Sunday 7 March 2021

Flandry And Blomkvist

"He remembered how Lieutenant Danielson had gigged him for leaving off the helmet."
-Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER FOUR, p. 30.
 
"So you saved my life, Flandry grumbled. You're still a snot-nosed bastard."
-ibid.
 
"He suddenly heard an echo of Captain Adolfsson's inimitable voice from winter manoeuvres at the infantry school in Kiruna. Blomkvist, keep your fucking head down if you don't want to get your arse shot off. Years later he remembered the extra practice drills that Captain Adolfsson used to devise." 
-Stieg Larsson, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (London, 2008), CHAPTER 22, pp. 369-370.
 
So both Flandry and Blomkvist remember their military training.
 
Danielson joins the ranks of spear carriers like Karamzin, Brummelmann and Quarles but, in this case, his single short denunciation of Flandry is our only knowledge of Danielson. And the same goes for Adolfsson in relation to Blomkvist. Interesting characters whom we notice only if we pause for a closer look.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I did remember Lieutenant Danielson! He was tough because Flandry was getting careless. Good officers and non coms SHOULD be strict at the right times, for the right reasons.

I took particularly note of Lt. Danielson because of how he warned Flandry that the next infraction would get him, I think, thirty seconds of the nerve lash. It was an example of how the Empire's criminal code, civil and military, used corporal punishment for some crimes and offenses. A matter which I discussed in my "Crime and Punishment in the Terran Empire" article.

Ad astra! Sean