When Märta Tikkanen went to her Laudatur Seminar, there were only two students besides her – a Frenchman, Jean Bry, and Jörn Donner.

“Professor Olof Enckell just called me fröken, miss, all the time.”

Tikkanen was a diligent student who always managed to do the necessary reading. Donner’s life situation was different.

“Jörn had small children who would keep him up at night, so he was often fighting against sleep and sinking slowly beneath his desk – especially when I was speaking.”

Tikkanen and Donner sat an oral exam on Swedish literature together, where professor Enckell began to ask his students about 18th century writers.

“When Enckell asked Donner something, he began to sink on his chair towards the floor. ‘What about Fröken?’ he then asked. Well, fröken naturally knew everything. ‘Well, what can Mr. Donner tell me about Kellgren?’ And again Jörn went underneath the table,” Tikkanen remembers with amusement.

Nevertheless, in the end Donner and Tikkanen ended up getting the same grade.

“That was of course because Jörn knew his Elmer Diktonius extremely well, that’s what he wrote his Master’s thesis on.”