Previously on The Ringstetten Saga:
A cadet offshoot of the Ringstetten dynasty is returning home to court (being one of the Queen's ladies) in an elegant baroque carriage, after visiting the Governor of Värmland and taking part in the revels of the Midsummer Green. And Caroline's stay at Vänersvik and her impression of Ulrika (not noticing that the girl's perfect French is spoken with a Wallonian accent) convince her to adopt the young blonde. At first, her parents are reluctant for Ulrika to start a new life at Drottningholm, the Swedish royal court, but they finally yield to Caroline's idea of introducing such a belle in society.
Ulrike is surprised by the plan. The farewell knows no equal. Cue Gustav Adolf and Katarina worrying about their daughter in all that elegance, among all those self-centered strangers!
Life ain't easy for an upstart at court. Just ask Sansa Stark. Or Ulrika von Ringstetten, who has finally succeeded to fit in at Drottningholm. Imagine that! For instance, she needs to change her accent, because she speaks Wallonian French! It seems that her fairytale dream has come true, but it will prove no bed of roses...
So many halls and mirrors, so many ladies in petticoats chattering in French, and a hedge maze in the vast royal gardens... and the "Cap and Hat" issue.
She is asked by the Queen's other ladies whether she is a Cap or a Hat, and she doesn't get what the question is, answering: "Well... guess I'm a Ribbon" for the bow in her hair. She decides to remain neutral after discovering that the Cap and Hat parties are two opposite factions, that even tear her foster parents, and even the royals themselves, apart. Queen Louisa (the de facto ruler of the land, in spite of loving books and fairies) and Madame Caroline are jingoistic Hats, bent on declaring another war on Russia for revenge after the Poltava debacle (and to expand the fallen Swedish Empire), while King Adolphus (weak-willed, fond of sweets and amateur woodcarver) and Monsieur Gabriel are Enlightened Caps bent on securing peace, supporting culture and education. Ulrika is neutral, a "Ribbon", and she soon meets her match in a Prussian dignitary's eldest son Fritz, nicknamed "Frédéric le Beau", neutral being a foreigner. Pretty soon, as the dashing Fritz finds a niche at court, Ulrika becomes his bride and, later on, his spouse.
As their marriage takes place, the Swedish government undergoes a turning point: when King Adolphus unexpectedly dies of a heart attack and his dashing son Gustavus returns from France to inherit the crown, the new ruler's supporters take Parliament by storm and dissolve it. After the successful velvet revolution (force was used, but there was no bloodshed or any casualties), Sweden has no longer Hats or Caps, just courtiers, gentry, and common people, subjects of an Enlightened despot.
Ulrika spends her life in a dream, attending fêtes and balls, playing soubrettes (clever maidservants) on stage, dancing the minuet and the gavotte with young officers of the Royal Guard, playing croquet with her fellow courtiers, stuffing herself with candied chestnuts, macarons, peaches and cream, ice cream... and getting dead drunk on eau-de-vie (fruit liquor), champagne, or Cognac behind Fritz's back. For le Beau has shown his true colours: a vain, self-centered, narcissistic fop who married Ulrika to get part of the Ringstettens' fortune. She is his trophy wife: his precious and lilywhite porcelain doll. And an unhappily married court lady can only escape her scenario in two possible ways: living up to her dreams and being unfaithful. She's doing both. And the naive ingénue has finally become a social butterfly with the reputation of an epicurean.
Queen Sophia, Gustavus III's spouse, to whose entourage Ulrika belongs, is unhappily married as well. She came over from Denmark as a child to marry a boy three years her senior, as a symbolic wedding to turn the traditional hostilities between Sweden and Denmark into an alliance. Decades have passed since that day, and Gustavus still prefers the company of young men (and the spotlight, being quite the outspoken attention seeker! He loves acting on stage, playing the lead role, especially as Apollo, with whom he identifies himself). Thus, there are rumors at Drottningholm that the young royals will soon die childless. The Queen herself has told Ulrika her plight, and vice versa.
