picture postcards: The wind is my lover

A Swedish Love Story

Singoalla - "The Wind is my Lover"

Set in the Middle Ages, Singoalla is a romantic tale of true love... the kind you expect to start with Once upon a time and end with happily ever after. The collection sits in the Museum of Art in Gothenburg and there are over 30 illustrations each drawn by Carl Larsson portraying the story by pictures.

The story is set in the midst of a terrible plague and depicts the tale of a Knight called Erland and Singoalla, a daughter from the Egypti land (in modern terms this would be like a community of gypsies), who fall madly in love. Even though the partnership is forbidden the lovers still elope each night by the river.

In order to be together Erland gives up all his worldly possessions but Singoalla's father disapproves of the relationship and gives Erland an elixir that makes him forget about her. Ten years later, Singoalla has raised Erland's son, Sorgbarn, in secret. Sorgbarn confused about his mother's unhappiness and loneliness decides to find his father and arranges for the couple to meet. However, at this point Erland is married to another woman called Helena and has no recollection of Singoalla. They meet by the river and Singoalla is desperate for Erland to remember her but he cannot. Erland goes down to the river each night and hears the wind whispering in his ear about that distant memory of Singoalla and his love:

"Erland sat down by the brink of the brook; a feeble recollection of something delightful, but now past, sported through the mist of his memory and filled his breast with delicious melancholy"

But the story takes a darker twist when Erland becomes wary of the gypsy Singoalla and thinks her son is in fact trying to hypnotise him in order to steal his riches. Erland in a confused rage injures Sorgbarn and Singoalla is distraught when he dies in her arms. Erland flees and lives amounst the poor in complete dissamay for many years, ashamed and confused. It is in this time that Erland is exposed to the plague.

Singoalla is heartbroken and all alone she spends her days walking by the river. One day she decides to drown herself as she has nothing to live for, however right before she is about to commit suicide Erland rushes to her side. Erland confesses he is close to death from the plague but Singoalla still runs to him and the lovers embrace for the last time before dying.

There is a myth that suggests that Erland lives on as a hermit crab living by the shores of the river hiding in his shell from the truth about how he nearly lost his love forever.