ADVENT CALENDAR 2023 - ART HISTORY

 This year's advent calendar for 2023 will deal with art history. You will see myths and allegories mostly - some paintings and sculptures and illustrations from my hometown, home province, or home region and others from further afield. There will be a poem or micro tale of my own making by the artwork and related to it --you will meet and love Aphrodite and her children, Hades and Persephone, and many more. Each week will be dedicated to a different theme: Death, Love, Power, and Creativity. Tomorrow the first artwork on Death Theme starts with a certain Shakespearean female protagonist on whom opinions are still divided...

Bellman: CANCIÓN DEL PUDIN CON PASAS

Esta canción de Bellman se canta con la melodía de "Ja, må hen leva", la canción sueca de cumpleaños feliz. Y no es en vano, dado el festín que describe el bardo de Estocolmo:

CANCIÓN DEL PUDIN CON PASAS

Carl Michael Bellman

(Canción número 11, estrofa tercera)

Traducida por Sandra Dermark en noviembre de MMXXIII

Ostras escojo,

vinos de aguja

podríamos mi reina y yo apurar,

pudin con pasas,

gofres, melaza:

el desayuno con chupito al final...

Pudin con pasas,

gofres, melaza:

el desayuno con chupito al final.

TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT IS POISONOUS

 What about TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT IS POISONOUS?

The unprejudiced observer finds it hard to understand why these people should set such store by consistency of thought and action. Because oysters are occasionally pleasant, it does not follow that one should make of oysters one’s exclusive diet. Nor should one take castor oil every day because castor oil is occasionally good for one. Too much consistency is as bad for the mind as it is for the body. Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead. Consistent intellectualism and spirituality may be socially valuable, up to a point; but they make, gradually, for individual death. And individual death, when the slow murder has been consummated, is finally social death. So that the social utility of pure intellectualism and pure spirituality is only apparent and temporary.

Aldous Huxley, "Wordsworth in the Tropics" #enneatype7 #thaasophobia

The human mind is both complex and precarious as it never remains in the same state. Being busy a person can keep themself obsessed with some work; during work the mind often digresses somewhere . However , the mind becomes devilish when one is without any work. One resists boredom, sense of sin and unwanted feeling in state of jobless or deprivation of activity. If such hollowness continues for a long time one faces boredom.

There are two types of boredom namely one of which is situational boredom.

2) Situational boredom: this boredom is common that every normal human can perceive. It takes its essence from situation. We are situationally bored when we want to escape some unfavourable situation that makes us bored. 

Components of situational boredom are: 1) monotony . 2) lack of concentration 3) waiting. 4 solitude.

These four components are causes of situational boredom.

Importance of boredom:

To be bored is necessary for not only creativity but also for avoidance of some feeling . It follows that humans will constantly try to bring new ways of excitements and changes to invade boredom .The outcome of boredom thus leads to success. 

On the other hand , humans kill their inner world and extirpate their ways of happiness by much involvement in work; some freedom from work is vital to extinguish negativity of work so as to attain spirituality. Unending involvement with work destroys the essence of existence as we feel no boredom and find no way to bring a feeling of novelty and creativity. Too much boredom is dangerous; but too much excitement is poisonous.

Boredom is the main cause of every evil and misfortune that has occurred in the human history. Nevertheless, boredom is also the main cause of masterpieces in literature ,science, art...

What about TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT IS POISONOUS?

The first category is what I will term as general boredom; this is brought about by the lack of immediate stimulus, think of waiting in a doctor’s office in an age before the smartphone where you might find yourself looking at the wall for twenty minutes. This type is highly situation and necessarily transient. While elimination of this type of boredom would certainly be desired in the moment, it is not necessary in terms of the greater contest of life; it is by no means permanent. In today’s world there is incredible potential to occupy our time, nigh unlimited truth be told. Situational boredom can be solved by looking up the news or reading a free copy of “The Complete Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” on a Kindle app.