One summer evening, while King Gustavus is doing reforms in the provinces (which considerably lowers the mood at court), the Queen leaves the ballroom and sneaks into bed with Head Stablehand Munck. They don't notice they are being watched by one of the ladies, dressed in a blood red brocade skirt and wearing a ruby heart parure. Guess who? (Ulrika von Ringstetten!)
A fortnight after His Majesty's return, Sophia starts to put on weight and wear larger petticoats to conceal her secret, not without arising suspicions. Gustavus III accepts the unborn child as his own, in spite of the courtiers' whispers about lovers and affairs, led by Queen Mother Louisa and her favourite child: Gustavus III's dashing, vain, epicurean and weak-willed youngest brother Frederick (There is a middle brother, reserved and stern Charles, in charge of the fleet and thus rarely seen). The newborn? It's a boy, named after his royal father. The heir to the Swedish throne, despite being an actual bastard.
Ulrika is soon inspired by the Queen's adultery to carry her foul play even further, into her bedchamber. At the ballroom, she gets completely wasted and confesses to a young Finnish ensign of the Royal Guard. For the occasion, our court lady is wearing a blue satin skirt and a parure of forget-me-nots tied with a blue satin ribbon in her hair, to fit the colour of her eyes and the uniform of her beloved.
However, her Prussian husband is half drunk, incensed by the effect of liquor and that of his spouse skipping through the maze with the young officer. In a fit of rage, without doubting, he throws his right glove at the ensign while calling him out: "Tomorrow at dusk, in the English Garden! (English Garden of Drottningholm: the woods beyond the hedge maze) Let me see how great a marksman you are!"
The officer picks up the glove, and a startled Ulrika starts coming to, weary and dizzy. The challenge has the effect of a cold water shower upon her.
The next day, she doesn't witness the duel, since Fritz has coldly explained: "It's an issue for gentlemen", the last time they will ever see each other. The next day, the confrontation is the talk of the palace. Both contenders have fallen: the young Finnish ensign, shot in the right side, and the older Prussian, with a bullet right through the heart.
A war on Russia, that has just broken out, is the second most important topic of conversation.
A widowed Ulrika takes leave of the royals and leaves the royal court for her hinterland birthplace, in a baroque carriage draped in black like her crepe dress and veil. Upon reaching the estate, she is welcomed by her old parents, who help her unpack her trousseau.
At first, Ulrika is desperate, having lost her husband and her place at court, and now bereft of the exciting social life she has led. For three days, she keeps on drinking brandy and weeping endlessly on her black handkerchief.
She has to sleep in the bedroom that was hers as a little girl. And soon, on the fourth day, the young dowager remembers her childhood and its more innocent pleasures, accepting her return to provincial life.
The Count and Countess of Ringstetten inform their daughter of everything that has happened at Vänersvik in her absence: it has been raining frogs one summer, good old Etienne is deceased (which causes Ulrika to feel guilty and regret her departure), and the Crown has opened a new orphanage, that also serves as public school, on Midsummer Green, with the Ringstettens' support and consent (Gustavus III himself opened it, while his Queen was having her affair). "It's that white schoolhouse on the Green, beside the church. You see the walls all covered with honeysuckle, like a bower?" Ulrika has finally awakened from her dream, and she turns over a new leaf as a teacher for unwanted and orphaned children with flaxen hair and sky-blue eyes. Her own childlessness and need of support are soon compensated by the love and enthusiasm she brings to the young wards of the State: they gather around her black skirt to listen to fairy tales, and she lovingly kisses them every night at bedtime, before going to bed herself, sober, secure, and innocent. Every now and then, upon returning to Vänersvik from the Honeysuckle Farm Children's Home and Public School, she passes by the churchyard and leaves some flowers on Etienne's grave, stopping for a while before resuming her walk.
This becomes her new life, to a ripe old age, until she falls asleep forever.
