Ole Lund Kirkegaard

The boy Topper finds a carpenter's pencil on the sidewalk and draws a rhino on his yellow wall. The pencil turns out to be no ordinary pencil, but an enchanted pencil! The yellow rhino emerges vividly from the wall in the living room of the red house where Topper lives – above Café Den Blå Havkat. The rhino says GRUMP, HONK and HORK and eats the curtains, a stuffed parrot – and rye bread in unusually large quantities.

The library marks that one of Danish children's literature's most significant authors - Ole Lund Kirkegaard (1940 - 1979) - would have turned 85 on 29 July, 2025.

Ole Lund Kirkegaard's books bring us into a quirky and humorous universe, where he creates absurd scenes and quirky characters in words and illustrations. His stories resonate with both children and adults, because we recognise ourselves and the challenges the characters face. The stories contain empathy for the small and weak, and Ole Lund Kirkegaard uses his humorous approach as a reminder that the quirky and imperfect have their own strength and value. That we should be critical of authorities, and that the funny and life-affirming often arise in the imperfect.

You can meet Otto and Topper and a number of other well-known characters by Ole Lund Kirkegaard when you walk around our exhibition in the library's foyer and on our 1st and 2nd floors.

Enjoy!

Ole Lund Kirkegaard has written and drawn works that have long since been included in the Danish children's literary treasure chest – and which adults have read together with their children and grandchildren since the late 1960s.

Little Virgil, Otto, Orla Frøsnapper (Freddy Frogface), Gummi Tarzan (Rubber Tarzan) and Hodja are characters that populate Ole Lund Kirkegaard's literary universes, along with a colourful line of other remarkably recognisable adults and children. People who are at once very special and who have at the same time populated many of the classrooms, schoolyards and small towns we have all grown up in.

Ole Lund Kirkegaard unfortunately did not live to an old age. However, he wrote a number of children's books that have achieved the status of timeless Danish classics and are read across generations, who can recognise themselves and their surroundings in the stories.

Ole Lund Kirkegaard wrote eight books in twelve years: Lille Virgil (Little Virgil) (1967), Albert (1968), Orla Frøsnapper (Freddy Frogface) (1969), Hodja fra Pjort (Up and Away) (1970), Otto er et næsehorn (Otto the Rhino) (1972), Gummi Tarzan (Rubber Tarzan) (1975), En flodhest i huset (no official English title, but translates to 'A hippo in the house') (1978) and Frode og alle de andre rødder (no official English title, but translates to 'Frode and all the other troublemakers') (1979) - He did not manage to complete Frode og alle de andre rødder himself, which was therefore finished by the family, and together with a number of other shorter stories, it was published after his death.

Sources
Nana Bang Kirkegaard
Jens Andersen, Ole Lund Kirkegaard, a life story, Gyldendal, 2010
Forfatterweb: forfatterweb.dk/oversigt/kirkegaard

Ole Lund Kirkegaard's writing represents a significant breakthrough in the way of writing books for children and has references that point back to great literary classics such as Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

His debut novel about Little Virgil was published the same year as Benny Andersen's Snøvsen, Eigil og katten i sækken (1967), Cecil Bødker's Silas and the black mare (1967), Halfdan Rasmussen's ABC (1967), Flemming Quist Møller's Cykelmyggen Egon (1967) and constituted a revolution in Danish children's literature - and points forward to later Danish authors such as Bjarne Reuter, Kim Fupz Aakesson and Jakob Martin Strid.

Ole Lund Kirkegaard's universes contain elements of a very recognisable, realistic world, with surprising magical elements added, taking the reader on adventures in the company of the stories' main characters. The main characters are curious, energetic children, often boys, who turn the adult world upside down in their actions and questions.

The stories deal with universal themes from our common existence: growing up, power relations, friendship, love and freedom, which the main characters encounter and navigate in different ways on their way through the stories.

Ole Lund Kirkegaard uses both language and drawings to make his readers laugh at the crazy ideas, feel sympathy for the hardships the main characters face, and rejoice at seeing a tyrant leave the village with the travelling circus on the cannon king's horse carriage, so that the world can calm down again for a while.

Ole Lund Kirkegaard was a draughtsman, painter, author, debater and lecturer, and he fearlessly intervened in the debates of his time about children, school, pedagogy, teaching and literature.

His books have changed the way language and illustrations are used in children's literature and touch on themes such as bullying, dyslexia, parental roles and child roles with a humorous and devil-may-care strength that makes the works highly entertaining and universally relevant.

In the exhibition you can experience a number of Ole Lund Kirkegaard's illustrations, which together with the stories form an integrated, artistic whole that was innovative in Danish children's literature when the books were published.

