Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Archive
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Subscribers
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
  • More
    • Feedback
    • Help
    • Change Password
  • Alerts
  • Free Issue
  • Other Publications
    • UW Press Journals

User menu

  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Scandinavian Studies
  • Other Publications
    • UW Press Journals
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Scandinavian Studies

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Archive
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Subscribers
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
  • More
    • Feedback
    • Help
    • Change Password
  • Alerts
  • Free Issue
  • Follow scandstudy on Twitter
  • Visit scandstudy on Facebook
  • Visit scandstudy on Instagram
  • Visit scandstudy on LinkedIn
Research ArticleArticles

Libertine Love as a Proto-Romantic Mating Ideology in Fredmans epistlar

Mads Larsen
Scandinavian Studies, March 2025, 97 (2) 70-92; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/sca.97.2.70
Mads Larsen
Mads Larsen is an Affiliated Researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. In his Open Access monograph, Stories of Love from Vikings to Tinder: The Evolution of Modern Mating Ideologies, Dating Dysfunction, and Demographic Collapse (Routledge, 2025), Larsen analyses Nordic literature from the past eight centuries.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: madsla{at}g.ucla.edu
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF
Loading

Works Cited

  1. ↵
    Afzelius, Nils. 1964a. “Konstnärer tolkar epistlerna.” In Kring Bellman, edited by Lars-Göran Eriksson, 61–80. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand.
  2. ↵
    ———. 1964b. Myt och bild: Studier i Bellmans dikt. Stockholm: Prisma.
  3. ↵
    Apostolou, Menelaos. 2010. “Sexual Selection under Parental Choice in Agropastoral Societies.” Evolution and Human Behavior 31: 39–47.
  4. ↵
    ———. 2017. Sexual Selection in Homo Sapiens: Parental Control over Mating and the Opportunity Cost of Free Mate Choice. Cham: Springer.
  5. ↵
    Atterbom, Per. 1852. Svenska siare och skalder. Uppsala: Lundequist.
  6. ↵
    Austin, Paul Britten. 1968. The Life and Songs of Carl Michael Bellman: Genius of the Swedish Rococo. Malmö: Allhem.
  7. ↵
    Bandlien, Bjørn. 2005. Strategies of Passion: Love and Marriage in Old Norse Society. Turnhout: Brespols.
  8. ↵
    Bellman, Carl Michael. 1790. Fredmans epistlar. https://sv.wikisource.org/wiki/Fredmans_epistlar.
  9. ↵
    ———. 1999. Fredman’s Epistles & Songs. Translated by Paul Britten Austin. Stockholm: Proprius.
  10. ↵
    Boase, Roger. 1977. The Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love: A Critical Study of European Scholarship. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
  11. ↵
    Borgström, Eva. 1994. “Emilie Flygare-Carlén och ‘äktenskapets politik’.” In En ros, ett år: Artiklar kring Emilie Flygare-Carlén, edited by Monica Lauritzen, 46–61. Stockholm: Tre Böcker.
  12. ↵
    Burman, Carina. 2019. Bellman: biografin. Stockholm: Albert Bonniers.
  13. ↵
    Buss, David. 2021. When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault. New York: Little, Brown Spark.
  14. ↵
    Byström, Olof. 1929. “Bellman in nyromantisk belysning.” Bellmansstudier 3: 36–82. Clover, Carol J. 1972. “Improvisation in ‘Fredmans epistlar’.” Scandinavian Studies 44 (3): 310–35.
  15. ↵
    Coontz, Stephanie. 2005. Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage. New York: Penguin Books.
  16. ↵
    Dvergsdal, Alfhild. 2015. “Den oppbyggelige Bellman? En undersøgelse af Bellmans epistler og hans evangeliedigte.” In Tøm nu dit glas se Døden på dig venter: Nye vinkler på Bellman, edited by Per Olsen, Randi Larsen, and Hans Lundsteen, 18–54. Hellerup: Forlaget Spring.
