''Fredmans epistlar'' (English: ''Fredman's Epistles'') is
a collection of 82 poems set to music by
Carl Michael Bellman
Carl Michael Bellman (; 4 February 1740 – 11 February 1795) was a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, poet and entertainer. He is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a powerful influence in Swedish music, as well ...
, a major figure in
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
18th century song. Though first published in 1790, it was created over a period of twenty years from 1768 onwards. A companion volume, ''
Fredmans sånger
''Fredmans sånger'' (in English, ''Fredman's Songs'' or ''Songs of Fredman'') is a collection of 65 poems and songs published in 1791 by the Swedish poet Carl Michael Bellman.
As a follow-up to ''Fredmans epistlar'' from the previous year, the ...
'' (Fredman's Songs) was published the following year.
The Epistles vary widely in style and effect, from
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
-themed
pastorale
Pastorale refers to something of a pastoral nature in music, whether in form or in mood.
In Baroque music, a pastorale is a movement of a melody in thirds over a drone bass, recalling the Christmas music of ''pifferari'', players of the traditi ...
with a cast of gods and demigods from
classical antiquity
Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
to laments for the effects of
Brännvin
Brännvin is a Swedish liquor distilled from potatoes, grain, or (formerly) wood cellulose. It can be plain and colourless, or flavoured with herbs and spices. Beverages labelled ''brännvin'' are usually plain and have an alcohol content between ...
-drinking,
tavern
A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that h ...
-scenes, and apparent
improvisation
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
s. The lyrics, based on the lives of Bellman's contemporaries in
Gustavian-age Sweden, describe a gallery of fictional and semi-fictional characters and events in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
.
Jean Fredman, an
alcoholic
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomin ...
former watchmaker, is the central character and fictional narrator. The "soliloquy" of
Epistle 23, a description of Fredman lying drunk in the gutter and then recovering in the Crawl-In Tavern, was described by
Oscar Levertin
Oscar Ivar Levertin (17 July 1862, Norrköping – 22 September 1906) was a Swedish poet, critic and literary historian. Levertin was a dominant voice of the Swedish cultural scene from 1897, when he started writing influential high-profile ...
as "the
to-be-or-not-to-be of Swedish literature".
Ulla Winblad
Ulla Winblad was a semi-fictional character in many of Carl Michael Bellman's musical works. She is at once an idealised rococo goddess and a tavern prostitute, and a key figure in Bellman's songs of ''Fredman's Epistles''. The character was part ...
, based on one of Bellman's friends, is the chief of the fictional "
nymph
A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...
s". She is half goddess, half prostitute, a key figure among the
demimonde
is French for "half-world". The term derives from a play called , by Alexandre Dumas , published in 1855. The play dealt with the way that prostitution at that time threatened the institution of marriage. The was the world occupied by elite me ...
characters of ''Fredman's Epistles''.
The Epistles are admired for the way that their
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
and music fit so well together. Bellman chose not to compose the tunes, instead borrowing and adapting existing
melodies
A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...
, most likely to exploit the humour of contrasting the associations of well-known tunes with the meanings he gave them. This may also have been intended to provide historical depth to his work; he sometimes devoted considerable energy to adapting melodies to fit an Epistle's needs.
Many of the Epistles have remained culturally significant in Scandinavia, especially in Sweden. They are widely sung and recorded: by choirs such as the ''
Orphei Drängar
Sångsällskapet Orphei Drängar (OD) is a Swedish male voice choir and singing society based in Uppsala, Sweden. While best known for its high quality performances of the classical repertoire, OD sings music of all genres in many different langua ...
'', by professional solo singers such as
Fred Åkerström
Fred Åkerström (27 January 1937 – 9 August 1985) was a Swedish folk guitarist and singer particularly noted for his interpretations of Carl Michael Bellman's music, and his own work of the typically Swedish song segment named ''visa''. These ...
and
Cornelis Vreeswijk
Cornelis Vreeswijk (; ; 8 August 1937 – 12 November 1987) was a Dutch-born Swedish singer-songwriter, poet and actor.
He emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to become ...
, and by ensemble singers such as
Sven-Bertil Taube
Sven-Bertil Gunnar Evert Taube (24 November 1934 – 11 November 2022) was a Swedish singer and actor. Internationally, he was perhaps better known for his acting career. Taube played Henrik Vanger in the film ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'' ...
and
William Clauson
William Clauson (May 2, 1930 – September 3, 2017) was a Swedish-American singer of folk songs from various nations, including some of the songs of Carl Michael Bellman in both English and Swedish.
Biography
Clauson was born in Ashtabula, Oh ...
. The Epistles have been translated into German, French, English, Russian, Polish, Finnish, Italian and Dutch.
Overview
![GinLane](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/GinLane.jpg)
Bellman wrote a total of 82 ''Fredman's Epistles'', starting in 1768. The overall theme of the Epistles is, on the surface, drinking, and its effects, but the Epistles are very far from being drinking songs. Instead, they are a diverse collection of songs, often telling stories. They are sometimes romantically
pastoral
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...
, sometimes serious, even mournful, but always dramatic, full of life. Together, they "paint in words and music a canvas of their age".
They are populated by a lengthy cast of characters, and set firmly in Bellman's time and place, eighteenth century
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, but are simultaneously decorated, for romantic or humorous effect, in
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
style. As a result, listeners are confronted with both striking realism and classical imagery. Within these general themes, the Epistles follow no discernible pattern, and do not join together to tell any single story. Their tunes, too, are borrowed from a variety of sources, often French. The words that are fitted to the tunes are often in
parodic
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...
contrast to their original themes, very likely achieving humorous effects on their eighteenth-century audiences.
