Pippi Longstocking () is the fictional main character in a series of children's books by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002). Pippi was named by Lindgren's daughter Karin, who asked her mother for a get-well story when she was off school.
Pippi is red-haired, freckled, unconventional and superhumanly strong – able to lift her horse one-handed. She is playful and unpredictable. She often makes fun of unreasonable adults, especially if they are pompous and condescending. Her anger comes out in extreme cases, such as when a man mistreats his horse. Pippi, like Peter Pan, does not want to grow up. She is the daughter of a buccaneer captain and has adventure stories to tell about that, too. Her four best friends are her horse and monkey, and the neighbours' children, Tommy and Annika.
After being rejected by Bonnier Publishers in 1944, Lindgren's first manuscript was accepted by Rabén and Sjögren. The three Pippi chapter books (Pippi Longstocking, Pippi Goes on Board, and Pippi in the South Seas) were published from 1945 to 1948, followed by three short stories and a number of picture book adaptations. They have been translated into 80 languages and made into several films and television series.
Character Pippi Longstocking is a nine-year-old girl. At the start of the first novel, she moves into Villa Villekulla: the house she shares with her monkey, named Mr. Nilsson, and her horse that is not named in the novels but called (Little Old Man) in the movies. Pippi soon befriends the two children living next door, Tommy and Annika Settergren. With her suitcase of gold coins, Pippi maintains an independent lifestyle without her parents: her mother died soon after her birth; her father, Captain Ephraim Longstocking, goes missing at sea, ultimately turning up as king of a South Sea island. Despite periodic attempts by village authorities to make her conform to cultural expectations of what a child's life should be, Pippi happily lives free from social conventions. According to Eva-Maria Metcalf, Pippi "loves her freckles and her tattered clothes; she makes not the slightest attempt to suppress her wild imagination, or to adopt good manners." Pippi is literate and has a penchant for storytelling, which often takes the form of tall tales.
When discussing Pippi, Astrid Lindgren explained that "Pippi represents my own childish longing for a person who has power but does not abuse it." Although she is the self-proclaimed "strongest girl in the world", Pippi often uses nonviolence to solve conflicts, via guile, creativity with facts, and misdirection, such as to protect other children from bullying or excuse her chronic truancy. Pippi has been variously described by literary critics as "warm-hearted", compassionate, kind, clever, generous, playful, and witty to the point of besting adult characters in conversation. Laura Hoffeld wrote that while Pippi's "naturalness entails selfishness, ignorance, and a marked propensity to lie", the character "is simultaneously generous, quick and wise, and true to herself and others."
The inspiration for her father, Captain Ephraim Longstocking, came from the real life Carl Emil Pettersson, a Swedish sailor who became king of Tabar Island in Papua New Guinea after he was shipwrecked in 1904. He married the local king's daughter, and they had nine children.
One famous albeit incorrectly assigned quote by Pippi, summing up her character, is "I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that."
Development Biographer Jens Andersen locates a range of influences and inspiration for Pippi not only within educational theories of the 1930s, such as those of A. S. Neill and Bertrand Russell, but also contemporary films and comics that featured "preternaturally strong characters" (e.g., Superman and Tarzan). Literary inspiration for the character can be found in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Strange Child, Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, and Jean Webster's Daddy Long Legs in addition to myths, fairytales, and legends. Andersen argues that the "misanthropic, emotionally stunted age" of the Second World War, during which Lindgren was developing the character, provided the most influence: the original version of Pippi, according to Andersen, "was a cheerful pacifist whose answer to the brutality and evil of war was goodness, generosity, and good humor."
Pippi originates from bedside stories told for Lindgren's daughter, Karin. In the winter of 1941, Karin had come down with an illness and was confined to her sickbed; inspired by Karin's request to tell her stories about Pippi Longstocking—a name Karin had created on the spot—Lindgren improvised stories about an "anything-but-pious" girl with "boundless energy". As a child, Karin related more to Annika and Tommy, rather than Pippi, who she felt was very different from her personality. Pippi became a staple within the household, with Karin's friends and cousins also enjoying her adventures. In April 1944, while recovering from a twisted ankle, Lindgren wrote her stories about Pippi in shorthand, a method she used throughout her writing career; a copy of the clean manuscript was turned into a homemade book for Karin and given to her on May 21, while another was posted to publisher Bonnier Förlag, where it was rejected in September on the grounds of being "too advanced".
