This is a selection from a group of poems, entitled _Dalmålningar,
utlagda på rim_ (Dalecarlian Paintings Interpreted in Rhyme), in which
Karlfeldt describes old paintings in the churches of his native province
with all the originality and quaintness that characterized these mural
depictions by anonymous country artists.
1-4 form the introduction to the poem, the body of which is a direct
address to the Virgin.
10. _vit och lutad går_ has the force of a personification of the moon
as an old man, white-haired and stooping, though the simile in line 9
has no such comparison in view, _bågig_ there serving to describe the
arched forehead.