Christina Regina von Birchenbaum: Difference between revisions
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The poem "En annan ny visa" is constructed of twenty-nine [[stanza]]s of eight lines each. Birchenbaum's full name is spelled out in [[acrostic]] form by the first letters of the stanzas.<ref name=Schoolfield/> The poem's style is reminiscent of Finnish [[folk poetry]].<ref name=SKS/> The only surviving copy of "En annan ny visa", dated 24 July 1651, is preserved in the Diocese Library in [[Linköping]].<ref name=NWL>{{citation|title=Birchenbaum, Christina Regina von|first=Valborg|last=Lindgärde|year=2012|work=The History of Nordic Women's Literature|publisher=[[KVINFO]]|url=http://nordicwomensliterature.net/writer/birchenbaum-christina-regina-von|accessdate=6 August 2015}}</ref> |
The poem "En annan ny visa" is constructed of twenty-nine [[stanza]]s of eight lines each. Birchenbaum's full name is spelled out in [[acrostic]] form by the first letters of the stanzas.<ref name=Schoolfield/> The poem's style is reminiscent of Finnish [[folk poetry]].<ref name=SKS/> The only surviving copy of "En annan ny visa", dated 24 July 1651, is preserved in the Diocese Library in [[Linköping]].<ref name=NWL>{{citation|title=Birchenbaum, Christina Regina von|first=Valborg|last=Lindgärde|year=2012|work=The History of Nordic Women's Literature|publisher=[[KVINFO]]|url=http://nordicwomensliterature.net/writer/birchenbaum-christina-regina-von|accessdate=6 August 2015}}</ref> |
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According to the poem, Birchenbaum was born in [[Karelia]]; her father died when she was three. She met her future husband early in life.<ref name=Ahokas/> Marrying him for love, she followed him to Germany for the [[Thirty Years' War]].<ref name=Schoolfield/> Learning from a message that he had disappeared in the war, she traveled across the country looking for him, and eventually gave him up for dead.<ref name=Ahokas/> After seventeen years alone, in which she kept "all worldly joy and pleasure |
According to the poem, Birchenbaum was born in [[Karelia]]; her father died when she was three. She met her future husband early in life.<ref name=Ahokas/> Marrying him for love, she followed him to Germany for the [[Thirty Years' War]].<ref name=Schoolfield/> Learning from a message that he had disappeared in the war, she traveled across the country looking for him, and eventually gave him up for dead.<ref name=Ahokas/> After seventeen years alone, in which she kept "all worldly joy and pleasure" out of her mind, she married again, this time to a young nobleman. However, the marriage was an unhappy one, due to "false friends" and local gossip that drove the couple apart.<ref name=Schoolfield/> Birchenbaum concludes the poem by saying that she is alone in the world once again, and is saying goodbye to it.<ref name=Ahokas/> |
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==Personal life== |
==Personal life== |
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Revision as of 17:08, 6 August 2015
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Christina Regina von Birchenbaum, also spelled Börkenbohm, was a seventeenth-century Finnish poet. Her only surviving work is the autobiographical acrostic poem "En annan ny visa" ("Another New Song," 1651).[1]
"En annan ny visa"
The poem "En annan ny visa" is constructed of twenty-nine stanzas of eight lines each. Birchenbaum's full name is spelled out in acrostic form by the first letters of the stanzas.[1] The poem's style is reminiscent of Finnish folk poetry.[2] The only surviving copy of "En annan ny visa", dated 24 July 1651, is preserved in the Diocese Library in Linköping.[3]
According to the poem, Birchenbaum was born in Karelia; her father died when she was three. She met her future husband early in life.[4] Marrying him for love, she followed him to Germany for the Thirty Years' War.[1] Learning from a message that he had disappeared in the war, she traveled across the country looking for him, and eventually gave him up for dead.[4] After seventeen years alone, in which she kept "all worldly joy and pleasure" out of her mind, she married again, this time to a young nobleman. However, the marriage was an unhappy one, due to "false friends" and local gossip that drove the couple apart.[1] Birchenbaum concludes the poem by saying that she is alone in the world once again, and is saying goodbye to it.[4]
Personal life
Very little is known of Birchenbaum's life other than the account given in "En annan ny visa".[2] Two other documents survive relating to Birchenbaum; they are petitions dating from the late 1660s, featuring her testimony that she was the widow of Major Axel Paulj Liljenfeldt,[3] who died in the Thirty Years' War while serving in the Swedish army.[4] Birchenbaum was a contemporary (though a younger one) of the Finnish poet Sigfridus Aronus Forsius.[1]
Legacy
Birchenbaum and "En annan ny visa" were forgotten until the mid-nineteenth century, when the poem was rediscovered by the antiquarian Per Hanselli.[1] It was first published in 1896.[3] Before the authorship was established, the poem was attributed to a seventeenth-century Swedish poet, Lars Wivallius.[1]
Birchenbaum is the first known female writer from Finland.[1] (Maria Simointytär, whose poems were published anonymously in broadside form, was likely the first published Finnish female writer.)[5] Birchenbaum was also the first known Finnish poet to write in the Swedish language.[3] She is additionally notable in that "En annan ny visa" is the only firsthand literary account of Finland's participation fighting under Sweden in the Thirty Years' War.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Schoolfield, George C. (1998), "A Part of Sweden", in Schoolfield, George C. (ed.), A History of Finland's Literature, A History of Scandinavian Literatures, vol. 4, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, p. 278
- ^ a b Mäkelä-Alitalo, Anneli (11 October 2010), "Birchenbaum, Christina Regina von (K 1651 jälkeen)", Kansallisbiografia, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, retrieved 6 August 2015
- ^ a b c d Lindgärde, Valborg (2012), "Birchenbaum, Christina Regina von", The History of Nordic Women's Literature, KVINFO, retrieved 6 August 2015
- ^ a b c d Ahokas, Jaakko (1973), A History of Finnish Literature, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, p. 21
- ^ Mäkelä-Alitalo, Anneli (11 October 2005), "Maria Simointytär (1600-luku)", Kansallisbiografia, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, retrieved 6 August 2015