History Creator / AstridLindgren

%%* ThreeAmigos:
%% ** Bill, Anders and Eva-Lotta in the ''Bill Bergson'' books. They can also be seen as a FreudianTrio, with Bill as the Superego, Eva-Lotta as the Ego and Anders as the Id.
%% ** Also, Pippi, Tommy, and Annika from the ''Pippi Longstocking'' books.

* ChimneyEntry: Inverted by Emil climbing up the chimney, to escape from the toolshed. From the roof, his AshFace terrifies Lina the maid, who screams that there is a "Howliboo".
* ClosetPunishment: When Emil gets into mischief (almost every day), his mother locks him in the toolshed, where he passes the time carving little wooden men. When this happens three times in one day, he angrily decides to stay in the shed forever, while his family plead with him to come out.

* DirectLineToTheAuthor: The ''Emil'' books are supposedly based on the writings of Emil's mother, who meticulously wrote down all of Emil's pranks in blue notebooks. Sometimes Lindgren directly quotes from these books either before or after telling about the incident in greater detail, often adding her own thoughts about them and at one point criticizing Emil's mother for being too inaccurate and leaving out important details.

* EurekaMoment: In one of Emil's adventures, there is a part where a man buys an unshod horse. All attempts to shoe it fail due to the horse kicking, and one man remarks that the buyer was cheated - at home, they tried to shoe it twenty times. Angry, the trader says anyone can have the horse for free, but when Emil takes him up on the offer, says he'll need to get him shod first. However, the horse's reaction reminded Emil (a five years old) of his family's servant, and he realized that [[spoiler:[[AccidentalTickleTorture the horse is merely ''ticklish'']]. So, he manages by holding the horse's ''hoofs'', which have no nerves by definition.]] The trader tries to back out of the deal, but the crowd forces him to keep his word.
%% * FirstNameUltimatum: "EEEEEMIIIIL!!!"

* MistakenForTransformed: In one story in ''Emil of Lönneberga'' Emil is missing. His little sister, Ida, heard a song about a woman who turned into a bird and flew up to Heaven, so when she sees a chicken, she mistakes it for her brother and says, "Please don't fly up to Heaven!"

* NoodleIncident: The author "has been sworn to secrecy" about what Emil did on the Third of November, so she teases the readers about it at every opportunity. That was the time the villagers took up a collection to send Emil to America.
* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Many of Emil's "pranks" are actually sincere attempts to be helpful that just don't quite work out as he'd planned.

* PajamaCladHero: When Emil is locked in the toolshed three times in one day for mischief, the first time being as soon as he gets out of bed, he does not have time to get dressed, so he stays in his nightshirt all day.
* PrecisionFStrike:
** In Emil of Lönneberga, the farmhand Alfred tries for a long time to come up with a way to tell the maid Lina that he is not interested in marrying her, keeps stalling because he wants to say it in "A somewhat nice way" in order to not hurt her feelings. Ultimately, he tells her; "You know Lina, that engagement we have been talking about? I really think it's a pretty shitty idea." The narrator then explains to the reader that "I do not want to teach you any bad words, but that was really the best poor Alfred could come up with." It also has more impact in Swedish, where the original term, "vi skiter i det", was ''very'' foul by the time the story takes place in, but was also the worst way you could tell someone "let's just forget the whole thing". Not that it works, since Lina just laughs it off and tells poor Alfred he's not getting off ''that'' easy.
** In one book, Emil's father berates him for spending some money he'd gotten on lemonade. Emil explodes, "when I have no money I ''can't'' drink lemonade, when I have money I'm not ''allowed'' to drink lemonade, so when the devil ''am'' I supposed to drink lemonade?" Once he calms down he feels ashamed of not just yelling at his father but actually swearing at him.
** This leads to a scene later in the same chapter, where Emil goes through a number of really severe swearwords with his little sister, in order to teach her the things she must absolutely never say.
* PrefersGoingBarefoot: Emil's father goes barefoot in the mornings, because it feels nice. He tries to persuade Emil's mother to do likewise, to save on shoe leather. Unfortunately he gets his toe caught in a rat-trap, which Emil had placed to prevent a rat from chewing his father's big toe.

* ''Film/TheLandOfFarAway'' (A movie adaptation of ''Mio, My Mio'')
* ''Literature/BrittMariPoursOutHerHeart''

* ''Literature/EmilOfLonneberga''

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Emil's father goes barefoot in the mornings, because it feels nice. He tries to persuade Emil's mother to do likewise, to save on shoe leather. Unfortunately he gets his toe caught in a rat-trap, which Emil had placed to prevent a rat from chewing his father's big toe.

* ImaginaryFriend: Lalla-Lee, the protagonist's "secret twin sister" from the short story ''Most Beloved Sister,'' is ''probably'' one of these. [[NotSoImaginaryFriend Then]] [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane again]]...;
%% ** Karlsson-on-the-roof is, throughout the whole first book, taken by Lillebror's parents to be one as well. It is only in the second installment that they meet him in person an finally accept his existence. In fact, if we read only the first book which culminates with Lillebror's parents giving him the puppy he had long wished for, we can plausibly interpret the final scene where Lillebror talks to his new pet about their upcoming holidays together as a metaphor for his growing out of the "imaginary friends phase". The subsequent novels, however, reset the scene quite decisively and Karlsson once again rules supreme.

* ImaginaryFriend: Lalla-Lee, the protagonist's "secret twin sister" from the short story ''Most Beloved Sister,'' is ''probably'' one of these. [[NotSoImaginaryFriend Then]] [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane again]]...
%% * IntergenerationalFriendship: There are a lot of them in Lindgren's books, but the quintessential example is the one between Emil and Alfred in the ''Emil'' books. It's especially notable in this case since Emil values it above virtually everything else in his life, shown when Alfred almost dies from his appendix bursting.

* Arcadia: Several of Astrid Lingren's works, such as Literature/TheSixBullerbyChildren are set in idealistic rural settings.

%% * DeadpanSnarker: Quite a few characters show this from time to time, though Karlsson-on-the-Roof and Literature/PippiLongstocking are the clearest examples.

* ClosetPunishment: When Emil gets into mischief (almost every day), his mother locks him in the toolshed, where he passes the time carving little wooden men. When this happens three times in one day, he angrily decides to stay in the shed for ever, while his family plead with him to come out.