''Fredman's Epistles'' are thus not easy to categorise; the critic Johan Henric Kellgren
Johan Henrik Kellgren (1 December 1751 – 20 April 1795) was a Swedish poet and critic.
Biography
He was born at Floby in Västergötland (now part of Falköping Municipality, Västra Götaland County). He studied at the Royal Academy of Turku, ...
stated that Bellman's songs "had no model and can have no successors".
Bellman was a skilful and entertaining performer of his songs, accompanying himself on the cittern
The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...
, putting on different voices, and imitating the sounds made by a crowd of people. He is unusual, even unique, among major poets in that almost all of his work was "conceived to music". His achievement has been compared to Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
, Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
, and Hogarth. Bellman, however, was no great playwright, nor a major classical composer. His biographer, Paul Britten Austin
Paul Britten Austin (5 April 1922 – 25 July 2005) was an English author, translator, broadcaster, administrator, and scholar of Swedish literature.
He is known in particular for his translations of and books on the Swedish musician, si ...
, suggests that the comparison with Hogarth is closer to the mark. Bellman had a gift for using elegant classical references in comic contrast to the sordid realities of drinking and prostitution
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
. The way he does this, at once regretting and celebrating these excesses in song, achieves something of what Hogarth achieved in engravings and paint.[ The art historian ]Axel Romdahl
Axel Ludvig Romdahl (18 March 1880 – 14 May 1951) was a Swedish art historian and museum curator.
Biography
Axel Ludvig, known as Ludde, was the son of P.A.C. Romdahl and Clara Theresia Brogren. He married Gudrun Biller in 1906 in Stockholm.
...
describes Bellman's sensibility as if he had been a painter: "An unusual swiftness of apprehension, both optical and aural, must have distinguished him."[Britten Austin, 1967, page 125.] Britten Austin agrees with this, noting that "When ellman's
Ellman's was a major catalog merchant. It was located in suburban locations of Georgia and North Carolina, mainly Atlanta and Charlotte. Directly competing with Service Merchandise, Ellman's was ultimately bought out by Service Merchandise in 1985 ...
words and music have faded into silence it is the visual image which remains."[ Jan Sjåvik comments in the ''Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Literature and Theater'' that "Bellman's achievement consists in taking this humble and unrecognized literary form he drinking song">drinking_song.html" ;"title="he drinking song">he drinking songand raising it to a genre that became impossible to ignore, while in the process creating songs and characters that have become an indispensable part of Sweden's literary and cultural heritage."]
The ''Epistles''
Many of List of Fredman's Epistles">the 82 ''Fredman's Epistles'' remain popular in Sweden. Their diverse styles and themes may be illustrated with examples of some of the best-known songs. To begin with No. 23, ''Ack du min Moder!'' (Alas, thou my mother), which has been described as "the to-be-or-not-to-be of Swedish literature", tells, in realist style, the story of a drunk who wakes in a Stockholm gutter outside the Crawl-In Tavern. He curses his parents for conceiving him "perhaps upon a table" as he looks at his torn clothes. Then the tavern door opens, and he goes in and has his first drink. The song ends with loud thanks to the drunk's mother and father. In contrast, the Rococo No. 28, ''I går såg jag ditt barn, min Fröja
I går såg jag ditt barn, min Fröja (Yesterday saw I your child, my Freya), is a ballad from the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 collection, ''Fredman's Epistles'', where it is No. 28. The epistle is subtitled "''Om et a ...
'' (Yesterday I saw thy child, my Freya), tells the tale of an attempt to arrest the "nymph" Ulla Winblad, based on a real event. Bellman here combines realism – Ulla wearing a black embroidered bodice, and losing her watch in a named street (Yxsmedsgränd
Yxsmedsgränd is an alley in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden.
Stretching south from Västerlånggatan to Stora Nygatan, it forms a parallel street to Didrik Ficks Gränd and Kåkbrinken and is crossed by Lilla Nygatan and Mu ...
) in Stockholm's Gamla stan Gamla stan (, "The Old Town"), until 1980 officially Staden mellan broarna ("The Town between the Bridges"), is the old town of Stockholm, Sweden. Gamla stan consists primarily of the island Stadsholmen. Officially, but not colloquially, Gamla stan ...
– with images from classical mythology, such as a myrtle crown and an allusion to the goddess Aphrodite
Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...
.[
Quite a different tone is set in No. 40, '' Ge rum i Bröllops-gåln din hund!'' (Make room in the wedding-hall, you dog!), as some unruly soldiers interfere in a chaotic wedding, mixing roughly with the musicians and the wedding-party. Shouts of "Shoulder arms!" and panic at a chimney fire combine with a complex ]rhyming pattern
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
An example of the ABAB rh ...
to create a humorous picture of the disastrous event. The story ends with the priest pocketing some of the collection money.[ A later Epistle, No. 48, '']Solen glimmar blank och trind
Solen glimmar blank och trind (The sun gleams smooth and round) is Epistle No. 48 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, ''Fredman's Epistles''. The Epistle is subtitled "''Hvaruti afmålas Ulla Winblads ...
