KSena reading Ronia The Robber's Daughter in Swedish AND in English!

[kseenaa]

OK. I couldn't wait to do this any longer, so here goes. :-) My voice ain't the best, but... it is better. MUCH better! And I don't cough all the time, so I figured it was worth a shot. I tried to imagine myself reading to kids in the library. I hope you like it!

So, what am I reading? I am reading my favorite book. It has remined my favorite since I was a little girl and mom read it to me when I was little, and later saw the amazing movie in theathers 1984. I got so, so hooked. I suspect my love for fantasy was born with this book. Because this is kid fantasy of the best quality if you ask me. :-)

The book I am talking about is Ronia The Robber's Daughter written by the legend Astrid Lindgren. I ADORE her books. I've read EVERY single one. I have favorites, of course... and my favorite is this one, Ronia, and also Mio my Mio... Both books being light weight fantasy for kids. Astrid Lindgren was a magician with words, building worlds and characters...

So in Ronia, I am reading the beginning. The start of Chapter 1 in both Swedish and English. Why that particular part? Because my favorite characters are so awesome there. :-) And my favorite characters are Ronias parents, the Robber chieftain Matt (Mattis in Swedish) and Lovis. They are AWESOME! Really, really awesome... I hope I can be a kick ass mom like Lovis one day...

So here goes. Let's start with the Swedish version, since that is the original version... :-)

LINK to the Swedish version right here (since embedding doesn't work)

Right, so... That was me reading the beginning of chapter 1 in Swedish. Now let's take the exact same part in English. :-) I'll try to read it the same way... No promises!

LINK to the English version right here (since embedding doesn't work)

Aaaand... I failed somewhat... X-D It is quite obvious that English is not my first language. :-) Sorry about stumbling over words here and there. :-P I hope it is clear and understandable still, so you can follow what happens in the story. :-) (You don't even wanna know how many times I redid this. :-P)

Anyway, so after the birth of Ronia (that includes lightning striking Matt's Fort), she grows up happy with her father and mother and all the twelve robbers, much like a big rowdy family. She learns how to deal with the goblins, harpies and all the other evil creatures in Matt's Forest... and she also learns what her father, Matt, does for a living... Matt, who is a loving if loud and rowdy father, can also be a fierce fighter, cold and merciless as the robber chieftain he is as well... And... most importantly... Ronia finds a friend... and things turn quite complicated...

Here is a photo of both books, the Swedish version to the left and the English one to the right. :-)


(Can click it for bigger, should you want to.)

And here is a photo from the illustrations in the Swedish book, that lacks in the English one. It is Matt holding his daughter Ronia in his arms, showing her off to all his twelve robbers... The closest one to Matt (who is standing to the right) is Noddle-Pete, the oldest of them all.


(I do suggest you click to see this bigger so you can see a little bit more of the details.)

The illustrations in the Swedish version is made by the artist Ilon Wikland who worked closely with Astrid Lindgren illustrating many of her books.

I do so very much adore this book Ronia The Robbers Daughter, and I HOPE any of you will be inspired to pick up a copy and read it. It shouldn't be hard to find it in YOUR language, since Astrid Lindgren's books have been translated to... 95 different languages and dialects... Not joking.

Right. I hope that wasn't to terrible... Let's see if anyone else dares to do the same? :-)

Comments

[melluransa.livejournal.com]

So cool! I loved the emotion you read with. It would have been cool to see the text as you read along in Swedish. I read along when you read in English! I had found chapter one on Amazon.com.

Storytelling is so magical! I read stories to kids too at my job. And I have memories too of being a kid and being read to. <3 Good thing it's inspired me to read as an adult, too! I can't imagine life without books.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha! :-D I haven't worked actively as a librarian that long yet, but I have had my fair share of story-times. :-D So when reading, I can't help but use some emotion and try to change my voice a little to each character. :-D It is habit by now, I think. *grin*

Glad you could find Chapter 1 on Amazon to check it out. It really is an absolutely adorable and so so awesome little story. I love it dearly. My all time favorite off all books I have ever read... and THAT says a lot! :-D Beats Tolkien. By miles. ;-)

[ruchirahni.livejournal.com]

Swedish sounds like such a hard language but it is AWESOME! It sounds like so much fun to speak, and I love it! I can't wait to visit and hear everyone speaking it around me. I felt like I was reading the book again with all the love you put into the words!
And no your English isn't so bad at all! I always tell you this. YOu just speak it more carefully and wind up sounding more articulate than native English speakers in consequence.

And yes... if you were to be a mom, there would be no question about you being an awesome one like Lovis :D

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

According to immigrants here then yes. Swedish IS a very hard language to learn. I can imagine for people used to the English alphabet even more so, since we have 3 more letters in our alphabet: Å Ä Ö. :-) That might complicate things. ;-) And I have also been told Swedish have a special melody in it to... Hard for me to tell, since it is my native language, but that's what I've been told.

