Märk hur vår skugga (Mark how our shadow) is one of the best-known of the 1790 Fredman's Epistles, where it is No. 81. These were written and performed by Carl Michael Bellman, the dominant figure in the Swedish song tradition. Its subject is the funeral of one of Bellman's female acquaintances, Grälmakar Löfberg's wife.

Carl Michael Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish ballad tradition and a powerful influence in Swedish music, known for his 1790 Fredman's Epistles and his 1791 Fredman's Songs.^[1] A solo entertainer, he played the cittern, accompanying himself as he performed his songs at the royal court.^[2][3][4]

Jean Fredman (1712 or 1713–1767) was a real watchmaker of Bellman's Stockholm. The fictional Fredman, alive after 1767, but without employment, is the supposed narrator in Bellman's epistles and songs.^[5] The epistles, written and performed in different styles, from drinking songs and laments to pastorales, paint a complex picture of the life of the city during the 18th century. A frequent theme is the demimonde, with Fredman's cheerfully drunk Order of Bacchus,^[6] a loose company of ragged men who favour strong drink and prostitutes. At the same time as depicting this realist side of life, Bellman creates a rococo picture, full of classical allusion, following the French post-Baroque poets. The women, including the beautiful Ulla Winblad, are "nymphs", while Neptune's festive troop of followers and sea-creatures sport in Stockholm's waters.^[7] The juxtaposition of elegant and low life is humorous, sometimes burlesque, but always graceful and sympathetic.^[2][8] The songs are "most ingeniously" set to their music, which is nearly always borrowed and skilfully adapted.^[9]

The scholar of literature Lars Lönnroth writes that Bellman often begins with a priestly tone, as he does for this churchyard epistle, before turning from the elegiac to a drinking-orgy, as Fredman and the other guests are unmasked. The language, the genre, the voice, and the roles played all switch over, he observes, from the elevated to a drinking song's slapdash interaction. He writes that this does not mean that the sacred is accorded no value; rather, Bellman directs the "holy light" of attention from the high to the low, valuing both of them.^[16]

Students of Swedish literature at the University of Gothenburg are expected to study Fredman's Songs and Epistles, "especially Fredman's epistle nos. 23, 33, and 81."^[17]

Epistle 81 has been recorded by Fred Åkerström and by Cornelis Vreeswijk.^[18] Other versions have been recorded by Stefan Sundström and Imperiet, who scored a 1985-1985 Svensktoppen hit with the song. The English-speaking band Mediaeval Baebes recorded the song in Swedish on their 2005 album Mirabilis.^[19] The Swedish folk singer Sofia Karlsson included it in her 2007 album Visor från vinden, alongside works by poets such as Baudelaire and Dan Andersson; it was the only Bellman song in the collection.^[20] The Danish metal band Evil Masquerade included the song, in Swedish, in their 2016 album The Outcast Hall of Fame.^[21][22]

An English translation, entitled Epistle No. 81, has been recorded by the Swedish doom metal band Candlemass on the 1988 album Ancient Dreams, and by the American doom metal band While Heaven Wept on the 2003 album Of Empires Forlorn. Another English translation, entitled Castrum Doloris, was recorded by the Swedish black metal band Marduk on their 2003 album World Funeral.^[23] Vreeswijk translated the epistle to Dutch.^[24][25]

The Bellman biographer Paul Britten Austin made a verse translation in 1977.^[15]