Poetry
Svenska bilder
Not translated into English
Carl Snoilsky · 1886
Opening lines
Vi läsa om konung Gösta
I krönike-bok,
Guds underman, hvilken bräckte
Tyrannernas ok.
We read of King Gösta
In the chronicle book,
God's man of wonders, who broke
The tyrants' yoke.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from litteraturbanken.se
Synopsis
A series of ballads, poems that tell of episodes from Swedish history, from the old Gustav Vasa to the young Tegnér, two hundred and fifty years later. Erik XIV plays the lute for Karin Månsdotter on the waters of Lake Mälaren, a bloody mist rises over the battlefield of Lützen, Gustav III appears at Svensksund; one meets Erik Dahlberg, Linnaeus, Bellman and Swedenborg, and ordinary people, such as the soldier who returns home. A few pieces, such as “Amaryllis”, belong to nature poetry.
Context
The pieces were written over a long series of years: the oldest in the late 1870s, most of them during the ten years of exile that followed the author's divorce. Twelve appeared in 1881 in a collection of new poems; in 1886, the pieces already written were gathered in a volume by Seligmann, expanded in 1894 in a second edition illustrated by Albert Edelfelt, and the last appeared in 1897. An annotated school edition came as early as 1894, and a modernised version went through thirty-two printings between 1931 and 1967.
Who it is for
A collection of ballads in Swedish, about one hundred and thirty pages in the original edition; it helps to know a little of Swedish history.
Prizes and reception
Long at the heart of the Swedish school canon and its author's most widely read collection, now largely forgotten.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.