Ebba L. Lewenhaupt - Kung Märta

In 1960 was a novel called Kung Märta published. It was written by Ebba L. Lewenhaupt and tells the story of Märta Eriksdotter (Leijonhufvud). The title Kung Märta (King Märta) is the nickname she was given by the public for how she handled the Sture family estate businesses.

The book is not at all well-known even though it was mentioned on Märta's Wikipedia page and I borrowed it at the Stockholm Public Library.

The book follows the life of Märta Eriksdotter (Leijonhufvud), but also her husband Svante Sture and to a lesser extent her sister Margareta Eriksdotter (Leijonhufvud). Much of it is devoted to the supposed love triangle between the three of them. I have talked about it both in my entry about Märta and my entry about Margareta before.

Märta's sister Margareta

Like I said then, I seriously doubt that it is true and that it more serves to antagonize the Vasa and the Sture families which is and has been since the 16th century very common. Lewenhaupt also antagonizes Märta and Margareta and also puts Märta against her mother Ebba Eriksdotter (Vasa). Lewenhaupts Märta is described as jealous of her perfect sister and hated by her mother for being "a child of sorrow" though she was born one month after her father was executed in The Stockholm Bloodbath. Based on the historical source material however, it seems like Märta was a beloved daughter and sister and she seems to have been pretty close to both.

About the engagement Svante and Margareta, I think that even if their parents had talked about it (because that sort of things happened), I do not think either of them would remember much of it. Svante was only three and Margareta four at the time of the bloodbath and after that Svante was out of the country pretty much the rest of the time up until Margareta married Gustav Vasa.

Svante is also very different from what I think he was like. He's quite macho, but kind and years after Margareta  all the time wherefore Märta never is totally comfortable in their marriage. She also seems more or less unaffected by the Sture Murders, which really feels odd to me considering the contents of the historical sources both during and after the murders.

Märta's son Nils

Even though the template images is a bit hard to read through 60 years later, especially when you have some knowledge about the historical sources, Kung Märta is very entrancing and it is surprisingly easy to read through. It tells the story of Märta's life chronologically but episodically with lots of small or big jumps in time. This creates a lack of flow in the narrative and affects all the characters's development. It also mainly takes an interest in big events like Dackefejden, the Sture murders or when Margareta dies and it is hard to grasp for example Märta's marriage or her relations to any of her other family members, friends or subordinates.

There is a somewhat proto-feministic tone to Märta's character. She is very active and enterprising in a way that I can see her being myself. At the same time Lewenhaupt also vilifies her. Märta i depicted as being "a child of sorrow" (because her father died before she was born) with flamy red hair (coloured by the blood of the bloodbath), a freckled, oblong face, dark eyes and a lanky body. This is put in sharp contrast with her older sister who is portrayed as blonde with a more or less perfect look and personlity.

Märta's husband Svante

Svante is also depicted as blonde and like you can see on his portrait to the left, I do not really think his hair colour could be considered blonde.

From what I have gathered, no portrait from the time period has been identified as Märta, but if you go by the appearance of her blood relatives's (Margareta and Märta and Svante's three children Nils, Erik and Kristina) portraits she might have been the blonde one. Her dead father-in-law, Sten Sture the younger, seems to have been blonde, but Svante was not.

Märta and Svante's son Nils has a very light hair colour, while Erik is a bit darker. Kristina's hair is covered in both portraits that have been identified as her. All Sture children also seems to have bright, green eyes while Svante's are dark. This has me thinking this is a trait, they inherited from Märta also. Kristina and Erik also have rounder faces than Svante and Nils, which might derive from Märta as well.

Märta's son Erik

Lewenhaupt describes Märta as having a sharp tongue which is something I can totally see. I do not see her as gangly, but very petite. This might be because I want to contrast it to the seemly larger-than-life personality I imagine she had though.

I am very ambivalent about my feelings towards this book. In fact I do not know if I have been this ambivalent towards one since I read Terry Hayes's book I am Pilgrim. I mean it is so filled with clichés, it is not really based in historical facts, but more in storytelling of historical individuals and events which are more or less mythical and  both Märta and the other characters are seriously lacking development and Märta's feelings and reactions are often strange and not based on the historical sources either. It is also evident that it was published almost 60 years ago.

Märta's daughter Kristina

However, there is something about this book that I cannot help liking and I think it has all to do with who it is about. Märta is one of my absolute favourite of any historical women and not only Vasa women. She is totally amazing. She is not at all well-known and it always breaks my heart a little whenever I am met with faces looking like big question marks when I mention her name. I just think she deserves so much more and I am glad that someone besides me has cared enough about her that they wrote a book about her. It warms my heart so very much.






All the paintings were borrowed from wikimedia commons.

My Heroines: Madicken

My Heroines is one of the series of posts I intend to have on this blog. It will be about females I have at some point in life looked up to in one way or another.

