Superman, Zorro, D’Artagnan… these were the heroes for the boys—if I recall correctly—back when I was a little girl.
My female friends, on the other hand, adored fairy-tale princesses.
And me?
I won’t pretend I never read stories about princesses, but I didn’t particularly envy them. I found Snow White deadly boring, and the idea that I needed a prince to come and save me in order to live happily ever after wasn’t exactly thrilling.
Fortunately, the heroines of later generations—Mulan, Pocahontas, Merida, Rapunzel, Jasmine—became a bit more… lively and proactive.
Of course, compared to the life I led, a princess’s life was a world apart; yet, if I could have chosen a character to trade places with, well, my pick was anything but a princess.
At six years old, my heroine was Pippi Longstocking.
And looking back on it now, that choice seems perfectly logical to me.
Pippi Longstocking: who was my heroine?
Wow, what an exciting life that girl led!
Freedom, adventure, a carefree spirit, very few rules, and a house all to herself.
Exactly what I dreamed of back then.
Pippi lives at Villa Villekulla with her horse, Little Old Man, and her little monkey, Mr. Nilsson. She possesses incredible strength, a chest full of gold coins, and—above all—something that must have seemed practically magical to a child: the ability to decide for herself how to spend her days.
In the first book of the series, Pippi arrives at her new home and immediately befriends the siblings Tommy and Annika—the “normal” children who live nearby. From that moment on, everyday life turned into a series of adventures, games, disasters, and unlikely situations.
What fascinated me wasn’t just that Pippi was incredibly strong—though, let’s face it, the ability to lift a horse with one arm was pretty cool—but that she seemed to live in a world where adult rules didn’t really matter all that much.
And that is probably why I liked her so much.
Pippi Longstocking versus the princesses
Looking back at it now, the difference is quite striking.
The fairy-tale princess—at least the version I knew as a child—often lives waiting for something to happen: a spell to be broken, a danger to be overcome, a prince to arrive, a happy ending.
Pippi, on the other hand… she is the one who makes things happen.
She doesn’t wait for someone to come and save her.
She doesn’t need a prince.
She doesn’t tidy herself up to please others.
She doesn’t even try to behave the way a “proper” little girl is expected to.
And yet, she isn’t a selfish or mean child. Quite the opposite: behind her strength, her fanciful tall tales, and her completely unconventional approach to life lies great generosity.
Perhaps it was precisely this combination that made her so irresistible: Pippi could do practically everything that I, as a child, could only imagine.
The birth of the book
The story of Pippi Longstocking begins much more tenderly than one might imagine.
The character was created by the Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, but the idea came about thanks to her daughter, Karin. In 1941, Karin was ill, and during her recovery, she asked her mother to tell her a story about a little girl named Pippi Longstocking. She had invented the name herself.
Astrid Lindgren began telling her daughter about the adventures of this peculiar girl and continued doing so for several years, eventually including Karin’s friends in the storytelling sessions.
In 1944, Lindgren finally put those stories down on paper, initially as a gift for her daughter’s tenth birthday.
However, the first manuscript was rejected by a publisher.
The following year, Astrid Lindgren rewrote it and entered it into a competition organized by the publisher Rabén & Sjögren. This time, Pippi won first prize, and the book was published in November 1945.
In short, before becoming one of the most famous girls in children’s literature, Pippi was simply a story invented by a mother to entertain her daughter.
And that is one of the things I find most beautiful about her story.
Pippilotta… a name worthy of Pippi
I probably could have done without the full name.
For one thing, it isn’t exactly the kind of name you can rattle off quickly when the teacher is taking attendance.
The original Swedish name is Pippilotta Viktualia Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraimsdotter Långstrump.
An outlandish name for an equally outlandish girl.
And, ultimately, it is perfect just the way it is.
In many countries, of course, the name has been adapted.
In Italian editions of the book, for instance, it has undergone various changes over the years and across different translations. The version many of us remember is the one popularized by the television adaptation.
Who are the characters in “Pippi Longstocking”?
It isn’t just the protagonist who makes Pippi’s stories unforgettable; it is the entire little world Astrid Lindgren built around her.
Pippi
She is an independent, incredibly strong, and very wealthy girl—at least by her own standards—with an unbridled imagination.
She lives without her parents at Villa Villekulla, though her father, Efraim Longstocking, is far from absent from her life: he is a sea captain, and Pippi is convinced he has become king of an island in the South Seas.
Tommy and Annika
They are the siblings who live next door to Villa Villekulla.
Compared to Pippi, they are much more well-mannered, orderly, and respectful of the rules. Perhaps that is precisely why they work so well together.
Pippi brings everything into their lives that was previously missing: chaos, imagination, adventure, and a—likely excessive—number of situations that would have given any adult plenty to complain about.
Little Old Man (or Little Uncle)
This is Pippi’s horse.
In the books, the horse is referred to simply as “the horse”. The name “Lilla Gubben” (Little Old Man) comes from the television series: it was Inger Nilsson, the actress who played Pippi, who gave the horse that name.
Mr. Nilsson
He is the little monkey who lives with Pippi at Villa Villekulla.
