From Ambassador

I am very happy to know that Icelandic people enjoy Manga and Anime very much. Recently, I learnt that adventure novels written by an Icelandic author nearly hundred years ago were read by Japanese boys and girls at that time.
 
When I visited the second biggest city, Akureyri, the other day, I got the opportunity to see a house where Mr. Jon Sveinsson lived when he was young. Mr. Sveinsson is a world-famous children’s literature writer and known by his nickname „Nonni“. Nonni was born in 1857, which is exactly 100 years before my birth year. He left Iceland when he was 13 years old. He stayed in Denmark and Germany and then studied at a Jesuit school in France. While teaching at a school in Germany as a priest, he published adventure novels such as „Nonni” and „Nonni and Manni” when he was around 55 years old. Those books were translated into 40 languages and due to his popularity, he was called „the second Hans Christian Andersen“
 
Nonni visited Japan in 1937 when he was 80 years old and stayed there one year, giving lectures about children’s literature over 50 times in various places. During his stay in Japan, he got fascinated by the characteristics of Japanese people such as honesty, truthfulness, politeness and dignity. I was told that he introduced about Japan around Europe until the time he died at the age of 87 after he returned to Europe.
 
His books are based on family love and brotherhood in severe nature and depict dramatic adventure stories. Over 6 million copies have been published and they got popular around the world, and over 15 books were translated into Japanese and published in Japan. I am sure many japanese boys and girls were excited to read his books.