SOURCE: "Wladimir den Store: Some Observations," in Scandinavian Studies, Vol. 40, No. 1, February, 1968, pp. 303-09.

In the following essay, Sjöberg examines Stagnelius' style as well as political and religious ideas expressed in his epic poem Wladimir den Store.

Wladimir den Store, the first great Swedish hexameter poem, is also the first poem which Stagnelius allowed himself to publish (1817). The reasons for this may have been many, but the main one is presumably that he had a specific poetical method—Chateaubriand's theory in Le Génie du Christianisme—which is almost consistently applied, and used Les Martyrs as a pattern. The purpose was to glorify Christianity. But perhaps there were other purposes as well.Wladimir den Store is the first poem in which Stagnelius presented his political views—which he does explicitly. He was very pro-Russian and swore allegiance to The Holy Alliance (part III, verses 180 following, are a...