Augusta Dorothea Eklund (2 September 1826 – 31 December 1895, in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
) known in history by her sobriquet Trasfröken ('Miss Rags'), was a famous homeless street peddler and eccentric in Stockholm. A well-known part of Stockholm street life in the second half of the 19th century, she was the subject of contemporary
folklore
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
, mentioned in contemporary diaries, memoirs and media.
Life
Eklund was born to a shoemaker and a corset maker in Stockholm. After the death of her parents, she supported two younger sisters Ida and Karolina by her late mother's trade: that of a corset seamstress. After one of her sisters died and the other one left home to work in the theater, Eklund was affected by depression, which eventually reduced her to a homeless destitute.
She lived in various temporary huts she built herself around the city, and supported herself by selling needles for a price above their worth from door to door as
månglare
Månglare was a historical profession in Sweden. A female månglare was often called månglerska. A månglare was essentially a Street Vendor, street vendor with permission from the city authorities to engage in trade without being a member of ...
: reportedly, she managed to sell because she often lost her temper when the people she offered her needles to attempted to close the door without purchasing any.
"Trasfröken" became a well-known part of Stockholm folklore through her appearance and eccentric behavior. She sometimes dressed in rags, and other times in dresses which appeared to be of some worth. In 1873, for example,
Selma Lagerlöf
Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish writer. She published her first novel, ''Gösta Berling's Saga'', at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was ...
described her dressed in an elegant but dirty white summer dress, similar to a wedding dress in the middle of the winter. It was also noted that she carried her possessions – that is her cookery equipment – with her everywhere, as they were not left in peace in her huts. She was reportedly routinely harassed by children. In folklore, she was rumored to have become insane of sorrow after having been seduced by a man from the aristocracy in the home where she once worked as a
lady's companion
A lady's companion was a woman of genteel birth who lived with a woman of rank or wealth as Affinity (medieval), retainer. The term was in use in the United Kingdom from at least the 18th century to the mid-20th century but it is now archaism, arc ...
. She was aware of this myth, and sometimes supported it by shouting it out in public.
[af Kleen, Björn (11 april 2015). ”Trasfröken – första offret i kraniesamlingen”. Dagens Nyheter. Läst 11 april 2015.]
In October 1894, she was found sick in one of her huts and brought to the St Eric Poor House, where she died on New Year's Eve 1895.
See also
*
Bakelse-Jeanna
*
Gumman Strömberg
Johanna Strömberg née Malmberg (1830–1894), was a Swedish fishmonger. She worked in the Stockholm fish market from 1854 until 1894, and became a well-known figure in contemporary Stockholm, known as Gumman Strömberg (Old woman Strömberg). Sh ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eklund, Augusta Dorothea
1826 births
1895 deaths
19th-century Swedish businesspeople
Homeless people