Along with the horse, he’s one of the girl’s inseparable companions and plays a major role in making her home a place unlike any other in the neighborhood.
Villa Villekulla
And then there is the house itself.
For a girl who dreamed of adventures and secret hideouts, a house like Villa Villekulla was practically a character in its own right. Colorful, quirky, and home to a girl who can do whatever she pleases, it perfectly embodies Pippi’s world: a place where imagination holds far more sway than rules.
Pippi Longstocking: the book’s plot
If you have never read the book and only know Pippi from television, the structure might surprise you.
It is not so much a story with a single, overarching goal, but rather a succession of adventures and everyday situations transformed by the protagonist’s imagination.
Pippi arrives at Villa Villekulla, befriends Tommy and Annika, and begins living by her own rules.
There are encounters with adults, attempts to bring her back to “normality”, encounters with petty crooks, parties, outings, games, and—of course—plenty of moments where her strength and imagination allow her to handle things in a decidedly original way.
Then there is her relationship with her father, which introduces themes of travel, the sea, and adventure into Pippi’s world.
But revealing too much of the plot would almost be a shame.
After all, part of the joy of reading “Pippi Longstocking” lies in discovering what absurdity Pippi will dream up on the very next page.
Is the book different from the TV series?
That is a question I would have asked myself, too, had I had the Internet when I was a child.
The answer is yes.
The television series many of us remember is the 1969 version, directed by Olle Hellbom and starring Inger Nilsson as Pippi, with Pär Sundberg as Tommy and Maria Persson as Annika. Filming began in 1968, and the series premiered on Swedish television on February 8, 1969.
And it was precisely this television version that imprinted the image of Pippi, Villa Villekulla, and her friends onto the imaginations of so many children.
In fact, that is how I first encountered Pippi.
Not through the book.
Through television.
Pippi Longstocking and My Secret Hiding Places
Her stories drew me in like a magnet, and I often imagined a childhood like hers whenever I retreated into my secret hiding places.
Though, to be honest, they weren’t all that secret.
They were the insides of wardrobes or those cramped spaces between two pieces of furniture where a little girl could miraculously squeeze herself in.
Naturally, everyone in my family knew exactly where I was.
But I was convinced they were hiding places.
And that was enough.
Perhaps that is precisely what books do when they arrive at the right moment: they don’t just tell us a story; they provide the material for us to build one of our own.
Pippi had Villa Villekulla.
I had the wardrobes.
It wasn’t exactly the same thing, but at that age, it was enough.
My Love for Books Began with Pippi Longstocking
The curious thing is that I discovered Pippi through television because, at home, no one read me bedtime stories or stories during the day.
So, when I finally had the chance to get the book, I made up for lost time.
It was one of my first real books, not the sort of illustrated story for young children with just a few scattered sentences, typical of the preschool years.
It was a book.
A book meant to be truly read.
And from that moment on, my passion for books never stopped.
In elementary school, it was my fourth- and fifth-grade teacher who supplied me with reading material.
In middle school, I practically cleared out the shelves of the tiny room that served as the school library.
Then I moved on to public libraries.
And finally, I reached the point where I could afford to fill my own home shelves with books I’d bought myself.
Thinking back on it now, it almost makes me smile.
The little girl who dreamed of living like Pippi had found another way to travel without ever leaving home.
Reading.
Why is Pippi Longstocking still such a beloved character?
Perhaps because Pippi isn’t just a strong child.
She is a free child.
And that is an important distinction.
Her physical strength is certainly one of the character’s most entertaining traits, but it isn’t what made her so special.
Pippi is free to imagine, to make mistakes, to tell stories, to question adult rules, and to find solutions no adult would ever have considered.
She isn’t perfect.
She isn’t raised according to traditional standards.
She isn’t even always believable.
But she is generous, brave, and capable of seeing the world from a completely different perspective.
And perhaps that is precisely why, after so many years, she still resonates.
The first “Pippi Longstocking” book was published in 1945, and since then, the character has captured the imaginations of generations of children around the world.
It’s no coincidence that new editions of the book are still being published today.
Pippi Longstocking, My First Heroine
When I think of the heroines of my childhood, then, I don’t think of princesses.
I think of a little girl with two red braids, mismatched stockings, and immense strength.
I think of Villa Villekulla.
Of Tommy and Annika.
Of Little Old Man and Mr. Nilsson.
I think of that freedom which, as a child, seemed absolutely wonderful to me.
And I think of my unlikely secret hiding places, where I could finally imagine having a world all my own.
Then, naturally, I grew up.
I stopped climbing into wardrobes… at least, most of the time.
But something of Pippi remained.
The desire to fantasize, to seek out stories, to enter worlds different from my own remained.
And above all, the love of books remained.
For this, I must also thank Astrid Lindgren.
Because when a writer manages to give a child the desire to read, perhaps she has given her something far greater than a simple story.
She has given her a way to keep dreaming even after childhood has ended.
Three cheers for libraries, then.
And endless thanks to Astrid Lindgren.
For Pippi, of course.
But also for all those doors her books opened in the imaginations of millions of children.