The inspiration for this, I have taken from Samantha Ellis's book How to Be a Heroine: Or, What I've Learned from Reading Too Much (Or in Swedish, since I read the translation: Mina hjältinnor. Eller vad jag lärt mig av att läsa för mycket.) that you can see over here to the right. (I will probably talk more about this book in later posts.)

In her book, Ellis talks about the female literary characters that have influenced her in life. Even though I am Swedish, I too have read many of them. I like how Ellis tells stories from her life in relation to the characters and how they have influenced her. Her book really made me inspired to tell you about my own heroines.

As might be pretty obvious based on my first post in this serie about Phryne Fisher, I will not limit myself to my childhood heroines. I still pick them up from time to time. Even though Phryne is a character from a book serie, I still haven't been able to read any of Kerry Greenwood's books about her. Therefore I will also include characters I have picked up solely from TV shows and films as well. I intend to analyse them and their books/films/TV shows, but I will use seperate entries also for only presenting them. This because there might be people who has not had the chance to meet them yet. Phryne, for example, is not so well known to a Swedish audience and the girl I want to dedicate this entry to is probably mostly known to the Swedes. Her name is Madicken and she is the main character of two books by Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren: Madicken (1960) and Madicken och Junibackens Pims (1976).

Illustration by Ilon Wikland

Madicken lives at Junibacken with her parents Jonas and Kajsa, her little sister Elisabet (generally called Lisabet) and their maid Alva. The family also has a dog named Sasso and a cat called Gosan. Madicken's real name i Margareta Engström, but everyone calls her Madicken. It's only when she has been naughty that people call her Margareta (so it actually happens pretty often...). She is seven years old and just about to start school when we first meet her.

"Stolts jungfrun på Junibacken, hon har ett ädelt hjärta"("The fair maiden at Junibacken, she has a nobel heart")

~ Farbror Nilsson 

Madicken takes place during the First World War. She comes from a quite wealthy family, her father being the editor of the news paper. "Like other girls", she plays with dolls, wears pretty dresses and collects nice things (the super nice ones, she calls salighetssaker/things of bliss). But never let you be fooled by those traits! She is probably the most badass 7-year-old there is!

Astrid Lindgren climbing a tree

Madicken was the nickname of Astrid Lindgren's best friend for nearly 80 years (up until Madicken's death in 1991): Anne-Marie Ingeström (married Fries). But some of her traits, book-Madicken probably borrowed from Astrid too. Among other, the fascination for climbing!

"Du är inte klok Madicken!" ("Madicken, you're mad!")

~ Lisabet

Madicken really seems to love climbing. In the first book, we are told, she usually climbs on top of the woodshed and walks on the roof to pick pears from the neighbours's pear tree. Later she and Lisabet have a picnic on that same roof and Madicken, being fascinated by airplanes wants to try to fly with an umbrella like the neighbour boy Abbe has told her they do in the war (It is their understanding of a parachute.). She goes to pick up her father's umbrella and jumps of the roof... It does not end well and she ends up with a concussion.

"Var glad att du lever! Det är så många som är döda." ("Be happy that you live! There are so many who are dead")

~ Linus-Ida

In the second book Madicken ends up walking on a roof again. The much poorer girl in her class, Mia, challenges her to walk across the school roof. Madicken wins and Mia steals the wallet from the headmaster.

But it is not only roof Madicken climbs up on! She also loves climbing in trees and on the mother's birthday, the whole family end up having picnic in trees because of some young bulls chasing them.

"Den ungen har aldrig haft förstånd att vara rädd" ("That child has never had sense enough to be scared")

~ Kajsa Engström

Besides all the climbing, Madicken can also punch you in the face if she wants to and she makes up a boy called Rikard to blame for whatever mischiefs she is up to in school. She is often described as being more like a boy and/or like her father than a girl. Lisabet, however, is described as similar to their mother. She is much calmer than her older sister and is often just dragged along on whatever mischeif Madicken is up to at the moment. But that does not mean she cannot be caught up in trouble herself. For example, she gets a pea stuck in her nose and hitchhike on a strange man's sleigh ending up in the middle of the forest. She collects naughty words which she says in the closet... but sometimes those words tend to get out of the closet too. Especially when the snobbish, proud and rather rude wife of the mayor is around.

Lisabet hinner ändå säga vad hon tänker till borgmästarinnan, när hon går förbi henne. (Lisabet still has time to tell the wife of the mayor what she's thinking as she passes by her)
"Nu var du allt bra dum!" ("Now you were really stupid!")
(---)
"Du fick inte säja att hon var dum, även om hon var det. Gå nu och säj till henne att du är lessen för det." [säger Alva] ("You cannot say she was stupid even though she was. Go say that you are sorry for it." [says Alva])
(---)
Då ropar [Lisabet] med sin gällaste röst: (Then [Lisabet] shouts out in her most high-pitched voice:)

"Jag är lessen för att du är dum!"  ("I'm sorry that you are stupid!")

