Bengt Edvard ''Sixten'' "Sigge" Sparre af Rossvik (September 27, 1854 – July 19, 1889) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used b ...

nobleman,

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

, cavalry officer, journalist, poet, mostly known for the murder of circus performer

Elvira Madigan Hedvig Antoinette Isabella Eleonore Jensen (December 4, 1867 July 19, 1889), better known by her stage name Elvira Madigan, was a circus performer who performed as a slack rope dancer, artistic rider, juggler and dancer. She is best known today ...

in a murder-suicide act. Their story has since been subject to several theatrical and cinematic productions, such as that ''

'' of

Bo Widerberg Bo Gunnar Widerberg (; 8 June 1930 – 1 May 1997) was a Swedish film director, writer, editor and actor. Biography Early life Widerberg was born in Malmö, Malmöhus County, Sweden. Career Widerberg was the director of films such as ''Raven' ...

in 1967 (played by

Thommy Berggren Thommy Berggren, né Tommy William Berggren (born 12 August 1937) is a Swedish actor. He is known for having starred in several films directed by Bo Widerberg, and was often considered one of the foremost Swedish film and theatre actors from t ...

) and a Danish film ( Søren Svejstrup). /danskefilm.dk
/ref>

Early life

Sparre af Rossvik was born on 27 September 1854 in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popula ...

, Sweden, the son of Sigge Rossvik and Adelaide Peijron.

Personal life

In 1880, he married Countess Luitgard "Lycka"

Adlercreutz Adlercreutz () is the surname of a Swedish and Finnish noble family. Overview Its oldest known ancestor is Swedish speaking Finn, Erik Markusson, dead 1654, who was a farmer in Biskops, Iso-Teutari, Lohja, Uusimaa, Finland. His son Tomas Erikss ...

. Sparre and Madigan were both buried at

Tåsinge Tåsinge () is a Danish island immediately south of Funen, opposite and facing Svendborg, divided from Funen by Svendborgsund.See detailed Denmark roadmap in References section. The island covers an area of circa . It is part of the South Funen ...

graveyard.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *

External links

Sparre's collection of poems
1854 births 1889 deaths Swedish military personnel who committed suicide Suicides by firearm in Denmark Swedish nobility 19th-century Swedish journalists 19th-century Swedish poets 19th-century Swedish military personnel Writers from Malmö Sixten Murder–suicides in Europe 1880s suicides {{Sweden-bio-stub