By BARBARA CONATY
A lyrical epigraph from John Lennon -- "There is nothing you can sing that can't be sung" -- opens a children's tale by Eric A. Johnson, senior specialist in the Exchange and Gift Division.
The Stone-Dragons of Metsamaa is a story that recognizes the great power of music to bring peace and contentment. In the tale, Laul, a boy whose name means "song" in Estonian, sings every song he knows three times to lull to sleep a voracious dragon threatening to eat Laul's hilltop and home. The dragon is one of many that had been gorging themselves on Estonia's loamy hills. The beasts ripped huge holes in the landscape. Worse still, their burps and eruptions brought forth boulders that made the bits of land still remaining unfit for farming. Laul's inspiration resulted in a call to arms: Small and large choruses roamed throughout the land and sang till every last dragon was asleep.
As the dragons dozed in their first long sleep, the farmers collected all the boulders and made from them walls, castles and fortress cities. They restored their land to a smooth and fertile beauty but were aghast to hear the dragons stirring. Being so busy rebuilding their land, the people had not had time to sing. The dragons, warmed by the generous sun, began to waken. Quickly, the people marshalled all their troubadours, stationing them at every dragon's ear to croon melodies. The singing charm worked again, and from then on the Estonians gathered every year to sing once again, thus creating one of the most beloved customs of this Baltic nation.
Indeed, Estonia enjoyed a "singing revolution" when in 1988, 300,000 Estonians gathered to sing in protest of the Soviet occupation. This turnout represented one-third of the total Estonian population (not counting Russians and other ethnic groups in the country).
This original tale of dragons and songs, first issued in Estonia in 1994, marks the start of Mr. Johnson's career as an author. Writing under the nom de plume Enrico S. Conti, Mr. Johnson will soon have a second tale in the bookstores. His "The Color Thieves" will be published this summer in a bilingual English and Estonian edition.
Unlike the fanciful Stone-Dragons, the second book is a political allegory about the Soviet occupation of Estonia. It is illustrated by renowned graphic artist Reti Saks. Both books are being published by the firm Koolibri, Estonia's largest publisher of textbooks and other books for schoolchildren.
Estonia was an independent nation from 1920 until 1940, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union. In August 1991, responding to several years of increasingly popular support for independence, Estonia declared itself a free state, and by September it had become a member of the United Nations.
Mr. Johnson came to admire Estonia during his many personal visits while the Soviets ruled. In 1990, in his position as book exchange specialist, he was the first Library of Congress official to visit the Baltic States on business in more than 60 years. In 1993 he spent four months at the National Library of Estonia as a Book Fellow of the American Library Association. He spent an additional month on his own there to write 18 more stories for children.
Mr. Johnson's affection for Estonia, one of several parts of the former Soviet Union he visited, was prompted by his observation that only in Estonia did he witness an active and consistent resistance to Soviet domination.
For example, during his visit in 1983, he saw graffiti demanding "Soviet army out of Estonia." More recently, Mr. Johnson noted, Estonia has been the quickest to reverse the effects of Soviet rule. As he described it, "Estonia is like a tulip forcing its way up through tarmac and blossoming, despite the harsh conditions."
Of Russian background, illustrator Sveta Aleksejeva is 25 years old and is an Estonian citizen born and raised in Tallinn, Estonia's capital. In 1994 their first book was named to the 37th annual list of the 25 best books published in Estonia.
At the First Baltic Book Fair in Tallinn in February 1995, Ms. Aleksejeva received a special award from the Estonian Printers and Graphic Artists Union, which selects the books on the list. In April Mr. Johnson and Ms. Aleksejeva attended a book presentation at the National Library of Estonia organized to introduce their book. The illustrations were a main feature of Ms. Aleksejeva's concurrent art exhibit at the National Library. Her work, which features pen and ink with watercolor washes and colored pencil embellishments, has been featured in three art shows since 1989.
"The Stone-Dragons of Metsamaa" can be obtained by anyone on an exchange basis from the National Library of Estonia.
Mr. Johnson writes under the Conti pen name to represent a creative partnership with illustrator Sveta Aleksejeva. While the "S" in the pen name stands for Sveta, Enrico Conti can loosely be translated from its Romance-language roots as "rich in tales."
Barbara Conaty is the team leader, Central and Eastern European Languages Team, Social Sciences Cataloging Division.