by birgitta_hjalmarson_admin | Dec 18, 2022 | Archive
The End of Christmas. The girl’s breath misted the glass as she pressed her nose against the windowpane and looked out at the street. An eerie stillness ruled out there, no movement seen, other than snowflakes falling slowly from a black evening sky. In front of the...
by birgitta_hjalmarson_admin | Sep 2, 2019 | Archive
Man, Woman, or Both? This essay was first published by Women Writers, Women’s Books. Garbo portrayed you in Queen Christina, beautiful, when you, in fact, were not. These days you’re celebrated as an early feminist, although you, of course, would have sneered....
by birgitta_hjalmarson_admin | Aug 14, 2019 | Archive
Crayfish Rhapsody When I was young, I went crayfishing with my father in Sweden. Although I can’t remember the exact year, it must have been on August 7, for that was the day the season began. My father and his brothers were fortunate enough to have their own fishing...
by birgitta_hjalmarson_admin | Jul 16, 2019 | Archive
Eugenics. The Darker Side of Sweden. In August of 1904, the University of Lund gave its first summer lecture. The topic was whether or not the Germanic tribes had originated in Skåne, the southernmost province of Sweden, where Lund had been founded about 990, the...
by birgitta_hjalmarson_admin | Jul 15, 2019 | Archive
Fylgia Chapter One Excerpt Chapter One Excerpt I STILL GO to the grave. My younger self runs ahead. I follow, cutting through the forest and staying away from the country road. An old woman in a beret and a tweed jacket. Anemones cover the graveyard in the spring....
by birgitta_hjalmarson_admin | Jul 11, 2019 | Archive
She Sat the Whole Time Cold The castle in Stockholm was cold. Descartes had died here in 1650, supposedly freezing to death. Queen Kristina, whom he had come to tutor, would abdicate and flee to Rome. In 1891, when Victoria arrived from her native Germany, the old...
