Folklore - the Bride in the Lake

The Bride's Lake, Mid Jutland

Once upon a time the country was filled with lakes, large and small, tiny, even tiny as ponds. There are still many lakes, but lots and lots have disappeared. Some have grown into moors, others sanded up in the run-up, and valuable land was drained and reclaimed for farming.

Mossøe, early morning

 There is something mysterious and deeply alarming in a lake. It lies there, black, inscrutable and apparently bottomless. What is it hiding? What is down there? But it guards its secrets. There is something uncanny in the sinister atmosphere which affects us ,when we stand by a forest lake on a foggy morning or in the evening - trees and bushes look like trolls stretching out their tentacles across the deep.

It is not strange that people from the legendary time experienced many weird things by the lakes. Many lakes were sacred, and the power of a sacred lake was considered to be very strong.  Our forefathers sacrificed to the mighty gods of the lake. All the precious booty they brought back from a war, pretty ships, thousands of swords, spears and other weapons of the finest quality. Later a lake like that turned into a moor, and today we have found precious, sacrificed treasures in places, where we were digging for peat.

A sacred lake was even more sacred and awesome, when the ancient people knew of the sacrificed treasures on the bottom. It was not a place they liked to approach. The yearly sacrifices included also the spring offering When the fertility god Frøj drove his wagon across the newly sowed fields to bless them with fertility and growth, the wagon with oxes and slaves were lowered into the lake. Milleniums later a wagon was found in a Zealand-moor, which was once a lake, the Dejbjergvogn. Lakes and moors with sacrifices are known from several places. (Nydam Mose, Illerup Ådal).

Small lake and moor in Rold Skov

Some lakes are named Brudesø (Bride's lake). A small lake near the town Ry in Mid Jutland is called Bride's Lake. I often come to this place because it's on the way to some special places in the middle of Jutland. The lake lies by a small side road of the motor road, a listed lake with listed surroundings of field and heath. The lake has a legend about a drowned bride, and this might be one of those legends that origins from a long forgotten time, where it was a sacred lake, receiving sacrifices to the gods. What does it hide deep down? No one knows, and there is no time or money enough to search in every mysterious lake with an enigmatic name.

There is a path around the lake today, but in the legend there was a path through a field, where the Bride's Lake now lies. A guy and a girl were sweethearts; he was poor and she was rich. They were not allowed to marry, but she promised him to be faithful. If she wasn't, she would sink into the earth on the day she got married to someone else. Years went on and a rich suitor came along. She forgot her promise and married him. When they drove from church, a terrible storm arose, and the bride's wagon was suddenly shrouded in fog. No one could see the young bride, but a heartrending scream was heard. When the fog finally drifted away, the wagon and the bride had disappeared, and at the place of the path was now a lake. Only her hymn book and her bridal wreath were found.

Another version tells that the wagon lost its way in a snow storm and the bride and groom drowned. Afterwards were their apparations seen at the place  - and a capsizing boat was seen with the bride in the middle of the lake.

Huldremose (Moor of the Water Nymph), Djursland

Many lakes hold legends about drowned people. The story about a drowned bride and a wagon is often told. It might origin from an obscure story tradition about ancient sacrifice to the gods, where the god, his bride and their wagon were sacrificed to the lake after their tour in the fields. After centuries people were no longer familiar with the background-story, instead they had invented a reasonable explanation that it had something to do with unrequited love or broken promise.

Brudesø (Bride's Lake) Mid Jutland

Today the Bride's lake still lies there, keeping its
secrets. Imagine what treasures lie in that bottomless depth?
Anything is possible!

Source: 
Danske søer og vandløb fra sagn og tro, Mads Lidegaard, Nyt Nordisk Forlag, Arnold Busck, 1999.

photo 2001/2008/2009/2010: grethe bachmann

Late August by Lake and Meadow

The Bride's Lake , Mid Jutland
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.


Common Blue Butterfly and a Jade Creen bug, two small jewels


A Red-backed Shrike and a fine little Puffball. This red-backed shrike is here almost every time we come to this place. A permanent home for the shrike here at Brudesø.
Puffballs were traditionally used in Tibet for making ink. Most puffballs are not poisonous, but it takes some expertise to use them for food. Some often look similar to the deadly Amanitas, such as the Death cap mushroom.


Here is a lovely Queen of Spain Fritillary. It has such a beautiful underside with Mother of Pearl spots, but the wings are most often spread out. The Small Heath wears the finest little gown in light orange silken and with a layer of fine muslin, an evening dress for Scarlet O' Hara.


