The Princess in the Tower Revisited

Ever since the discovery of Leonora Christina’s Jammers Minde in the nineteenth century, its author has been the subject of an increasing number of controversial debates, historical treatises, and creative exploitation. When Leonora Christina’s written account of the more than two decades she spent imprisoned in the Blue Tower in Copenhagen was published in 1869, her name was, indeed, already shrouded in legend, an outcome due in no small part to the work of Ludvig Holberg and Hans Christian Andersen among others. Yet the dissemination of Jammers Minde and its self-portrayal of Leonora Christina as an envied, superior martyr, renewed interest in this notorious noblewoman and led to the creation of a multitude of artistic, literary, and historical portrayals. This study examines the image Leonora Christina created of herself through Jammers Minde and the text’s interplay with her other writings. Furthermore, Helene Peterbauer chronicles the adoption of the multifarious elements of this image in the scholarly, historical, and literary imagination of this woman. Helene Peterbauer studied German Studies and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, where she obtained her PhD in Scandinavian Studies in 2018. She is a Policy and Project Officer with the European University Association (EUA).