Essie's Swedish Name Day

Back in December, I made an entry about Nathan Page's Swedish name day and, of course, I had to make one about Essie Davis's.

The Swedish calendar say it is Ester today, which is Essie's real name. Ester/Esther has a Hebrew origin and it means star which fits perfectly for Essie. Over here in Sweden, one can actually be named Essy too. That is a Finnish/Samish version of Esther and the name of my grandfather's sister.

Ruddy Gore - TV vs Book

While Ruddy Gore is the 7th book about Phryne Fisher, it is the 6th episode of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Like in most cases this far, the plot has been reduced and changed somewhat for the TV adaptation. To be honest, I really do find part of it to benefit the pacing of the story. The theatre felt quite overcrowded in the book and, like I said in my book entry about Ruddy Gore, I did have some problems taking an interest in all the cast and crew. They are all quite egocentric and in love with each other.

I found the best part with the book to be Phryne's date with Lin Chung and the issues it provoked with interracial relationships at the time. This issue was treated by the TV show in the episode of The Green Mill Murder and I was pleasantly surprised to see Phryne contemplating it as much as she did. Same goes for her finding it sad that she is going to lose one of her lover, Dr Mark Fielding,who returns from Flying too High, to the nurse-trained actress Mollie Webb.

Phryne with Bernard Tarrant and Lin Chung

I do love that Phryne is adventurous and reckless and sort of does whatever she wants and does not care about what people think. However, I do find those moments when she gets emotional. Especially in regards to her relations to other people. It keeps her grounded. Makes her human. Even though she only has loose liasons with men, she does care about them. This caring for her lovers is taken out of the TV show almost entirely except for in the case of Lin Chung. (Again on the subject of recurring characters and plots that is evident in the book, but not on the show.) Besides Lin (and Jack Robinson of course), we do not get to see any of her "gentlemen callers" ever again. The case does rattle Phryne in a slightly different way though. When a sand bag falls, Jack saves her and it falls on Gwilym Evans (the actor Dot Williams has a celebrity crush on) instead, killing him. This incident happens in the book too, but in a slightly different way and for different reasons.

'Don't make the mistake of thinking their emotions are all put on. They're real people underneath, just exxaggerated. They talk to me', she observed, 'because I care for them. They call me Mum. The're quivering little things under all that glamour. They're always afraid that no one really loves them, that they're going to fail. But they're addicted to applause.'

~Miss Pomeroy, Ruddy Gore

The ghost of Dorothea Curtis

Even though I do prefer the simplification of the plot in the TV episode in this case, I do find it sad that they have left out one of the central themes of the book: wanting/needing to be seen. I really think this is a basic human instinct. Not that everyone does need to stand on a stage to fulfill it, but I think everyone feels a need to be acknowledged and taken seriously from time to time. The setting of the plot in a theatre and also to a certain extent the apperance of "a ghost" work well to enhance this theme.

'I bet none of you have ever handled stage machinery.'
The murmurs increased.
'Of course not, we're actors, not technicals', said Cameron Armour. 'If I'd wanted to be a tradesman, I wouldn't have done ll that voice training.' Phryne began to understand Mr Brawn's rage and scorn.

~Ruddy Gore

Phryne and Dot

It is not that the show does not deal with this subject. In fact it does so to a larger extent than the books seem to be doing actually. Phryne's employed taxi driver Bert Johnson tells his partner Cecil Yates that he is hopless when it comes to collecting strays in Cocaine Blues which is a trait also true of their employer. Both in the books and in the TV show, Phryne has an ability to really see people who needs it. She cares for them and encourages them to reach their full potential. She does not ever pamper them, which can be seen by the way she treats the female star of the theatre production Leila Esperance in the book.

Finnish author Tove Jansson is considered one of the giants in the children's litterature of the Nordic countries and her works about the Moomins are known worldwide. I have not talked about her before on this blog, because I have long felt a need to reread her books before I do so. However, one of her short stories, Det osynliga barnet (The invisible child) is very much worth mentioning here.

