was a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

. Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition

Swedish ballad tradition

The Swedish ballad tradition had been initiated by Bellman in the late 18th century. In the 19th century, poetic sing-songwriting fell in decline in favour of the academical student choirs, until it was again revived in the 1890s. Poets increasingly continued the tradition of having their poetry...

 and remains a very important influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature

Scandinavian literature

Scandinavia literature or Nordic literature is the literature in the languages of the Nordic countries of Northern Europe. The Nordic countries include Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway , Sweden and associated autonomous territories .The majority of these nations and regions use North Germanic...

 in general, to this day.

Bellman was born in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

. His main works are the Songs of Fredman

Songs of Fredman

Songs of Fredman is a collection of 65 poems and songs published in 1791 by the Swedish poet Carl Michael Bellman.As a follow-up of Epistles of Fredman from the previous year, the book contains songs from a longer period...

and the Epistles of Fredman

Epistles of Fredman

Epistles of Fredman is a collection of poems and songs by 18th century author Carl Michael Bellman. It contains 82 works created over a period of twenty years. Many of the songs have remained culturally significant in Scandinavia, especially so in Sweden...

, each including some 70 songs, many of which are about sociable drinking and/or designed for the occasion of the same. But this aspect of his songs is not the main reason he has become such an icon in the Scandinavian song tradition. A master of rhyme and rhythm, with a wonderful sense for combining words and music, he wrote songs that were innovative and original in form (parodying and refreshing contemporary literary styles was one of his specialities), as well as challenging in subject matter. On the surface, his songs centred to a large extent around themes like the joy of inebriation and the pursuit of sexual pleasure. Against this backdrop, however, he manages to elucidate the tender and fleeting themes of love, death, and the elusive qualities of the "present", the here-and-now, in a unique and moving manner. His songs reflect aspects of the life of the common man in 18th century Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

, but by his composition Gustafs skål

Gustafs skål

"Gustafs skål", literally Toast to Gustaf, is a song written by Carl Michael Bellman as a salutation to King Gustaf III of Sweden, following the coup d'etat in 1772, which made himself an autocrat and ended the parliamentary Age of Liberty. The king very much liked the song and informally it came...

, an informal royal anthem, he had also acquired the patronage of King Gustav III of Sweden

Gustav III of Sweden

Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden, she a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia....

.
Some of the characters in his songs are the clockmaker Fredman, the prostitute Ulla Winblad

Ulla Winblad

Ulla Winblad was a semi-fictional character in many of Carl Michael Bellman's works. Ulla Winblad was, or at least inspired by, Maria Kristina Kiellström .Ulla Winblad was described as a goddess of sex, worshiped and adored, but not respected...

, the ex-soldier, now alcoholic Mowitz and Fader Berg, a virtuoso on several instruments. Some of these were based on living models, some probably not. His songs often make references to Greek

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 and Roman

Roman mythology

Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...

 mythological characters such as the ferryman Charon

Charon (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on...

 and the God of wine and pleasure, Bacchus

Dionysus

Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...

.

Bellman mostly played the cittern

Cittern

The cittern or cither is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from the Medieval Citole, or Cytole. It looks much like the modern-day flat-back mandolin and the modern Irish bouzouki and cittern...

.

Legacy

The songs of Bellman have been recorded by modern Swedish artists such as the late Cornelis Vreeswijk

Cornelis Vreeswijk

Cornelis Vreeswijk , was a singer-songwriter, poet and actor born in IJmuiden in the Netherlands.He emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to become a journalist, but became increasingly involved in music, performing at...

, Evert Taube

Evert Taube

Evert Axel Taube was a Swedish author, artist, composer and singer. He is best known for his folk songs, and is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians.-Biography:...

, his son Sven-Bertil Taube

Sven-Bertil Taube

Sven-Bertil G. E. Taube is a Swedish singer and actor. Born in Stockholm, he is the son of songwriter Evert Taube and sculptor Astri Bergman Taube.-Biography:...

, Fred Åkerström

Fred Åkerström

Fred Åkerström was a Swedish folk guitarist and singer particularly noted for his interpretations of Bellman's music, and his own work of the typically Swedish song segment named visa. These songs, visor, are traditionally very narrative and the performance is "acted" to some degree. The singer is...

, rock musician Joakim Thåström

Joakim Thåström

Sven Joachim Eriksson Thåström , as an artist known as Thåström, is one of Sweden's best known rock musicians, he is mostly known for the bands Ebba Grön and Imperiet...

, and even metal music bands as Candlemass

Candlemass

Candlemass are an influential Swedish doom metal band established in 1984 by Leif Edling , their leader and songwriter. The band is originally from Stockholm. After releasing five full-length albums and touring extensively throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Candlemass disbanded in 1994, but...

 or black metal

Black metal

Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....

 band Marduk

Marduk (band)

Marduk is a black metal band from Norrköping, Sweden. The band formed in 1990 and released their first record in 1991. Their name is derived from the Babylonian god Marduk, patron deity of Babylon.-Musical style:...