'' (The sun gleams smooth and round), narrates the relaxed and peaceful journey of a boat bringing Ulla Winblad home to Stockholm across Lake Mälaren
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...
on a lovely spring morning, after a night of carousing. The boatmen call to each other, apparently haphazardly, but each detail helps to create a pastoral vision as "Gradually the wind blows up / In the fallen sails; / The pennant stretches, and with an oar / Olle stands on a hayboat;". The song is "one of Bellman's greatest", creating "an incomparable panorama of that eighteenth-century Stockholm which meets us in Elias Martin's canvasses."[
]
Bellman had stopped composing Epistles by 1781; he started again by the end of the decade, composing seven of his finest works around 1789 to 1790: Epistles 70, 71, 77, 80, 81, 82, and revising Epistle 72 which he had written in 1772. The musicologist James Massengale
James Rhea Massengale is an American musicologist and former professor at UCLA, who has specialised in the Swedish poets Carl Michael Bellman and Olof von Dalin. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He was educated at Yale Univer ...
calls this "an impressive group, containing several of the ostpopular Bellman favorites of all time, as well as some of his most complex and intriguing works of art". He adds that the sources of their melodies are mostly unknown, leading some to suggest that Bellman composed the melodies rather than following his usual habit of modifying well-known existing tunes.
No. 71, '' Ulla! min Ulla! säj får jag dig bjuda'' (Ulla! My Ulla! Say, may I offer thee) is another of the best-loved pastoral Epistles, and the melody may well be by Bellman himself. It imagines how Fredman, sitting on horseback outside Ulla's window at Fiskartorpet on a summer's day, invites her to come and dine with him on "reddest strawberries in milk and wine". The following Epistle, No. 72, ''Glimmande nymf
Glimmande Nymf! blixtrande öga! (Gleaming Nymph, flashing eye!), is a song by the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman from his 1790 collection, ''Fredman's Epistles'', where it is No. 72. It is subtitled "''Lemnad vid Cajsa Lisas S ...
'' (Gleaming nymph), is a night-piece, set to an Andante
Andante may refer to:
Arts
* Andante (tempo), a moderately slow musical tempo
* ''Andante'' (manga), a shōjo manga by Miho Obana
* "Andante" (song), a song by Hitomi Yaida
* "Andante, Andante", a 1980 song by ABBA from ''Super Trouper''
* ' ...
melody from a French opéra comique
''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular '' opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent (and to a l ...
. It describes in erotic detail the "nymph" asleep in her bed. To create the desired mood of rising excitement, Bellman creates a rainbow — after sunset. Britten Austin comments that the audience "does not even notice".[ Meanwhile, No. 80, '']Liksom en Herdinna, högtids klädd
Liksom en Herdinna, högtids klädd ("Like a Shepherdess, festively dressed"), is a song by the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman from his 1790 collection, ''Fredman's Epistles'', where it is No. 80. The Epistle is subtitled "Angå ...
'' (Like a shepherdess in her best dress), is a pastorale
Pastorale refers to something of a pastoral nature in music, whether in form or in mood.
In Baroque music, a pastorale is a movement of a melody in thirds over a drone bass, recalling the Christmas music of ''pifferari'', players of the traditi ...
, almost paraphrasing Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (; 1 November 1636 – 13 March 1711), often known simply as Boileau (, ), was a French poet and critic. He did much to reform the prevailing form of French poetry, in the same way that Blaise Pascal did to reform the ...
's French guide to the construction of pastoral verse, starting with "As a Shepherdess splendidly dressed / By the spring one day in June / gathers from the grass's rosy bed / adornments and accents for her dress". The effect is of an "almost religious invocation".[
The final Epistle, No. 82, '' Hvila vid denna källa'' (Rest by this spring), is both pastoral and Rococo, depicting a "little breakfast" in the Stockholm countryside. Red wine flows; there is roast chicken, and an almond tart. Flowers "of a thousand kinds" are all around; a stallion parades in a field "with his mare and foal"; a bull roars; a cockerel hops on the roof, and a magpie chatters. Meanwhile, the musicians are exhorted to blow along with the wind god Eol, small love-sprites are asked to sing, and Ulla is called a nymph. The final chorus asks everyone to drink their ]dram
Dynamic random-access memory (dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell, usually consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxid ...
of brandy.[
]
Cast of characters
The lyrics of the Epistles describe a gallery of fictional and semi-fictional characters who take part in more or less real events in and around the Stockholm of Bellman's time. This cast includes some 44 named personages, many of whom appear only once or twice. Some, like the principal characters Jean Fredman and Ulla Winblad
Ulla Winblad was a semi-fictional character in many of Carl Michael Bellman's musical works. She is at once an idealised rococo goddess and a tavern prostitute, and a key figure in Bellman's songs of ''Fredman's Epistles''. The character was part ...
, are based on real people, and in Fredman's case his real name was used. The Fredman of the Epistles is an alcoholic
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomin ...
former watchmaker, and is the central character and fictional narrator. He is thus supposedly present in all the Epistles, but is only named in a few of them. The backdrop of many of the ''Epistles'', Stockholm's taverns, is also frequented by musicians including Christian Wingmark on flute, Father Berg on various instruments, Father Movitz, and the dance master Corporal Mollberg.[
A particular group is the ''Order of Bacchus'' (Bacchi Orden): to become a member, one must be seen lying in a drunken stupor in a Stockholm gutter at least twice. Among the more minor characters is the brandy-distiller Lundholm. Another is Norström, Ulla Winblad's husband; the real Eric Nordström did in fact marry the "real Ulla Winblad", Maria Kristina Kiellström, a silk-spinner and ]fallen woman
"Fallen woman" is an archaic term which was used to describe a woman who has "lost her innocence", and fallen from the grace of God. In 19th-century Britain especially, the meaning came to be closely associated with the loss or surrender of a w ...
