Ragnhild Grågås

Who is Ragnhild Grågås?

Ragnhild Grågås, was the person after whom the Gåsgränd in Gamla stan in Stockholm, Sweden is named. It is the only street in Gamla Staden named after a female.

Ragnhild was the centre of a court case. On 23 June 1477, she and her daughter were accused by Sigrid, the wife of Jens Bok, of having had sexual intercourse with her husband. This was regarded as indirect incest according to contemporary law and was a serious crime punishable by death. The court, however, dismissed the charges, as Ragnhild and her daughter had already previously been accused of the same crime, and already been acquitted of it. Instead, Sigrid was sentenced to banishment from the capital for slander. The sentence was revoked after Ragnhild and her daughter asked for mercy for Sigrid.

Ragnhild's will is known from 1513, and she is regarded to have died a few years prior. Ragnhild's spouse owned property at Gåsgränd, which she later came to own herself. The case against Ragnhild apparently attracted a lot of attention in contemporary Stockholm, and the place was already called Gåsgränd in 1492, before her death.