# Mamsell Fredrika — Short Fiction character guide

> Mamsell Fredrika in Short Fiction by Selma Lagerlöf.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Old Mamsell Fredrika, Fredrika, old Mamsell Fredrika

**First appearance:** 0012-mamsell-fredrika

## Snapshot

An elderly spinster and author who gave up her literary career for Sweden's old maids, and is summoned to their midnight mass among the dead.

## Who they are

Mamsell Fredrika has spent her life working for the lonely, unappreciated old maids of Sweden, sacrificing her own position as an authoress to do it. When her dead sister comes for her, she rides to the Österhaninge church expecting a knight and finds instead a congregation of grey, ringless women—her sisters. Curious rather than frightened, she is asked whether she repents her sacrifice, and her answer opens the story's meditation on legacy, ridicule, and the quiet glory of the neglected.

## In the story

### [Mamsell Fredrika](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/chapters/mamsell-fredrika)

The protagonist, an old authoress resting at Årsta, who dreams of her past and attends a ghostly mass.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/characters/mamsell_fredrika
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/characters