made pregnant by a passing nobleman. In the Epistles, Ulla Winblad is the chief of the "nymph
A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...
s". She is half goddess, half prostitute, chief among the demimonde
is French for "half-world". The term derives from a play called , by Alexandre Dumas , published in 1855. The play dealt with the way that prostitution at that time threatened the institution of marriage. The was the world occupied by elite me ...
characters of the ''Epistles''.[
Elis Chiewitz">
File:Jergen Puckel by Elis Chiewitz.png,
File:Movitz by Elis Chiewitz.png, Movitz
File:Krogen Råstock, Elis Chiewitz.jpg, Ep. 45: Mollberg is beaten, his harp broken in the
File:Ulla Winblad by Elis Chiewitz.png, ]Ulla Winblad
Ulla Winblad was a semi-fictional character in many of Carl Michael Bellman's musical works. She is at once an idealised rococo goddess and a tavern prostitute, and a key figure in Bellman's songs of ''Fredman's Epistles''. The character was part ...
File:Fredman by Elis Chiewitz.png, Fredman
Rococo theme
Many of the Epistles have a Rococo theme, especially the pastorale
Pastorale refers to something of a pastoral nature in music, whether in form or in mood.
In Baroque music, a pastorale is a movement of a melody in thirds over a drone bass, recalling the Christmas music of ''pifferari'', players of the traditi ...
pieces with a cast of gods and demigods from classical mythology
Classical mythology, Greco-Roman mythology, or Greek and Roman mythology is both the body of and the study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans as they are used or transformed by cultural reception. Along with philosophy and polit ...
. Thus, Epistle 25, " Blåsen nu alla (All blow now!)", a short crossing of the Stockholm waterway to Djurgården
Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, ''Kungliga Djurgården'' (), is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum ...
, is peopled with billowing waves, thunder, Venus, Neptune, tritons, postillions, angels, dolphins, zephyrs "and Paphos's whole might", as well as water-nymphs splashing about the "nymph" – in other words, Ulla Winblad.
The principal figures, given that the Epistles focus on drinking and its effects, along with "nymphs", are Bacchus and Venus / Fröja, but the cast is wider, including:
* Amaryllis
''Amaryllis'' () is the only genus in the subtribe Amaryllidinae (tribe Amaryllideae). It is a small genus of flowering bulbs, with two species. The better known of the two, ''Amaryllis belladonna'', is a native of the Western Cape region of S ...
– a nymph of the countryside (from Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
's ''Eclogues
The ''Eclogues'' (; ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil.
Background
Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offer ...
'')
* Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...
– god of wine and drinking
* Charon
In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (; grc, Χάρων) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the wo ...
– the ferryman of Hades
Hades (; grc-gre, ᾍδης, Háidēs; ), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also ...
, carrying souls to the place of the dead
* Chloris
In Greek mythology, the name Chloris (; Greek Χλωρίς ''Chlōrís'', from χλωρός ''chlōrós'', meaning "greenish-yellow", "pale green", "pale", "pallid", or "fresh") appears in a variety of contexts. Some clearly refer to different char ...
/ Flora
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''.
E ...
– the nymph or goddess of springtime, flowers and growth
* Clotho
Clotho (; el, Κλωθώ) is a mythological figure. She is the youngest of the Three Fates or Moirai who spins the thread of human life; the other two draw out (Lachesis) and cut (Atropos) in ancient Greek mythology. Her Roman equivalent is ...
– one of the three fates, spinning the thread of human life (which is suddenly cut off)
* Cupid
In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, lust, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus (mythology), Venus and the god of war Mar ...
/ Astrild Astrild (from Old Norse: "Love-fire") is a relatively late Nordic name for Amor or Cupid. Astrild probably originated in the writings of the 17th-century Swedish poet Georg Stiernhielm, and has since been used in Nordic poetry, mainly during the ...
– god of desire and erotic love, Astrild being a late Nordic invention
* Jupiter/Jofur – king of the gods on Mount Olympus, god of thunder
* Morpheus
Morpheus ('Fashioner', derived from the grc, μορφή meaning 'form, shape') is a god associated with sleep and dreams. In Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' he is the son of Somnus and appears in dreams in human form. From the Middle Ages, the name b ...
– god of sleep
* Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...
– god of the sea, accompanying the birth of Venus from the waves
* Nymph
A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...
– a (beautiful) female nature deity
* Pan – god of wildness and rough countryside
* Themis
In Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Themis (; grc, Θέμις, Themis, justice, law, custom) is one of the twelve Titans, Titan children of Gaia and Uranus (mythology), Uranus, and the second wife of Zeus. She is the godde ...
– Titaness
In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Ga ...
of divine law and justice
* Triton
Triton commonly refers to:
* Triton (mythology), a Greek god
* Triton (moon), a satellite of Neptune
Triton may also refer to:
Biology
* Triton cockatoo, a parrot
* Triton (gastropod), a group of sea snails
* ''Triton'', a synonym of ''Triturus' ...
– messenger of the sea, accompanying Neptune
* Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
/ Fröja / Aphrodite at Paphos – goddesses of love
Realism
Alongside the frankly mythological, ''Fredman's Epistles'' have a convincing realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
*Classical Realism
*Literary realism, a move ...
