Maria Kristina Kiellström

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Maja Stina (Maria Kristina) Kiellström, (b.15 June 1744 in Stockholm- d. 20 January 1798 in Stockholm), was a Swedish silk manufacturer. She inspired Carl Michael Bellman to create his character, the prostitute "Bar-Nymph", demimonde, and courtesan Ulla Winblad.

[edit] Biography

Kiellström was born into a poor family and her mother died when she was merely five years old. Her father, Johan Kiellström, had resingned from military because of epilepsy and supported himself as a street sweeper. At the age of 14, she was forced to support herself as a maid, and in 1763, she is listed as a silk manufacturer. In 1765, she had a daughter who died after eight days by a nobleman who promised to marry her. During these years, she was rumored to be a prostitute. Historians, however, are not convinced that she truly was a prostitute. She was only arrested once, but not for prostitution; in 1767, she was arrested for wearing silk, which was forbidden for workers according to the laws of abundance, but she was released after having prooved that she was a silk manufacturer and thereby entitled to wear silk. She was to have met Bellman in this period. She used the name Winblad a couple of times; her step-mother's name was Catharina Elisabeth Winblad.

In 1772, she married Eric Nordström, a child-hood friend of Bellman, who was helped by Bellman to a position at the customs in Norrköping. The marriage was unhappy as Nordström treated her badly. She became a widow in 1781, when she mowed back to Stockholm, and in 1786, she married Erik Lindståhl, a man eleven years her junior. She was at this time described as a very well preserved beauty.

It is said that both Kiellström and her husband felt persecuted by Bellman's portrayal of her, and she was exposed to much humiliation because his songs involving her alther ego.

[edit] References

• Bellman.net om Ulla Winblad och Maija-Stina Kiellström
• Artikel i Dagens Nyheter, 070726.
• Matz, Edvard, "Carl Michael Bellman – Nymfer och friskt kalas" (2004)