Näs was a tenant farm to the vicarage and in 1895, Astrid Lindgren’s parental grandparents came to rent the ground from the vicarage and farm the land.

It was here on this farm Näs in the old red house with white knots, in which Astrid Anna Emilia Ericsson was born on November 14, 1907. The place that became the source of inspiration for Astrid Lindgren´s authorship. The nature, the games, the people and life on the farm became an important part of her stories.

Even today, Astrid Lindgren’s childhood home stands so peacefully surrounded by apple trees.  Astrid Lindgren herself restores her childhood home in the 1960s, as she remembers it from her childhood. This is where Astrid Lindgren’s own story begins.

Astrid Lindgren has often described her childhood as a very happy period – “we spent a blissful ‘Noisy Village-life at Näs, not much different to the children in the ‘Noisy Village-books” – with a constant feeling of security that the love of her parents gave her and energetic play with both her three siblings and many other children who also lived around the farm.

“There were two things that made our childhood what it was – security and freedom. It felt safe having those two who cared so much for each other and who were always there should we need them, but who otherwise let us roam free and happily discover the fantastic playground we had in the Näs of our childhood.”

From “Samuel August från Sevedstorp och Hanna i Hult“, 1975.

In the picture above, the year is 1915 and the extended family is standing in front of the childhood home: Samuel August, Hanna, the children as well as farm hands and maids. Astrid is eight years old.