Sources
Nana Bang Kirkegaard
Jens Andersen, Ole Lund Kirkegaard, a life story, Gyldendal, 2010
Forfatterweb: forfatterweb.dk/oversigt/kirkegaard

Ole Lund Kirkegaard grew up in Skanderborg in a middle-class family of dentists, where his parents gave him a wide range of opportunities by the standards of the time. The backyard of his childhood home was used for digging caves, climbing trees, and playing Indian club and circus with his friends.

There was no fine lawn or dead straight tulips here - but there were plum and pear trees and room for all sorts of experiments. The garden was a paradisiacal haven.

The landscape around Skanderborg with its hills, lakes and forests was a place where a child in the 1940s and 50s could disappear into without their parents watching over them. Ole Lund Kirkegaard's stories often unfolds in settings that resemble the small rural town and hilly landscape of his childhood.

Ole Lund Kirkegaard was educated as a teacher at Aarhus College of Education. He settled as a head teacher and principal together with his wife Anne Lise in the small village of Oue by Mariager Fjord in June 1965.

Sources
Nana Bang Kirkegaard
Jens Andersen, Ole Lund Kirkegaard, a life story, Gyldendal, 2010
Forfatterweb: forfatterweb.dk/oversigt/kirkegaard

Ole Lund Kirkegaard was anti-authoritarian in every way and approached the job of teacher based on his own principles and intuition. In his childhood classroom, everyday life had been characterised by fear of the teacher's absolute authority and the possibility of punishing students physically.

In Ole Lund Kirkegaard's classroom there was no robot-like discipline. On the other hand, Ole Lund Kirkegaard involved himself in the individual child and the child's premises for learning and going to school, and he was concerned with having a trusting, secure and equal relationship with the children he was a teacher for. When a student, after hard work with difficult calculations, suddenly understood the connection, he could open the window towards the village and happily shout "HURRAY, HURRAY for that!" (Andersen 2010, p. 162)

Ole Lund Kirkegaard transformed the completely traditional village school in Oue into a colourful universe – “an Indian village with totem poles, a campfire, ropes and caves in the trees, aviaries with brightly coloured birds and paintings on the asphalt of the schoolyard and on all the windows in the classrooms.” (Andersen 2010, p.15).

In Oue he also began to write and challenge the traditional way of writing books for children. He read his stories to the children in class and the children were both his inspiration and “delicate barometer” that determined what would remain. (Andersen 2010, p.17).

Ole Lund Kirkegaard was a teacher and principal in Oue until 1973, when the family moved to Urlev near Horsens for work and private reasons. He also worked as a teacher there, but when his writing career demanded more and more of his time, he left his job at the local Stenderup School. He thus lost his daily contact with the children with whom he had a close relationship as a teacher and who were also his greatest source of inspiration.

Increasing work pressure affected family life, marriage and writing. The last years of Ole Lund Kirkegaard's life were turbulent and marked by ups and downs.

In the autumn of 1978, Ole Lund Kirkegaard was divorced and in his final years struggled with the alcoholism that had been present in his life for several years and which dominated the last part of his life. He died in March 1979.

Sources
Nana Bang Kirkegaard
Jens Andersen, Ole Lund Kirkegaard, a life story, Gyldendal, 2010
Forfatterweb: forfatterweb.dk/oversigt/kirkegaard

In the summer of 1966, Ole Lund Kirkegaard became known outside of Oue because he won the daily newspaper Politiken's competition to write the "best story for children aged 7-15".

Out of 1600 submitted entries, he won the competition with the short story "Dragen" (The Dragon) (1966), which became the basis for the book about "Little Virgil" (1967).

In 1967, the spirit of the times was really changing. Ahead lay the student rebellion, the hippie movement and women's liberation. At the time, there were also movements that focused on liberating children, and Politiken wanted to raise the status of children's literature and focus on children's cultural needs with the competition.

In 1967, the Danish public school system was given a new legal basis when the Danish Parliament decided that teachers were no longer allowed to hit students in the country's schools. The focus was now on "the student's all-round development" and the school was to "respect and stimulate the child's nature and emotional life".

Ole Lund Kirkegaard challenged the established approach to writing for children, which was characterised by moralising and instructive books written by adults for children, such as the Jan, Puk, De Fem and Kim books, which were still standard reading for all healthy girls and boys in the mid-1960s.

There should be an edge to the stories and they should not be told from top to bottom, but at eye level with the children:
“My own experiences as a teacher and author tell me that you should write about the things that concern children on a daily basis, and you should then try to remember that children are not at all the little angels that people have often wanted to make them out to be in children's books. For example, you should not deceive yourself and your readers that children cannot be mean to each other. They can, and unlike adults, they let their meanness towards their peers be expressed because they cannot control themselves.” (Andersen 2010, p. 23)

In 1966 - 67, the story of Little Virgil, who lives alone in his poultry house and drinks soda for breakfast "like a UFO", landed in both the established children's book community and among readers.