A Lythria purpuraria (cruentaria) and a Scarce Copper ( female); this little pretty Copper has grown in numbers in Jutland during the latest years.


A Common Blue in the fine flowering heather and a Bladder Campion. In Spain, the young shoots and the leaves of the Bladder Campion are used as food. The Danish name is blæresmælde, (like: to crack a bladder).When we were children, we pressed the bladders to make them crack. The flowers are special - they only give scent in the evening and the night.


In the corner of another lake were two Mute Swans proudly showing their pretty young ones.
It is the largest bird in Denmark. It was almost extinct, but total listing has caused that it is now nesting in every large Danish lake. In 1925 were only three pairs left, in 1950 about 300-400, in 1955 1000 and in 1978 4.000 pairs. The Mute Swan was in a viewer-voting of Danmarks Radio in 1984 elected Denmark's national bird.


Lythrum salicaria (Purple loosestrife) The Danish name is kattehale = Cat's Tail, and it might look like a cat's tail when it is swept by the wind among the other plants.
The plant with the yellow flowers is Bidens. It is plant in the family Asteraceae. The common names beggarticks, bur-marigolds, stickseeds, tickseeds and tickseed sunflowers refer to the achene burrs on the seeds, most of which are barbed. The generic name refers to the same fact; it means "two-tooth".


Large-flowered Hemp-nettle (Galeopsis speciosa), the Greek name Galeopsis means a likeness to a cat, polecat or weasel, speciosa = beautiful flower.


Bride's Lake/Brudesø


This i Greater Duckweed, it is not as common as Lesser Duckweed. To the right looks like a spider's web but it is actually a web filled with caterpillars from a butterfly. I don't know which.
Click to enlarge pictures.


Lysimachia vulgaris, Danish: Almindelig Fredløs. The word fredløs means outlawed . Why it was given this name is a mystery to me! To the right a bird-observation tower. I have never been able to find a proper translation in English. I have now tried Google translation. They just tell me: tower. Can anyone help me?


A Woundwort and a Goldenrod. Woundwort is a Stachys, and Stachys officinalis was the most important medicinal herb to the Anglo-Saxons of early medieval Great Britain. The name woundwort derives from the past use of certain species in herbal medicine for the treatment of wounds.
Parts of some goldenrods can be edible when cooked. Goldenrods can be used for decoration and making tea. Goldenrods are, in some places, held as a sign of good luck or good fortune, but they are considered weeds in others.Goldenrod is a companion plant, playing host to some beneficial insects, and repelling some pests.


Two lovely butterflies, the Red Admiral and the Peacock. Their Latin names are spectacular: Peacock is Inachis io and the Admiral is Vanessa atalanta, suitable for such pretty creatures.


A Scarce Copper and a Glanville Fritillary in the flowering heather


A pair of mating Common Blue butterflies - and a Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary. This Fritillary is in decline in DK, where farming and foresting is most intense.


Russula mushrooms and a Moth. The main pattern of toxicity seen among Russula species to date has been gastrointestinal symptoms in those with a bitter taste when eaten raw or undercooked; many of these are red-capped species.


A Field Scabious and a Common Toadflax. Species of scabious were used to treat Scabies and many other afflictions of the skin including sores caused by the Bubonic Plague. The word scabies comes from the Latin word for "scratch" (scabere). Another name for this plant is Gipsy Rose.
Common Toadflax' Latin name is Linaria vulgaris, the members of this genus are known in English as toadflax, a name shared with several related genera. The scientific name means "resembling Linum"(flax), which the foliage of some species superficially resembles. The Danish name Torskemund means a Cod's mouth.


Now there are green fruits in the elderberry. They are fine for making capers. I once had a recipe and I once made a portion of green capers, but it takes too long to pluck the berries in the wood and to cleanse them and to cook them and so on.....I simply don't have the patience. But they were actually good - those green capers I had "produced". I have later seen that the green berries are considered poisonous and not advisable to use. So I shall not look for my recipe.


Roses with a wonderful scent and hips not yet ripe - but they are at least not poisonous , they are very healthy with lots of C-vitamins. A marmalade of hips and apples tastes so good!


Time to say goodbye to the lake and the heather. Can you see the bee in the top? It will fly home and make honey we can use for our bad throats next winter. If winter comes....


We'll go home when the cows go home. This is a small clique, having a meeting before they go home. We'll have a coffee-break.


photo Brudesø, Midtjylland, August 2010: grethe bachmann

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