"Hic est, qvi Dominum per tela secutus & ignes" : hundgravpoesi på latin och svenska från 1600- och 1700-talen
Author
Editor
- Henrik Rahm
Summary, in English
Funerary poems on animals form a subgenre of the standard epitaph written to commemorate a deceased person. The poet who created the conditions necessary for the establishment of this kind of poetry in Sweden was the queen dowager Hedvig Eleonora’s court poet Erik Lindschöld (1634–1690); his poems mourning the death of the queen’s bitches were presumably composed in the 1670s. These poems constitute the starting-point for similar poems written over the next century by among others Israel Holmström (1661–1708), Olof Hermelin (1658–1709), and Olof von Dalin (1708–1763).
The major issue treated in this article concerns the functions that the writing of epitaphs on dogs served. Why were they written, and for what purpose? I examine the manifold, predominantly social functions of these epitaphs on dogs, and demonstrate that such poems were written for a variety of reasons: they could, for example, promote careers; they could serve as covert ways of paying homage to noblemen and royalty; they could be instrumental in criticizing those in power, or cloak the treatment of politically sensitive topics.
The major issue treated in this article concerns the functions that the writing of epitaphs on dogs served. Why were they written, and for what purpose? I examine the manifold, predominantly social functions of these epitaphs on dogs, and demonstrate that such poems were written for a variety of reasons: they could, for example, promote careers; they could serve as covert ways of paying homage to noblemen and royalty; they could be instrumental in criticizing those in power, or cloak the treatment of politically sensitive topics.
Department/s
Publishing year
2014
Language
Swedish
Pages
136-157
Publication/Series
Årsbok
Document type
Book chapter
Publisher
Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund
Topic
- Languages and Literature
Status
Published
Project
- Fänad i helgade grifter. Svensk djurgravpoesi 1670–1760 (Dumb Beasts in Hallowed Tombs: Swedish Funerary Poetry for Animals 1670–1760)
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0349-053X
- ISBN: 978-91-980551-2-2