The Bride's Lake/Brudesø

Brudesø , Mid Jutland

Small lakes and ponds were sacred places in the rituals of ancient people. All legends and songs are gone forever - but some findings from the Late Stone Age are considerable sources to the life and religion of ancient tribes. It was important to communicate with the spirits of the water, and in this communication sacrifices played a necessary role.

Besides animal bones and ceramics from Stone Age there are also more macabre findings in moors, which were once a lake. In Sigersdal in Nordsjælland was found the skeleton of a young girl with a rope around her neck. A geologist estimated that she had been brought out into the water, where she was just about able to touch bottom. She had been lead to her death with a rope around her neck and was killed on the same spot , in which she was found. Nearby was found another skeleton of a young girl, she was probably also sacrificed to the gods.

In a legend a bride and groom were killed by driving their horse carriage out into a lake, which after this was called 'Brudesø' (Bride's Lake) , a story known from other places and countries. Why this lake in the lake district in the middle of Jutland has achieved the name 'Brudesø' is not known - whether young girls were sacrificed here as brides of the water spirit - or if a young couple commited suicide in a Romeo and Juliet tragedy - only imagination can tell.

photo Brudesø, Addit 2008: grethe bachmann