Erik Birger Trolle (1863-1934) was given many awards during his life, from many countries. One of those awards was The Royal Order of the Seraphim, the highest award in Sweden. Erik was given the award in 1908. It made him a knight of the realm and meant he could have his shield hung in the order’s church.
He was a Swedish diplomat, politician and civil servant at various points of his life. He also sported an impressive moustache. But, the oddest thing about Erik was his coat of arms, which featured a headless red human like creature, with bird feet and hands.
The creature is, apparently, a troll. Legend has it that an early Trolle family ancestor killed a troll and stole its drinking horn. So, because of that, the family took the image as its coat of arms. Much more fun than, say, an axe because one of them cut down a tree in 1437.
Mirinda spotted this wonderful bit of artistry in Riddarholmskyrkan today. She was in Stockholm to attend a conference at the Kulturhuset held by the Stockholm Museum of Women’s History and popped into the church because it was open and she was walking passed it.
Obviously, I stayed home with the girls and, while I didn’t see any trolls, I did leave offerings for them on a couple of cairns in the forest when we went for our walk.
We followed a bit of the Sörmlandsleden trail (that’s what the ‘S’ stands for on the fingerpost in the photo above) until we found a convenient rock to sit on for a bit of stick throwing for Emma.
Mirinda had remarked on hearing a cuckoo as she was leaving, and it followed us into the forest, its calls leading us deeper and deeper into the woods. Then it stopped. I don’t know why. Was it some sort of trap? Was the cuckoo actually leading us to a troll?
If that was the case, we didn’t see the troll. Maybe it ate the cuckoo and, returned home, satisfied it had stopped all the noise. Though I do wonder how a headless troll eats anything, let alone a cuckoo. Actually, all we saw was a woman walking a small dog. They both had heads.
The rest of my day was pretty chill. I did some organising re our summer tyres, found a vet for the dogs, did some laundry and booked Boman’s for tomorrow night to celebrate the bank account.
The weather was so beautiful that I spent a lot of the day outside. The house has two terraces which take advantage of the shade or sunshine, depending on the time of day and whichever you fancy. And the wifi extends outside.
The front terrace is also handy for saying goodbye.
That was Mirinda waving goodbye to me yesterday.
Oh, and following on from yesterday’s post, I listened to all the Eurovision entries on Spotify while I worked. The excitement for Saturday is mounting. Mirinda has even ordered Swedish meatballs for dinner.
