Welcome to a society dedicated to Carl Michael Bellman

Translated into English by Prof. James Massengale

Carl Michael Bellman may well be the most original poet in all of Swedish literature. He created a musical-poetic treasure that has become a part of the Swedish cultural heritage, and which has been spreading in ever wider circles.  His most famous works, Fredman’s Epistles and Fredman’s Songs, are completely unique in the annals of Swedish song, and as lyric song-cycles they belong to world literature.

But Bellman is more than this.  With his multi-faceted work, Bacchi Tempel, his satirical prose texts, letters, some forty religious poems, a dozen dramatic works and more than 1000 poems written to the Royal Family as well as to a circle of friends, his work is among the broadest in 18th-century Swedish poetry.

Carl Michael Bellman speaks to people of every culture and of every time, about life, love and death.  In our time his lyrics have been translated to about 40 different languages, and he has interpreters and fans everywhere in the world.

The Swedish Bellman Society works with sister organizations in a number of countries to further the international exchange between societies that share our common interest.