Gustaf Fröding (; 22 August 1860 – 8 February 1911) was a Swedish poet and writer from

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 ...

Värmland Värmland () is a ''Provinces of Sweden, landskap'' (historical province) in west-central Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland, and Närke, and is bounded by Norway in the west. Name Several Latinized version ...

. The family moved to

Kristinehamn Kristinehamn is a locality and the seat of Kristinehamn Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden, with 24,053 inhabitants in 2022. 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 (UU) () 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 operation. Initially fou ...

and worked as a journalist in Karlstad.''Gustaf Fröding, Swedish Lyric Poet''
by Charles Wharton Stork, (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 Sweden, Swedish writer, singer and songwriter. He released a range of books (''Aubade'', ''Foliá''), LPs (''En stol på Tegnér'', etc.) and CDs (''Älskar inte ja ...

Monica Zetterlund Monica Zetterlund (born Eva Monica Nilsson; 20 September 1937 – 12 May 2005) was a Swedish jazz singer and actress. She represented Sweden in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest with the jazz ballad " En gång i Stockholm" ("Once Upon a T ...

, the Värmland group

Sven-Ingvars Sven-Ingvars is a Swedish pop music, pop/rock music, rock group from Slottsbron, Sweden. The band was formed in 1956 by Sven Svärd (drums), Ingvar Karlsson (guitar and accordion), Sven-Erik Magnusson (vocals, guitar, and clarinet). Later the b ...

and the Swedish band Mando Diao. Fröding wrote openly about his personal problems with alcohol and women and had to face a trial for obscenity.

Sickness

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, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

and

alcoholism Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...

, and eventually

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

. 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 munici ...

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, 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 ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital 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 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

. Under the care of professor Frey Svenson Fröding got away from liquor and women, except one, Ida Bäckman. Fröding never married Ida, but 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 the

Royal Dramatic Theatre The Royal Dramatic Theatre (, 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 theatre has been at its present lo ...

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

References

External links

* (in Finnish) * * Swedish Nittiotalisterna

Gustaf Fröding
at

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Gustaf Fröding
at

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Gustaf Fröding
at Swedish Wikisource.
''Samlade Skrifter''
at the

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. English
Gustaf Fröding at PoemHunterThree poems by Gustaf FrödingThe 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 County Swedish-language poets Uppsala University alumni Burials at Uppsala old cemetery Swedish male poets 19th-century Swedish poets 19th-century Swedish male writers 20th-century Swedish poets 20th-century Swedish male writers