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta ulrika. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta ulrika. Mostrar todas las entradas
jueves, 27 de marzo de 2014
sábado, 22 de marzo de 2014
THE RINGSTETTEN SAGA XVIII: CHILDREN'S WISHES
Previously on The Ringstetten Saga:
Peace seems to have returned to the nation, and to the Northern world at large. The Walloons have, once more, made up with the Ringstettens. King Charles XII dies young and childless, during the siege of Fredrikshald, "a petty fortress", shot in the nape of the neck at night by "an unknown hand", still unclear if of friend or foe, on the 30th of November 1718. General Rehnskiöld, released from captivity, rejoined the Swedish Army and witnessed the death of his liege lord. Aurora von Königsmarck, in her ancestral seat, has died peacefully in her sleep.
And Parliament has been reinstated in Sweden.
Three decades after that, two more rune stones stand next to each other, beside Liselotte's, on the road to church, and Katia and her spouse are rulers of the peaceful shire. Etienne, now widowed and elderly, having handed over the foundry to his eldest son, lives in the hall with them, and he is the children's tutor. The foreign countess has given birth to seven children, of which only the youngest three have survived their first year as punishment from the Sidhe: twin boys, both blond and amber-eyed, and a slightly younger platinum blond and blue-eyed little girl. But... has the Sidhe really forgotten her oath of revenge and decided to put daring Krister, curious Kristian, and self-indulgent Ulrika to the test?
Picture three children as pure as driven snow, one catching butterflies and collecting flowers, one playing with her rag dolls and reading storybooks, the third wielding a wooden sword and daydreaming himself away to the days of the Thirty Years' War during history lessons. All three are blond, though the twin boys are strawberry blond while the younger girl's hair is fairer. The flower gatherer is Kristian, curious and introspective, excited at the discovery of new animal and vegetable life. The swordsman is Krister, impulsive and outspoken. You can tell him from his brother by the little scars on Krister's rosy cheeks. Doubtless he wants to be an officer. The little girl's name is Ulrika, and she loves fairy tales. Sleeping Beauty, Molly Whuppie, the Doe in the Woods, Red Riding Hood, Lunkentus, are her best friends and the stuff of her daydreams, and so are Metamorphoses characters like Echo and Daphne.
The estate where they were born and raised is the keystone of their world, that extends as far as to the rectory, the Midsummer Green, the van der Heide steel mill, and the blue plains of Lake Vänern. There be dragons beyond these limits, as the worldview of sheltered children has always proclaimed. Yet this is the Age of Light and Reason, and those dragons will soon be dispelled.
It all starts in the woods, returning home from the Midsummer Green, one warm afternoon in early autumn. Kristian has got enough rarities (dragonflies) secured in his butterfly net. Krister, as expected has brought his pinewood sword, and Ulrika is dressed in her finest frock, a sky blue one with petticoats, brought from the Netherlands via Gothenburg. With fluttering ponytails and throbbing hearts, the Ringstetten children have an encounter with a female stranger in the woods.
Her raven hair, tangled and interlaced with colourful glass beads and feathers, her tawny skin, her pitch black eyes, the outrageous clothes she wears (a shirt and puffy breeches made out of patchwork in many bright colours) imply the barefooted stranger may be a gypsy/Roma or a foreign madwoman.
She is actually our old frenemy the Sidhe in mortal guise. The children don't know it. And she has decided to put them to the test, to see if the Ringstettens are worth further punishment for their disregard of the pact.
Upon meeting the little nobles in their cravats and overcoats, tricorns and stockings, and Ulrika in her blue frock, she surprises the three siblings by offering each one of them a hazelnut the size of a walnut.
Wishing nuts.
Ulrika's contains a dozen court gowns (made of satin, velvet, brocade, choc-a-bloc with ribbons and lace) plus a riding outfit, social events and dances and picnics, macarons and liquor in spades, the promise of a carefree and ever-happy life, and that of a brave, clever, wealthy and renowned partner,... but also a dark secret.
