Thursday, September 27, 2018

Evil sailor wants ham sandwich




“The Vasa Piglet” is a slightly weird children's story about a poor little pig that is bought by an evil (and presumably hungry) sailor who wants to consume him during the maiden voyage of the Royal Warship Vasa. Spoiler warning: the ship sinks, and while the sailors are struggling to hold on to whatever flotsam comes their way, the little piggy manages to escape as the sun slowly sinks below the horizon…

The story also exists in an (original) Swedish version, and is actually sold at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. That's the world-famous museum which houses, yes you guessed it, the actual shipwreck of the royal warship! It sank in Stockholm's waters in 1628, was successfully salvaged in 1961, and has now become something of a weird symbol of Sweden, with the government-owned museum being visited by thousands of people each year. How many of them buy Björn Bergenholz' story is, alas, unknown to me.

Three stars. Now, let's eat a ham sandwich!

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