In the short story the character Tooticki brings the girl Ninni to the Moomin family. Ninni has been taken care of by a horrible older lady who did not like her. Because of this, she has lost all her confidence and turned completely invisible and the only way to know she is there is by the sound of the little bell, the lady had put around the girl's neck. Ninni is placed under the care and love of Moominmamma and little by little she becomes visible again.

I feel like there are certain similarities in Moominmamma's treatment of Ninni and how Phryne handles Dot in the TV show. When she first meets the younger woman in Cocaine Blues, Dot is mainly invisible. She works as a maid at the Andrews's house, but you cannot say that she draws much attention to herself. As she comes to work for Phryne however, Dot starts to develope as a person. She finds her confidence and role in life without giving herself away at the same time. And Phryne is there, nudging, caring and encouraging. You can see her become surprised by Dot's strict religious reasonings of the modern world in Cocaine Blues, but she never judge her.

"When I came to work for you, Miss, I was afraid of everything. And you taught me so many things, and you made me brave, and you made me happy."

~ Dot Williams, Death do us part

Dot is quite different in the books. She is much more timid and not as active in Phryne's cases as she is on the TV show. With Phryne's mentoring, TV-Dot starts learning the detective skills and from time to time ends up solving the crimes to a certain extent. In a way I think Dot is the main character who develope most throughout the show. I prefer the more active TV-Dot over the passive book one. The friendship between the two women in the books is just wonderful and they certainly love and respect each other (even so much that Phryne continue to wear the St Christopher medal that Dot gives her before she goes away to the circus in Blood and Circuses). However, I do miss Dot doing her own sleuthing and Phryne teaching her the ways of the detective. She does participate from time to time (like helping Phryne go through all the dressing rooms at the theatre in Ruddy Gore) but it is just not the same and the character does not go through the same evolution in the books as in the TV series.


The image of the cover of Det osynliga barnet, did I borrow from here.

Kerry Greenwood - Ruddy Gore

Ruddy Gore is the 7th book about Phryne Fisher in which Phryne goes to the theatre to watch Ruddigore and celebrate the aviator Bert Hinkler who has flown from Croydon to Darwin.

The Bert Hinkler of the book is probably Herbert John Louis Hinkler the first man to fly solo from England to Australia, reducing the flight record of 28 days to 15. This all happened in February 1928, which had me somewhat confused about the timeline of the books, so I did a little bit of sleuthing through the books I have already read as to what dates are mentioned.

• Cocaine Blues: No dates mentioned at all as far as I could discern. (If you have noticed any indication as to any dates, please tell me in a comment.) 
• Flying too High: Amelia McNaughton mentions that her father wanted to marry her off like it was unbelieveable to happen in 1928. The date for her brother Bill's trial is set to 17th August 1928 as well and there is a mention of it being a winter's day, which for Australia would mean a day somewhere between June and August. 
•  Murder on the Ballarat Train: The murder of Anne Henderson took place on the night of 21th June 1928 and at the end of May that same year, Bobby Matthew's Megatherium Trust crasched, ruining Anne Henderson.
• Death at Victoria Dock: Bert and Cec are invited to dinner and mention that there will be a strike on 10th September and Phryne says it is the 1st September that day. Like Amelia, Phryne cannot believe someone was shooting at her because it is 1928.  
• The Green Mill Murder: No year is mentioned, but it seems to be set in October which is mentioned as Phryne is flying up to the mountains to meet Victor Freeman. 
• Blood and Circuses: The date is stated already in the beginning as Mr Christopher's body is found at the boarding house in which he lives. Jack Robinson, Constable Harris and Sergeant Grossmith also talks about the society getting harder and colder in 1928, so a police strike would not be so easy as it had been before. Also, when Phryne feels like her persona is slipping back to its primitive roots, her contemporary identity is refered to as "1928 Phryne". 
• The dates in Ruddy Gore are somewhat diffuse. 1928 is mentioned and based on what the boy Herbert Cowl (I wonder if he is named Herbert because of the other references to Hinkler.) who becomes Phryne's assistent tells her, it sounds like it would be a little before christmas. Phryne also tells the theatre manager Bernard Tarrant that she has had enough performance for a while and tells Dot Williams that this is not going to be like her time at the circus and she will come home every night. Phryne also have the St Christopher medal that Dot gave to her as she was leaving for the circus. So the book is definitely supposed to be set after Blood and Circuses.

