Kulturnyheterna = Cultural News

Björn was interviewed by Marie Nyreröd about Kristina från Duvemåla and the fact that it had been discovered that there was a "real" Kristina because a book-collector of Villhelm Moberg has found a dedication from the author to a supposed lover named Kristina in some books that he (the collector) had bought at an auction.

The interview broadcast on TV was a shorter version (2 minutes) of the full length interview (7 minutes) which was available on the SVT website (and is no longer available).

Marie Nyreröd: How did you found out about these books? 
Björn Ulvaeus: We received a letter from a man named Stefan, from Gothenburg, where he described what he had get hold of at an auction in Stockholm. I thought it was enormously fascinating so I got in touch with him at once and it's on that way. .." 

MN: How come that you became interested in Kristina fran Duvemåla in the first place? 
BU: "It was at that time when me and Benny had decided to write another musical and then we was searching in all kind of literature: russian, french...and swedish, and of course "Utvandrarna" was in there. But I remember the first time that I read it again after the school time I thought "sure this is great, but six thousand pages, how do you turn this into something manageable? But both Benny and me turned back to "Utvandrarna" again, and again. and finally an evening we said "it got to be this one, we got to do this" and it was rather obvious to us already from the start that this will be Kristina's story... It could as well has been Karl-Oskar, but we chose Kristina cause both of us thought that it was a fascinating character. It is probably the the most important female character in swedish literature, I suppose. I looked upon her as a fascinating strong human being. Not as weak as I think she's seems in Troell's movies, where she most of the time "inte tyar längre" (can't stand it anymore) and so on. Simple but whining. That wasn't the way we looked upon her, but as something totally different. So in that way it wasn't Liv Ullman who I had in mind when I was writing. That was something else. It wasn't Helen Sjöholm either, not until we had decided that it should be her, then slowly it turned to be her who was in my mind. Moberg is describing her in four or five lines out of six thousand pages. I don't know if he had some purpose, to keep her as neutral as possible." 

MN: You know how he was describing her... 
BU: "Yes, I checked this out this before I came here and the only thing he is writing is: "She had "tjockt" (can anyone translate this word? fair hair and a pair of gentle eyes; green or blue, or both of it. Her face was beautiful and pure, though her nose was slightly freckled. She was a tall girl, almost as tall as himself (Karl-Oskar). Her hips were sturdy, but her waist was thin. Her eyes where shy, and very attractive. That's all Moberg is writing about Kristina." 

MN: What did this start? 
BU: This gave me some sort of image of her that later on was replaced by Helen Sjöholm when we started to...when she was the one who was going to play (Kristina). 

MN: What did you add then when you should concoct about her. What are your traits that you have imagined? 
BU: Well, it's that we have focused on her strong sides, the brave side of her. Rather than that she is growing old before the intended time and is getting worried...I realized that it doesn't work to describe in a musical. So we almost had to forget about this, but the books are focusing very much at how difficult it was, so this is a difference. But othervise I think I have tried to keep as close to Moberg as possible. And actually the script of the musical keeps to the scenes where Kristina takes part. We cut out a bit, or quite a lot, of the part of the books called "Nybyggarna", that tells about their life in America during many years, cause this was just about hard work. You've got to make these kind of choices. This is the freedom you got when you are writing a musical, and has got the permission to do that by the Mobergs' siblings. 

MN: Does it mean anything to you if there is a real "model" for Kristina? 
BU: Yes, it does. I think this is so peculiar. It seems, out of a cut found in the books, that she has actually been watching Kristina fran Duvemåla. I can imagine this person sitting there watching Helen singing Du maste finnas, or something, and she knows what the rest of the world doesn't know: she's the type of character up there on the stage. I think this is highly fascinating. And I'd love to see a photograph of her."

MN: Let's hope it appears. What could you, as an artist, make out of such a story. A love story, it seems like 
BU: Well, I haven't thought that much about it. But you could make "a musical in the musical", to say. That you should use both Kristina fran Duvemåla and this love affair, that is unambiguous judging for those dedications. This could perhaps work, but I haven't put my hands on this yet. On the other hand, then half of it is written already.

MN: You mean..? 
BU: You could take the half of Kristina fran Duvemåla and then the other half is their relationship. This would be exciting"

Thanks to Malin Westerberg c/o ABBAMAIL (no longer online) and Jozsef.