The Cat

  




There is a reason why I talk about the cat now. It's about this time in late February that the cat had a really terrible fate all around the medieval Europe. They were killed in thousands, and the history about these cat-killings is gruesome. In Denmark we put the cat in a barrel, and the village guys beat he barrel, until the cat was dead. In articles about Fastelavn/Shrove Tide in this blog are descriptions about various customs.

Today children beat the cat out of the barrel, and a cat-king and a cat-queen are the winners, but inside the barrel is now candy and the picture or drawing of a cat. The children won' t even put their beloved toy-cat in a barrel. We are friendlier to animals today. They have become members of the family, and there is an immense grief in the family when they lose their beloved cat or dog. 

Cornish Rex

History in Short
The domestic cat, felis domestica, was introduced to Europe probably in Iron Age, but outside Europe it was known long before. The ancient Egyptians had cats already 3.000 years B.C.  They considered the cat a sacred animal,  and balmed cats were found from that period. The Egyptians had a goddess, Bats, with a cat's head and always accompanied by cats. In the ancient Egypt it was a mortal sin to kill a cat. If the favorite cat of the house died, the owner would shave off his eybrows as a sign of grief.

Cats from a flock living in a fishing harbour.

In the classic era of the Mediterranean the moon goddess Artemis (in Rome Diana) was the protector of cats. She was always followed by cats, and people believed she could transform into a cat.. Artemis was closely connected to another demon of the dark, Hekate, who like Artemis was worshipped as a moon goddess. She was also able to transform into a cat, and she also had cats in her entourage, when she was out on her wild hunts in moonlit nights, and the ancient witches and magicians worshipped Hekate as their goddess. Hekate was a magician and a witch herself, and they prayed to her when they were not sure, if their witchcraft was strong enough.

Tricolore-cat

In the ancient Greece and Rome the cat was considered an animal in collusion with all kinds of evil and magic. According to sources from the early Middle Ages the cats of the ancient north were connected to the love goddess Freja. They were pulling her wagon, while she was out driving. So - the cat was in pre-Christian times partly a sacred animal in Scandinavia and Egypt - and partly an animal belonging to the powers of the dark in Greece and Rome.

During the Middle Ages, when the cat became common in Europe, an idea spread that some cats - especially the black cats - were transformed witches, or they were controlled by witches. This belief that the cat was an animal of the witches is seen in European witch-processes and in the stories about witches, which were told from mouth to mouth since the Middle Ages and up to our time.

You're not black. Please cross the road.

Is Superstition still Alive?
We are still a little superstitious today. Or  not? Some of us? If a cat crosses the road in front of you it brings bad luck - especially if it's a black cat. There is actually some evidence that traffic accidents were caused by a superstitious driver, who suddenly put the brakes on when he saw a black cat crossing the road. In a report in the Danish morning-paper B.T. from 28. February 1963 is read:
"a black cat wanted to cross the road in front of N.N, Ølstrup at Holstebro. He put on the brakes violently, and the car hit a lamp standard, which broke. The car then drove into a house, where the outer wall tumbled into the living room. Neither cat nor people were injured." 

A white cat is a rare sight.

The black cat is a bad omen in most of Europe and also in the U.S. Some Americans say however that it brings good luck, if a black cat crosses your road from the right to the left. A white cat brings luck no matter where it comes from. In England it means good luck if a black cat crosses your road, but it means bad luck to meet a white cat. In connection to an English wedding ceremony it is important that a black cat crosses the road in front of the bride and groom. This brings good luck to their marriage. It is said that this is often arranged. (Don't kill the messenger!)

So - when it came to superstition - the black cat was as popular in England as it was unpopular in many other places in Europe - but only if you met it in the road! You can break the bad omen, if you spit three times where the cat came running. Or cross your fingers!

So you think you're hiding?

If you bring a cat into a new home, the good luck is secured for this house. People imagined that the cat would be some kind of magnet and suck up the evil into itself and let it be there. If you steal a cat you steal the happiness of the home. People also had the idea that it was good to have the cat in the bed at night - the cat would suck up diseases, especially rheumatism.

The Dangerous Hunter

No matter if you are superstitious or not, the cat is a lovely family member, a beautiful gracious creature with the same sharp senses as the big wild cats. Out little sweet cat, who sits there so peacefully in the sun at the terasse is no less than a mini-tiger with the brilliant physical and mental skills of a tiger. But the cat is however - in spite of the close relationship to the big predators - the most charming and friendly little animal, who comes up to us trusting, rubbing itself against our leg and spinning in delight.

A very affectionate little cat

Karel Appel: Cat, Herning Museum

The cat was always a favorite and very used model for painters and writers. Kipling and Eliot described the cat's character perfectly. Mark Twain, who loved cats, once said that the cat is the only creature, who will not accept to be chained as a slave.