Much of the current research on boredom focusses on situational or state boredom. Fahlman et al. (2013) outlined five different elements to situational boredom that have garnered significant interests: one of which is slow passage of time.

In situational boredom there is common experience of time moving slowly. People often report a distorted sense of how much time has passed on a given activity (Danckert and Allman, 2005). If time flies when you are having fun, then time drags when you are bored. Individuals are more likely to focus on temporal information (i.e., stare at the clock) when they are not meaningfully engaged in an activity (Chaston and Kingstone, 2004). This practice likely adds to the experience of boredom.

-Danckert, J. A., and Allman, A. A. (2005). Time Flies When You’re Having Fun: Temporal Estimation and the Experience of Boredom. Brain Cognition, 59, 236–245.

-Chaston, A., and Kingstone, A. (2004). Time Estimation: The Effect of Cortically Mediated Attention. Brain and Cognition, 55(2), 286–289.

SOLSBURY HILL - HÖGT PÅ KULLEN

 SOLSBURY HILL - HÖGT PÅ KULLEN

Av Peter Gabriel

Översatt av Sandra Dermark 

Första strofen den 14 november i skorpionens tecken, 2023

Andra och tredje strofen den 5 februari, i vattumannens tecken, 

2017

,......................

Högt på kullen Solsbury Hill

såg jag ljusen nere i stan...

Vinden ven, tiden stod still,

en örn flög förbi som ett plan...

Han var någonting att se,

närmare hörde jag en röst

som spände allt jag hade att ge...

Hade inget val och ingen tröst...

Jag var inte på dem orden troende,

gav blott min fantasi mitt förtroende...

mitt hjärta slog: DUNK, DUNK, DUNK!

"Hej, mitt barn,

ta vad du har, nu för jag dig hem!"

Att vara tyst är inte lätt...
har lika vänner nu, som förr...
att göra vatten till Moët
låser varenda öppen dörr...
Så gick jag fram från dag till dag,
ett vanligt liv i ett vanligt land...
tills jag äntli'n tänkte ett slag:
jag måste klippa av ett band!

Jag kände mig som en till del av scenen,
jag klev frejdigt ur den, rask i benen...
mitt hjärta slog: DUNK, DUNK, DUNK!

"Hej, mitt barn,
ta vad du har, nu för jag dig hem!

Visst, ja, hem!"

I illusionens spindelnät
är jag aldrig va' jag vill bli,
friheten slår en piruett
när jag tror att jag är fri...
Mer än en livlös silhuett
som blundar seende förbli...
Ingen har lärt dem etikett:
det gamla jaget är förbi!

Idag behöver jag ej nån likseende;
de ska få veta vad menar mitt leende;
mitt hjärta slår: DUNK, DUNK, DUNK!

"Hej," sa jag,
"ta vad jag har, ty nu för de mig hem!"

CUALQUIER NOCHE PUEDE HABER SOL

 CUALQUIER NOCHE PUEDE HABER SOL

Original de Jaume Sisa

Traducción y versión de Sandra Dermark

Es noche clara y tranquila,

con luna llena que da luz,

les invitades ya llegan y

van llenando toda la sala

de perfume y de color...

Blancanieves, siete enanitos,

Lobo Feroz, los tres cerditos,

Bella y la Bestia, Aladín, Yasmín,

Simbad, Alí Babá, Gulliver,

Zipi y Zape y Sapientín.

Welcome, willkommen, bienvenides,

las penas vamos a desterrar,

que casa mía es casa nuestra

si hay casas de alguien al final.

Hola Jaimito, y doña Urraca,

Éric y sirenita Ariel,

Elsa Reina de las Nieves,

su hermana Anna, Peter Pan

y Campanilla y Wendy y 

Papá Noel y pato Donald

y criatura de Frankenstein.

Welcome, willkommen, bienvenides,

las penas vamos a desterrar,

que casa mía es casa nuestra

si hay casas de alguien al final.

