Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Folkungatumban i Varnhems klosterkyrka

1968; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 37; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00233606808603743

1651-2294

Jan Svanberg,

Medieval European History and Architecture

Summary The Monumental Folkunga Sarcophagus in the Monastery Church of Varnhem The two male figures on the tombstone in Varnhem (fig. 1–3) which lacks any inscription, were in the 20's identified with the help of two sources, the Erik Chronicle and the testament of king Magnus Ladulås of 1285. The figures are those of Birger Jarl (dead 1266) (fig. 8) and his next youngest son the duke Erik (dead 1275) (fig. 7). Regarding the identification of the queen who has the dominating middle position (figs 2 and 5), the two authors who in the 20's, did special research on the monument were of different opinions. C. R. af Ugglas regarded her as the mother of Erik, Birger Jarl's first wife Ingeborg who died as early as 1254. But C. M. Fürst who investigated the grave belonging to the tombstone and situated just before the altar of the lay brethren (fig. 1 ) found that the woman was the last to be interred and at a time when both the male corpses already were decayed. Thus the woman in the grave could not be Ingeborg who died first of the three, but must be Birger Jarl's second wife, the Danish queen dowager Mechtild, who survived him by 22 years and the stepson by 13 years. The author of this study accepts Fürst's identification and brings further arguments: the reason for her dominating middle position obviously is that she alone wears a crown (fig. 5). Of the earl's two wives only Mechtild was a crowned queen through her earlier marriage to king Abel of Denmark. She continued until her death to emphazise on her seals that Jesus Christ himself had put the crown on her head (fig. 6). In addition a local tradition has preserved her name which to Swedish ears sounds foreign. The tombstone with the three figures was known locally as “the Mechtild Stone” long before the grave was investigated and the connection with Birger Jarl and Erik was established. Fürst regarded it as a necessary consequence of this identification that her year of death in 1288 must be the terminus post quem for the making of the tombstone, which was given by af Ugglas as 1275, since he thought that Erik was the last of the three to die. The author points out that it very well could have been finished during the lifetime of the queen dowager as has happened in other and similar cases in the Middle Ages and of which we have written records. On the other hand, it cannot have been begun before the death of Erik who died very unexpectedly, young and unmarried. The author sees the unusual arrangement of the figures on the tombstone, its insignias as well as the question of its dating in relation to the historical events of the time. After the death of his father, Erik was the only son who was left without office and he had to fight in order to gain one. He succeded only after an armed insurrection in the summer of 1275 after which the offices of the realm were redistributed among the three eldest sons, Valdemar was forced to abdicate, instead Magnus (Ladulås) became king and his dukedom went to his brother in arms Erik. When Erik suddenly died in december the same year his new position was recognized on the tombstone, where his representation carries the insignia of dukedome of that time, a circlet around his head (fig. 7). Nobody had more reasons for honouring the memory of his brother in arms than king Magnus. According to the Erik Chronicle the two brothers since childhood stuck together “in wrath as in joy”. Magnus appeared in all respects as the upholder of the traditions from his father. As a concrete expression of this attitude towards both relatives one cannot only regard the testament in which Magnus ordered special masses for the souls of both to be held at Varnhem, but also the memorial to be erected there. Mechtild had returned after the death of Birger Jarl to her home country Holstein. During the year after the death of Erik, however, Magnus established a federation with Mechtild's nephew and married his daughter Helwig. Both parties must have regarded it as desirable to establish the memory of the earlier generation's dynastic union. Even from another point of view the presence of Mechtild on the tombstone was desirable : as a crowned queen she cast royal glamour on the two uncrowned members of the Folkunga family. Perhaps it was only because of her status that it was possible to raise the memorial from a gravestone inlaid in the floor to a high sarcophagus. Judging from the extant samples, sarcophagi were namely a prerogative for royalty in the Northern countries until about 1500. Regarding the motif highest on the sarcophagus, five small hedas symbolizing souls which angels conduct to heaven (figs 3 and 4), both af Ugglas and Fürst have assumed that they allude to Erik's sisters and brothers, Birger Jarl's other legitimate children. But as all five of them were still living at the time of Mechtild's death, they could hardly have been shown with the symbols of souls deceased. And in correspondence with common usage of that time, three of the heads must represent the souls of Birger, Mechtild and Erik. Three of the heads are also placed right above the full figures of those (fig. 4). The other two heads, somewhat in the rear— also in correspondence with the usage of the time—must then represent the congregation of the blessed, that the souls of the buried are joining. Finally the author takes up the question of the style of the Varnhem figures and their relationship to the two decades older sarcophagus over a queen at Gudhem monastery nearby (fig. 9). By earlier researchers this has always been regarded as the more elegant prototype of the rather coarse reliefs of the Varnhem stone. But the styles of the figures bear witness of opposite ideals: the head of the Gudhem queen is extremely small, the body is exaggeratedly long and the folds of the dress are stylized in vertical parallel lines (fig. 9). On the Varnhem stone, on the other hand, the figures have unproportionally large heads, the bodies are exaggeratedly short and on the garments the horizontal folds are emphasized (fig. 2). In comparison to the late Romanesque severe stylization of the Gudhem queen the younger tombstone shows the more natural forms of the Gothic style. The garments fall losely over the torsos and strain across the knees, cloaks have been introduced and are draped in the gothic manner and all three figures at Varnhem finger their cloak‐ribbons—the polite gesture of gothic fashion, so wellknown from many European monuments of the 13th century.