Mio, Min Mio: Update Four

So Mio is captured at last. The climax of the story arrives with just a handful of new words, among them 'en tjener - servant', 'en velling - gruel', 'usynlighet - invisibility', and 'forbauset - surprised'. The EVIL KNIGHT KATO is just as evil in person as our heroes had imagined from afar. The air in his room is thick with his evil thoughts, which oddly enough can also make noise.

He struggles with what to do with Mio and Jum Jum. The choices are: Turn them into cursed birds, or rip out their hearts, replace them with stones, and make them his servants. Mio really, really wants to be a bird instead of a stony-hearted servant. In the end, the EVIL KNIGHT KATO decides to lock them up to die of starvation, a good plot device as, unlike the other two options, it allows them the hope of escape.

"Her i min borg dør en av sult på en eneste natt," sa han. "Så lang er natten og så stor er sulten i min borg at en dør på en eneste natt."

"Here in my fortress one dies of hunger in a single night," he said. "The night is so long and the hunger so great in my fortress that one dies in a single night."

In another scene taken straight from LOTR, Mio and Jum Jum sit around in their last minutes and try to remember the Shire. I mean, The Island of Green Meadows, of course. Unlike Frodo, however, Mio can remember it, although it seems to them a long, long time ago. With the last of their strength, they play the pretty song one last time on their flutes. The cursed birds come up to the window at that, and then go away again.

Jum Jum goes to sleep. Mio is not far behind him, but he finds the the little spoon he found earlier in the story in his pocket again, and brings it up to his mouth out of hunger. And, lo and behold, it is filled with bread and water, and is filled with bread and water every time he tries to eat out of it. When he is so full that he can't eat any more, he decides to share a bit with Jum Jum, who is unconscious. Soon they both feel better and are so relieved that they are almost happy, even though they can't think of another way to escape.

Then Mio goes to put on his cloak again, and puts it on inside out. They discover that this makes Mio invisible, thanks to the stuff the weaver-woman fixed it up with. This is all fine and good, but it makes one wonder why Mio and Jum Jum weren't told about the magical properties of the spoon and the cloak right off the bat...

They sit around for awhile thinking about how this might help them. Jum Jum offers to raise a ruckus, and then distract the guards when they come in, letting invisible Mio escape. But Mio won't leave Jum Jum there. It is a sweet scene. Jum Jum says,

"Jeg ville så gjerne at du skulle flykte og redde deg hjem til Landet i det Fjerne. Og likevel kan jeg ikke være annet enn glad for at du vil bli her hos meg. Jeg prøver å ikke være glad for det, men jeg kan ikke la være."

"I want so badly for you to flee and go safely home to the Land in the Distance. But just the same I can't help but be glad that you want to be here with me. I am trying not to be glad, but I just can't help it."

They needn't have worried. The cursed birds come back, with Mio's sword! The sword can after all cut through stone, so of course it can cut through steel. Mio leaves Jum Jum and sneaks away, invisible, running past all of the guards and fighting THE EVIL KNIGHT KATO at last. The battle isn't too long, even though Mio makes sure it is a fair fight by announcing himself and taking off the invisibility cloak. Now see, if I were a 10-or-so-year old boy and I had to fight the king of all evil, I would take whatever cheap shots I could, but whatever.

The mood changes briefly when Mio disarms KATO.

"Da rev ha med ett den svarte fløyelsjakken sin opp i brystet.

-Pass på at du treffer hjertet!- skrek han. -Pass på at du hugger rett gjennom steinhjertet mitt. Det har gnaget der inne så lenge og gjort så vondt!-

... Jeg så at ridder Kato lengtet etter å bli kvitt sitt hjerte av stein. Kanskje det var slik at ingen hatet ridder Kato så mye som han selv gjorde det."

Basically, he pulls his cloak up to his breast and screams, "Make sure you go through the heart! Take care to cut right through my stone heart! It has been there so long and hurt so much!" And Mio sees that, "Perhaps it was that no one hated knight Kato as much as he himself did."

THE EVIL KNIGHT KATO dies. All of his evil minions disappear, and as soon as Mio and Jum Jum leave the fortress, it collapses too. Miramis comes back, and he has with him the little foal stolen from the dark forest. Then they find all of the children that had been the cursed birds, waiting on the beach. They are all there - except for the little weaver's daughter, Milimani.

"Hun fløy mot fakkelen,' sa broren til Nonno."

"She flew against the torch,' said Nonno's brother."

That's a solemn scene, again. And the children all sing a little song, before they bury her.

"Milimani, vår lille søster, lille søster som sank i bølgen, sank i bølgen med brente vinger. Milimani, å, Milimani sover stille og våkner aldri, og aldri mer flyr Milimani med triste skrik over mørke bølger."

"Milimani, our little sister, little sister who sank in the wave, sank in the waves with burned wings. Milimani, Ah, Milimani sleeps still and never wakes, and never more shall Milimani fly with sad shrieks over the dark waves."

BUT Mio decides to bury her in the cloth her mother made, and it has more magic properties and brings her back to life.

"Så blå som sjøen er,' sa hun. Det var det eneste hun sa."

"How blue the sea is,' she said. It was the only thing she said."

Then everyone rides home on horses and it's happy and delightful and many of them play in the rosegarden together, and then Mio goes home to his father. And in the last page of the book, he thinks about his old life in Stockholm and how happy he is here in the Land in the Distance.

THE END.