~ Madicken of Junibackens Pims

Madicken's closest neighbour is the 15-year-old boy Abbe Nilsson. He comes from a much poorer family. He bakes pretzels which his mother sells at the market and his father is lazy and often drunk. Madicken has a huge crush on Abbe, but since she is seven, it is unrequited. He treats her more like a little sister and sometimes plays rather cruel pranks on her. Once he tricks her into believing she can see ghosts and another time he tricks her into thinking she has sold Lisabet into slavery. Abbe has lots of adventurous dreams like boarding a ship or becoming a pilot. Because of his family's lack of money he is probably never likely to fulfill them, but Madicken lets him fly in an airplane at the air show instead of herself.

Madicken is not just headstrong and adventurous. She has a big heart and a strong sense of justice. She tries to help out wherever she can. The books are filled with social commentary and despite her growing up in a wealthy family, she thinks and cares a lot about the poor. Her father is a good role model in this. When his wife is worried that Madicken hangs out to much at the Nilsson's house, he tells her that he wants his daughters to understand that not everyone is as wealthy as they are. In the second book, it becomes evident that his wife actually shares his opinions. Kajsa invites Alva to the mayor's formal ball, much to the wife of the mayor's chagrin and when Mia's lice find their way onto Madicken's head, she takes in Mia and her little sister Mattis, to get rid of the lice on all girls.

However, Madicken stands for some of the strongest social issues episodes herself. One is when the Nilssons do not have money to pay their loan to the factory owner Lind, Mrs Nilsson sells her body to the doctor. This so he can do whatever he wants with it after her death. Madicken worries about it, because she knows Mrs Nilsson wants a good funeral. At the same time as this happens, Madicken wins money at a lottery. She uses it to buy back Mrs Nilsson's body.

The other episode regards Mia. Her family (Her single mother and Mattis.) is really poor and Mia does not bring lunch to school nor does she and Mattis get any christmas presents. In the beginning Mia is much like an antagonist to Madicken and they fight a lot. Once physical and even if Madicken wins the fight, Mia manages to punch her on the nose. As said above does Mia challenge Madicken to walk across the school roof. On their way up, they go past the headmaster's window and Mia steals his wallet. She gets caught and is supposed to be spanked by the headmaster.

"Det kommer du att tacka mej för en gång", säjer överläraren. ("You are going to thank me for it", says the headmaster.)
Och hennes kamrater ska få titta på, säjer han, så att de lär sej hur det går för den som stjäl. (And her friends vill watch, he says, so they see what happens to those who steal.)
"Det blir en hälsosam läxa för er alla", tror han. ("It will be a good lesson for you all", he thinks.)
(---)
"Böj dej framåt", ryter [överläraren]. Mia böjer sig lydigt, och så kommer rottingen vinande och träffar hennes magra stjärt med en fasansfull klatsch. Inte ett ljud hörs från Mia. Men alla i klassen snyftar, och fröken håller handen för ögona. ("Bend over", [the headmaster] roars. Mia bends over and the cane hits her small bottom. Mia does not make a sound. But everyone in the class sobs and the teacher holds her hands in front of her eyes.)
Överläraren höjer rottingen igen, och då är det verkligen någon som skriker. Men det är inte Mia. (The headmaster raises the cane again and then there is someone who screams. But it is not Mia.)
"Nej, nej, nej, nej, nej", skriker Madicken med tårarna sprutande ur ögona. ("No, no, no, no, no", yells Madicken with tears running from her eyes.)
Överläraren tittar argt på henne, nu kom han av sej. Handen med rottningen sjunker ner, det är som om han tänkte efter. (The headmaster angrily looks at her. Now he lost his concentration. It looks as if he thinks for a moment.)

 ~ Madicken och Junibackens Pims

To understand this scene properly, one needs to understand the role Astrid got in Swedish politics over the years. She was probably one of the most powerful non-politicians in Sweden during her lifetime. She was very opinionated, standing up for both human and animal rights and even made the Swedish Social Democrats lose an election back in the 1970's. Anyway, Astrid was very clear that she did not like the idea of spanking children. One of her most famous quotes is: "Man kan inte piska något i barn, men man kan smeka fram mycket ur dem." ("You can never whip something into a child, but you can caress much out of them."). She is very anti-violence in general, which is evident in her authorship. Madicken grows up in somewhat of an idyll, but there are people like Mia who manages to break through it. This episode is among the strongest ones I think. It shows the conseqences of violence in a child and Madicken shows strengh in her ability to call the headmaster off.

Astrid won a German peace prize back in 1978 and used her acceptance speech to share her view of spanking, which was still legal in Germany at the time. I will most likely be telling you more about Astrid in future posts on this blog, because she has meant so much to me throughout my own life. This post I will, therefore, conclude with that speech:

In the films, Madicken is played by Jonna Liljedahl.