, painting pictures of moments of low life in Bellman's contemporary Stockholm. Bellman himself provided a list of descriptions of his characters, giving a brief pen-portrait of each one, like "Anders Wingmark, a former clothier in Urvädersgränd, very cheerful and full of commonsense". Different characters appear in different Epistles, making them realistically episodic. There is a fire in Epistle 34; a funeral is busily prepared in Epistles 46 and 47; and a fight breaks out in Epistle 53. Many of the songs are about the effects of strong drink, from the damage to the Gröna Lund Tavern in Epistle 12 to the masterly portrait of a drunkard lying in the gutter of Epistle 23, described by Oscar Levertin
Oscar Ivar Levertin (17 July 1862, Norrköping – 22 September 1906) was a Swedish poet, critic and literary historian. Levertin was a dominant voice of the Swedish cultural scene from 1897, when he started writing influential high-profile ...
as "the to-be-or-not-to-be of Swedish literature".[
The pastoral Epistles, too, give the impression of being in real places, with flesh-and-blood people, at specific times of day. Epistle 48 tells how the friends return to Stockholm by boat after a night out on Lake Mälaren, one summer morning in 1769. Each of its twenty-one verses paints a picture of a moment in the peaceful journey, from the wind stirring the fallen sails, the skipper's daughter coming out of her cabin, the cockerel crowing, the church clock striking four in the morning, the sun glimmering on the calm water. The effects may seem to be haphazard, but "each stanza is a little picture, framed by its melody. We remember it all, seem to have lived through it, like a morning in our own lives."][ Britten Austin calls it "a new vision of the natural and urban scene. Fresh as Martin's. Detailed as Hogarth's. Frail and ethereal as ]Watteau
Jean-Antoine Watteau (, , ; baptised October 10, 1684died July 18, 1721) Alsavailablevia Oxford Art Online (subscription needed). was a French painter and draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, as ...
's."
Britten Austin tempers his praise for Bellman's realism with the observation that the effects are chosen to work in song, rather than to be strictly correct or even possible. Thus in Epistle 72, "Glimmande Nymf", the memorable rainbow with its glowing colours "of purple, gold and green" is seen after nightfall.[ He comments "Never mind. It is a beautiful scene, even if its chronology calls for much poetic license."][ Or in Epistle 80, "Liksom en herdinna", the farmer is for some reason going to or coming from market on a Sunday, when the market would be closed; and his cart "heavy on staggering wheel" must have been absurdly full if it contained chickens, lambs, and calves all at once.][ But it had to be a Sunday to allow Ulla Winblad to step out of her swaying chaise, on an outing from the city. Britten Austin remarks that "until such ]solecism
A solecism is a phrase that transgresses the rules of grammar. The term is often used in the context of linguistic prescription; it also occurs descriptively in the context of a lack of idiomaticness.
Etymology
The word originally was used by ...
s are actually pointed out, one does not even notice them."[ It is the same with the meals, which would cause "terrible indigestion" if the listener actually had to eat them, but "as a feast for mind, eye and ear they are highly satisfactory", the imagination filled with "all the poetic wealth" that Bellman provides.]
The literary historian Lars Warme observes that Bellman's sharp eye for detail has brought him praise for being the first Swedish realist, but at once balances this by saying that
Warme credits Bellman with a good knowledge of a literary craftsman's tools, using rhetoric and classical knowledge "to provide a theatrical backdrop for his tavern folk." The result is an "astonishing mixture of realism and wild mythological fantasy", set to complicated musical structures:
Fitted to music
The critic Johan Henric Kellgren
Johan Henrik Kellgren (1 December 1751 – 20 April 1795) was a Swedish poet and critic.
Biography
He was born at Floby in Västergötland (now part of Falköping Municipality, Västra Götaland County). He studied at the Royal Academy of Turku, ...
, in his introduction to the first edition, found that the songs could not be known fully only as poems. Never before, he stated, had the art of poetry and the art of music been more fraternally united. They were not, Kellgren argued, verse that had been set to music; not music, set to verse; but the two were so thoroughly melted together into ''One'' beauty that it was impossible to see which would most miss the other for its fulfilment. Quoting this in the final paragraph of his thesis, Massengale commented "That is how it ought to be said!"
Massengale argues that, given that music is so important in the Epistles, and that Bellman had more than enough musical skill to write a tune, it is remarkable that all or almost all the tunes are borrowed. He suggests that this "seems to indicate that Bellman wanted to preserve some vestige of the borrowing." That the borrowing was not just about saving effort or making up for absent skill, Massengale argues, is demonstrated by the fact that the amount of work Bellman had to put into the melodies for Epistles 12 ("Gråt Fader Berg och spela
Gråt Fader Berg och spela (Cry, Father Berg, and Play) is No. 12 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, ''Fredman's Epistles''.
The epistle is subtitled "''Elegi över Slagsmålet på Gröna Lund''" ("El ...
") and 24 (" Kära syster") was "surely tantamount to the production of new melodies." Borrowing was accepted, even encouraged at the time, but that does not explain why Bellman would have done it so consistently. The "poetic possibility", Massengale suggests, is that Bellman wished to exploit the humorous contrast between a melody of one type and a story of another, or between an existing image associated with the melody, and a fresh one presented in an Epistle. In addition, Bellman was able to use what his audience knew to be borrowed music to reinforce the historical flavour of the Epistles, introducing exactly the kind of ambiguity that he was seeking.
