Värmland speaks to me so much more than Småland, just like Selma Lagerlöf touched my heart in a way Astrid Lindgren didn't. Not just the cultural landscape of Värmland we normally talk about in Sweden, but there's something perhaps more personal, I don't know what, like, about this little country road through the forest leading to Selma's Mårbacka home that I find just lofty. Then, all of sudden, I started to think about one of Gustaf Fröding's poems which contains these lines:
"Den drömmen, som aldrig besannats,
som dröm var den vacker att få,
för den, som ur Eden förbannats,
är Eden ett Eden ändå."
— Gralstänk
Does it sound odd, thoughts fly out of mind in mid-air?
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