Based on the preface of the book, there was a production of Ruddigore in Melbourne in 1928 (but it did not include any murderers). After a lot of hard googling I have not been able to deduce if there where a gala performance of the play for Hinkler for real and books on 1920's theatre in Australia has turned out to be pretty rare here in Sweden. Therefore my thoughts about the timeline will remain what it is. They might just have waited with celebrating Hinkler until November/December?

Anyway, Phryne and her friend Bunji Ross (one of those recurring characters of the books that I have talked about before) are at the theatre to celebrate Bert Hinkler's triumph. However, the performance is cut short when one of the main actors and then his understudy are poisoned. Phryne starts to investigate, but the main suspect seems to be the ghost of the late actress Dorothea Curtis who died playing Ruddigore in London thirty years prior to the events in Ruddy Gore.

'Could you call up a spirit for me? I've been trying to find one lately and she is very difficult to locate.'

~Phryne Fisher, Ruddy Gore

It is also in this book that we meet the character Lin Chung for the first time. On the way to the theatre, Phryne and Bunji helps him and his grandmother out of a fight and they are cleaned up at the Lins's house before they are off to the theatre. Throughout the entire book, Chinese men are following Phryne and she seems a bit worried about it.

Not only is the timeline between the books a bit confusing, but at the theatre history seems to be repeating itself with resemblances to thirty years prior. Phryne is also thinking how her life has turned into a comic opera. There are a lot of references back to Dorothea and Phryne is sure that her death was not an accident.

Hitherto I have liked each book about Phryne Fisher more and more, but this is a break in that trend. I prefer both Blood and Circuses and The Green Mill Murder over this one. I liked the plot and the theatre milieu and the world around the production of Ruddigore, but even though it was depicted just as thoroughly as the circus in Blood and Circuses which I really enjoyed, I thought this a bit tiresome. I also had problems connecting to all the people at the theatre. Everyone seemed to be quite full of themselves and they were all in love with each other and also left each other heartbroken. It was like a drama series on TV. Adding the Chinese and it got a bit messy. I still liked the book just fine. It was a fun read and it did not put me off the books.

Tutankhamun. The tomb and the Treasure

Carnarvon: "Can you see anything?" 
Carter: "Yes, wonderful things!"

On Tuesday, I visited the travelling exhibition about the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun in Stockholm. It was all made up of replicas and as someone working in the heritage sector, I think it is a great idea. Not everyone has the money to travel to Egypt, but is still in love with its history and the amazing artefacts I think we can safely say that everyone has seen at least once in a book or on TV.

I really enjoyed the exhibition. They really had tried to put all the artefacts into a context, which was a pleasant surprise. I thought it was going to be, like it often is with travelling exhibitions like this. Especially when it comes to really famous objects. But it is important for the understanding of the objects to have a context to place them in.

The objects are of course amazing in themselves, but there is much to be learned from them as well. Ancient Egypt is really a very different culture (even from today's Egypt) and to create an understanding of it, we much put all those treasures into a context to really understand it.

Even though I have had an interest in Ancient Egypt for years (I have also studied Egyptology at the university for a year.), I still think I have lots to learn. This also became pretty obvious at the exhibition. For the first time, I really understood what a so called corn Osiris looked like. (See picture bellow.)

Corn Osiris

It is really a frame shaped like the god Osiris (He is a god connected to the dead king.) with lots of corn inside and here I have always thought of it like one of those dolls which you are supposed to grow hair on.

The first part of the exhibition was a short introduction to ancient Egypt and Tutankhamun and had a glass (or some kind of see-through-plastic) model of the tomb and how it was situated in the Valley of the Kings. You got an audio guide which you could use to listen to people talking about the objects. This could be used throughout the exhibition. There was a film about Howard Carter and how he discovered the tomb in 1922 and afterwards they had put all artefacts together like they were placed in the tomb when Carter got there. It was a great way to sort of set up a scene for the part where you got a closer look at the artefacts themselves. Especially good was the fact that there were no talks about aliens or curses. Just a mention about the Egyptian workers who worked for Carter during the excavation getting scared when Carter's canary was killed by a cobra which was a symbol of the protection of the kings of Ancient Egypt.