. They are also frequently used as choral music and as drinking song

Drinking song

A drinking song is a song sung while drinking alcohol. Most drinking songs are folk songs, and may be varied from person to person and region to region, in both the lyrics and in the music...

s. Important interpreters of Bellman's songs include Fred Åkerström

Fred Åkerström

Fred Åkerström was a Swedish folk guitarist and singer particularly noted for his interpretations of Bellman's music, and his own work of the typically Swedish song segment named visa. These songs, visor, are traditionally very narrative and the performance is "acted" to some degree. The singer is...

 and Cornelis Vreeswijk

Cornelis Vreeswijk

Cornelis Vreeswijk , was a singer-songwriter, poet and actor born in IJmuiden in the Netherlands.He emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to become a journalist, but became increasingly involved in music, performing at...

.

Bellman has been translated into English several times, most notably by Paul Britten Austin

Paul Britten Austin

Paul Britten Austin was an English author, translator, broadcaster, administrator, and scholar of Swedish literature. He was born in Dawlish, South Devon, England. He was educated at Winchester College...

, and there have been many translations into German (by Hannes Wader

Hannes Wader

Hannes Wader is a German singer-songwriter . He was an important figure in German leftist circles from the 1970s on, with his songs covering such themes as socialist and communist resistance to oppression in Europe and other places like Latin America...

 and many others). Also the German Communist leader Karl Liebknecht

Karl Liebknecht

was a German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. He is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919...

 liked to sing the songs of Bellman, but he was able to do so in Swedish. Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...

 was one of the first to translate Bellman into Danish.

Bellman's songs have also been translated and recorded in Icelandic

Icelandic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...

 (by Bubbi), Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

 (for instance by Vesa-Matti Loiri

Vesa-Matti Loiri

Vesa-Matti "Vesku" Loiri is a Finnish actor, musician and comedian, best known for his role as Uuno Turhapuro, whom he portrayed in a total of 20 movies between the years 1973 and 2004....

), Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

, Chuvash

Chuvash language

Chuvash is a Turkic language spoken in central Russia, primarily in the Chuvash Republic and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages....

 and Yiddish

Yiddish language

Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...

. English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 interpretations have been recorded by William Clauson, Martin Best, Sven-Bertil Taube

Sven-Bertil Taube

Sven-Bertil G. E. Taube is a Swedish singer and actor. Born in Stockholm, he is the son of songwriter Evert Taube and sculptor Astri Bergman Taube.-Biography:...

, Roger Hinchliffe and Martin Bagge.

There are a number of books in English with translations of Bellman's work. The authors include Charles Wharton Stork, Hendrik Willem van Loon

Hendrik Willem van Loon

Hendrik Willem van Loon was a Dutch-American historian and journalist.-Life:He was born in Rotterdam, the son of Hendrik Willem van Loon and Elisabeth Johanna Hanken. He went to the United States in 1902 to study at Cornell University, receiving his degree in 1905...

, Paul Britten Austin

Paul Britten Austin

Paul Britten Austin was an English author, translator, broadcaster, administrator, and scholar of Swedish literature. He was born in Dawlish, South Devon, England. He was educated at Winchester College...

, and historian Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts may refer to:*Michael Roberts , British poet, writer, critic and broadcaster*Michael Roberts , British historian...

. In English the most thorough treatment of Bellman's life is also by Paul Britten Austin

Paul Britten Austin

Paul Britten Austin was an English author, translator, broadcaster, administrator, and scholar of Swedish literature. He was born in Dawlish, South Devon, England. He was educated at Winchester College...

.

Bellman jokes

Bellman's life inspired the "Bellman joke", a type of joke told by Swedish children. These jokes appeared first in the 19th century. They have since evolved and the "Bellman jokes" of today have no connection to the poet. Usually they refer to Bellman as a lunatic acting in the extreme.

Selected works

• Bacchi Tempel (1783)
• Fredmans Epistlar (Epistles of Fredman
  Epistles of Fredman
  Epistles of Fredman is a collection of poems and songs by 18th century author Carl Michael Bellman. It contains 82 works created over a period of twenty years. Many of the songs have remained culturally significant in Scandinavia, especially so in Sweden...
  
  ) (1790)
• Fredmans Sånger (Songs of Fredman
  Songs of Fredman
  Songs of Fredman is a collection of 65 poems and songs published in 1791 by the Swedish poet Carl Michael Bellman.As a follow-up of Epistles of Fredman from the previous year, the book contains songs from a longer period...
  
  ) (1791)

External links

• Quicktime files Bellman songs from Litteraturbanken Choose "Författare" (author). litteraturbanken.se
• Carl Michael Bellman on Swedish Wikisource
• Bellman.net
• Projekt Runeberg: Carl Michael Bellman, runeberg.org
• Carl Michael Bellman page at Kuusankoski Public Library. kirjasto.sci.fi
• Carl Michael Bellman page at PoemHunter.com
• Bellman in English at the Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
  : pp. 3–17. archive.org