Selma Lagerlöf’s encounter with the painting

That spring, when Hellqvist’s large work “Valdemar Atterdag brandskattar Visby” was on exhibition at the art association, I arrived there one still morning, (…) and fell in to a state of calm contemplation. I lived in medieval times for half an hour. (…)

But suddenly I realised that the main figure in the painting was not the king, nor one of the citizens; it was one of the king’s iron-clad shield bearers, the one with the lowered visor.

The artist has imbued this figure with a strange power. We don’t see a single patch of the man himself; he is all steel and iron, and yet he gives the impression of being the rightful master of the situation.

»I am rage, I am voracity», he says. »It is I who plunder Visby. I am no man; I am but steel and iron. My pleasure is in pain and malice. May they go on and torment one another! Today it is I who am the master of Visby town square.»

And the longer we listen to him, the better we understand just what the painting is: nothing other than an illustration of the old tale of how people could torment one another. There is no redeeming feature there; only ruthless violence, defiant hatred and hopeless suffering.

From the collection of short stories “Osynliga länkar” (Invisible links), Selma Lagerlöf 1894