History and the Poem--Part One [by Amy Allara]

In 2002 I inherited a 19^th Century travel journal from my paternal Grandmother—the journal had been written by a relative, to whom I was a niece thrice-removed, and it had been kept between the years 1885 and 1892.  This relative, I came to learn, had accompanied the Royal Family of Sweden between those years as some sort of traveling companion.  Along with the original journal which was written in Swedish, I was also given my Grandmother’s translation of the text.  I was honored to be the recipient of such an artifact, but with no one left in the family to go to, I was left with a number of unanswered questions.  Who was she?  What was her name, for example? Why hadn’t I been told the story before? 

 

 My relative’s travel journal (1885-1892)

 

 I was fascinated—and curious.  And as a result I spent the better part of the next year researching anything and everything to do with this particular time period in Europe—at one point I even began corresponding with royal archivists in Stockholm. 

 

 The issue of her name was a mystery.  For quite some time I believed her name was Hele Hofstaten, as it was the last thing written in her journal, just as a signature might be.  However, an archivist named Lars assured me that this indeed was not her name at all, but part of a Swedish phrase meaning “from the royal household.”

 

So who was this person?  With no relative to ask, and finally reaching a dead end in terms of what records the archivists had provided—I just went back to calling her my ancestor.  The girl with the journal. 

 

What was in this journal?  Mostly simple observations of places visited, people met, events attended—through the eyes of a young woman who had never been outside of Sweden before.  It was written very matter-of-factly, with little in the way of personal commentary.  Contrary to the popular belief (or is it a wish?) that diaries contain gossip and intimate secrets, this one certainly didn’t.  During her service she traveled throughout Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and ultimately in 1891 to Egypt—her entries were not anything exceptional in a literary sense, though on occasion she would throw in an observation that would catch one’s attention.  Her description of seeing the Midnight Sun in the very Northern part of Norway in 1887:

 

 

 “I was up so early because the sun was shining so brightly.  All we could see were icebergs and snow-covered mountains, little green trees and the open sea.  We had Winter and Summer, night and day all at once.  It was wonderful. Out on the clear water I would never have believed that anything on this earth could have been so beautiful.”

 

 At the end of my year of researching I planned a trip to Sweden and Denmark.  Because of the large number of places she had been to over a seven-year period, I was limited to just a few.  A highlight was visiting Tullgarn Palace, a small palace on a bay of the Baltic.  To see a visual representation of her lines was intriguing.  Not to mention one of those most beautiful places I’ve had the chance to visit.  Not a bad spot to spend a summer or two, with or without a royal title.

  

 The day before leaving Stockholm to return home, I went into a rare book shop on Drottinggatan, a long, mostly pedestrian shopping street.  I asked if they happened to have any books on Crown Princess Victoria(my ancestor traveled with the younger Royals, not the King and Queen) A few minutes later the owner appeared with a large blue book with a large letter V on the cover.  The book weighed as much as my suitcase.  As Victoria became Queen of Sweden in 1907, it was a royal biography, and of course written in Swedish.  I went straight to the photographs.  When I flipped to a chapter that read “Egypten” and saw a series of photographs of the journey to Egypt I was thrilled.  To see a photographic record of what my ancestor wrote about was a verification of sorts that she really had been there.  Photos of the Nile, Luxor, Karnak, Cairo—all places she had carefully recorded in her text.   Again, I knew I wasn’t in possession of a literary masterpiece, but it was nevertheless an artifact, a piece of history.

 

In one of my Grandmother’s last notes to me, she said, “Maybe you could use it for a write-up? It could lead to something.”

 

I hope you’ll return for Part Two tomorrow, where poetry will find its way into the discussion.    --A.A.

 

Comments

[Laura Orem]

Can't wait!

[Amy]

Thanks Laura---your posts have been a catalyst for some of my own... a.a.

[Wayne T. Reynolds]

:)