Massengale points out that in the Epistles, Bellman employs a variety of methods to make the poetry work. For example, in Epistle 35, ''Bröderna fara väl vilse ibland
''Fredmans epistlar'' (English: ''Fredman's Epistles'') is List of Fredman's Epistles, a collection of 82 poems set to music by Carl Michael Bellman, a major figure in Sweden, Swedish 18th century song. Though first published in 1790, it was cre ...
'', Bellman uses a panoply
A panoply is a complete suit of armor. The word represents the Ancient Greek ('), where the word (') means "all", and (') means "arms". Thus, ''panoply'' refers to the full armor of a hoplite or heavily-armed soldier, i.e. the shield, breast ...
of metrical devices to counteract the "metrically plodding melody". He uses the rhetorical figure anadiplosis
Anadiplosis ( ; el, ἀναδίπλωσις, ''anadíplōsis'', "a doubling, folding up") is the repetition of the last word of a preceding clause. The word is used at the end of a sentence and then used again at the beginning of the next sentence ...
(repeating the last word of a clause at the start of the next) in verse 3 with "...skaffa jag barnet; barnet det dog,..." (...got I the child; the child died...) and again in verse 4. He uses epanalepsis
Epanalepsis (from the Greek , ''epanálēpsis'' "repetition, resumption, taking up again") is the repetition of the initial part of a clause or sentence at the end of that same clause or sentence. The beginning and the end of a sentence are two pos ...
(repeating the first word of a clause at its end) in verse 3, with "Men, min Anna Greta, men!" (But, my Anna Greta, but!), and again in verse 5. And he uses anaphora (repeating a word at the starts of neighbouring clauses) in verse 4, "häll den på hjärtat, häll man fyra!" (pour ... pour out four!), and again in verse 5. Massengale observes that good musical poetry, like this Epistle, is always a compromise, as it has both to fit its music or be no good as a musical setting, and to contrast with its music, or be no good as poetry. The final verse, containing all three metrical devices, is not, argues Massengale, an example of "decay", but shows Bellman's freedom, change of focus (from lament to acceptance), and the closure of the Epistle.
Improvisation
King Gustav III
Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia.
Gustav was a vocal opponent of what ...
called Bellman "''Il signor improvisatore''" (The master improviser).[ Scholars have debated the question of how far the Epistles are in fact ]improvisation
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
s. Carol J. Clover writes that while many of the Epistles give the impression of having been improvised during performance, there is plentiful evidence to the contrary. She notes Milman Parry
Milman Parry (June 23, 1902 – December 3, 1935) was an American Classicist whose theories on the origin of Homer's works have revolutionized Homeric studies to such a fundamental degree that he has been described as the "Charles Darwin, Darw ...
's identification of the poetic formula Oral-formulaic composition is a theory that originated in the scholarly study of epic poetry and developed in the second quarter of the twentieth century. It seeks to explain two related issues:
# the process by which oral poets improvise poetry
# ...
, a metrical phrase for a particular idea, as the hallmark of improvised, orally composed, poetry; and that Bellman certainly had "regular usages" in the Epistles. These include hundreds of repetitions of phrases like "Kära syster" (among other occurrences, the title of Epistle 24), "Kära bror", "Kära vänner" and so forth for various persons. She notes, too, that while ''vin'' (wine) often appears without ''kärlek'' (love), "''kärlek'', in keeping with Fredman's program, is rarely mentioned apart from ''vin''", giving instances like Epistle 24's ''Sjung om kärlek, vin och lycka'' alongside Epistle 11's ''Sjungom om kärlek, ropa på vin'' and phrases from Epistles 4, 13, 17, 21, and 64. She writes that the early Epistles have the rough-and-ready, but also quick and verbally clever, quality of ''krogspoesi'' (tavern verse). In contrast, a late one like ''Liksom en Herdinna, högtids klädd
Liksom en Herdinna, högtids klädd ("Like a Shepherdess, festively dressed"), is a song by the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman from his 1790 collection, ''Fredman's Epistles'', where it is No. 80. The Epistle is subtitled "Angå ...
'' (Epistle 80) is evidently a "highly conscious literary composition" with "longer lines and a more relaxed rhyme pattern" which permits more complex content, in that case a rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
pastorale. She notes 's identification of 1772 as the turning point, from Bellman's early years in the relaxed 18th century ''frihetstiden'' to the Gustavian era
The History of Sweden from 1772 through 1809 is better known as the Gustavian era of Kings Gustav III and Gustav IV, as well as the reign of King Charles XIII of Sweden.
Gustav III
Adolf Frederick of Sweden died on 12 February 1771. The ele ...
's "poised rococo consciousness". In her view, the early Epistles are close to the improvisatory tradition, while the later ones are undoubtedly more literary.
Impact
In Bellman's lifetime
Bellman is said to have had an "enormous reputation" in his lifetime.[ The critic Kellgren however objected both to Bellman's fame and to his flouting of the rules of good literary taste. Kellgren put his objections into verse:]
In other words, Bellman was a "tavern rhymester", admittedly with a wonderful gift of improvisation, who wildly ignored the rules of literary genres. For example, within the classical tradition odes and satires were supposed to have different metres and different use of language. Kellgren did not mind the amoral attitude: "indeed he shared it". But an Epistle like No. 28 traversed all moods, "from lyrical to humorous, tragic, descriptive and dramatic." It was too much for critics such as Kellgren.[
]
In later times
Bellman was sung "with delight"[ by students and schoolchildren from the start of the 19th century. The ]Romantic movement
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
treated Bellman as an inspired genius, whereas later he was admired more for his artistic skill and literary innovation. Research into Bellman's work began in the 19th century; the Bellman Society formalised Bellman studies with their standard edition and their ''Bellmansstudier'' publications in the 20th century. Towards the end of the 20th century, an increasing number of doctoral theses have been written on Bellman's life and work.
