Gertrud Ahlgren

Gertrud Olofsdotter Ahlgren (1782–1874), known under the name Hejnumskäringen, was a noted Swedish cunning woman, active on Gotland in 1813–1870.

Ahlgren was born in Hejnum in 1782, as a descendant of the famous cunning woman Brita Biörn.

[1] She succeeded her mother, Greta Olofsdotter Enderberg, as cunning woman in 1813, and was like her, known under the name Hejnumskäringen, ("The Crone of Hejnum").

She assisted her mother and replaced her when she stopped working in 1813, and continued herself until her eyesight begun to deteriorate in 1870.

In a Letter to the editor in Wisby Weckoblad (The Weekly Visby Paper) in 1836, the local doctor in Visby, Andreas Andrée, critically described her and her mother's activity in a warning against cunning women in general: Despite the fact that legitimate medical doctors started to become more accessible to the public, Ahlgren herself commented on her own success and popularity with the words: