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His poetry combines formal virtuosity with a sympathy for the ordinary, the neglected and the down-trodden, sometimes written inhis own regional dialect. It is highly musical and lends itself to musical setting; many of his poems have been set to music and recorded by Swedish singers such asOlle Adolphson,Monica Zetterlund, the Värmland groupSven-Ingvars and the Swedish bandMando Diao.
Fröding wrote openly about his personal problems with alcohol and women and had to face a trial for obscenity.
Jag köpte min kärlek för pengar, för mig var ej annan att få, sjung vackert, I skorrande strängar, sjung vackert om kärlek ändå.
Den drömmen, som aldrig besannats, som dröm var den vacker att få, för den, som ur Eden förbannats, är Eden ett Eden ändå.
—fromGralstänk
Translation:
I purchased my love (how dearly!) For money — what else could I get? O jangling strings, sound clearly The theme of my love-song yet!
For the dream, though the truth were vanished, Was the princeliest dream I could get, And for him who from Eden is banished Is Eden an Eden yet.
The latter part of his life he spent in differentmental institutions and hospitals to cure hismental illness andalcoholism, and eventuallydiabetes. During the first half of the 1890s he spent a couple of years at the Suttestad institution inLillehammer, Norway, where he finished his work on his third book of poetryStänk och flikar, which was published in 1896. He wrote much of the material at a mental institution inGörlitz, Germany. In 1896 he moved back to Sweden. But as the year neared Christmas, his sister Cecilia made the difficult decision to make him stay at a hospital inUppsala. Under the care of professorFrey Svenson Fröding got away from liquor and women, except one, Ida Bäckman. Fröding never married Ida, but grew fond of a nurse named Signe Trotzig. When he left hospital in Uppsala she stayed with him to the day he died.
A play by Swedish playwright Gottfrid Grafström, calledSjung vackert om kärlek, about Fröding's time at the mental institution in Uppsala was first performed at theRoyal Dramatic Theatre in 1973[2] and has had periodic revivals since.
