Selma the pioneer

Mårbacka Memorial Mansion Rottneros Park Ulvsby Mansion Gylleby Mansion Sundsbergs Farm Lessons We met up with artist and tv-personality Lars Lerin to discuss his successful new series which focuses on his love for the nature of Värmland and the creativity it brings. Text: Karolina Arenhäll Interviewers:

Lessons We met up with artist and tv-personality Lars Lerin to discuss his successful new series which focuses on his love for the nature of Värmland and the creativity it brings. Interviewers: Jenny Nohrén & Cajsa Jansson Photo: Tommy Andersson Lerin’s S elma Lagerlöf was born November 20, 1858 at Mårbacka Manor Estate, the fifth of six children. The same year, the first major women’s reform took place, giving 25-year old unmarried women With the publication of her debut novel in 1891, The Story of Gösta Berling, Selma is careful not to repeat the mistakes of earlier members of the women’s movement. – She had the ability to be adaptable. Early She was one of the central figures in the right-to-vote movement and was the first Swedish woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Follow along on a journey through Selma Lagerlöf’s fantastic life. amazing journey for equality Selma Lagerlöf’s Text: Karolina Arenhäll Illustration: Love Eneroth the right to apply to be seen as having come of age. on, she was conscious that she was moving in two – She grew up with an aunt who was under her specific circles. Both the women’s movement and father’s guardianship. He was a very conservative around men, the latter demanding a strategy as to father who decided everything. Because of this, how to be accepted. She’s very clever at that, says Selma did not have the chance to go to university Anna Nordlund. Did you know? Sandgrund is Lars Lerin’s permanent art gallery, and one of Värmland’s most popular attractions. Last year, 101,129 people visited the museum. The gallery is open from Tuesday - Saturday all year round. The gallery also opens for group parties subject to agre - ement. As well as the gallery, there is a shop and café. Learn more at www.sandgrund.org and study, says Anna Nordlund, researcher and author of Selma Lagerlöf – Sveriges modernaste kvinna [Sweden’s most modern woman]. INSTEAD, SELMA WAS schooled at home along with her sisters. Her brothers were sent to school in Filipstad. Her father’s plan that Selma should remain at Mårbacka went against her own wishes. – Throughout her life she is incredibly confident about her talent – that she has something vey unique. At the same time she is scared that she will IN 1909 SHE was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and then in 1914 seat number 7 at the Swedish Academy. She then began to make her mark outside literature. – She became Sweden’s first major celebrity. Both the Germans and English talked about her as “The Lagerlöf ”. She was influential, had a network of contacts at governmental level and was the key influencer of her time, says Lena Larson, head guide at Mårbacka. be forced to live a normal woman’s life, says Anna BOTH LENA AND Anna agree that Selma’s Nordlund. most important work was as a writer. EVA FRYXELL, one of the early front figures of incredible influence on magical realism. But her the women’s movement hears Selma read a poem autobiographical books have also been enormously at a wedding. Fryxell declares that “you must go important in terms of role models for what a woman out into the world; you must get an education.” can achieve. That men aren’t better than us. I think This results in Selma attending the Royal Advanced that’s what a lot of the later books are about, says Female Teachers’ Seminary in Stockholm. During Anna Nordlund. her studies, Selma builds a network of contacts. – Her first novel, in terms of literature, had an