Many of the songs have remained culturally significant in Scandinavia, especially in Sweden, where Bellman remains "widely popular to this day". In 1989, the Swedish government subsided an edition of Bellman's Epistles and Songs, with illustrations by Peter Dahl, to bring the texts to a wide audience.
Bellman has been compared with poets and musicians as diverse as Shakespeare and Beethoven. Åse Kleveland
Åse Maria Kleveland (born 18 March 1949) is a Norwegian singer, guitarist, politician and activist.
A well-known folk singer and traditional guitarist in Norway, she was appointed Minister of Culture in Norway in 1990, and held the position u ...
notes that he has been called "Swedish poetry's Mozart, and Hogarth", observing that
Britten Austin says instead simply that:
Charles Wharton Stork
Charles Wharton Stork (12 February 1881 – 22 May 1971) was an American literary author, poet, and translator.
Life
Charles Wharton Stork was born in Philadelphia on 12 February 1881 to Theophilus Baker and Hannah (Wharton) Stork. He gradu ...
commented in his 1917 anthology of Swedish verse that "The anthologist finds little to pause over until he comes to the poetry of Karl Mikael Bellman (1740-1795), but here he must linger long." Describing him as a "master of improvisation", he wrote:
Performance and recordings
The Epistles are widely sung and recorded by amateur choirs and professional singers alike. The ''Orphei Drängar
Sångsällskapet Orphei Drängar (OD) is a Swedish male voice choir and singing society based in Uppsala, Sweden. While best known for its high quality performances of the classical repertoire, OD sings music of all genres in many different langua ...
'' (Orpheus's farmhands) are a choir named for a phrase in Epistle 14, and set up to perform Bellman's works; they give concerts (of music by many composers) around the world.
Several professional solo singers in the Swedish ballad tradition {{Use dmy dates, date=December 2020
The Scandinavian ballad tradition is the tradition of Scandinavian poetic singer-songwriters. Within the tradition, the Swedish ballad tradition has been particularly influential, but the tradition also exists in ...
largely made their name in the 1960s singing Bellman, while accompanying themselves in Bellmanesque style with a guitar. They were the members of the "Storks" artistic community ("Vispråmen Storken") in Stockholm, and they include Fred Åkerström
Fred Åkerström (27 January 1937 – 9 August 1985) was a Swedish folk guitarist and singer particularly noted for his interpretations of Carl Michael Bellman's music, and his own work of the typically Swedish song segment named ''visa''. These ...
(1937–1985) with his albums '' Fred sjunger Bellman'', ''Glimmande nymf
Glimmande Nymf! blixtrande öga! (Gleaming Nymph, flashing eye!), is a song by the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman from his 1790 collection, ''Fredman's Epistles'', where it is No. 72. It is subtitled "''Lemnad vid Cajsa Lisas S ...
'' and '' Vila vid denna källa'', and Cornelis Vreeswijk
Cornelis Vreeswijk (; ; 8 August 1937 – 12 November 1987) was a Dutch-born Swedish singer-songwriter, poet and actor.
He emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to become ...
with his albums '' Spring mot Ulla, spring!'' and ''Movitz! Movitz!
Movitz! Movitz! is album by Cornelis Vreeswijk from 1977. It is another album of Vreeswijk´s
interpretations of the Stockholm troubadour, Carl Michael Bellman.
Track list
Songs and lyrics from ''Fredman's Epistles'' and '' Fredman's Songs'' by C ...
'' Other singers, such as Sven-Bertil Taube
Sven-Bertil Gunnar Evert Taube (24 November 1934 – 11 November 2022) was a Swedish singer and actor. Internationally, he was perhaps better known for his acting career. Taube played Henrik Vanger in the film ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'' ...
and William Clauson
William Clauson (May 2, 1930 – September 3, 2017) was a Swedish-American singer of folk songs from various nations, including some of the songs of Carl Michael Bellman in both English and Swedish.
Biography
Clauson was born in Ashtabula, Oh ...
, used the less authentic accompaniment of an ensemble; Clauson was also the first to release a recording of Bellman in English, alongside his Swedish recordings.
Singers from other traditions sometimes sing Bellman; for example, the folk singer Sofia Karlsson and the rock musician Kajsa Grytt
Karin Johanna (''Kajsa'') Grytt (born 20 June 1961) is a Swedish punk-rocker, guitarist, singer and songwriter. She was between 1979 and 1985 guitarist in the band Tant Strul and 1985 to 1988 and around 1996 a member of the duo Kajsa och Malena. ...
.
Editions
The 1790 edition was the only one to appear in Bellman's lifetime. It was published by Olof Åhlström
Olof Åhlström (15 August 1756 – 11 August 1835) was a Swedish civil servant, composer and music publisher.
Åhlström was born in a peasant family in Vårdinge parish in Södermanland. He received early musical lessons from the parish organist ...
