Only Tomten Is Awake

Way up in the Northernland, during the dark, long winter nights, the reading of Viktor Rydberg's Tomten has become an annual Scandinavian tradition. It was first published in Ny Illustrerad Tidning in 1881.

Scandinavian children have long heard the tales of Tomten wandering through the farm and into the house--how he comes for his regular visit, looking after the animals and watching over the inhabitants, occasionally stopping to ponder the deeper questions of life.

Every year, children young and old wait with hope and anticipation for that mysterious being who still comes for his annual visit. When "midwinter night's cold is hard" and you are very still and quiet, you might hear him tiptoe through your house, too.

Abraham Viktor Rydberg, 1828 - 1895, was a Swedish philosopher, author and poet. A central figure of late Romanticism in Sweden, Rydberg's verse is distinguished for its majestic lyricism and mystery of human existence.

Spencer Harden is married to Anne Larsson, a native of Sweden, from whom he has learned Swedish. He would like to thank Bengt Höglund and Christer Österlund for introducing him to Viktor Rydberg's "Tomten." In a Christmas service in a small chapel near Stockholm, Bengt Höglund whispered his best English interpretation into the author's ear while his wife's uncle, Christer, read the story in Swedish from the pulpit. This book is a small attempt to recreate the wonder he felt when he first heard this story in his own language that day.

Georgia Stylou lives in the ancient city of Thessaloniki, Greece where she paints water colors illustrating the innocent fantasies of childhood.