And hey, I'd kick ASS like Lovis! *lol* You've read the book, since I sent it to you... so you know what she is like in the rest of the book. She is pretty kickass, isn't she? I love her. She is my favorite character in all of Astrid Lindgren's book, closely followed by her husband Matt. :-D

I am glad my reading was understandable and all. :-D This was fun, but damn nervous to do. *lol* I lost count on how many times I re-did the English reading. The Swedish reading I just had to do twice. :-)

[zeph317toho.livejournal.com]

You have a beautiful voice! Swedish sounds really cool and has so many different sounds from English. Your English is very, very good, and you have a fantastically cute accent! We Americans seem to love cute European acccents! ;) My favorite part of the story was when you voiced the harpies "ho ho!" You sound adorable!

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Thanx! :-D My voice would probably have sounded better if I'd waited a few days more, since my throat ain't 100% OK yet, but eh... *lol*

I've been told Swedish have a special melody to it, so I guess that would be what makes it sound so called cool. *lol* Well, that and the fact we have three more letters in the alphabet. ;-) Å Ä Ö.

*grin* I haven't worked actively as a librarian for THAT long, but I have done quite a few story-time readings at various librarians... so now I can't help but change my voice a little bit here and there when reading aloud. *lol* And since I've seen the movie more times then I can count... well, I kinda have these wonderful voices in my head how Matt, Lovis and the harpies and robbers are SUPPOSED to sound like. ;-) I saw that movie when I was just 7 years old in the movie-theaters. It still remains one of my favorites to this day. I can never get tired of it. Astrid Lindgren was still alive then, and was very involved in the making of that movie. It is gorgeous and holds up very well to this day even if it is... almost 30 years old now (made 1984).

[ruchirahni.livejournal.com]

just listened to the swedish one again :) lOVE IT!!! also, i'm thinking of you because i'm sitting in a Barnes and Nobles right now. I just learned that Sweden houses the largest living things in the WHOLE WORLD- 9,000 year old spruce trees! that's freaking crazy. i hope i can see them soonnnn :D

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

That IS pretty epic that we have such an OLD tree here, yeah... Dalarna (the area where the tree is) is a bit further up north then here, so we'd have to travel there. ;-) Probably by train. :-D

I am so happy you found this fun enough to wanna listen to it again! *grin* Makes me really happy to hear. :-) I remember Barnes & Nobles. I did visit them some when I lived near Manchester, NH. It was a really nice store to be sure!

[ruchirahni.livejournal.com]

Just a bookstore that I essentially live in :P and I shouldn't talk like this because I just get SO excited about potentially visiting and I don't know when I'll be able to wahhhh :(

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

*lol* :-D Well, I know for sure it will be many, many years before I can afford going to the US, so... *shrug* :-)

And why live in a bookstore, when there are libraries to live in with books you can actually borrow. ;-)

[ruchirahni.livejournal.com]

my public library sucks :( it used to be wonderful, but they redid it about ten years ago and they made it quite beautiful but they took all the good books out (not kidding). there's no longer a scifi/fantasy section OR crime fiction... just everything congealed under a general 'fiction' section, and an equally sized 'romance' section. at least b&n has all my interests represented and i can read the books while I'm there!

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Oh dear... That sucks. :-P The libraries around here usually have a fantasy section, a romance section and a crime novel/thriller novel section. And one for kids, of course. :-)

Could do the way a friend of mine does it. He finds books he thinks looks cool on internet sites and in book stores and then he asks me to borrow them for him when I work! X-D Lazy friends are lazy? *smirk*

[iamkaa.livejournal.com]

Oh, this was fun even for me, but the other way around, or how I shall put it! Was really fun to hear you speak English! And I love that book, I love all her books, I still think it's a shame that she never got the Nobel price, not just because of her way of telling stories but for how she changed the....(öh, och där tog det stopp, skyll på febern, men hur hennes författarskap förändrat den moderna litteraturen, inte bara barn litteraturen utan framför allt hur vi skildrar relationer mellan könen och synen på brottslighet, läste en hel del om detta för ett par år sedan då jag läste litteratur vetenskap, och hon har påverkat så mycket mer än vad många ser eller riktigt förstår. Äh, är ingen nyhet för dig, har ingen aning om varför jag skriver detta LoL )
But it took me some time to understand what book you meant, I read the titel of this post long before I read the post and well.... I'm not a smart person, I'm afraid...

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah... Astrid Lindgren took a stand against A LOT of things... and a stand FOR a lot of things to! And the most awesome thing is, not many dared to speak back at her! :-D Now THAT is badass in my book. :-)

This is and will always be my favorite photo of her where she tells off a neonazist/skinhead without batting an eyelash behind her sunglasses...



We didn't spend much time studying her during Litt-Science, sadly. Actually, we didn't study much about kids/teen literature at all. Which fails, if you ask me. :-P What I know and such, I've read up myself, because she is just THAT awesome. :-) And hey, it is good to know in my line of work to. ;-)

And very glad and happy neither my english nor my swedish scared you off. ;-)