The Skogsra: Evil Swedish Woodland Spirits
I have been reading "Let Me In" by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, and one of the chapter intros caught my eye. A brief poem by Viktor Rydberg titled "Skogsgraet." The word "skogsgra" was left untranslated, with a footnote from the translator defining it as "a beautiful but sinister forest spirit."
Rydberg, a Swedish poet of the mid to late 1800s, wrote of the Skogsra in the same light as Keats wrote of La Belle Dame Sans Merci. Rydberg's poem "Skogsgraet" tells of a "strong and handsome bachelor" named Bear, who goes hunting in the woods one autumn night. Bear falls in love with a skogsra which he glimpses on the shore of a moonlit lake, and he is forever ruined. Doomed to a life alone, because he can love only the Skogsra, who he of course can never have.
Rydberg, a Swedish poet of the mid to late 1800s, wrote of the Skogsra in the same light as Keats wrote of La Belle Dame Sans Merci. Rydberg's poem "Skogsgraet" tells of a "strong and handsome bachelor" named Bear, who goes hunting in the woods one autumn night. Bear falls in love with a skogsra which he glimpses on the shore of a moonlit lake, and he is forever ruined. Doomed to a life alone, because he can love only the Skogsra, who he of course can never have.