I missed a mummy, even though I totally understand why it was not possible to have one. The had a wall explaining research that has been done on the mummy and different theories of how he might have died. Underneath had they placed a table with a picture of the mummy. This was actually quite a good way to sudstitute, even though I do prefer real mummies. (Yes, I am somewhat obsessed with death and burials!)

While you walked around among the artefacts after this view of the tomb itself you could choose if you wanted to listen to more or just walk around and I was really amazed by it all. It had me thinking a lot. For example how the outer chapel of the coffins were built. The replica was placed on a podium the size of the burial chamber and the builders can not have had much space to move around as they built it for sure. And how do you actually move coffins of solid gold that weigh over 1 000 kilos?! Because I refuse to say aliens, I am going for a lot of block and tackles and hard working workers (No, Ancient Egypt did not keep slaves! In fact the first known strike in history is of Egyptian tomb workers who fought for higher salary.).

To sum it all up: I loved the exhibition. More should be made like this.

Nathan Page's autograph and me totally fangirling about it

I had to pospone my entry about the Tutankhamun exhibition I went to yesterday, because look what arrived in the post today!!! It is Nathan Page's autograph! I asked an Internet friend who was going to Nathan's High Tea on 4th March if she could ask for an autograph for me and he was kind enough to actually do it

Nathan Page, photo by Sam Mcadam-Cooper

Since Swedish postal service is really not what it has been (I do wonder from time to time what Axel Oxenstierna - who founded the Swedish post office - would say about it really...) and I have been somewhat worried it would get lost on the way across half the world really. This has made me quite secretive about it and only a select few have seen it up until now when I have it in my hand.

As I have said many times before, I went into Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries as a fan of Essie Davis. This because her film The Babadook,which I saw first, became extremely personal to me (I have written all about it here.) and I sort of looked up what more she had done (that I could watch through Swedish Netflix) and I totally fell in love with Miss Fiher's Murder Mysteries and Jack Robinson and Nathan Page came into my life as part of that.

The, by far, most popular entry to this blog is the one I wrote about Jack in November last year (It can be found here.) and I really think Nathan is a very good actor. Both he and Essie are phenomenal when it comes to making subtle emotions with their facial expressions. Nathan seems to be a kind and nice person in real life and he also seems perfectly fine taking a backseat to Essie/Phryne which is all too rare in male actors.

I am so fangirling over all of this. I know it is just a piece of paper and I am sure he forgot all about me the moment he had written it, but it is my piece of paper and he has written it for me!

I doubt you will ever see this Nathan, but thank you so very much for the autograph! It means a lot to me and you have totally made my day! Twice (Once when I got to know Debra had got it for me and today when it finally arrived.)! ❤️




Photo of Nathan used in this post was taken by Sam Mcadam-Cooper.

Selma Lagerlöf - Dödskallen

Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf died 16 March 1940 and therefore I thought it fitting to read one of her short stories today. She wrote quite a few of those, but I chose the one Dödskallen (The skull) just because it fit well for someone's death day.

The short story was originally published under the title En underlig julgäst (A strange christmas guest) in the anthology Julstämning in 1914 and it was also part of the anthology Troll och människor II from 1921 in which Lagerlöf emanated from traditional Swedish folklore.

I love Selma! She is definitely up there among my favourites and I absolutely adore the cover Novellix has chosen for Dödskallen. It is amazing!

Dödskallen is about grave digger and church guard Anders Öster who walks around trying to invite people to his home for christmas dinner. No one accepts the invitation however and as he walks past the churchyard he jokes a bit to himself that he should invite the ghosts instead. He then finds a human skull which he suppose he has disturbed from its grave while he dug another one (Something that probably has been pretty common.) and he decides to invite it for christmas.

As he comes home to his wife Bolla, he is miserable and angry and takes it all out on his wife. He even go so far that he tries shooting her just because she refuses to let him eat in the big hall in the parish house where the parish counsel had its meetings. He justifies this with saying that now he had humbled her and she would know her place. He, however, feels somewhat lonely, so he walks out and brings home the skull he had found before to keep him company.

