The Idea of North in Canadian Children’s Literature Today

“What on earth is the point of a bear in a story?”

—Monique Polak (35)

Because Canada and Sweden are both northern countries, it is no coincidence that the art, literature, culture, and self-perceptions of both countries are to some extent coloured by notions of what it means to live in a northern country. The Canadian national anthem, for instance, invokes a “True North strong and free” in its English version; correspondingly, the Swedish national anthem uses “the north” as a metonym for Sweden in phrases like “I want to live and die in the North.” This use of the north in both national anthems is evocative of manliness, rugged nature, strength, individualism, and freedom—qualities that presumably are meant to stand in sharp contrast to the feminized, over-civilized, and weak tyranny of “the south.” The idea of north and its manifestations are of course much more varied and complex, however, than can be gathered from lyrics such as “O Canada” and “Thou Ancient, Thou Free.” They can represent life-defeating barrenness and cold, can be feminine and evil like Hans Christian Andersen’s “Snow Queen” or C. S. Lewis’s white witch of Narnia, and can also—from the perspective of the majority—denote the Other: the Inuit and the Sami.

Not only do the national anthems draw on the assumed qualities of the north, but also the attributes of patriotism and good citizenship that are invoked by their nationalist context are associated with the idea of northernness. By implication, activities that are typical for a northern clime can become “nationalized.” The Norwegian anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen has noted, for instance, that “the activity of skiing [in school] makes the children more Norwegian,” whereas skiing in Italy does not make you more Italian (109). In Sweden, too, the long-distance skiing event Vasaloppet is...