Buenas noches, Astérix,

señor Obélix y Panorámix,

Tintín y Haddock, y Castafiore,

y señor profesor Tornasol,

Pinocho y Pepito Grillo,

y también Nils Holgersson.

Welcome, willkommen, bienvenides,

las penas vamos a desterrar,

que casa mía es casa nuestra

si hay casas de alguien al final.

Y a las doce llega ya

Cenicienta con Alicia,

Conejo Blanco, con Harry Potter,

acompañado de Ron y Hermione,

también Frodo, con Samsagaz y Gandalf,

además de Arwen y de su Aragorn.

Oh, bienvenides, pasad, pasad,

ahora ya no falta nadie, no,

o tal vez sí, ya me di cuenta

de que tan sólo faltas TÚ.

También puedes venir tú si quieres,

aquí hay lugar para muches más,

no cuenta el tiempo ni el espacio,

CUALQUIER NOCHE PUEDE HABER SOL.

SALMACIS AND HERMAPHRODITUS - An astrological interpretation

 

image: Hermaphroditus und die Nymphe Salmakis, Bartholomeus Spranger (1546 - 1611). Wikimedia commons (link).

Salmacis and Hermaphroditus

 

It is probably safe to say that there is no actual fountain on earth which literally possesses the power to cause any man who sets foot in it to emerge from the waters half-man and half-woman.

And yet Ovid, in the fourth book of his Metamorphoses, relates the story of the son of Hermes and Aphrodite whose fateful encounter with the nymph Salmacis imparted this power to the waters of the spring, as though the location and effects of that place were actually well-known in his day.

Ovid actually tells the story as a "story-within-a-story" in his poem, during an extended episode in which the daughters of Minyas refuse to set aside their work and join in the rituals of the god Dionysus, but instead continue weaving -- and as they do so, they relate stories of various interactions with the divine realm, debating amongst themselves as they do so whether or not the gods could really perform all the wonders described (a question which is answered at the end of the tale, when the impious sisters who failed to recognize the divinity of Dionysus are transformed into chittering bats).

The final story they tell before this fate befalls them is the story of Samacis and Hermaphroditus. Alcithoe, one of the Minyeides, begins:

I will explain the way in which the fountain
of Salmacis, whose enervating waters
effeminate the limbs of any man
who bathes in it, came by its reputation,
for though the fountain's ill effects are famous,
their cause has never been revealed before. Metamorphoses 4. 396 - 401.

Thus in the excellent translation of Charles Martin published in 2005 and available here and elsewhere where books are sold; many earlier translations are available on the web. 

I find that very literal translations can be the most helpful for examining Star Myths for the celestial clues that may have been included in the original but which may have been "lost in translation" if the translator does not pick them up and bring them across into the new language. With literal translations, the clues are usually carried over, because the translator is trying to render the words of the original as closely as possible into the new language, even if the result sounds a little unusual.

Here is a link to such a version, from the nineteenth century scholar Roscoe Mongan. The account of the encounter between Salmacis and Hermaphroditus at the pool which ever after bore its unique powers (and ever after was named after the nymph herself, becoming "the fountain,") is translated there as follows (Alcithoe is speaking as she and her sisters weave at their loom):