  17. ↵
    Ekholm, Ragnar. 1926. “Bellmans Bacchanaliska Qwäden.” Bellmansstudier 2: 59–77.
  18. ↵
    Erickson, Amy Louise. 2005. “The Marital Economy in Comparative Perspective.” In The Marital Economy in Scandinavia and Britain, 1400–1900, edited by Maria ågren and Amy Louise Erickson, 3–20. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005.
  19. ↵
    Fehrman, Carl. 1977. Vin och flickor och Fredmans stråke: Bellman och visans vägar. Stockholm: Norstedt.
  20. ↵
    ———. 1995. Vinglas och timglas I Bellmans värld. Lund: Absalon.
  21. ↵
    Fryxell, Anders. 1878. Berättelser ur svenska historien 45–46. Stockholm: Hiertas.
  22. ↵
    Giddens, Anthony. 1992. The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
  23. ↵
    Gustafsson, Henrik. 2001. “Venus jag följer, med Backus jag flyr: Kring en ideologisk konflikt i Bellmans bacchanaliska diktning.” Edda 4: 374–84.
  24. ↵
    Haugen, Trond. 2004. Forgjengelighetens poetikk: En studie i Carl Michael Bellmans Fredmans epistlar. Oslo: Unipub.
  25. ↵
    Henrich, Joseph. 2020. The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  26. ↵
    Holmberg, Olle. 1967. “Gåtor för damerna i Fredmans epistlar.” Svensk Litteraturtidskrift 30 (47): 188–92.
  27. ↵
    Huldén, Lars. 1994. Carl Michael Bellman. Stockholm: Natur och kultur.
  28. ↵
    Johansen, Hanne Marie. 2005. “Marriage or Money? Legal Actions for Enforcement of Marriage Contracts in Norway.” In The Marital Economy in Scandinavia and Britain, 1400–1900, edited by Maria ågren and Amy Louise Erickson, 23–37. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005.
  29. Kellgren, Johan Henric. 1778. “Mina löjen.” https://kalliope.org/en/text/kellgren2020013001.
  30. ↵
    Kjellén, Alf. 1971. Bellman som bohem och parodiker: Studier i hans diktning. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
  31. ↵
    Landen, Leif. 2008. Carl Michael Bellman: En biografi. Stockholm: Carlssons.
  32. ↵
    Larsen, Mads. 2021. "Untangling Darwinian Confusion around Lust, Love, and Attachment in the Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough." Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture 5 (1): 41–55.
  33. ↵
    ———. 2023.”Pair-Bonding: In Human Evolution.” In Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior, edited by Todd Shackelford, 1–16 (Online First). London: Springer Nature.
  34. ↵
    ———. 2024.”Anticipating the Modern Mating Moralities in Holberg’s Comedies.” Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences 18 (1): 78–94.
  35. ↵
    ———. 2025. Stories of Love from Vikings to Tinder: The Evolution of Modern Mating Ideologies, Dating Dysfunction, and Demographic Collapse. New York: Routledge.
  36. ↵
    Larsen, Randi. 2015. “Slangen i Bacchi paradis: Analyse af Epistel nr. 23 og 43.” In Tøm nu dit glas se Døden på dig venter: Nye vinkler på Bellman, edited by Per Olsen, Randi Larsen, and Hans Lundsteen, 115–41. Hellerup: Forlaget Spring.
  37. ↵
    Lennartsson, Rebecka. 2019. Mamsell Bohmans fall: Nattlöperskor i 1700–talets Stockholm. Gothenburg: Kriterium.
  38. ↵
    ———. 2021. Ulla Winblad: Liv och legend. Stockholm: Stockholmia.
  39. ↵
    Linder, Bengt-Olov. 1995. Vår försummade Bellman. Stockholm: Carlssons.
  40. ↵
    Ljunggren, Gustaf. 1867. Bellman och Fredmans epistlar: En studie. Lund: Berlings.
  41. ↵
    Lönnroth, Lars. 2005. Ljuva karneval! Om Carl Michael Bellmans diktning. Stockholm: Albert Bonniers.
  42. ↵
    Mattsson, Annie. 2003. “Bellman och Hymen: En studie av Bellmans bröllopsdiktning.” Samlaren 124 (3): 5–43.
  43. ↵
    Matz, Edvard. 2004. Carl Michael Bellman: Nymfer och friskt kalas. Lund: Historiska media.
  44. ↵
    McGann, Jerome J. 1996. The Poetics of Sensibility: A Revolution in Literary Style. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
