Agneta och Sjökungen (Agneta and Sjökungen), by John Bauer
Illustration for Agneta and Sjökungen by Helena Nyblom (1911)

Water Lilies and Sadness

Why this vision, this dream that comes to me night after night? I ask myself that question, but no answer comes to me. I can think of no event for which this disturbing vision could be a forewarning.

It is an odd scene. A man, perfectly fit, stands underwater, circled by a school of fish. He is naked, with the current swirling his long black hair about him. His head bowed, he is reaching forward to place a wreath of flowers, water lilies, on the head of a beautiful woman standing before him.

She, too, has her head bowed. Her blond hair, laced with white beads that extend across her brow, is undisturbed by the water. Dressed in an Elizabethan gown, she holds a kerchief in her hand…