, by royal privilege; he held a monopoly on the printing of sheet music in Sweden. Åhlström arranged the songs for piano, and Kellgren edited the song texts and wrote an introduction, but the extent of their influence on the shape of ''Fredman's Epistles'' cannot be fully determined. The edition was illustrated with a frontispiece by the leading Swedish artist Johan Tobias Sergel
Johan Tobias Sergel (; 7 September 1740 in Stockholm – 26 February 1814 in Stockholm) was a Swedish neoclassical sculptor. Sergels torg, the largest square in the centre of Stockholm and near where his workshop stood, is named after him.
Life
...
, engraved by Johan Fredrik Martin
Johan Fredrik Martin (8 June 1755 – 28 September 1816) was a Swedish painter and engraver of the eighteenth century. He worked in a variety of media, especially stipple, contour etching and aquatint.
Biography
Martin was born in Stockholm, ...
.
The corpus of published Epistles did not change after Bellman's death. Many minor selections from the Epistles have been published, sometimes with illustrations and introductions. The Epistles have been translated, at least partially, into Danish, German, French, English, Russian, Polish, Finnish, Norwegian, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch, as shown below.
The English edition by Britten Austin is a selection of the Epistles, and is in rhyming verse in the original metre. Britten Austin describes the challenge of translation as difficult or impossible, and admits that in one way his translations are inevitably "a little faint." He explains this is because "Bellman's colloquialisms which offended his contemporaries still strike Swedish ears as the language of everyday speech. My renderings, therefore, may seem a trifle too antique in flavour; but to have jumbled up, as Bellman brilliantly does, modern-sounding slang with the graces of Rococo diction, would have produced a horrid effect.
Editions and selections of the Epistles, some with illustrations, some with music, some printed together with ''Fredman's Songs'', include:
* 1790
''Fredmans epistlar''
Stockholm: Olof Åhlström, by Royal Privilege.
::--- facsimile reprint, 1976: Uddevalla.
* 1816: ''Fredmans epistlar'', Stockholm: Rumstedt.
* 1844: ''Fredmans epistlar'', Copenhagen: Jaeger. With 24 coloured lithographs.
* 1858: ''Fredmans epistlar, Text och musik'', Copenhagen: J. Erslev. (In Danish)
* 1869: ''Fredmans epistlar och sånger'', Stockholm: Elkan and Schildknecht.
* 1889: ''Fredmans epistlar'', Stockholm: Bonniers. Arranged for piano solo.
* 1899: ''Fredmans epistlar af Carl Michael Bellman'', Stockholm: Ljus. Intro. by Oscar Levertin
Oscar Ivar Levertin (17 July 1862, Norrköping – 22 September 1906) was a Swedish poet, critic and literary historian. Levertin was a dominant voice of the Swedish cultural scene from 1897, when he started writing influential high-profile ...
. Illus. by Alf Wallander.
* 1909: ''Fredmans Episteln'', Jena: E. Diederichs. (In German)
* 1920
''Fredmans epistlar, Ord och musik''
Stockholm: Bonniers.
* 1927: ''Carl Michael Bellmans skrifter. 1. Fredmans Epistlar'', Stockholm: Bellmanssällskapet. ("Standard Edition")
* 1953: ''Les Épîtres de Fredman'', Stockholm: Norstedt. (In French) 28 Epistles trans. Nils Afzelius and Pierre Volboudt. Illus. by Elias Martin
Elias Martin (8 March 1739 – 25 January 1818) was a Swedish genre, history, and landscape painter and engraver from Stockholm. He is known for his watercolour paintings of Stockholm, and his landscape oil paintings that feature romantic lighti ...
.
::--- reprinted, 1984: La Ferté-Milon.
* 1958: ''Das trunkene Lied'', Munich: Desch. (In German). trans. Hanns von Gumppenberg
Hanns Theodor Wilhelm Freiherr von Gumppenberg (4 December 1866 – 29 March 1928) was a German poet, translator, cabaret artist and theatre critic. He used the pseudonyms Jodok and Professor Immanuel Tiefbohrer.
Life
Gumppenberg was born in 1 ...
, Felix Niedner, Georg Schwarz.
* 1977: ''Fredman's Epistles and Songs'', Stockholm: Reuter and Reuter. (In English) trans. Paul Britten Austin
Paul Britten Austin (5 April 1922 – 25 July 2005) was an English author, translator, broadcaster, administrator, and scholar of Swedish literature.
He is known in particular for his translations of and books on the Swedish musician, si ...
.
* 1982: ''Pesni Fredmana; Poslaniia Fredmana'', Leningrad: Khudozh. (In Russian)
* 1991: ''Fredmanowe posłania i pieśni'', Kraków: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne. (In Polish)
* 1991: ''Lauluja ja epistoloita'', Helsinki: Yliopistopaino. (In Finnish)
* 1994: ''Fredmans epistlar'', Stockholm: Proprius.
* 2002: ''Ulla, mia Ulla: antologia poetica in italiano cantabile'', Rome: Istituti editoriali e poligrafici internazionali. (In Italian). A selection.
* 2003: ''Sterven van liefde en leven van wijn : een bloemlezing uit de Epistels & Zangen van Fredman'', 's-Hertogenbosch : Voltaire. (In Dutch). A selection.
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* (contains the most popular Epistles and Songs, in Swedish, with sheet music)
* (contains the remaining Epistles and Songs, in Swedish, with sheet music)
* (with facsimiles of sheet music from first editions in 1790, 1791)
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Bellman lyrics and reference index
Bellman.net
Facsimile of 1790 book
Fredmans Epistlar
1836 edition, on Google books (free access)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fredmans epistlar
Swedish poetry
1790 books
Works by Carl Michael Bellman
Swedish songs