Frans G. Bengtsson
Frans Gunnar Bengtsson was a Swedish novelist, essayist, poet and biographer. He was born in Tåssjö in Scania and died at Ribbingsfors Manor in northern Västergötland.
Literary career
Bengtsson began as a poet, with his debut work Tärningkast published in 1923. In 1929, he published his first essay collection titled Litteratörer och Militärer with contributions on François Villon, Walter Scott, Joseph Conrad, and Stonewall Jackson; he would publish four more collections during the rest of his career. His essays mainly dealt with literary and historical subjects. A selection was translated into English in 1950 and published as A Walk to an Ant Hill and Other Essays.His biography on the Swedish king Charles XII 1932 is his magnum opus. He describes the king through excerpts from contemporary diaries by officers and common soldiers, and from a wealth of quotes from the published literature. Bengtsson's work draws heavily on the biography of Charles XII by Voltaire published in 1731, thirteen years after the king’s death.
Later, Bengtsson became widely known for his Viking saga novel Röde Orm, published in two parts in 1941 and 1945. The hero Orm, later called Röde Orm because of his red beard, is kidnapped as a boy onto a raiding ship and leads an exciting life in the Mediterranean area around the year AD 1000. Later, he makes an expedition eastward into Gardarike. The Long Ships was later adapted into a film. The novel was the inspiration for the name of the wireless technology Bluetooth.
Bengtsson once said: "Joan of Arc, Charles XII, and Garibaldi are the persons I would like to meet - for them the truth was more important than intrigues."