In the mean time Bolla flees to their neighbours who try comforting her and she sits down to have christmas dinner with them, thinking she can never go back to her husband and while he thinks he has just shown her who is the boss, she thinks that he must hate her. Suddenly Anders arrives looking all scared and Bolla decides to go back with him. It turns out the skull belonged to someone who has been shot making him realise what he has actually tried doing to his wife.

To be honest this sort of twist to the story was rather surprising. I felt sure it was going to turn out that he had really invited the dead to his christmas party and that he would end up scared because the skull came to life.  It was short and rather easy to read and gave you a feeling of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. This twist made it feel refreshing and the fact that Anders realises he is the one who have misbehaved towards his wife is making the ending much more hopeful.

Dead People's Society - "Helge"

The stern of Vasa

Sunday 10th August 1628 did the brand new Swedish warship Vasa set sail for its first journey. Swedish king Gustav II Adolf (nephew of Cecilia Vasa) had had it built. It did not end well. The ship sank barely having left the harbour in Stockholm, but was salvaged in 1961 and can today be seen at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. (I really recommend that museum if you go to Stockholm. It is one of my absolute favourites. Not just in said town.)

On board and around Vasa were the remains of at least 16 individuals found and I thought I should talk about one of those. Since we do not know any names of the individuals found on Vasa, they have got name based on the Swedish spelling alphabet (with the exception of the two women Beata and Ylva). This particular man has been called Helge, so that is what I will call him in this entry.

Helge's skeleton is very fragmentary, around 2 770 fragments were found together on the port side of lower gun deck. This is quite a lot considering a "normal" body of an adult human being contains 206 bones. A lot of the fragments (c. 2 100) are however too small to estimate which particular bone they have been a part of, but 671 of them could be pieced together.

Vasa

When Vasa keeled over, Helge had the unfortunate faith of being crushed underneath one of the gun carriages and when osteologist Nils-Gustaf Gejvall did the first study of the skeletons from Vasa in 1963, he said that the skeleton was in very bad condition. It was affected by the iron parts of the gun carriage. The skeletons found at Vasa were reburied in 1963, but taken up again in 1989 for a more thorough analysis and can today be seen at the Vasa museum. The years in the ground has further increased the decay and Helge's bones have mildewed.

Together with the skeletons given the names Filip and Gustav, Helge has the most complete skeleton out of all the Vasa skeletons. He however, misses parts of his hands and feet and the skull was broken into pieces. His sex is estimated as "typical male" based on features from remaining skull fragments and his age 33+3 years based on age markers on the femur, humerus and skull seams. Chemical analysis show that he ate a lot of meat.

Besides the bones, the archaeologists also found preserved hair, nails and brain tissue.

Sources
During, Ebba 1994. De dog på Vasa. Skelettfynden och vad de berättar, Vasastudier 16

Historical Women - Princess Cecilia Vasa of Sweden

Today is the international women's day and in what better way can I acknowledge this than by writing an entry about my favourite historical woman: Cecilia Vasa.

She was born as a Swedish princess, the daughter of  Swedish king Gustav Eriksson (Vasa) (Traditionally called Gustav Vasa) and his second wife Margareta Eriksdotter (Leijonhufvud) on 6th November 1540. She had two elder brothers, Erik (who was the son of Gustav and his first wife, Katarina av Sachsen-Lauenburg) and Johan and an older sister named Katarina. She was given the name Cecilia after her paternal grandmother Cecilia Månsdotter (Eka). After Cecilia was born, the family expanded with the daughters Anna, Sofia and Elisabet and the sons Magnus and Karl. Two of her brothers (Sten and Karl) also died within a year after their birth. She is also great niece pf Kristina Nilsdotter Gyllenstierna who was the first Historical Woman I wrote about on this blog.

Swedish history books tend to focus on the fact that Gustav Vasa had three sons (Magnus died early) who would win the Swedish throne. The five daughters are in general overlooked. If they are mentioned at all, their roles have been downplayed. Cecilia is the most famous among the daughters, not least because of the so called Vadstenabullret (the Vadstena noice), but more about that later.