Krister's contains a full officer's uniform: plumed (tricorn) hat, blue coat with epaulets, golden breeches, leather boots, spurs, pistols, rapier and all. Plus the leadership of a company, to crown it all. But also the gift of reflection, and those of honour in victory and mercy in defeat...
There is only one nut left, the odd one out, and it is meant for Kristian. It contains "the best life that can be lived according to wise thinkers": a peaceful life of concord and respect among well-intentioned loved ones.
Yet Kristian is not ashamed or disappointed at all.
Upon returning to the estate of Vänersvik, the excited siblings decide to open each one the nut given by the dark stranger. Consuming the nuts will bring the fulfilment of the wishes within after seven years. Though Kristian's is shrivelled and black, he does not hesitate as he puts it to his lips.
Weeks follow each other, autumn turns to winter, and soon seven years have elapsed. The three young nobles have grown in size, in beauty, and in cleverness.
And those wishes are about to come true.
In late springtime, when the birch trees are in bloom, the Ringstettens get a visit from a van der Heide friend, a lecturer at Uppsala University itself. He doesn't hesitate to take after Kristian (in an innocent way, that is), though the young boy is paying attention to a frog until startled with a pat in the back. They discover passions they have in common, and soon they are showing each other plants and bugs. The next day, the Count and Countess do not hesitate to accept an offer without any equal: Kristian will study at Uppsala and live with one Lindelius, a colleague of the Walloon's, as a son in the Lindelius household.
The next day, Kristian leaves the estate in the scientist's carriage.
The two other children start to miss their brother, and it takes them until midsummer to cope with their feelings. But, on Midsummer Eve, their paths suddenly diverge.
A cadet offshoot of the Ringstetten dynasty is returning home to court (being one of the Queen's ladies) in an elegant baroque carriage, after visiting the Governor of Värmland and taking part in the revels of the Midsummer Green. And Caroline's stay at Vänersvik and her impression of Ulrika (not noticing that the girl's perfect French is spoken with a Wallonian accent) convince her to adopt the young blonde. At first, her parents are reluctant for Ulrika to start a new life at Drottningholm, the Swedish royal court, but they finally yield to Caroline's idea of introducing such a belle in society.
Ulrike is surprised by the plan. The farewell knows no equal. Cue Gustav Adolf and Katarina worrying about their daughter in all that elegance, among all those self-centered strangers!
Thus, young Krister has become his parents' only joy, overprotected and longing for the freedom he enjoyed when his siblings were by his side. Restless by nature, he tries to calm down reading the Memoirs of his ancestor (remember Gerhard's memoirs?) and viewing himself as the tried young officer. It seems that change will never enter his new life of strict rules...
In late autumn the same year, a detachment shows up near the estate. The rittmeister (captain) who leads the unit is searching for the highwaymen of those woods, a wild ragtag band known as the Värmland Wolves. Surprised by a thunderstorm, the soldiers take refuge at Vänersvik for the night. That evening, the Finnish rittmeister has a conversation with Krister's parents, as our young hero eavesdrops from behind the door. According to the rittmeister, Krister is meant to be a military officer. There is a vacant ensign slot in the garrison of a Karelian fortress, across the country, right at the Swedish-Russian border. The Count and Countess decide to send the other son of theirs to the army, for, according to the rittmeister, "he may become a general if he plays his cards right". And because Kristian is the heir and the other two are spares.
It is thus decided that Krister should be an officer: his dream is finally come true. But insecurity seizes him as well: maybe he will never become a general or a war hero?
So young Krister spends the night awake, much to the surprise of the rittmeister upon finding the boy unconscious in the room he once shared with his twin brother. Our future officer does not even listen to his parents' words of farewell nor feel their kisses, and he falls asleep on horseback, riding behind the rittmeister, as the golden birch leaves fall onto the soldiers' uniforms.
