scripsi

Samlade Svenska kulter (“Collected Swedish Cults”) by Anders Fager. Fager writes books where he mixes Lovecraft’s mythology with Swedish myths and I think it works very well. Sadly he is only translated to French and Finnish so far, apart from an odd short story or two. Samlade Svenska kulter is a collection of short horror stories. They are a mixture between rather long novellas who work on their own, but they are bound together with brief stories called Fragments. And that is just what they are, short scenes that connect some stories or bring the spotlight on an aspect of one of the longer ones. And though the novellas are their own stories you realise as you read that they are connected to each and after reading the whole book you have been given a larger story.

For example; När döden comes to Bodskär (“When Death came to Bodskär”) takes place in 1982 when a group of soldiers are sent on a secret mission. They they think it is to wipe out Soviet spies from an island. A few stories later comes Herr Görings artefact (Mr. Göring’s Artifact”> which takes place in the 1930’s and spread light on what it actually was those soldiers found on that island in 1982. It also introduces an elderly upper class lady called Elvira Wallin. And then comes Tre veckor av lycka (“Three Weeks of Happiness”) which is a contemporary story about a young adopted woman who doesn’t quite looks like other people and who has a strange affinity to fishes. And Pigornals trappa (“The Maiden’s Staircase”) that fill in the background of Elvira Wallin. And last we get a fragment of the broken life of the only soldier who survived Bodskär.

As you see some character’s return in several stories, most notable Ingemar Fredman who probably could be called the main character. He seems to be an elderly retired librarian, a rather kindly person actually. But by the by you realize he is much, much older than he looks and, quite possibly, is the most evil being in Sweden. Other important character’s are a teenage maenad called Sophia, Agnetha, a senile witch whose damaged sense of magic is a potential disaster and My Witt, an artist with potential.

Fager’s writing style is very easy to read with short, sometimes abrupt sentences. He also writes a very modern Swedish with a lot of current slag. At the moment this help to give the books a feeling of “happening here and now”, but I think this may age the books eventually. It works now, though. He knows his Lovecraft and he knows his Swedish history and though most of the stories takes place in contemporary Stockholm, the time periods in the historical pieces range from 1712 to 1982.

In Fager’s Sweden all kinds of beings from Lovecraft’s mythology live and breathe, though some parts of the mythology gets more focus. In the archipelago outside Stockholm the same kind of fish hybrids lives as they did in Innsmouth. Fredman has possibly cheated death in the same way as Joseph Curwen and he sure knows about the essential salts. Somewhere in former Yugoslavia a woman has made a deal with Yog-Soggoth and their descendants now live as immigrants in Malmö. It works really well for me and Fager often manages to be truly frightening.

What Fager has left (thankfully) to Lovecraft is the zenophobia and the dominance of male characters. The main characters are pretty much split between men and women and they also have a much wider age span. the youngest character is six, the oldest (apart from Fredman) is around eighty. And though most of the characters are Swedish, several other ethnicities are represented. Most notable Sami which is a minority group in northern Scandinavia which really doesn’t make it into contemporary Swedish literature often. There is also quite a few inside jokes which makes it funnier if you know it. I’ll bore you with one; Evert Taube was probably the most famous songwriter in Sweden in the 20th century. He had a deep love for the sea and most of his songs reflect that. In one of his songs which is a love song to Stockholm there is this sentence “And Pan is playing in The Great Shadow”. Stora Skuggan (“The Great Shadow”) is a recreational area in Stockholm, a very pretty area. And Fager picks up on this and lets a group of bored housewives dance in The Great Shadow and wakes something that the can’t put back to sleep. Very funny if you know your Taube, just a place with a good eerie name if you don’t.

I have a penchant for stories set in historical times, so perhaps it isn’t so surprising that my favourite stories are period pieces. Den brutne mannes önskan (“The Broken Man’s Wish”) is set against the Swedish army’s retreat from Norway after the death of Karl XII in 1712. It’s a harrowing story about a man whose life is torn apart, not by the enemy, but by the soldiers who should have protected him. And he dies unleashing something much more horrible. Pigornals trappa takes place in the late 19th century. Young Elvira Wallin has recurrent dreams about walking down a staircase where something waits for her in the cellar. Clearly a case for modern psychology thinks her doctor. of course it turns out to be something else entirely. I also really like Lyckliga för evigt på Östermalm (“Happily Ever After at Östermalm”) where a young woman realises that someone else’s mind now lives inside her boyfriends body.

The first story in the book; The Furies From Borås is translated to English, so if you want to have a taste you can find it available as a download here. It’s a story about a group of very normal teenage small town girls. They like all the ordinary things like boys and music and clothes and makeup. And dancing. And sacrificing young boys to the messenger from the Goat with the Thousand Youngs. To be a bit nit-picky; it should really be maenads, not furies here.

But I think I should tell you that Fager makes another big deviance from Lovecraft. If sex in Lovecraft is alluded to, Fager is in your face about it. There is a lot of sex, most of it kinky and some not consensual. There is also a lot of explicit violence with blood and gore, so be warned.