While doing research for a novel project, I checked up on my lineage to Swedish king Gustav Vasa. Gustav's son Erik, who is also my ancestor, became king after his father as Erik XIV, but it didn't end well for him. Since I'm also Erik XIV, being the fourteenth generation from Gustav Vasa, I try to restore my distant relative by picturing him in the novel. Alas, I have a feeling it won't end well this time either…
Here's my complete heritage line
(researched by my father Birger)
Gustav Vasa, f 1496
Erik XIV, f 1533
Virginia Eriksdotter, f 1559
Elisabet Hand, f ?
Johan Gyllensvärd, f 1617
Gustaf Adolf Gyllensvärd, f 1652
Märta Eleonora Gyllensvärd, f 1701
Carl Magnus Krusell dy, f 1730
Carl Johan Krusell, f 1758
Carolina Charlotta Krusell, f 1802
Joseph Napoleon Lindhé, f 1827
Sven Lindhé, f 1865
Karin Nordström, f 1899 (my grandmother)
Barbro Granström, f 1926 (my mother)
Erik Granström, f 1956
Gustaf Fröding wrote some poems where king Erik XIV laments his fate. These poems were set to music by Ture Rangström, and I especially play this one as inspiration. In it, the king, somewhat desperately, celebrates the capture of members of the Sture family with his prison master and hangman Welam Welamsson. Soon king Erik will have the Sture nobles killed, loosing his mind and running off into the woods in the process.
Illustration by Daniel Falck, picturing the legate Ludenbrand for the game Svavelvinter by Free League Publishing. Erik XIV was a model for the Ludenbrand illustration along with Steve Jobs and a friend of mine.