They have soon left the estate and the province of Värmland. Gustav Adolf and Katarina have at least each other and the hopes that their children will live happily ever after.
But will they?
Peace seems to have returned to the nation, and to the Northern world at large. The Walloons have, once more, made up with the Ringstettens. King Charles XII dies young and childless, during the siege of Fredrikshald, "a petty fortress", shot in the nape of the neck at night by "an unknown hand", still unclear if of friend or foe, on the 30th of November 1718. General Rehnskiöld, released from captivity, rejoined the Swedish Army and witnessed the death of his liege lord. Aurora von Königsmarck, in her ancestral seat, has died peacefully in her sleep.
And Parliament has been reinstated in Sweden.
Three decades after that, two more rune stones stand next to each other, beside Liselotte's, on the road to church, and Katia and her spouse are rulers of the peaceful shire. Etienne, now widowed and elderly, having handed over the foundry to his eldest son, lives in the hall with them, and he is the children's tutor. The foreign countess has given birth to seven children, of which only the youngest three have survived their first year as punishment from the Sidhe: twin boys, both blond and amber-eyed, and a slightly younger platinum blond and blue-eyed little girl. But... has the Sidhe really forgotten her oath of revenge and decided to put daring Krister, curious Kristian, and self-indulgent Ulrika to the test?
Picture three children as pure as driven snow, one catching butterflies and collecting flowers, one playing with her rag dolls and reading storybooks, the third wielding a wooden sword and daydreaming himself away to the days of the Thirty Years' War during history lessons. All three are blond, though the twin boys are strawberry blond while the younger girl's hair is fairer. The flower gatherer is Kristian, curious and introspective, excited at the discovery of new animal and vegetable life. The swordsman is Krister, impulsive and outspoken. You can tell him from his brother by the little scars on Krister's rosy cheeks. Doubtless he wants to be an officer. The little girl's name is Ulrika, and she loves fairy tales. Sleeping Beauty, Molly Whuppie, the Doe in the Woods, Red Riding Hood, Lunkentus, are her best friends and the stuff of her daydreams, and so are Metamorphoses characters like Echo and Daphne.
The estate where they were born and raised is the keystone of their world, that extends as far as to the rectory, the Midsummer Green, the van der Heide steel mill, and the blue plains of Lake Vänern. There be dragons beyond these limits, as the worldview of sheltered children has always proclaimed. Yet this is the Age of Light and Reason, and those dragons will soon be dispelled.
It all starts in the woods, returning home from the Midsummer Green, one warm afternoon in early autumn. Kristian has got enough rarities (dragonflies) secured in his butterfly net. Krister, as expected has brought his pinewood sword, and Ulrika is dressed in her finest frock, a sky blue one with petticoats, brought from the Netherlands via Gothenburg. With fluttering ponytails and throbbing hearts, the Ringstetten children have an encounter with a female stranger in the woods.
Her raven hair, tangled and interlaced with colourful glass beads and feathers, her tawny skin, her pitch black eyes, the outrageous clothes she wears (a shirt and puffy breeches made out of patchwork in many bright colours) imply the barefooted stranger may be a gypsy/Roma or a foreign madwoman.
She is actually our old frenemy the Sidhe in mortal guise. The children don't know it. And she has decided to put them to the test, to see if the Ringstettens are worth further punishment for their disregard of the pact.
Upon meeting the little nobles in their cravats and overcoats, tricorns and stockings, and Ulrika in her blue frock, she surprises the three siblings by offering each one of them a hazelnut the size of a walnut.
Wishing nuts.
Ulrika's contains a dozen court gowns (made of satin, velvet, brocade, choc-a-bloc with ribbons and lace) plus a riding outfit, social events and dances and picnics, macarons and liquor in spades, the promise of a carefree and ever-happy life, and that of a brave, clever, wealthy and renowned partner,... but also a dark secret.