  45. ↵
    Mellor, Anne K. 1993. Romanticism & Gender. New York: Routledge.
  46. ↵
    Nordin, Svante. 1987. Romantikens filosofi: Svensk idealism från Höijer till hegelianerna. Lund: Doxa.
  47. ↵
    Olsen, Per, Randi Larsen, and Hans Lundsteen, eds. 2015. Tøm nu dit glas se Døden på dig venter: Nye vinkler på Bellman. Hellerup: Forlaget Spring.
  48. ↵
    Posner, Richard A. 1994. Sex and Reason. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  49. ↵
    Seccombe, Wally. 1992. A Millennium of Family Change: Feudalism to Capitalism in Northwestern Europe. London: Verso.
  50. ↵
    Shorter, Edward. 1975. The Making of the Modern Family. New York: Basic Books.
  51. ↵
    Simonsson, Ingmar. 2015. “Bellmans viser om retfærd.” In Tøm nu dit glas se Døden på dig venter: Nye vinkler på Bellman, edited by Per Olsen, Randi Larsen, and Hans Lundsteen, 386–417. Hellerup: Forlaget Spring.
  52. ↵
    Singer, Irving. 1984. The Nature of Love 2: Courtly and Romantic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  53. ↵
    ———. 1987. The Nature of Love 3: Modern World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  54. ↵
    Stenström, Johan. 2009. Bellman levde på 1800–talet. Stockholm: Atlantis, 2009.
  55. ↵
    Svanberg, Victor. 1964. “Stockholms förfall och Bellman.” in Kring Bellman, edited by Lars-Göran Eriksson, 32–6. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand.
  56. ↵
    Taylor, Anya. 1999. Bacchus in Romantic England: Writers and Drink, 1780–1830. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
  57. ↵
    Thorén, Sven. 1991. “Fredmans religion—ett parodiskt alternativ till kristendomen.” In Ur Bellmans värld och Fredmans, edited by Bellmanssällskapet, 103–29. Stockholm: Carlssons.
  58. ↵
    Trumbach, Randolph. 1978. The Rise of the Egalitarian Family: Aristocratic Kinship and Domestic Relations in Eighteenth-Century England. New York: Academic Press.
  59. ↵
    Turner, James Grantham. 2002. Libertines and Radicals in Early Modern London: Sexuality, Politics and Literary Culture, 1630–1685. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Scandinavian Studies: 97 (2)
Scandinavian Studies
Vol. 97, Issue 2
1 Mar 2025
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Scandinavian Studies.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Libertine Love as a Proto-Romantic Mating Ideology in Fredmans epistlar
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Scandinavian Studies
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Scandinavian Studies web site.
Citation Tools
Libertine Love as a Proto-Romantic Mating Ideology in Fredmans epistlar
Mads Larsen
Scandinavian Studies Mar 2025, 97 (2) 70-92; DOI: 10.3368/sca.97.2.70

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Libertine Love as a Proto-Romantic Mating Ideology in Fredmans epistlar
Mads Larsen
Scandinavian Studies Mar 2025, 97 (2) 70-92; DOI: 10.3368/sca.97.2.70
Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
Bookmark this article

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Becoming a Swedish Libertine
    • Bellman’s Mythical Universe
    • Critical Struggles with Bellman’s Ideology of Love
    • Problems of Pleasure
    • Battle of Loves
    • Vicarious Intoxication through Art
    • Footnotes
    • Works Cited
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Writing Life in an Era of Post-Truth
  • Petronoia, Or the (Geo)political Unconscious of a Small and Open Extractive Economy
  • Face-Threatening Acts across Binary and Nonbinary Gender Dynamics in Old Norse–Icelandic Literature
Show more Articles

Similar Articles

Keywords

  • ideologies of love
  • Romantic Century
  • mating
  • gender equality
  • libertinism
  • Romanticism
UW Press logo

© 2026 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System