Gustaf Fröding (; 22 August 1860 – 8 February 1911) was a

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 ...

poet and writer, born in

Alster The Alster () is a right tributary of the Elbe river in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows somewhat southwards through much of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and joins the Elbe in central ...

outside Karlstad in

Värmland Värmland () also known as Wermeland, is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in west-central Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland, and Närke, and is bounded by Norway in the west. Latin name versions are ''Va ...

. The family moved to

Kristinehamn Kristinehamn is a locality and the seat of Kristinehamn Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden, with 17,839 inhabitants in 2010. Geography Kristinehamn is situated by the shores of lake Vänern where the small rivers ''Varnan'' and ''Löt' ...

in the year 1867. He later studied at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

and worked as a journalist in Karlstad.''Gustaf Fröding, Swedish Lyric Poet''
by

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 ...

, (Cedar Falls, IA: The North American Review, 1916). Vol. 204, No. 733 (December), pp. 897-908.

Poetry

His poetry combines formal virtuosity with a sympathy for the ordinary, the neglected and the down-trodden, sometimes written in his own regional dialect. It is highly musical and lends itself to musical setting; many of his poems have been set to music and recorded by Swedish singers such as

Olle Adolphson Olle Adolphson (2 May 1934, in Stockholm – 10 March 2004, in Stockholm) was a Swedish writer, singer and songwriter. He released a range of books (''Aubade'', ''Foliá''), LPs (''En stol på Tegnér'', etc.) and CDs (''Älskar inte jag dig d ...

Monica Zetterlund Monica Zetterlund (born Eva Monica Nilsson; 20 September 1937 – 12 May 2005) was a Swedish jazz singer and actress. Through her lifetime, she starred in over 10 Swedish film productions and recorded over 20 studio albums. She gained int ...

, the Värmland group Sven-Ingvars and the Swedish band

Mando Diao Mando Diao is an alternative rock band from Borlänge, Sweden. The band got their breakthrough with the release of the album ''Hurricane Bar''. Their main fan base is in Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan. Band members are Björn Di ...

. Fröding wrote openly about his personal problems with alcohol and women and had to face a trial for obscenity.

Sickness

Fröding and Heidenstam dressed in togas 1896

The latter part of his life he spent in different mental institutions and hospitals to cure his

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

and

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...

, and eventually

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

. During the first half of the 1890s he spent a couple of years at the Suttestad institution in

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, where he finished his work on his third book of poetry ''Stänk och flikar'', which was published in 1896. He wrote much of the material at a mental institution in Görlitz, Germany. In 1896 he moved back to Sweden. But as the year neared Christmas, his sister Cecilia made the difficult decision to make him stay at a hospital in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

. Under the care of professor

Frey Svenson Frey Svenson (1866–1927) was a Swedish doctor and professor of psychology, born in Vetlanda, Sweden. In the year of 1899 he worked at Upsala Hospital, which at that time was a psychiatric hospital rather than a medical hospital. Here he met ...

Fröding got away from liquor and women, except one, Ida Bäckman. To this day, people think that Ida Bäckman wanted to marry Fröding and corrupt him in some way. Later she wrote books but they were always judged harshly and never got good reviews. She is about to have her name cleared in Sweden. Fröding never married Ida. She was never asked to stop visiting Fröding by professor Svenson and Cecilia Fröding. Instead Fröding grew fond of a nurse named Signe Trotzig. When he left hospital in Uppsala she stayed with him to the day he died. A play by Swedish playwright Gottfrid Grafström, called ''Sjung vackert om kärlek'', about Fröding's time at the mental institution in Uppsala was first performed at

Dramaten The Royal Dramatic Theatre ( sv, Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern, colloquially ''Dramaten'') is Sweden's national stage for "spoken drama", founded in 1788. Around one thousand shows are put on annually on the theatre's five running stages. The the ...

in 1973 and has had periodic revivals since.

Selected works

*''Gitarr och dragharmonika'' (Guitar and concertina) 1891 *''Nya dikter'' (New poems) 1893 *''Räggler å paschaser'' (Tall tales and adventures) 1895 *''Stänk och flikar'' (Splashes and spray) 1896 *''Nytt och gammalt'' (New and old) 1897 *''Gralstänk'' (Splashes of the grail) 1898 *''Efterskörd'' (Gleanings) 1910 *''Reconvalescentia'' (Convalescence) 1914 *''Samlade skrifter 1-16'' (Collected works 1-16) 1917–1922 *''Brev till en ung flicka'' (Letters to a young girl) 1952 *''Äventyr i Norge'' (Adventures in Norway) 1963 *''Gustaf Frödings brev, 2 vol.'' (Gustaf Fröding's letters, 2 vol.) 1981-1982 *"23 Bojaere"*

His works in English

*''Poems'' 1903 *''Selected Poems'' 1916 *''Guitar and Concertina'' 1925 *''Gustaf Fröding: His Life and Poetry'' 1986 *''Swedes On Love'' CD 1991 *''The Selected Poems of Gustaf Fröding'' 1993 *''The Complete Poems of Gustaf Fröding'' 1997-1999 *''The North! To the North!'' 2001 ''The North! To the North!'', trans. by

Judith Moffett Judith Moffett (born 1942) is an American author and academic. She has published poetry, nonfiction, science fiction, and translations of Swedish literature. She has been awarded grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and ...

, five poets including Fröding, (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001).

References

External links

* * * Swedish
Gustaf Fröding
at

Open Library Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published". Created by Aaron Swartz, Brewster Kahle, Alexis Rossi, Anand Chitipothu, and Rebecca Malamud, Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, ...

.
Gustaf Fröding
at

Project Runeberg Project Runeberg ( sv, Projekt Runeberg) is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded ...

.
Gustaf Fröding
at Swedish Wikisource.
Gustaf Fröding
at

.
''Samlade Skrifter''
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. English
Gustaf Fröding at PoemHunterThree poems by Gustaf Fröding
*
The uncrowned king of Swedish poetryGustaf Fröding
at the

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* Translations
''Selected Poems'' by Gustaf Fröding
at the

.
''Guitar and accordion'' (Gitarr och dragharmonika)''The old mountain troll'' (Ett gammalt bergtroll)
Streaming audio
Fröding verse and prose''Räggler å paschaser''
Videos * * * * * Song begins at 3:24 of medley. {{DEFAULTSORT:Froding, Gustaf 1860 births 1911 deaths People from Karlstad Municipality Writers from Värmland Swedish-language poets Uppsala University alumni Burials at Uppsala old cemetery Swedish male poets 19th-century Swedish poets 19th-century male writers 20th-century Swedish poets 20th-century Swedish male writers