Krister's contains a full officer's uniform: plumed (tricorn) hat, blue coat with epaulets, golden breeches, leather boots, spurs, pistols, rapier and all. Plus the leadership of a company, to crown it all. But also the gift of reflection, and those of honour in victory and mercy in defeat...
There is only one nut left, the odd one out, and it is meant for Kristian. It contains "the best life that can be lived according to wise thinkers": a peaceful life of concord and respect among well-intentioned loved ones.
Yet Kristian is not ashamed or disappointed at all.
Upon returning to the estate of Vänersvik, the excited siblings decide to open each one the nut given by the dark stranger. Consuming the nuts will bring the fulfilment of the wishes within after seven years. Though Kristian's is shrivelled and black, he does not hesitate as he puts it to his lips.
Weeks follow each other, autumn turns to winter, and soon seven years have elapsed. The three young nobles have grown in size, in beauty, and in cleverness.
And those wishes are about to come true.
In late springtime, when the birch trees are in bloom, the Ringstettens get a visit from a van der Heide friend, a lecturer at Uppsala University itself. He doesn't hesitate to take after Kristian (in an innocent way, that is), though the young boy is paying attention to a frog until startled with a pat in the back. They discover passions they have in common, and soon they are showing each other plants and bugs. The next day, the Count and Countess do not hesitate to accept an offer without any equal: Kristian will study at Uppsala and live with one Lindelius, a colleague of the Walloon's, as a son in the Lindelius household.
The next day, Kristian leaves the estate in the scientist's carriage.
The two other children start to miss their brother, and it takes them until midsummer to cope with their feelings. But, on Midsummer Eve, their paths suddenly diverge.
A cadet offshoot of the Ringstetten dynasty is returning home to court (being one of the Queen's ladies) in an elegant baroque carriage, after visiting the Governor of Värmland and taking part in the revels of the Midsummer Green. And Caroline's stay at Vänersvik and her impression of Ulrika (not noticing that the girl's perfect French is spoken with a Wallonian accent) convince her to adopt the young blonde. At first, her parents are reluctant for Ulrika to start a new life at Drottningholm, the Swedish royal court, but they finally yield to Caroline's idea of introducing such a belle in society.
Ulrike is surprised by the plan. The farewell knows no equal. Cue Gustav Adolf and Katarina worrying about their daughter in all that elegance, among all those self-centered strangers!
Thus, young Krister has become his parents' only joy, overprotected and longing for the freedom he enjoyed when his siblings were by his side. Restless by nature, he tries to calm down reading the Memoirs of his ancestor (remember Gerhard's memoirs?) and viewing himself as the tried young officer. It seems that change will never enter his new life of strict rules...
In late autumn the same year, a detachment shows up near the estate. The rittmeister (captain) who leads the unit is searching for the highwaymen of those woods, a wild ragtag band known as the Värmland Wolves. Surprised by a thunderstorm, the soldiers take refuge at Vänersvik for the night. That evening, the Finnish rittmeister has a conversation with Krister's parents, as our young hero eavesdrops from behind the door. According to the rittmeister, Krister is meant to be a military officer. There is a vacant ensign slot in the garrison of a Karelian fortress, across the country, right at the Swedish-Russian border. The Count and Countess decide to send the other son of theirs to the army, for, according to the rittmeister, "he may become a general if he plays his cards right". And because Kristian is the heir and the other two are spares.
It is thus decided that Krister should be an officer: his dream is finally come true. But insecurity seizes him as well: maybe he will never become a general or a war hero?
So young Krister spends the night awake, much to the surprise of the rittmeister upon finding the boy unconscious in the room he once shared with his twin brother. Our future officer does not even listen to his parents' words of farewell nor feel their kisses, and he falls asleep on horseback, riding behind the rittmeister, as the golden birch leaves fall onto the soldiers' uniforms.
They have soon left the estate and the province of Värmland. Gustav Adolf and Katarina have at least each other and the hopes that their children will live happily ever after.
But will they?
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