The Land Within
The Copper Key
“Never would think it so fine to travel bus,” she said to the driver as she climbed off. “Thank you much!”
She gave him a broad grin from behind the ski mask. The bus driver gave a start when he met those shining yellow eyes and stared after the girl for a long time before he slowly drove on to the bus depot.
Of course the bus driver couldn’t in his wildest dreams imagine who was hidden behind the mask! The troll-girl Ruska had come out of the Land Within to seek medical care for the very youngest of her troll sisters, Minitott. Fanny takes her in and together they succeed in exposing a greedy doctor who makes money from questionable medications.
Minitott gets her operation and it turns out that she had been swallowing a whole lot of junk, including a copper key, a key that unlocks an adventure for the girls.
Cover: Alvaro Tapia
People in Sweden have always had a special relationship with trolls. They have bartered together, negotiated borders and even married each other. In folk tales trolls are depicted as both good and evil, they are wild of course, but you can get along with them. Perhaps it is inevitable in a land with so much forest and wilderness. I have followed carefully and developed Nordic folklore in my writing of the series on The Land Within.
What would a troll say about our world? That’s what I wanted to consider in The Copper Key. Ruska is amazed over things that Fanny takes for granted. Like taking a bus or using a lift. But she is also clear-sighted and has greater civil courage than most. When Ruska finds experimental animals in the hospital’s basement, she frees them without hesitation. This, of course, causes an uproar creating news headlines.
Rabén&Sjögren 2001
ISBN 91-29-66123-4
