welfare and advocacy?

5In what ways, if any, can the book challenge readers—regardless of country—to explore contemporary understandings of children, children’s rights and responsibilities, and human dignity and worth?

Although it was of course not possible for each and every author to address all of these questions, they helped guide the common work of the volume even as they enabled all authors to sharpen the focus of their particular area of research.

By bringing together scholars from multiple disciplines to address these and other questions about the history of childhood in the Nordic countries, the volume offers a substantive and distinctive contribution to research within this field. Furthermore, with its combination of childhood studies and Nordic studies, the volume may also inspire other scholars to incorporate research on childhood into the studies of other regions or cultures, such as African studies or Latin-American studies. And since conceptions of children and of human nature are closely interwoven, the volume can also spark further reflection on child well-being and human dignity in other parts of the world, whether these regions and cultures have much in common with the Nordic countries or differ in most respects.

Title and Period Studied

The book is entitled “Nordic Childhoods” to highlight some of the commonalities and differences within the history of childhood in the Nordic countries. On the one hand, the histories of childhood in these countries necessarily share some similarities because there are several factors that bind the Nordic countries together. For example, they all became Lutheran in the early sixteenth century, and their populations in the past have been, and still are today, predominantly Lutheran. Thus, many common values, beliefs, and practices shaped their histories and conceptions of children, including a high regard for education and literacy. Furthermore, traditionally, agriculture, fishery, and hunting have been very important, with life in many areas often being conditioned by a demanding climate.

Common linguistic roots have also played a central role in forming similar perspectives on children in the Nordic countries. The languages in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are variants of Scandinavian and are easily understood across the countries. In Finland, the majority language is Finnish, which is linguistically very different from Scandinavian; but a significant minority speaks Swedish, and all children in Finland also learn some Swedish at school. In Iceland, the language is Icelandic, which is close to Old Norse, but which differs considerably from the other modern Scandinavian languages; however, many Icelanders speak or understand Danish. Thus, a common religious and linguistic heritage has been, and still is, an element that links the Nordic countries to each other.

On the other hand, one cannot speak of childhood as one uniform matter in the area and the period under consideration here. In spite of the many common conditions that have shaped children’s lives and adult views of childhood in the Nordic countries, there are also marked differences. Each has a particular history with varied economic and political circumstances, social and cultural tensions, religious developments, and ideas about gender and class. Even in terms of size and geographical features, the Nordic countries differ. Sweden is the largest, with over 9 million people. Norway, Denmark, and Finland are all around 5 million. With only about 330,000 people, Iceland is the smallest. Topographically, they are also different: Norway is well known for its fjords and mountains. Denmark has long beaches and is generally flat. Finland is almost all forest and lakes and primarily rural. Sweden is a mixture of flat, cultivated areas and lakes in the south, and forests, hills, and sparsely populated areas in the north. Iceland, the most northern country, has less than 2 percent forest, active volcanoes, and more sheep than people. In various ways in these countries, nature has been a source of income, a place for leisure, and a dangerous force.

Thus, whereas one can speak of something as being “Nordic,” including experiences of and ideas about childhood, the title of the book includes the plural word, “Childhoods,” and its contents honor the fact that the word, “Nordic,” should be used with caution. Indeed, one aim of the volume is to highlight the great variety in historical constructions of childhood in the Nordic countries.

The chronological limits set for this book are 1700–1960. Although such limits are of course artificial and approximate, they mark significant shifts in conceptions of childhood. The eighteenth century in the Nordic countries, as also in other regions, was a time of change, with growing attention to new ideas about the nation, human rights, individual responsibility and autonomy, and education and pedagogy. Enlightenment and Pietism, and later Romanticism, were among the influential movements that shaped many areas of life also in this part of northern Europe, including childhood.

The other end of the time span, 1960, indicates that the volume primarily deals with historical childhood. Furthermore, by this time, ideas about the “welfare state” were well established in the Nordic countries. Even though the chapters focus primarily on the period between 1700 and 1960, several of them also explore ideas and practices that shaped this period, rooted particularly in ancient folk beliefs and the Lutheran Reformation, while other chapters deal with matters that anticipate contemporary notions and concerns.

By exploring the period 1700–1960, an era often termed “Late Modernity,” the volume contributes to the history of childhood in these countries as well as the broader history of these relatively young nations. The history of childhood is a prerequisite for understanding the current attitudes to children and childhood in the Nordic countries. But since children are a significant part of any community, the history of childhood of this period can also serve to shed light on central elements in the development of this region as a whole.

Structure and Scope of the Volume

The chapters of the volume are divided into three main parts. The parts are structured around three main thematic areas, which are quite distinct yet necessarily overlap in some respects.

The first area explores the three social spheres, or institutions, to which children in the Nordic countries belonged, and which strongly shaped their ideas and experiences. These spheres include: (1) the home, which was the basic unit for children and adults alike, whether it is denoted family, household, or other; (2) the Lutheran church, which was the predominant religious institution throughout the Nordic countries and which shaped their values, beliefs, and practices; and (3) society, which for children would have included the local community, some...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Biographical Notes
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• PART I: Spheres of Life Home, Church, and Society
• PART II: Children’s Development Formation, Education, and Work
• PART III: Literature Children’s Books, Fairy Tales, and Novels
• 15 Children, Dying, and Death: Views from an Eighteenth-Century Periodical for Children
• 16 Incandescent Objects and Pictures of Misery: Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales for Children
• 17 Inventing Subjectivity and the Rights of the Child in Nineteenth-Century Nordic Children’s Literature
• 18 Competent Children: Childhood in Nordic Children’s Literature from 1850 to 1960
• 19 The Small People in the Big Picture: Children in Swedish Working-Class Novels of the 1930s
• Select Bibliography
• References
• Index