The legend of the Wandering Jew, which appeared in the Middle Ages, attracted the attention of writers and artists in many countries during several centuries. Ahasuerus has become one of the eternal images of world literature. This image was especially often used in the works of Romantic writers in the early 19th century. A Swedish poet Viktor Rydberg who was influenced by Romanticism used this character in several poetic works such as the ballad The Flying Dutchman (Den Flygande Holländaren, 1876) and two poems: Prometheus and Anasuerus (Prometeus och Ahasverus, 1882) and New Song of Grotti (Den nya Grottesången, 1891). In Rydberg’s lyrics, the Wandering Jew interacts with other eternal images of world culture such as the Flying Dutchman and Prometheus. His role as a stranger who witnessed a lot of different epochs and nations is emphasized in Rydberg’s poetry. Ahasuerus expresses critical judgments about modern people and actually opposes society which is the feature of Romantic characters. In the poem New Song of Grotti the image of Ahasuerus is connected with social problems. It might have been the influence of Sue’s novel The Wandering Jew. In contradiction to Romantic characters, Ahasuerus in Rydberg’s interpretation appears to be a sustainable person, which is specific to heroes of Naturalistic and Neo-Romantic Scandinavian works
While a larger part of Edith Södergran’s legacy such as poetry, aphorisms, letters has been scrutinized multiple times by scholars, her minor notebooks in different languages were somehow overpassed as they were never deciphered fully or published. Those handwritten papers might be a good resource for renewal of our perception of Södergran as an original author. This article deals with the handwritten English Notebook of this prominent Swedish-Finnish modernist with the main goal to find out what kind of texts interested her and whether they had any impact on her ouevres. The English Notebook is deposited in the Swedish Literature Society in Finland, SLSA 566:2:2 manuskript 1 English Compositions. This notebook was used to record quotes and learning material in English when the poet lived in Switzerland (1911–1914). Staying in Europe in the period of active aesthetic renewal and expansion of Modernism, Södergran did not limit herself to radical German Der Sturm. She was also reading literature in English, from Shakespeare to the Romanticists and Symbolists of the 19 th century. A quotation of Swinburne’s The Triumph of Time gave a link to Södergran’s The Triumph to Exist published in The September Lyra. Both oeuvres evoke disparate emotional reactions among readers while the poets use the same imagery to represent Time — Life — Death. The analysis showed how Södergran developed in her own poem a number of associations presumably borrowed from Swinburne while retaining his power and passion. A fully accomplished person, she perceived the global nature of the Modernist movement, which was deeply rooted in the 19 th century, but stayed authentic.