Pippi in the South Seas

Astrid Lindgren's Pippi in the South Seas continues the adventures of Pippi Longstocking, an extraordinarily strong, independent girl who lives alone with a horse and a monkey named Mr. Nilsson in a ramshackle house called Villa Villekulla, at the edge of a small Swedish town. Her best friends, Tommy and Annika Settergren, live next door.

The story opens when a wealthy gentleman drives into town, assumes Villa Villekulla is for sale, and announces his plan to buy the property and chop down an old hollow oak tree. Tommy and Annika protest, but the gentleman dismisses them, insults Pippi's appearance, and tugs her plait. When Pippi scrambles up into the oak, he grabs Annika by the neck. Pippi leaps down, seizes the man, throws him into the air, and dumps him in the backseat of his car. He fetches a policeman, who leads him back to the house and points to Pippi herself as the owner, explaining she is the strongest girl in the world. Humiliated, the gentleman drives off and never returns.

Pippi's daily life in the little town unfolds through comic episodes. She visits Tommy and Annika's garden, where their mother, Mrs. Settergren, is hosting Aunt Laura, a nervous elderly relative. Pippi dominates the conversation with outlandish tall tales, including one about a grandmother cured of her nerves by fox poison and another about a cow who boarded a train and chose a herring sandwich over a sausage one. Aunt Laura never manages to tell her own story but departs feeling less anxious. On another occasion, Pippi announces she has invented the word "snirkle" but has no idea what it means. She leads Tommy and Annika on horseback through town, visiting a bakery, an ironmonger's, and a doctor's office, but no one can identify a snirkle. Back at Villa Villekulla, Tommy nearly steps on a tiny beetle with gleaming green wings, and Pippi triumphantly declares it a snirkle, delighted that the thing she sought was right outside her gate all along.

When school resumes, Pippi drops in on a special event: Miss Rosenblom, a wealthy old woman, visits the school each year to quiz children and distribute prizes only to those who answer correctly, while children who fail must stand in a shameful corner. Pippi gives absurd answers, claiming King Karl XII should have kept his feet dry and declaring that a boy named Pontus gets a tummy ache when splitting a cake. Banished to the corner, she organizes her own quiz for the disgraced children, then hands out golden coins and bags of sweets from her own pockets. The children run home far happier than those who passed Miss Rosenblom's test.

As autumn deepens into winter, Tommy and Annika catch the measles and are confined to bed for weeks. Pippi entertains them daily from a ladder propped against their window, dressing as a chimney sweep, a ghost, and a witch, and sending baskets of fruit up via Mr. Nilsson. After they recover, the postman delivers a letter for Pippi. Tommy reads it aloud: Captain Longstocking, Pippi's father, now King Ephraim I of Koratuttutt Island in the South Seas, summons Pippi aboard his ship, the Hoppetossa, to visit his kingdom. His subjects long to see Pippi, whom her father calls "the famous Princess Pippilotta." The kitchen falls silent.

The Hoppetossa sails into the harbor one spring morning, decorated with flags. Pippi and her father embrace joyfully. That evening, Tommy and Annika sit gloomily while Pippi talks excitedly about the island, oblivious to their distress. When Annika begins to cry at the prospect of losing Pippi, Pippi casually reveals she has already arranged with Mrs. Settergren for both children to come along. On a chilly evening, the Hoppetossa departs with Pippi, Tommy, Annika, the horse, and Mr. Nilsson aboard.

After months at sea, the formerly pale children are healthy and suntanned. Koratuttutt Island appears: a green, palm-covered island home to just 126 people. The Koratutts, the island's inhabitants, gather on the sand to welcome their king. At a village meeting place, Captain Longstocking sits on a bamboo throne with a smaller throne for Pippi beside him. The Koratutt children kneel before her, but Pippi misunderstands, thinking they are searching for something on the ground. Momo, a local boy who has learned Pippi's language from the crew, explains she is a princess. Pippi dismisses the royal treatment.

The days are full of play. The children swim inside a coral reef and explore caves carved into the southern cliffs, where the Koratutt children play marbles with pearls found in oysters, unaware of their value. Captain Longstocking and all the adults leave for several days to hunt wild pigs on a neighboring island. When Tommy attempts to cross a steep cliff face to reach a cave, he falls into shark-filled water. Pippi dives in, lifts the shark out of the sea with both hands, and hurls it away. She hugs Tommy fiercely, then sits down and cries, insisting she weeps not for Tommy but for the "poor little hungry shark" that got no breakfast.

Two bandits named Jim and Buck arrive on a steamboat. They once saw Captain Longstocking pay for tobacco with large pearls and have been waiting for the adults to leave. Pippi spots them from the cave, refuses to hand over the pearls, and removes the safety rope across the cliff, leaving the cave accessible only by a dangerous climb. Jim and Buck each try to cross and fall into the sea; Pippi throws coconuts at the sharks to save them. The bandits spend a miserable night on the rocks in a torrential downpour while the children sleep comfortably in the cave. The next morning, Buck threatens to kill Pippi's horse unless she surrenders the pearls. When he charges at her, she throws him into the air, then does the same to Jim, carries both men to their dinghy, and tells them to go home. When Captain Longstocking returns and asks if everything was peaceful, Pippi reports only that Mr. Nilsson lost his straw hat.

As the rainy season approaches and Tommy and Annika miss their parents, Pippi announces it is time to go home. The Koratutt children hang farewell garlands of white flowers around their necks and sing a mournful song. Captain Longstocking stays behind to rule, and Fridolf, one of the sailors, takes the helm. They cannot reach home in time for Christmas and arrive on a dark January evening. Tommy and Annika see their parents through a lit window and feel a rush of longing. Annika urges Pippi to stay with them for the night, but Pippi declines, wading alone through deep snowdrifts toward the dark house, saying that as long as your heart is warm, you will not freeze.

The next evening, Tommy and Annika visit Pippi and find Villa Villekulla transformed: a torch blazing on the veranda, a lit Christmas tree with sparklers inside, and a table laden with festive food. Pippi explains her calendar is "running a little late" and sends them hunting for hidden presents. Tommy declares he never wants to grow up, and Annika agrees. Pippi produces three small dried items she calls "squiggle pills," given to her by a wise chief in Rio. To stay small, each person must swallow a pill in the dark and recite, "Oh my dear little squiggle, don't let me grow any biggle." The three children blow out the candles, sit in the dark holding hands, and chant the words together. Pippi admits the pills may no longer work.

From their bedroom window, Tommy and Annika see Pippi sitting alone in her kitchen, head propped in her hands, staring at a flickering candle. Annika says Pippi looks lonely; Tommy notes the pills looked like ordinary peas. The narrative closes with a quiet promise: New seasons will come, and the children will go on playing together, always returning to Villa Villekulla, where Pippi will remain. Pippi stares straight ahead, dreaming, and blows out the candle.