THE AMERICAN-SCANDIN AVIAN REVIEW 
667 
Scott has entered on a new field with his charming fairy-tale, The 
Golden Gospel (Det gyldne Evangelium, Gyldendal, 1921), telling 
how the Lord and St. Peter visited the earth and examined into the 
deeds of men. 
Barbra Ring in The Circle (Kredsen, Aschehoug, 1921) has found 
a milieu not unlike Gosta Berling’s Varmland with rollicking, spend¬ 
thrift squires, gentle, self-effacing women ( forna tiders kvinnor) and 
fair maidens. It is life on the great estates near the Kristianiafjord 
about three generations ago, which Barbra Ring has no doubt learned 
to know, as Selma Lagerlof learned to know her Varmland, through the 
stories of aunts and grandmothers. There is an abundance of romance 
—estates handed out like cotillion favors, a lovely bride, an ogre bride¬ 
groom who opportunely strangles himself in his neck-cloth while the 
bride escapes in a wild ride with the man of mystery, the king’s spy. 
But the great charm of the book lies in the pictures of pleasant home 
life and especially of very young girls, their innocent hopes and fears 
and bedtime confidences. It is in this particular field that Barbra Ring 
has won the affections of young readers in the Scandinavian North. It 
is to be hoped that she will continue in this field rather than in that of 
the psychological novel which has lately engaged her attention. 
Books of the Year in Sweden 
By Johan Mortensen 
From nearly every country comes the complaint that cultural and 
literary standards have sunk to a lower level during the last few 
decades. This is no doubt true to some extent. Development along 
these lines usually moves along like a wave, and now after the war, 
speaking from a cultural point of view, we are in the trough of the 
wave. General conditions, such as the universal economic stringency, 
may have contributed to bring this about. All this, however, can not 
be considered sufficient grounds for viewing the future possibilities of 
literature in a pessimistic light. 
Moreover, the season’s output of books in Sweden includes a 
number of new works of real worth. Selma Lagerlof’s contribution, 
which as always is welcomed by a wide circle of readers scattered 
throughout Scandinavia, is a new collection of short stories. As early 
as 1916 Selma Lagerlof had already published a collection of short 
stories entitled Trolls and Human Folk. She has chosen the same 
title for her new book, Trolls and Human Folk 3 Volume II (Troll 