Learn, then, from what cause Salmacis became notorious, and why, with its enfeebling waters, it unnerves the limbs bathed in it. The cause lies hid, but the power of the spring is very well known. The Naiads nursed, in the caves of Ida, a boy, born to Mercury from the Cytherean goddess, whose face was of that kind in which both father and mother might be recognised; he also obtained his name from them. As soon as he had completed thrice five years, he forsook his native mountains and, leaving Ida, that had been his nurse, he loved to wander about in unknown places, and to see unknown rivers, his curiosity lessening the fatigue. He proceeds to the Lycian cities also, and to the Carians that border upon Lycia. He sees here a pool of water, clear even to the very ground below. There are not here any fenny reeds, nor barren sedges, nor rushes with sharp points. The water is transparent, yet the borders of the pool are fringed with fresh turf, and with plants perpetually blooming. A nymph dwells there, but one who is not suited either for the chase, nor one who is won't to bend the bow, nor one who is to compete in the foot-race, and she alone, of all the naiads, was not known to the swift Diana (Artemis). The report is, that her sisters often said to her: "Salmacis, do take either a javelin, or a painted quiver, and combine they leisure time with the toilsome chase." She does not take either a javelin or a painted quiver, and she does not combine her hours, spent in leisure, with the toilsome chase; but at one time she bathes her beautiful limbs in her own fountain; often she smooths down her tresses with a comb of Cytorian boxwood; and consults the waters which she looks into [to see] what is most becoming to herself [i.e., she looks into the pool to see which way of arranging her hair is the most beautiful on her]. And, at another time, having her person enveloped in a transparent garment, she reclines either upon the soft leaves, or upon the soft grass. She often gathered flowers, and now, also, by chance, she was gathering them when she saw the youth, and wished to possess him as soon as she beheld him. However, although she was hastening to approach him, she did not actually approach to him until she had arranged herself, and until she had looked at her raiment, and had assumed her [most captivating] aspect, and deserved to appear beautiful.

Then thus she began to speak: "O boy most worthy to be believed to be a god! if thou art a god, thou mayst be Cupid; or, if thou art a mortal, happy are they who gave thee birth. [. . .] If thou hast any spouse, let my pleasure be secretly enjoyed; or, if thou hast none, let me be [thy consort], and let us enter the same bridal chamber." After these words the naiad became silent. A blush suffused the features of the young. He knows not what love is, but even the very act of blushing was becoming to him. Such a colour is in apples hanging upon a tree exposed to the sun, or in painted ivory, or in the moon blushing beneath her brightness, when he auxiliary brazen cymbals resound in vain.

To the nymph soliciting, without cessation, at least such kisses as he might give to a sixte, and to her now advancing her arms to his neck, as white as ivory, he says: "Wilt thou cease? or must I fly and leave these places, along with thyself also?" Salmacis was alarmed, and said: "I surrender these places free to thee, O stranger!" and, with a retreating step, she pretends to depart. But then, also looking back and being concealed in a thicket of shrubs, she lay hid, and placed on the ground her bended knees. But he, as being only a boy, and as if being unobserved, goes hither and thither on the lonely sward, and dips in the playful ripples [first] the soles of his feet, and [afterwards] his feet as far as the ankles. Nor is there any delay; being delighted with the temperature of the gentle waters, he throws off from his tender person his soft garments. But then, indeed, Salmacis was amazed, and became excited with desire for his unrobed beauty; the eyes, too, of the nymph burn, no otherwise than the sun, when shining most brilliantly with a clear disk, it is reflected from the opposite image of a mirror. With difficulty can she endure delay; and now with difficulty can she defer her joy. Now she desires to embrace him; and now, distracted with love, she can scarcely restrain herself. He, striking his body with his hands bent inwards, swiftly plunges into the stream, and throwing out his arms alternately, shines in the clear waters, just as if any one were to enclose ivory figures, or white lilies, within clear glass.

"We have conquered!" exclaims the naiad, "lo, he is mine!" and, throwing all her garments far away, she plunges into the midst of the waters, and seizes him, resisting her, and snatches kisses in the struggle, and puts down her hand and touches his breast much against his will; and clings around the youth, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another. Finally she entangles him struggling hard against her, and anxious to escape from her, like a serpent, which the royal bird takes up and carries away aloft it, as it hangs suspended, holds fast his head and feet and entangles his expanded wings with its tail.

