Elvira Madigan

Elvira Madigan

Sixten Sparre

Elvira Madigan (December 4, 1867 – July 20, 1889) was a Danish tightrope walker and trick rider, whose illicit affair and dramatic death at the hands of her lover were the subject of the Swedish film of 1967.

Early life

She was born Hedvig Antoinette Isabella Eleonore Jensen in Flensburg in northern Germany. Her mother was a Norwegian circus performer and her father a Danish stablemaster. Her mother later lived with the American circus manager John Madigan.

Tragedy

While performing in Sweden with her stepfather's circus, she met a Swedish cavalry officer, Lieutenant Count Bengt Edvard Sixten Sparre (September 27, 1854 – 20 July 1889). Sparre and Madigan fell in love, but their love was impossible, partly due to the fact that Sparre was married and the father of two children. After exchanging love letters for a year, they ran away together to Denmark in June 1889, where they spent about a month. When they ran out of money, they packed a picnic basket, went out to the Nørreskov ("North forest") on the island Tåsinge, Denmark, and had a last meal, after which Sparre shot Madigan and himself with his service revolver. Madigan was 21 years old and Sparre 35 years old.

Madigan's and Sparre's grave is situated on the cemetery of Landet on Tåsinge and is still today visited by tourists and lovers from all over the world. Their tragic love story has some resemblance to the Austrian Mayerling drama, where Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his lover took their lives in January 1889.

The film Elvira Madigan

The story of Elvira Madigan and Sixten Sparre has been the subject of three films. The Swedish film of 1967, directed by Bo Widerberg, is the best known. The soundtrack features the Andante from Piano Concerto No. 21 in C (K 467) by Mozart, which is now sometimes known as "Theme from Elvira Madigan" informally.

Ballad

The story was also retold as a balled written by Johan Lindström Saxon.

Doggerel about the love and cruel death of the lovely ELVIRA MADIGAN (translation from original Swedish).

Unhappy things still happen.

Even in our time,

Saddest of all is this

What happened to Elvira Madigan.

Lovely was she as an angel:

Eyes of blue and cheeks of red,

Waist as slender as a flower;

But she got a cruelly dead.

When she danced she on a tightrope,

Glad as skylark in the sky,

From the rows of filled-up benches

You could hear the cheers soar high.

Came then Count Lieutenant Sparre,

Beautiful and man of birth,

Gleaming eyes, heart a-flutter.

And love came answering his prayer.

Count Sparre was married,

Wife and children he had,

But from family he now fled

With Elvira Madigan.

Then to Denmark they fled.

But it had an unhappy end,

Though far away into the world

Had they planned their way to wend.

But, you see, their cash ran out,

Nought to live on!

To avoid poverty’s fate

Home they built inside a grave.

And the pistol full of pain

Sixten takes and aims

At Elvira’s young heart.

Scarcely lived she ere she died.

Hark all ye who joy in life,

Think of those and watch your way

That you not in blood may bathe

Kind folk when you come to die.

Miscellaneous

• The Swedish pop band Komeda recorded an original song "Elvira Madigan" on their third English album Kokomemedada.
• The English folk band Mr. Fox recorded their song "Elvira Madigan" on their second album, "The Gipsy".
• "Elvira Madigan" is also the name of a Swedish symphonic black metal band.

External links

• IMDb movie page
• Elvira Madigan's Gravesite