After her critical success with her debut children's novel The Confidences of Britt-Mari (1944), Lindgren sent the manuscript for Pippi Longstocking to her editor at Rabén and Sjögren, the children's librarian and critic Elsa Olenius, in May 1945. Olenius advised her to revise some of the "graphic" elements, such as a full chamber pot being used as a fire extinguisher, and then to enter it into the upcoming competition at Rabén and Sjögren, which was for books targeted at children between the ages of six and ten. Critic Ulla Lundqvist estimates that a third of the manuscript was altered, with some changes made to improve its prose and readability, and others done to the character of Pippi, who according to Lundqvist "acquire[d] a new modesty and tenderness, and also a slight touch of melancholy," as well as "less intricate" dialogue. Pippi Longstocking placed first and was subsequently published in November 1945 with illustrations by Ingrid Vang Nyman. Two more books followed: Pippi Goes on Board (1946) and Pippi in the South Seas (1948). Three picture books were also produced: Pippi's After Christmas Party (1950), Pippi on the Run (1971), and Pippi Longstocking in the Park (2001).
Name Pippi in the original Swedish language books says her full name is . Although her surname – literally long stocking – translates easily into other languages, her personal names are less easily translated, and one of them is a patronymic, , which is unfamiliar to many cultures. English language books and films about Pippi have given her name in the following forms: Pippilotta Rollgardinia Victualia Peppermint Longstocking Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim's Daughter LongstockingPilon, A. Barbara (1978). Teaching language arts creatively in the elementary grades, John Wiley & Sons, page 215. Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraimsdotter Longstocking Pippilotta Provisionia Gaberdina Dandeliona Ephraimsdaughter LongstockingPippi Longstocking, 2000 Pippilotta Victoriaria Tea-Cosy Appleminta Ephraim's Daughter Longstocking
In 2005, UNESCO published lists of the most widely translated books. In regard to children's literature, Pippi Longstocking was listed as the fifth most widely translated work with versions in 70 different languages. As of 2017, Lindgren's works had been translated into 100 languages. Here are the character's names in some languages other than English.
In Afrikaans In Albanian In Arabic In Armenian In Azerbaijani In Basque In Belarusian In Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian / In Bulgarian In Breton In Catalan In Chinese In Croatian In Czech In Danish In Dutch In Esperanto In Estonian In Faroese In Filipino In Finnish In French (literally "Fifi Strand of Steel") In Galician In Georgian or In German In Greek = (literally "Pippi the freckle-nosed girl") In Hebrew or or the phonetic matching בילבי לא-כלום bílbi ló khlum, literally "Bilby Nothing"Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003), Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. Palgrave Macmillan. / in old translations In Hungarian In Icelandic In Indonesian In Irish In Italian In Japanese In Karelian In Khmer In Korean In Kurdish In Latvian In Lithuanian In Macedonian In Mongolian In Norwegian In Persian In Polish or In Portuguese (Brazil), (Portugal) In Romanian (Romania), (Moldova) In Russian or In Scottish Gaelic In Scots In Slovak full or short In Slovene In Spanish (Spain), or (Latin America) In In Thai In Turkish In Ukrainian In Urdu In Vietnamese In Welsh In Yiddish
Cultural impact
Pippi Longstocking quickly became popular in Sweden upon publication, and by the end of the 1940s, 300,000 copies had been sold, saving Rabén and Sjögren from impending financial ruin. This was partially due to Olenius's marketing: she ensured that the book was frequently read to a radio audience, as well as helping to put on a popular adaptation of the book at her children's theatre at Medborgarhuset, Stockholm, in March 1946, for which only a library card was required for admission. This performance also toured other Swedish cities, including Norrköping, Gothenburg, and Eskilstuna. Another factor in the book's success was two positive reviews by the influential Swedish critics of children's culture, Eva von Zweigbergk and Greta Bolin, writing for and , respectively; they praised the main character as "a liberatory force". Zweigbergk wrote that Pippi could provide an outlet for regular children who do not have the considerable freedom she possesses, with which Bolin agreed, remarking that Pippi's humor and antics would also appeal to adults for the same reason.
Subsequent reviews of Pippi Longstocking echoed the general opinions of von Zweigbergk and Bolin towards the book, until John Landquist's criticism in an August 1946 piece published in , titled "BAD AND PRIZEWINNING". Landquist, who worked as a professor at Lund University, argued that the book was badly done, harmful to children, and that Pippi herself was mentally disturbed. Further criticism of Pippi's supposedly "unnatural" and harmful behavior followed in an article in the teachers' magazine and in readers' letters to magazines. This debate over Pippi's performance of childhood coloured the reviews of the sequel Pippi Goes On Board (October 1946), some of which responded to Landquist's argument within the review itself. Regardless, Pippi continued to maintain her popularity and was featured in a range of merchandising, adaptations, and advertising.