It was a radical new breakthrough in both content and form. In Ole Lund Kirkegaard's books, drawings and text form an integrated whole and Ole Lund Kirkegaard did not cultivate neatness in either drawings or text, but was concerned with children's language and telling stories as simple as possible. The drawings have an exaggerated, caricatured and funny style and several of the main characters are described as "ugly" and imperfect with spiky hair, freckles and crooked teeth.

Gyldendal's initial plan was to find another illustrator for Ole's book about Little Virgil. They thought his drawings were too ugly 😊 But Ole Lund Kirkegaard refused to publish unless it had his own illustrations.

Sources
Nana Bang Kirkegaard
Jens Andersen, Ole Lund Kirkegaard, a life story, Gyldendal, 2010
Forfatterweb: forfatterweb.dk/oversigt/kirkegaard

The story of Orla Frøsnapper is the universal story about the long lout who bullies the town's little boys. About the terror one can experience when small and defenseless in the face of overwhelming force. As readers, we immerse ourselves in the dramatic and humorous scenes where Orla almost gets his hands on us – and rejoice with the first-person narrator when he succeeds in tricking Orla and getting him into trouble. Orla is the archetype of a bully who makes time pass by chasing others. He only finds his place in life when the king of the circus Benito spots him and makes him the new cannon king of the travelling circus. And the little boys have to watch as Orla leaves town on a circus wagon – perhaps with a little annoyance that the excitement ends here?

The boy Topper finds a magic pencil and draws a rhino on his yellow wall. The rhino comes to life and is very hungry. It is also very heavy and falls through the floor to the other residents of the property – and all the way down to Cafe Den Blå Havkat, where everything ends in apparent chaos – until out of all the chaos new sides of the residents of the house emerge. The grumpy Mr Løwe becomes a happy cafe owner, a mature couple moves in together, a police chief comes to terms with the disorder of the world – and last but not least, Topper's father comes home from a long voyage to the seven seas and finds his family – and he knows exactly who wants a yellow rhino.

The pencil is the story's magical tool, which, just like in classic fairy tales, sets in motion an action that turns Topper's life upside down, sets off a series of absurd and comical scenes and challenges Topper, who must find solutions to the strangest problems. In the story, Otto finally sets sail for the South Seas – and Topper must find new challenges – perhaps as Sille's boyfriend?

The story of Ivan Olsen is the universal story of how it feels to be completely wrong and not be able to live up to the expectations that parents and society may have for you. The main character of the story is not very handsome, he is not strong or good at reading and everyday life at school is a struggle for Ivan. With harsh humour, Ole Lund Kirkegaard shows us what Ivan learns - every day: He learns that at school you get wet pants and beaten. There is no comfort or help to be found when he gets home. Ivan's mother just shakes her head, and his father thinks he is a whiner, and teaches him that a boy should be a real man - like Tarzan - and beat up the others.

The story of Rubber Tarzan also contains a magical element – namely a witch who fulfills Ivan's greatest wish – but unfortunately only for one day. Then everything went on as before for Ivan Olsen.

The story differs from the others in its tragic ending. And it gives the reader reason to consider how we treat others who don't exactly fit into the templates we ourselves help create. And how we ourselves fit in?

The story of Hodja from the sleepy town of Pjort is structured like a classic bildungsroman. The boy Hodja is bored at home and dreams of going out and seeing the world. His father – the cross-eyed tailor – wants Hodja to stay home and become a tailor like his father. But Hodja rebels against his origins and leaves home.

In this adventurous tale, the magical tool is a red flying carpet, which brings Hodja into the colourful world he wants to experience - and where he encounters evil and dangers, but also good helpers who get him through the dangerous situations.

The story of Hodja does not end with Hodja returning home to his starting point in Pjort – but he overcomes the evil forces and flies whistling across the vast steppes of Bulgislav on his red carpet. His courage and adventurous spirit are intact.

The open ending gives the reader the opportunity to continue the story of Hodja and the flying carpet. And perhaps imagine where a flying carpet could take the reader?

In 1978, the Danish Cancer Society developed the smoking campaign Farvel og tobak for use in elementary schools with Ole Lund Kirkegaard as illustrator and author Tom Døllner. Ole Lund Kirkegaard's crooked lines and caricatured figures give a serious subject a funny visual side that conveys the message and focuses on issues such as harmful tobacco, but also how we influence each other in both positive and negative directions. We become aware that it is not always easy to say no – neither to ourselves nor to others.