The myphopoetic and Christian motifs in The Ring of the Löwenskölds Trilogy by Selma Lagerlöf

The peculiarity of S. Lagerlöf’s artistic concept is the coexistence of myth and literature, folklore and Christian tradition, fiction and reality, mysticism and psychology within one text. The research aims to use the motive analysis to trace the peculiarities of the interrelation between folklore and Christian tradition in The Ring of the Löwenskölds trilogy. The first part of the trilogy (“The Ring of the Löwenskölds”) focuses on the folklore demonological story and at the same time the Gothic novel of the late 18th century; the second part (“Charlotte Löwenskölds”) corresponds to the wedding ritual tradition and at the same time implements the genre and stylistic features of the romantic psychological novel of the first half of the 19th century; the third part (“Anna Svärd”) transforms the folklore fairy tale tradition into a literary neoromantic novel of the second half of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, taking into account the realistic literary experience. S. Lagerlöf leads her reader through the history of Swedish (and even wider — European) culture and along the way of the Christian Transformation, from the subjugation by the passions in the first part through self-sacrifice and love in the second part to acceptance of the world and humility in the third part.