Like her brothers, Cecilia and her sisters actually got a pretty good education. Because Sweden was so heavily influenced by Germany at the time, the royal children probably was taught German. When she got older, probably as a result of her oldest brother Erik's wish to marry queen Elizabeth I of England, Cecilia also learnt English.

Cecilia on a contemporary medal

On contrary to, for example the Tudors in England, Gustav Vasa seems to have kept his family close. They moved around between different castles, but most of the time, they did it together. Considering the fact that he seems to have been a harsh, cold-hearted tyrant towards his subjects, it is interesting (I will not go so far to say sweet.) to see how much he seems to have been worried when any of the children were sick. For example when he and queen Margareta were in Norrköping without the children and Erik sent him a letter saying Cecilia had got sick. When Margareta died 26th August 1551, Cecilia was just about to turn 11. At first their ageing great aunt Kristina Gyllenstierna was the one to take care of the royal children, but they soon proved to be too much for her, so the responsibility went to the childrens's aunts Brita and Märta instead. About a year later, their father remarried Brita's daughter Katarina Gustavsdotter (Stenbock) who was only 16 years old at the time (i.e. younger than her oldest stepson). Gustav was 55.

After a lot of delays, Cecilia's older sister Katarina married Count Edzard II of East Frisia in early December 1559. (Edzards mother Anna, just like queen Margareta and Katarina Stenbock, is a very interesting lady who I will probably have reason to make an entry for in the future.) When he travelled to Sweden for the wedding, his younger brother Johan came along. Gustav let Cecilia follow her sister on her way to East Frisia, but not for too long. He also wrote a letter to her when the wedding party had reached Vadstena castle a little before christmas reminding her that she must return to Stockholm. Cecilia ignored the letter completely, forcing Gustav to contact his cousin (son of Kristina Gyllenstierna and uncle to Gustav's children) Svante Sture encouraging him to make Cecilia return. The letter arrived too late however.

Following her sister, Cecilia seems to have been attracted to Edzard's brother Johan. The guards at Vadstena castle soon saw the man sneeking in to her bedroom through the window at night. They allerted Erik who seems to have caught Johan with his trousers down in his sister's bedroom. This episode and what followed is what has been called Vadstenabullret. Of course this turned into a huge scandal and it did not exactly help that Erik handled it in an extremely public way. Gustav was furious not only with Cecilia, but with Erik as well. He sent off his servants to the castle in Västerås to do an inventory of Cecilia's belongings so he could take them away from her. Katarina, however, stepped up for her sister, preventing the servants to take anything away. She and her husband were placed in house arrest in Västerås and where not allowed to travel to East Frisia until 1561, one year after Gustav had died.

Erik became king Erik XIV after their father's death in 1560. He started created instructions for how the royal women should behave, probably as a result of Vadstenabullret. He was especially hard on Cecilia, but she would have none of it and, to put it bluntly, told him multiple times to fuck off.

Even though her brother's wish to marry the English queen was never fulfilled, Cecilia seems to have become good friends with Elizabeth I. In a letter dated January 1563, she is happy that an engagement to a Polish count has been broken due to her brother Johan's marriage to the Polish princess Katarina Jagellonica. Cecilia seems to have been more interested in getting herself an English husband and the Earl of Arundel seems to have gained an interest in the Swedish princess. Erik, however, still wanted her to marry the Polish count. Elizabeth did not give Erik an answer to his proposal, but she did write multiple letters to the Swedish king, asking him to let Cecilia come visit her in England. Cecilia was finally married to Christoph II, margrave of Baden-Rodemachern in 1564 and they got six sons. Cecilia also gave birth to a daughter after she had become a widow in 1575.

The information surrounding Cecilia's marriage is contradictive, but interesting. How come she settled for such a lowly husband? The marriage deal also seems to have been made in haste and a lot of revision were made over the course of the engagement. The Nordic 7 years war was raging the country and because of this Cecilia's dowry would be paid in three partial sums, giving Erik a hold on his sister who he believed to have taken Johan's side in the conflict the brothers had.

After her wedding, she visited Katarina in East Frisia and while there she was invited to Elizabeth I and went to England in september 1565. Many people in the court were curious about the Swedish princess who they had heard so much about already. While in England, she gave birth to her first son, who she called Edvard Fortunatus and Elizabeth became the boy's godmother.