And [she clung to him as closely] as the tendrils of the ivy are wont to entwine themselves around the tall trunks of trees, and as the polypus, but letting down his sucker on all sides, grasps his enemy captured beneath the water. The descendant of Atlas persists, and denies to the nymph her hoped-for joy. She presses him closely, and as she was clinging to him with her entire person she said: "Although thou mayest struggle, O thou obstinate being! notwithstanding this thou shalt not escape. May ye so ordain it, O ye gods! and let no length of time separate him from me or me from him!" These supplications obtained the favour of the [lit. their own] deities, for the persons of these two, becoming incorporated, are united together, and one form includes both of them, just as if anyone should see from beneath a bark formed over both of them, branches to become united in their growth and to spring up equally. Thus, after their bodies were united in a firm embrace, they are no longer two bodies; but yet the form of them is two-fold; so that it could be called neither woman nor boy; it seems to be neither, and yet both.

Wherefore, when Hermaphroditus sees that the clear waters, into which he had descended as a man, had rendered him only half a male, and that his limbs were becoming softened in them; holding up his hands, he says, but now not with the voice of a man: "O both father and mother! grant this favour to your son who has the name of you both. Whosoever comes as a man to these streams, let him go out thence as half a man, and let him suddenly become effeminate in the waters that he touches." Both parents being moved, confirmed the words of their double-shaped son, and tinged the fountain with a drug that renders sex ambiguous. 11 - 14.

Where is this famous fountain, whose properties were apparently well-known? Is it possible that it actually existed in ancient times, or that its waters still possess such properties to this day?

I believe in fact that this fountain actually does exist -- but that it is located in the celestial realms, and not on earth. The pool is found at the widest, brightest section of the Milky Way band, where the two zodiac constellations of Scorpio and Sagittarius are stationed on either side (visible during the evening hours during the summer months of the northern hemisphere). 

The clearest indication that this is the section of the night sky to which this myth is giving reference is the extended metaphor in which the poet compares the clinging of Salmacis to the person of Hermaphroditus to a serpent being carried upwards by an eagle, and twisting and wrapping about the bird of prey. This metaphor clearly points to the two Milky Way constellations of Aquila (Eagle) and Scorpio or Serpens, the Eagle of Aquila being located above the Scorpion and the Serpent in this brightest portion of the Milky Way band. Furthermore the Eagle is a paranatellon of Scorpio and may replace it, as in the Christian tetramorph. Serpens is another paranatellon of Scorpio.

In fact, I believe that from the clues in the ancient poem itself (the best extant version of this particular myth, although it is also referenced by the earlier historian Diodorus Siculus, and obviously has an origin much earlier in the mythology of ancient Greece rather than Rome or the Etruscans, since the boy's name is a combination of the Greek names of the god Hermes and goddess Aphrodite, rather than the Latin versions of the same, although Ovid of course uses the Latin name for him Mercury, and calls her by paraphrase "the Cytherean goddess"), the youth who dips his feet into the waters is played by the constellation Ophiucus, which is flanked by serpents on either side -- just as Salmacis is described as clinging to him with her entire body, like a serpent, first on one side and then on the other.

In the diagram below, you can see that Ophiucus is "dipping his feet" into the pool (the widest and brightest part of the Milky Way band):

The nymph Salmacis is probably Scorpio, crouching in a thicket before she rushes out to wrap herself around Hermaphroditus, although earlier in the poem some of the description suggests Virgo (particularly the part about gathering flowers when she first spies Hermaphroditus -- can you see what celestial features might play a role in this part of the account?)

The struggle that ensues contains an extended metaphor involving an eagle ("the royal bird") and a snake -- again, this probably refers to Aquila and Scorpio or Serpens, and is a pattern found in many myths and traditions involving this part of the sky (see below for our interpretation of the Mexican coat of arms).

After Hermaphroditus emerges from the pool, now merged with Salmacis and sharing the gender of both man and woman, the waters from then on have the power of effecting the same change upon those with whom they come in contact. 

The constellation Sagittarius, which in ancient Greek myth frequently plays characters of either male or female sex (as you will see if you examine the evidence discussed in Star Myths of the World and how to interpret them, Volume Two) may play the role of Hermaphroditus emerging from the stream, now changed. 

