Pelle Svanslös (English: Peter-No-Tail (film version) or Pelle No-Tail (book version)) is a fictional

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

cat created by the Swedish author Gösta Knutsson and a

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

series about him. In 1937 ''Pelle Svanslös'' first appeared in a radio series, which was broadcast from a small studio in the university building in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

. A series of twelve children's books based on the character was published between 1939 and 1972. The first eleven books were illustrated by Lucie Lundberg. The books about Pelle are seen as a protest against the ever more overt support seen for Nazism in Sweden during the 1930s, and as such constitute a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

on contemporaneous society. The books have been translated to several European languages.

Characters and story

The stories take place in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The characters of the books are

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

s; however, they are often based on real people. Knutsson studied at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

and was involved with the student societies Stockholms nation and Uppsala Student Union, and many of the characters are modelled on real-life people from this environment.Sevelin, A.R.
"Verklighetens Pelle Svanslös"
, ''Holmensis: Stockholms Nations Tidning'' no.4/2011, pp. 16–18, accessed 16 May 2012. Pelle is a kindhearted and gullible cat who is constantly being tricked and bullied by Elaka Måns ("Mean Mike") and his dim-witted helpers Bill and Bull, who always echo Måns while slightly misunderstanding him, adding comic relief. However, good always prevails over evil, and Pelle even gets to experience true love together with Maja Gräddnos ("Maya Cream-nose"). In the first books Pelle is a house cat in the home of the children Olle and Birgitta, but as he grows he enters a relationship with cohabitant Maja in a basement peep-hole. After a while, the book series become more and more anthropomorphized, with less and less mention of the human world around Pelle. Unlike the other cats in the series, Pelle has no tail (his name Svanslös "without a tail" reflects this). A large

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...

bit off Pelle's tail when he was only a few days old. Pelle was born in the countryside, but a family from Uppsala adopted him when he was a kitten. Some of the other cats bully Pelle because his embarrassing lack of a tail. In Mean Mike's eyes, Pelle is a bit of a snob and a weakling.

Book series

# ''Pelle Svanslös på äventyr'' (1939); English: ''The adventures of Pelle No-Tail'' # ''Pelle Svanslös på nya äventyr'' (1940); English: ''Further adventures of Pelle No-Tail'' # ''Pelle Svanslös i Amerika'' (1941) # ''Pelle Svanslös Klarar sig'' (1942); English: ''Pelle No-Tail pulls through'' # ''Hur ska det gå för Pelle Svanslös?'' (1943) # ''Pelle Svanslös och Taxen Max'' (1944) # ''Pelle Svanslös i skolan'' (1945) # ''Heja Pelle Svanslös'' (1946) # ''Pelle Svanslös och Maja Gräddnos'' (1947) # ''Trillingarna Svanslös'' (1948) # ''Alla tiders Pelle Svanslös'' (1951) # ''Pelle Svanslös ger sig inte'' (1972)

Adaptations

In 1949 the

Royal Swedish Opera Royal Swedish Opera () is an opera and ballet company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Location and environment The building is located in the centre of Sweden's capital, Stockholm, in the borough of Norrmalm (borough), Norrmalm, on the eastern si ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

staged a Children's opera, ''Pelle Svanslös'', with music by Erland von Koch. This production was subsequently presented each following year until 2001. In 1990 the stage production was filmed and shown by

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television aktiebolag, Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksd ...

. It featured Mark Bartholdsson as Pelle Svanslös, Iwa Sörenson as Maja Gräddnos and Magnus Lindén as elaka Måns. The series has been adapted for film multiple times. In 1981 the feature

animated film Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

'' Peter-No-Tail'' was released, starring Mats Åhlfeldt as Peter and

Ernst-Hugo Järegård Ernst-Hugo Alfred Järegård (12 December 1928 – 6 September 1998) was a Swedish actor. Biography Järegård was born in Ystad. He received his acting training at Malmö City Theatre. From 1962 he was an actor in Sweden's prominent Royal ...

as Elaka Måns. A sequel, '' Peter-No-Tail in Americat'', followed in 1985, with much of the same cast but Erik Lindgren voicing Peter. In 1997,

produced the Nordic Christmas calendar live action TV series '' Peter-No-Tail'' with

Björn Kjellman John Björn Sture Kjellman (born 4 June 1963) is a Swedish actor and singer. Kjellman was born in Östra Grevie, Scania. He played roles in Swedish movies like '' Klassfesten'' and '' Livet är en schlager'', in which he plays a Melodifestiva ...

portraying Peter. This was followed in 2000 by the live action feature '' Peter-No-Tail and the Great Treasure Hunt''. Picture books as well as two editions as a comics series have also been published; one comic magazine ran between 1965 and 1972. A new 2D animated feature-length film musical was released by SF Studios in January 2020, with the art style largely based on the 1980s films.

Eponymous asteroids

An asteroid that was discovered in March 1993 is eponymously named 8535 Pellesvanslös. Similarly the asteroids 8534 Knutsson, 8536 Måns, 8537 Billochbull, 8538 Gammelmaja and 8539 Laban were discovered at about the same time. 8534 was named after Gösta Knutsson and asteroids 8535-8539 after various characters in the series. They were all named by Swedish astronomer Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelle Svanslos 1965 comics debuts 1972 comics endings Book series introduced in 1939 Literary characters introduced in 1939 Swedish children's book series Swedish children's literature Swedish satirical novels Swedish comics titles Anti-fascist books Novels set in Sweden Children's books set in Sweden Uppsala in fiction Nazism in Sweden Political history of Sweden Novels about cats Children's books about cats Fictional cats Anthropomorphic cats Novels about talking animals Swedish novels adapted into films Children's books adapted into films Swedish comics adapted into films Swedish novels adapted into television shows Children's books adapted into television shows Novels adapted into comics Children's books adapted into comics Novels adapted into operas Comics adapted into operas Sveriges Television original programming

Characters and story

Book series

Adaptations

Eponymous asteroids

See also

References