Pure Coldness

Gustaf Fredrik Gyllenborg’s ’Winter Poem’

Abstract

Gyllenborg’s ’Winter Poem’ from 1759 is regarded as one of the first poetical representations of a boreal winter in Sweden. It has been noted for the references to ’Gothicism’ and Montesquieu’s climate theory. Gyllenborg celebrates the cold climate and highlights the brave, healthy, and free people of Sweden. In this contribution, Albrektson reads the poem from the point of view of cultural ecology (Hubert Zapf) and cultural transfer theory, with a focus on hybridity: The Swedish winter cold is represented by an imagery based on a temperate climate. For example, a spruce is relabelled ’the Swedish palm tree’. Gyllenborg thus creates Swedish nature and coldness as a hybrid, where notions of the classical locus amoenus intersects with the snow-covered landscape. In a revised version from 1795, Gyllenborg adds scenes from Sápmi, while maintaining a southern imagery. The celebration of the Arctic coldness is based on the current European ’Helvetism’, and an increasing focus on ”literary winterity” (Chartier). In terms of genre, Gyllenborg’s poem is also a hybrid of stylistically diverse versions of the ode, descriptive and seasonal poetry, including Georgic and pastoral elements. Gyllenborg’s representation of the Swedish coldness thus localizes a rich variety of texts – the cool winterity of early nationalism turns out to be a transcultural hybrid, undermining the binarity of eighteenth-century climate theory.