This essay explores a previously rather unexplored part of Swedish military history in the form of a Swedish volunteer in the great war named Sven Blom. The essay focuses on his mindset and thoughts regarding the war, his part in it as a combatant, and how these experiences changed his mindset regarding the war over time. Sven Blom, a Swedish man in his 30s, who lived in France at the outbreak of hostilities, chosed to side with his new countrymen and enlists as a volunteer in the French Foreign Legion. His enthusiasm and patriotism regarding the war changed slowly through his combat experiences. After he sustaines a serious case of frostbite throughout one of his feet, he is sent to recover at a hospital. He recovers, but does not enlist again. His mindset regarding the war is changed forever. The main source material of this essay is the two war-diaries written in Swedish by Sven Blom starting right before the declaration of hostilities to the time when he was discharged from the French foreign Legion. To analyze the material several books are used. Such as Svenskar i Krig, by Lars Gyllenhaal and Lennart Westberg, Det första världskriget by John Keegan, Ivan Lönnberg by Sören Björklund, Eldens återsken by Lina Sturfelt and Fallen Soldiers written by George L. Mosse.

When war broke out in Europe in 1939 a mother of two, the thirty-three-year-old Astrid Lindgren, begun keeping a journal. In this diary she wrote about the events of the war, the decisions of the government of Sweden and her own personal life in Stockholm. With a micro historical approach and with a theoretical framework from history of emotions this study aims to explore Lindgren´s emotional life and her emotions towards the changing aspects of the ordinary life, her government´s political agenda, and towards the international players and victims of the second world war. With the use of William K. Reddy´s terminology of emotive and emotional navigation as well as Hugo Nordland´s emotional strategies as analyzing tools the results showed that Lindgren´s initial emotion towards the ordinary life, now affected by the war, was despair, expressed in emotives such as chock, sadness and despondency. The emotion later shifted to gratitude (towards her own privileged situation) and blues (caused by war fatigue), existing simultaneously. The most common emotion expressed correlating to the Swedish government is the emotion of trust. Lindgren´s main emotions towards the victims of the war was compassion. At multiples times, in her diaries, she expressed pity for those who suffered and gratitude for not being among them. The emotions she expressed correlating to the great powers of the war was hate (Germany), fear (Soviet Union) and contempt (Italy). But she also felt conflicted when faced with the fact that she might have to make a choice between Germany and the Soviet Union. The fear of the Russians trumped her loathing of the Nazi regime, but when she gained a greater knowledge of the German atrocities, she came to regard both regimes as equally horrible. The frequent use of certain emotives (such as confidence, gratitude and pity) indicates an emotional navigation to consolidate her feelings and avoid other less desirable emotions. In the same way the uses of biblical metaphors, comparisons of beasts and the reference to brotherly love gives proof of emotional strategies in her handling of undesirable feelings such as hatred and shame. Lastly, this study concludes in a didactical discussion arguing that Astrid Lindgren´s war diaries is a material of great value when teaching of and developing a historical consciousness.