Cultivated Love: A Microhistorical Study of Letters from a Swedish Noble Family, 1918–1921

Abstract

This article examines a collection of over 300 private letters by three different writers from 1918 to 1921, inherited from the Swedish noble family of Hjärne. It aims to microhistorically understand the widow Amalia Hjärne (1859–1944), her opinions, values, and influence on her two sons’ engagements. First, it retells a mésalliance between the future Chancellor of Justice Karl-Gustaf Hjärne (1892–1977) and a peasant’s daughter from Dalarna, Skräddar Anna Larsdotter (1892–1946). Second, a more ideal or typical engagement between a lieutenant, Bo Urban Hjärne (1889–1978), and a younger, bourgeoisie banker’s daughter in Halmstad, Karin Afzelius (1899–1987). In the latter case, the letters between the engaged couple are extant and interpreted, while only Amalia’s letters remain to examine the former. Through her letters, it becomes apparent that she values social and cultural capital more than economic capital in her son’s choices of fiancées, even though the Hjärne family is seriously indebted. This confirms and elaborates on previous historical and ethnological research on nineteenth-century Swedish nobility, showing that manners, language, education, and culture became more important than wealth in maintaining their declining social standing.

The article also demonstrates Amalia’s agency within her own family, as she laments and opposes the engagement with the farmer’s daughter. Simultaneously, she supports the engagement with the banker’s daughter economically and as a new mother and mentor to Karin, who deals with the sudden loss of her parents.

Comparisons are made in part with early twentieth-century Swedish literature. Although Amalia, Urban and Karin are partially contextualized as representatives of their classes, they are also treated with empathy as individuals with their distinct personalities and voices. This is done in the spirit of microhistory, existential history, and hermeneutics, research traditions whose similarities are discussed within a Swedish frame.