Besides having wanted to make the trip for quite some time, Cecilia was in England to renew the negotiation of a marriage between her brother and Elizabeth, but also there to collect a crew which could fight enemy ships in the Baltic Sea. While in England, Cecilia spent a lot more money on partying than what she earned and it did not take long for the English court to take offence against her.

After her visit to England, Cecilia and her husband's economy was in a terrible state and they went home to Baden-Rodemachern. After Erik was removed from the throne and Johan became king, the couple travelled to Sweden where Cecilia was given forest fiefs in Skinnskatteberg, Fellingsbro and Arboga gaining her the title "Countess of Arboga". She also got a kungsgård (royal farm) and iron fiefs in Lindesberg, Noraskog and Guldsmedshyttan. Other incomst sources were piracy in the Baltic Sea and a brothel in Brussels.

There is a lot more that Cecilia did, but this became a rather long post, so I think I need to end it here. When Cecilia died 27th January 1627 as the last surviving of Gustav Vasa's children, a new little princess had been born into the Vasa family just over a month earlier. Her name was Christina and she would grow up to be queen of Sweden and just as free spirited as her great aunt.

Sources:
Harrison, Dick & Eriksson, Bo 2012. Norstedts Sveriges historia 1350-1600. 
Larsson, Lars-Olof 2002. Gustav Vasa - Landsfader eller tyrann?
Larsson, Lars-Olof 2005. Arvet efter Gustav Vasa. En berättelse om fyra kungar och ett rike 
Tegenborg-Falkdalen, Karin 2010. Vasadöttrarna
Tegenborg-Falkdalen, Karin 2015. Vasadrottningen. En biografi över Katarina Stenbock 1535-1621 
Pictures of what is believed to be Cecilia was borrowed here.

Phryne and Jack - the first meeting

I have already written my thoughts about this on Facebook, but I thought I should write it here as well.

In the TV version of Cocaine Blues, we see Phryne Fisher meet Detective Inspector Jack Robinson for the first time in Lydia Andrews's bathroom where her husband John Andrews has been found murdered. I really do think their reaction to each other here is very interesting and it sets up the tone for the entire show in regards to their relationship.

I have talked a lot about Phryne as a character before and how complex she is in regards not least to gender norms (The latest was in the entries Blood and Circuses - TV vs book and Phryne and the gender norms of the 1920's.) and in this particular scene in the bathroom we actually get to see her using both her feminine and her masculine sides.

Phryne is good at charming people. She usually either does it with her "feminine" flirty, seductive side or her "masculine" cleverness and cunning. She is also good at knowing when to use which. The fact that she is not so good when it comes to Jack in this scene tells a lot about what a special place he will come to have in her life after this first meeting. Jack is not exactly like other men in  Phryne's life and because of this she often ends up hurting him by treating him like she would any other men.

Phryne first tries flirting with Jack. This action gives us a small glimpse at her past as a poor girl in Collingwood and also how she has been dealing with the police before. This comes up again in for example Blood and Money when she tells Jack about the swallow brooch and she gives us a much more thorough view about it.

Phryne: You know, the first thing I ever stole, the police let me keep. 
Jack: Really? 
Phryne: This little brooch in the shape of a swallow. I saw it in the pawnbroker's window, and I coveted it for a whole year until I seized the opportunity.
Jack: And you were caught? 
Phryne: Well, someone lagged. 
Jack: Ah. Then you talked your way out of it. 
Phryne: Well, I told the police that my grandmother had given it to me and my father had hocked it for a bottle of beer.

~ Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Blood and Money

Unlike Constable Hugh Collins, who she wins over straight away in the bathroom scene in Cocaine Blues, Jack turns out not to be so easily charmed. Therefore, we see Phryne changing tactics using her cleverness and cunning side instead. But, before giving a thorough analysis of the crime scene. Interestingly enough, she at the same time, also jokes a bit about the stereotype Jack seems to think she is.

Jack: Miss Fisher, I appreciate your curiosity for crime.
Phryne: Well, every lady needs a hobby.

~ Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Cocaine Blues

It is evident by the looks Hugh and Jack give each other that they did not expect her competence, but Jack still will not let himself get charmed by her. So Phryne tries again, going back to the flirting and finally makes him give her his card...

Phryne and gender norms of the 1920's

As I have said in my previous two entries there is a lot to talk about Blood and Circuses. However, I felt like the entry about Phryne's character was so long, that I could not discuss everything in one entry. This entry will therefore more or less be considered "left overs" from the Blood and Circuses TV vs book one.

In both TV episode and book, a transexual person is murdered. On TV, the person is called Miss Christopher and has met up with a doctor who promised to help her become a woman. In the books however, he is called Mr. Christopher and seems to want to be treated like a man even though the magician Robert Sheridan falls in love with him and wants to treat him like a woman (Christine). The book also involves Miss Molly Younger who is engaged to Mr Christopher and is as it turns out also transsexual.

Mr. Christopher and Miss Younger. Man-woman and woman-man. They were made for each other and no one else would fit.

~ Kerry Greenwood, Blood and Circuses (book)

Interestingly enough, transsexuality sort of fits well into the time period. During the first world war one can say that women broke through a gender wall. They proved that they could drive cars and aeroplane, repair them when needed and also replace them in industries and other businesses. This, more than anything, led to women gaining their democratic rights in many countries. But it also created a new ideal for women.

This first wave of emancipation gave women access to a new world and the ideal symbolised their new freedom and confidence. They were no longer only restricted to the home, but could take their place in the public as well. This clashed against the earlier gender segregations of Western society and the gender norms became visible and could therefore be discussed and renegotiated.

In 1922, Victor Margueritte published the book La Garçonne* which became immensely popular among young women. The book moves around in the borderland between the gender norms. It tells the story of Monique Lerbier who handles her fiancé's infidelity by living a free, hedonistic life-style with multiple sexual partners. The book sold in over one million copies and became a cult book for young women who wanted to rebell against the older gender norms and Victorian prissiness which had sort of trapped their mothers and grandmothers. It created a fashion in which women should dress either in clothes traditionally considered male or in figureless dresses and wear cloches. They were also encouraged to cut their hair short (The winter of 1926 had over 50% of the women in Stockholm short hair.). Margueritte's book is not mentioned (as far as I have read) the Phryne Fisher books, or in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, but it still makes me think about both Phryne and her best friend Elizabeth Macmillan (Mac). I also wonder if it created the so called "lesbian subculture" in Paris that is mentioned in Cocaine Blues (book) when Phryne wonders about Lydia Andrew's sexuality.

Elizabeth "Mac" Macmillan

But not only did the female role change, the male did as well and while the woman became more masculine, the men turned to a more feminine style. One might wonder how this all came about. To make a long story short, I think it has a lot to do with a chaning lifestyle in general due to democratisation, urbanisation and industrialisation, but mostly I think it had a lot to do with the first world war. Both Kerry Greenwood's books and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries brings up how society to a large extent was thrown into a feeling of despair after the Great War. In a way I find the above quoted (and by me translated) part of Swedish contemporary singer Karl Gerhard's song Jazzgossen (Jazz boy) fitting. It talks exactly of those old, traditional gender values with the knights in shiny armour who fight over the fair maidens. A violent culture that can be seen as having culminated in the war. In this way, the ideals became a rebellion against those who were in place before the war and which was held responsible for it. What we can see during the 1920's is a renegotiations of the gender roles. Women became more masculine and men more feminine. In a way this makes a story bringing up transexuality fitting into this world.

 This is just a short overview and I probably will have reasons to go back to it in future entries to the blog as I progress in my reading of Kerry Greenwood's books. Phryne is, after all, the personification of the new woman of the 1920's.

Sources:
Andersen, Jens 2015. Denna dagen, ett liv. En biografi över Astrid Lindgren, Swedish translation: Urban Andersson.
Hirdman, Yvonne & Lundberg, Urban & Björkman, Jenny 2012. Norstedts Sveriges historia 1920-1965.
The photo of Phryne was borrowed here and the one of Mac here.

*I have not read this book myself. Only a general description in Jens Andersen's Astrid Lingren biography Denna dagen, ett liv. This is what I base my knowledge of it on.