Thus, the "action" of the myth can be said to commence on the right of our screen as we look at the star chart above (the west) and proceed towards the east -- a very significant direction of movement, from a spiritual point of view (this is also discussed in the latest book). The two figures of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis begin on the right side of the sky (as we look towards the south in the northern-hemisphere view above), then they go into the fountain and there is a struggle (described in terms of a serpent entwining about an eagle) and emerge on the other side as one hermaphroditic figure (Sagittarius).

From the above analysis, we can be confident that the above encounter never actually took place on this earth between literal, historical figures who merged into one being. 

But that does not mean that the myth itself is "not true."

In fact, I believe the myths are actually true, and on many profound levels (perhaps not just "many levels" but rather infinite levels, descending deeper and deeper without end).

One of the ways that they are true is that they describe the experience of our human soul, "plunged down" into this material realm, a realm characterized by the "lower elements" of earth and water (as opposed to the "upper elements" of air and fire).

When our invisible spirit takes on a material body, we become for a time a "blended being" composed of both divine soul and physical form.

Myths having to do with the "plunge" into the waters of incarnation often do involve the constellation Virgo, who stands at the edge of the "lower half" of the year, at the point of autumnal equinox (see discussion in this previous post).

But the plunge down into matter often involves (at first) the loss of awareness of our spiritual or divine inner spark, as we sink more and more into sensual enjoyment of the flesh (and Salmacis is described as basically spending all of her time in such enjoyment, looking at her reflection in the water, combing her hair and bathing her limbs, and lying around in the grass wearing diaphanous garments). At a certain point, there is a "spiritual turn" at which we begin to have an awakening of awareness of our spiritual nature -- and I believe that this myth actually depicts that very point of awakening, when Salmacis sees the child of Hermes and Aphrodite and exclaims that he must be of divine origin, and that she must have him.

The integration of the two natures is actually the point of this famous incident, I believe -- portrayed here in the frank sexual imagery sometimes employed in ancient myth, but actually using the sexes as a way of expressing spiritual concepts in allegorical or metaphorical form: to "clothe" the truths of the invisible reality in the physical forms of nature, to better convey them to our deeper understanding.

As we begin to understand how to interpret the myths in the language which they are actually speaking, the language in which they actually ask us to listen to them, we can begin to hear a message that we might otherwise have totally missed.

Each and every ancient myth is worthy of deep and careful contemplation, and the above explication of the myth of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus may serve as an example of the sort of examination and meditation we can profit by applying to the myths of the portions of the corpus of ancient wisdom which draws each of us most strongly (some will perhaps find themselves drawn to the myths of ancient Greece, others to the myths of ancient India or ancient Japan, or of the cultures spread across the vast Pacific, or the continents of Africa or Australia or the Americas, and so forth).

In fact, the above discussion only barely ripples the surface (so to speak) of the deep pool of the fountain of Salmacis: one could meditate upon this tiny portion of the stories in Ovid's work, and in the wider context of the Minyeides, for years on end and probably never exhaust the amazing lessons that it might hold for him or her.

image: an engraving by Magdalena van de Passe (1600 - 1638)

PS. Deeper down the rabbit hole (or into the pool of Salmacis)... the Mexican crest

This is the official coat of arms of Mexico. It appears in the middle of the flag.

It is also the sign the Aztecs took for founding their capital Tenochtitlan (the Venice of the New World).

Here we find also an eagle struggling with a serpent, in this case a rattlesnake, atop a prickly-pear cactus. The cactus could symbolize the humanoid Ophiuchus.

TAN, TARANTAN! Matilde Salvador

 TAN, TARANTAN! 

Matilde Salvador (Castelló de la Plana)

Quan vindrà Març tornarà l’oroneta;

la Primavera farà poms de flor,

i per dormir a la meva xiqueta

voldré cantar i lliurar-la de por.

Tan, tarantan! dirà la campaneta.

