Ulrica Arfvidsson

Ulrica Arfvidsson

Anna Ulrica Arfvidsson (nee Lindberg , * 1734 in Stockholm ; † 1801 ibid) was a professional fortune teller and occultist in Stockholm at the time of Gustav III . She is known as Mamsell Arfvidsson in literature, memoirs, and diaries . She prophesied mainly by reading coffee grounds and was also known as "coffee pytissan".

The historical Ulrica Arvfidsson is the model for various fictional characters as well as for the role of Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's opera Un ballo in maschera .

Life

Family background

Ulrica Arfvidsson was the daughter of the caretaker of Generalförrådskassan Erik Lindberg and Anna Catherine Burgin (d. 1771). Her mother married the court cook Arfvid Arfvidsson (d. 1767) on May 17, 1740, whose surname the daughter also adopted: From 1760 she is listed under the name of her stepfather in the register of residents. A nephew, Anders Warnborg, is often mentioned in the memoir literature, but Ulrica Arfvidsson actually had no siblings. Her mother also had no children from her second marriage. Her stepfather had only one son, Axel, from his first marriage to Annicka Lindgren.

Little is known about her youth, but she is believed to have grown up in an environment of contact with the powerful, where she learned many things in which people outside the court were interested. Perhaps that inspired her to choose a career. She seems to have enjoyed a good upbringing and came from a well-to-do family. The inheritance that she received when her mother died, together with her father's inheritance, amounted to 4,000 copper thalers .

Professional career

When she began her career as a clairvoyant is unknown. According to tradition, she initially received her clients in a hut in Humlegården or Bellevuepark . In fact, however, she had her practice in a discreet alley off Lästmakargatan in the poor people's district of Norrmalm . In 1774 she is documented as resident of house number 35 in the Jericho block. From then on she seems to have established herself as a clairvoyant. In 1780 her fortune teller income was taxed in Stockholm, so she must have been a successful professional. It has been on record since that time. From 1786 she lived in house no.24 in the Dürre block on Johannes Östra Kyrkogata (today Johannesgatan ) and from 1788 in house no.23 in the same block.

Arfvidsson's practice does not appear to have been particularly decorated with the exception of a curtain over one corner of the room. She is said to have withdrawn behind the curtain several times during the meetings . Her clients were forbidden to go behind the curtain, and the impression arose that there was some kind of magical source of power behind them.

Ulrica Arfvidsson had two assistants. One was Maja Persdotter, who had already been her maid at home. The second is known alternately under the names Adrophia, Adotia and Adrecka Dordi and was in Arfvidsson's service from 1775 at the latest until her death on January 30, 1800. She is said to have been of African origin and perceived as exotic. On her death certificate it is stated that her name was Adrottja and came from Morocco : "Maid from Morocco, Turkish woman, baptized here, came from Germany, 75 years old, died of dropsy , buried in the Johannes cemetery on February 3rd by Master Lüdecke" . There is no information about her past life, but it is believed that she was a former slave.

Arfvidsson quickly became a well-known figure in Stockholm, and occultists came into fashion in her day. Since, besides herself, many other professional fortune tellers also used coffee for fortune telling, they were referred to as "coffee goddesses". Arfvidsson, however, was the best known and most famous of them. She had clients from all walks of life and is mentioned in many contemporary diary entries. She also laid the cards , but her specialty was reading coffee grounds, the coffee romance . She had a dense network of informants that stretched across the city, from private households to the royal court. That may have contributed to her reputation for never having predicted wrongly. Your business is described as very successful. Among the clients who sought advice from her was Duke Karl, who later became King Charles XIII , which led to rumors that she had political influence. King Gustav III is said to have consulted them during the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790) . In the final years of her career, her success as a seer seems to have diminished as she described herself and her assistant as impoverished in 1800.

As was common in Stockholm in the 1800s, Arfvidsson is said to have had apprentices too. Among them was Madame Rude, as Hanna Löfberg mentions, and the professional fortune teller Ulrika Lundberg, who read from coffee grounds and cards in her practice in Prästgatan . The latter is said to have correctly predicted the career of Court Marshal Baron Nauckhoff in 1822 when his wife Johanna Wilhelmina Coster visited her incognito.

Prophecies

Ulrica Arfvidsson was by Gustav III. consulted who visited her in disguise. At this meeting she is said to have warned Gustav about a man with a sword whom he would meet that evening: This man was planning to take his life. Gustav was alarmed because so many other of her predictions had already proven to be correct. On the way back to the palace, the king is said to have met Adolph Ribbing . Ribbing later joined the conspiracy that led to the assassination of Gustav in 1792.

Arfvidsson was also consulted in connection with Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt's conspiracy against the guardianship government of Gustav IV Adolf . Three days after Armfelt left Sweden, she was visited by Magdalena Rudenschöld, who mentioned her visit to the fortune teller in her political correspondence with Armfelt. Arfvidsson had predicted that the man Rudenschöld thought of (Armfelt) would leave the country in anger over a child (the king) and a little man (Duke Karl), whom he would soon through an agreement with a woman with a not - the royal crown on the head ( Catherine the Great ) will scare you. She also foresaw that the man in question would lose a letter that would plunge him into disaster. In addition, Rudenschöld himself is observed and is often mentioned in the letters of a fat man (the Russian ambassador Stackelberg) to the woman with the crown. Arfvidsson advised her to be careful and predicted that suffering was waiting for her.

reception

Ulrica Arfvidsson appears as a character in the opera Gustave III. ou Le bal masqué by Eugène Scribe and Daniel Auber and in the opera Un ballo in maschera by Giuseppe Verdi . It also appears in novels such as Morianes by Magnus Jacob Crusenstolpe and Lyckans Tempel by Jenny Engelke .

literature

• Wilhelmina Stålberg. In: Anteckningar om svenska qvinnor PG Berg, Stockholm 1864 ( runeberg.org )
• Erland Ros: Strövtåg i S: t Johannes församling.
• Svenska haben och kvinnor. Uppslagsverk.
• Carl Grimberg : Svenska Folkets underbara desolate. Gustav III: s och Gustav IV Adolfs tid (German: “The wonderful fates of the Swedish people”). PA Norstedt & Söners, Stockholm 1921.
• Alice Lyttkens: Kvinnan börjar vakna. The svenska kvinnans historia från 1700 till 1840-talet. Bonniers, Stockholm 1976.
• Ulrica Arfvidsson . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 1 : A-K . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 44 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
• Carl Forsstrand: Ulrica Arfvidsson. In: Svenskt biografiskt lexikon ( sok.riksarkivet.se ).
• Carl Forsstrand: Spåkvinnor och trollkarlar. Minne och anteckningar från Gustav III: s Stockholm. Hugo Gebers, Stockholm 1913.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lilly Lindwall: Magdalena Rudenschöld. Åhlén & Åkerlund, Stockholm 1917.