Sinclairvisan

"Sinclairvisan" or "Sinclairsvisan" ("The Sinclair Song") is a Swedish propaganda song with 90 verses, written by Anders Odel in 1739 to the "La Folia" melody. The song describes the murder of the Swedish diplomat, friherre, and major Malcolm Sinclair. Sinclair was murdered in 1739, while on a diplomatic mission, by two Russian officers acting on orders from the Russian government.

Synopsis

The song is narrated by the shepherd Celadon, who describes how he is brought by a "strange old man" into the Elysian Fields. He watches as the murdered Sinclair enters a great castle, where he is greeted by 12 kings ("twelve Swedish Carls", i.e. Charles I–XII), to whom he relates the circumstances of his death.

Authorship

The song is included as an uncharacteristic entry in Erik Gustaf Geijer and Arvid August Afzelius's influential folk song collection Svenska folk-visor från forntiden. According to the authors, the song was popularly held to have been penned by Jacob Henrik Mörk, author of Adelriks och Giöthildas äfwentyr (1742-44), until a draft of the song was found among Odel's manuscripts. They also note that older publications of the song include an epilogue, in which the A and O in "Celadon" are emphasized, hinting at the author's initials.[1]

Sources
  1. Geijer, Erik Gustaf; Afzelius, Arvid August (1814). "Malcom Sinclair". Svenska folk-visor från forntiden (in Swedish). 1. Stockholm: Strinnholm och Häggström. pp. 220–243. OCLC 23555964. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
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