Tan, tarantan! la cançó del meu cor.

Quan vull bressar ma filleta menuda

sols un sospir mou el ritme del bres.

I ella, escoltant la cançó coneguda,

com a capoll dorm al calze d’un bes.

Tan tarantan! que la son benvinguda,

tan tarantan! és perfum sense pes.

Come, Little Leaves

 "Venite, piccole foglie",

disse un giorno il vento,

"venite sui prati

con me, e giocate;

indossate le vostre vesti

rosse e dorate; 

l'estate è passata

e le giornate si fanno fredde".

Non appena le foglie

udirono il forte richiamo del vento,

giunsero svolazzando,

una e tutte;

Sui prati

danzavano e volavano,

cantando le dolci

canzoncine che conoscevano.

Ballando e volando

Le piccole foglie se ne andarono;

L' inverno li aveva chiamati

ed erano contenti-

Presto addormentati

nei loro letti terrosi,

La neve stendeva un soffice manto

sulle loro teste.

,..............................................

"Come, little leaves,"

Said the wind one day,

"Come over the meadows

With me, and play;

Put on your dresses

Of red and gold;

Summer is gone,

And the days grow cold."

Soon as the leaves

Heard the wind's loud call,

Down they came fluttering,

One and all;

Over the meadows

They danced and flew,

Singing the soft

Little songs they knew.

Dancing and flying

The little leaves went;

Winter had called them

And they were content--

Soon fast asleep

In their earthy beds,

The snow laid a soft mantle

Over their heads.

 🍁Poem by George Cooper (1838–1927)

Immagine "Fallen Leaf" Arthur Rackham 

E "Autumn Leaves" di John Everett Millais

IN MEMORIAM GUSTAVI ADOLPHI - MMXXIII

  To the memory of Gustavus Adolphus Karlsson of Vasa

*Nyköping, Sweden, 9th of December 1594 
 + Lützen, Saxony, 6th of November 1632

His spouse Mary Eleanor (next to the throne), their daughter Christina Augusta 
(in his arms), his right-hand man Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna (next to the throne),
 his courtiers and his people, his officers and soldiers, will always
 keep his memory alive, as long as Sweden and freedom exist.

Beloved ruler of nations and leader of armies,

consort, father, friend, and lover

We were lost when the dark descended 

and the light gathered into a storm 

You appeared like a sunlit morning 

at the winds of a world at war...

Inspired by thirst

for glory, on the field of battle quaffed

instead death's bitter draught.

The last word was missing in his epic song:

the word that crowns every achievement.

The mourners have done their duty, right or wrong:

they wrote it in blood and bereavement.

He left us when we (and he) expected it the least, 
in the prime of his life and at the climax of his career,
before he could be tarnished by the failing vigour of an older age
or by the corruption brought upon him by success. 
A single bullet, just like any other, 
suddenly struck his back and entered his noble chest, 
to quench a flame that never could or should have burned brighter.

Threnody for Gustavus Adolphus

Let the night never cease to call you 

Let the day nevermore be the same 

Though you've gone where we cannot find you 

in each heart you have set your name

Hero King, far you wander 

and long may your name be sung 

Through kingdoms of starlight 

and realms of the sun

Hero King, though you're hidden 

we're still guided by your light 

You're walking beside us 

a friend in the night

We were lost when the dark descended 

and the light gathered into a storm 

You appeared like a sunlit morning 

at the winds of a world at war

Hero King, far you wander 

and long may your name be sung 

Through kingdoms of starlight 

and realms of the sun

Hero King, though you're hidden 

we're still guided by your light

You're walking beside us 

a friend in the night

Hero King rising through the shadows 

like a star shining deep in its home 

You will dwell in our hearts forever 

Nevermore will we stand alone!!

With Christina and a board game of his conquests, 1632 in autumn, right before Lützen

Rida rida ranka! Letting Christina ride on his back, 

in happier days before the war

An acrylic painting of mine to commemorate the date