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 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 wel ...

's 1790 collection, '' Fredman's Epistles'', where it is No. 28. The epistle is subtitled "''Om et anstäldt försåt emot Ulla Winblad.''" (About an ambush of Ulla Winblad). It describes an attempt to arrest the "nymph"

Ulla Winblad Ulla Winblad is 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 juxtaposition of e ...

, based on a real event. The lyrics create a

rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

picture of life, blending classical allusion and

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

description with harsh reality.

Context

Song

Music and verse form

The song has five verses, each of 8 lines. The verses have the alternating

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 ...

ABAB-CDCD. The music is in time, and is marked '' Andante''. The melody was reworked by Joseph Martin Kraus from a

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (, , ; ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately . History ...

folk tune; it is accompanied throughout by rapid, nervous

quaver 180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest. 180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together. An eighth note ( American) or a quaver (British) is a musical note play ...

s (eighth notes), giving the Epistle in Edward Matz's view a cinematic

slow motion Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slow-mo or slo-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use ...

effect. The melody was used by "several parodists" in the 18th century; it had timbres (named melodies) including "''Quoi–''" and "''Ah! ma voisine, es-tu fâchée?''" which the musicologist James Massengale suggests Bellman may have had in mind.

Lyrics

The steps on Skeppsbro etching by Elias Martin detail

The song is dated 17 August 1771. The epistle is subtitled "Om et anstäldt försåt emot Ulla Winblad" ("About an attempted ambush of Ulla Winblad"), which Bellman's biographer Lars Lönnroth describes as relatively vague, compared for instance to that of epistle 31, which gives exact co-ordinates in time and space. The story is at least loosely based on a real event, although the real Ulla Winblad, Maria Kristina Kiellström, was neither a

prostitute Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in 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, non-pe ...

nor a barmaid, and never prosecuted for wearing unauthorised finery in the form of

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

dresses.

Reception

Bellman's 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, s ...

, describes the Epistle as rococo, along with No. 25: '' Blåsen nu alla'' (All blow now). In it, Ulla Winblad, "a luxuriant

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

, incarnation of love and beauty" is almost caught by the bailiffs in Yxsmedsgränd, a narrow street in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

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. Gamla Stan includes the surrounding islets ...

, where Bellman himself lived from 1770 to 1774. Carina Burman, in her biography of Bellman, wonders whether Bellman found it slightly amusing to move into the street where the bailiffs had pursued Ulla sixteen years earlier. The epistle describes how she just manages to escape. Bellman simultaneously uses classical and contemporary imagery. He calls Ulla a nymph; she has been given a "myrtle" (crown of leaves) by Freya, the Nordic goddess of love; the

Bonde Palace The Bonde Palace () is a palace in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. Located between the House of Knights (''Riddarhuset'') and the Chancellery House (''Kanslihuset''), it is, arguably, the most prominent monument of the era ...

(visible from the corner of Yxsmedsgränd) is called the temple of

Themis In Greek mythology and religion, Themis (; ) is the goddess and personification of justice, divine order, law, and custom. She is one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia and Uranus, and the second wife of Zeus. She is associated with oracles a ...

, classical goddess of justice; and Freya is to be worshipped in

Paphos Paphos, also spelled as Pafos, is a coastal city in southwest Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: #Old Paphos, Old Paphos, today known as Kouklia, and #New Paphos, New Paphos. It i ...

' land, equating her with Venus/

Aphrodite Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and ...

. Paphos in

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

was where, in the myth, Aphrodite rose naked from the foaming sea, and her temple is nearby. But, non-mythologically, Ulla wears "a black embroider'd bodice" and petticoats with "frills and laces", and she loses her watch in the struggle. Britten Austin translates the entire Epistle. Burman notes that the cheerful last stanza of the Epistle was one of the Bellman songs used in 19th century student celebrations. Epistle 28 has been recorded by

Cornelis Vreeswijk Cornelis Vreeswijk (8 August 1937 – 12 November 1987) was a Dutch singer-songwriter and poet who lived and worked primarily in Sweden. Born to Dutch parents in IJmuiden, Netherlands, he emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age ...

, a noted Bellman interpreter, on his 1971 studio album '' Spring mot Ulla, spring! Cornelis sjunger Bellman'', among others. File:Yxsmedsgrand March 2007.JPG, Epistle 28 is set in

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 an ...

, an alley in

. File:Bondeska palatset June 2011.jpg, The

, visible from Yxsmedsgränd, is described as the temple of

References

Sources

* * * * * (contains the most popular Epistles and Songs, in Swedish, with sheet music) * (with facsimiles of sheet music from first editions in 1790, 1791) * * *

External links

Text of Epistle 28

Live 2020 studio recording of 'Bellman 2.0' theatre concert
(song starts at 23:00) at Västmanlands Teater by Nikolaj Cederholm and Kåre Bjerkø with their band {{DEFAULTSORT:Ulla! min Ulla! saj far jag dig bjuda 1790 compositions Swedish songs Fredmans epistlar