The Real Elvira
Interesting bio of Elvira Madigan, which speculates that her death may not have been a part of a doomed lover suicide pact after all. Thoughts?
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10058170
Thank you for sharing the link. I had seen it before, but "Find a grave" is a very nice site, and they have a page for Sixten Sparre there as well.
As for the bio- I believe that there has been speculation for a number of years concerning this. No-one was there, so no-one can know for certain and I do leave the possibility open that perhaps it was not a suicide pact. However, overall, if asked for my personal belief I would have to say that I believe that it was.
Elvira (Hedvig) knew that Sparre was married. At that time, I am not certain, but I believe that divorce was still illegal, and even if it was not it was in it's infancy and still HIGHLY unacceptable to "decent society". Elvira would have known this, and knowing it I believe that she would have realized that there was little to no hope for having a permanent relationship with Sparre. The bio states that her family felt that she was not romantic, and simply seen Sparre as a way out of her life as a circus performer, but again, knowing his situation I highly doubt that she could have viewed him as a solution.
Even if Sparre had been manipulative and Elvira naive, I am still fairly certain that by the time he suggested running off to her she would have finally realized that he was manipulating her and that there was no hope for a real future with him. If there had been, why would they need to run away? Elvira may have been naive, but I don't believe her to be that senseless.
With all of this in mind, I think that she was well aware of how dire the romance really was- and knowing that I think that she probably did agree to the suicide. The position of her body means little. I don't doubt that she probably WAS shot in her sleep. I think that she was very smart, but still a lady of her day, and therefore not likely to have the stomach to shoot herself. I don't think that I would have the stomach for it, and I am a modern gal! Sparre did have military training and it was probably decided that he would commit the deed for both of them, much as we see depicted in the film. He probably chose to do this while she slept because that would be the easiest way for both of them.
Just my thoughts.
Hmmm, that's an interesting theory, but how could anyone go to sleep knowing they are going to be shot that night? Or even some night in the very near future? It seems to me that even if I felt hopeless enough to ask my lover to shoot me, I still couldn't just curl up and take a siesta.
shareOver a year old, but just seen this reply to my comment, so will respond to it :)
While I had previously read that she slept during the shooting, this theory has now been called into question, and it's no longer certain if she actually did. I have also discovered that she was obsessed with another pair of lovers who had committed suicide prior to her affair with Sparre. She even signed a hotel guest book using the dead woman's name. A Swedish woman named Sofie A has a blog dedicated entirely to Elvira's story, and this is where I came across the new info. So it seems really likely to me that it probably was a suicide pact, sleeping or not.
Here's the link, the blog is comprehensive, for anyone who may be interested in learning about their real life story:
https://elviramadigansixtensparre.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/elvira-madigan-sixten-sparre/