Gustaf Fröding

Gustaf Fröding (born Aug. 22, 1860, Alster, Värmland, Swed.—died Feb. 8, 1911, Stockholm) was a lyrical poet who, by uniting colloquial language with a rich musical form, liberated Swedish verse from traditional patterns.

Fröding studied at the University of Uppsala in 1880–83, and again in 1885, but did not take a degree. He worked for 10 years as a journalist at Karlstad, Värmland, though he spent long periods in sanatoriums for treatment of nervous disorders. Stimulated by the revolt against naturalism at the end of the 1880s, in 1891 he published his first collection of poems, Guitarr och dragharmonika (Guitar and Concertina). It was followed by Nya dikter (1894; “New Poems”) and Stänk och flikar (1896; “Splashes and Spray”). These three volumes contain the essential Fröding. Passages in the last led to his prosecution for pornography, and, although he was acquitted, the experience was disastrous to a man so scrupulous and sensitive. He managed to publish two more small books of poems, Nytt och gammalt (1897; “New and Old [Pieces]”) and Gralstänk (1898; “Splashes of Grail”), before his final breakdown. From 1898 to 1905 he was a patient in a mental hospital at Uppsala, and, although he recovered a measure of sanity, he never recovered his health. A collection of verse and prose, Efterskörd (“Aftermath”), was published in 1910, and a posthumous collection, Reconvalescentia, appeared in 1913. Fröding also wrote humorous dialect sketches and literary essays.

Fröding’s poetic style showed a virtuosity new to Swedish literature and an unusual technical perfection. He was a master of humorous verse, and his drolleries are as effective as the bitter pathos or evocative magic of his serious poetry. Readers were first attracted by the poems inspired by the scenes, characters, and folklore of his native Värmland; but even in his early work there was also a strong personal note of melancholy and revolt and a moving quest for a philosophy capable of resolving life’s discords.