Source: Iørn Pio, Håndbog om hverdagens magi, Politikens forlag 1973. 
Arne Eklund og Maj-Britt Ericson: Fakta om katten
photo cats: grethe bachmann

Danish & Italian Ginger/Dansk & Italiensk Ingefær

Arum maculatum/Arum italicum
Arum maculatum = Arum cylandraceum 

 



Arum maculatum is a common woodland plant species of the Aracae family. It is widespread across temperate northern Europe and origins from Europe and the western Asia. It is known by common names including Wild arum, Lords and Ladies, Jack in the Pulpit, Devils and Angels, Cows and Bulls, Cuckoo-Pint, Adam and Eve, Bobbins, Naked Boys, Starch-Root and Wake Robin. Danish names include Aron's Staff, Deer berries, Calf Foot, the Devil's Berries and Wild Kalla. In Scandinavia the plant only grows in Denmark, except in North and West Jutland.

Maculatum means spottet and refers to the irregular brownish or violet spots on the green leaves of the Danish ginger. The Italicum originally comes from Italy. The Italian ginger has green leaves with white veins. The name ginger is due to that it gives a burning taste in the mouth if you taste a root or a leaf, like if you bite in the fresh spice ginger. The Danish name arum origins according to old sources from Aron, who might be the high-priest, mentioned in the fourth Pentateuch, the Numbers.

Folk Medicine
The plant was known from ancient times, where it was used as an expectorant means and as a laxative. In the Middle Ages it was used against the plague and abscesses and also against diseases in lungs and intestines. In the old herbal books is this ginger recommended for rheumatic illness and for treating wounds or bites from poisonous animals.

Superstition
According to Plinius the bear eats the root after his winter-sleep to wake up the crumpled bowels.

Description
Arum has a bulb-like rhizome, from which come long-stalked , arrow-shaped leaves. The leaves are vigorous and develop best in the shadow under trees. The leaves might be uniform green, covered in brown spots or white stripes. The flower-stalk is a 30-50 cm high shaft, which ends in a spadix, where the flower inflorescence is hidden in a large cone-shaped case-leave. After blooming the red, shining berries are developed.

Garden:
If cultivated in a garden ginger thrives best in the "forest floor" of the garden, evt. among Bishop's Hat, Golden Death Nettle, Sweet Grass etc. Recommended sorts: Arum maculatum ssp. danicum (Danish ginger); Arum italicum (Italian ginger) and Arum pictum (Corsican ginger).


Other Informations:
The shining red berries were once used as a rouge, but they can give blisters.
NB: The ginger mentioned here has nothing in common with the exotic spice of the same name. The dried root is eatable since the poisonous substances disappear in the drying process. The root is rich in starch and was among other things used as a face powder. The plant is cultivated in gardens for the decorative value of the fine red berries. Warning: The red berries are tempting to children, but they are very poisonous.

General warning: Although it is said that the dried root is eatable, then there are warnings against the plant in other sources saying: No  parts of the plant can be used as a replacement for the spice ginger, since they are very poisonous. But the roots might have a scent like the ginger spice.

Last news about the plant:
There are various informations about the plant and a new scientific name.  But as said before the plant with the name Danish ginger has nothing in common with the spice ginger, except the confusing name-community. The official Danish name is now Danish arum, and the scientific name is Arum cylindraceum. It was earlier known as Arum alpinum ssp. danicum. Danish ginger is poisonous, and the pretty berries might be tempting for small children, but this plant smells a little like urine, which might be not so tempting. Danish ginger is much alike Italian ginger Arum italicum, which is known on the light stripes on the leaves. This plant is also poisonous.


Allergy and Rodents:
All parts of the plant can produce allergic reactions in many people and the plant should be handled with care. Many small rodents appear to find the spadix particularly attractive and it is common to find examples of the plant with much of the spadix eaten away. The spadix produces heat and probably scent as the flowers mature and it may be this that attracts the rodents.


Arum maculatum is also known as the cuckoo print in the British Isles and is named thus in Nicholas Culpepers' famous 16th Century herbal. This is a name it shares with  Arum italicum (Italian Lords-and-Ladies) - the other native British Arum.


Source: Anemette Olesen, Danske Klosterurter, 2001

photo: august 2006 & 2010: grethe bachmann

The Vikings/Viking Art

The Mammen Style(ab. 950-1000)

The Mammen axe

The Mammen style animal was out of that of the Jellinge style. The two animals can be difficult to tell apart, and during the transitional period it would be a mistake to separate them. The animals' body becomes gradually more substantial with more naturalistic proportions. Its spiral hip joints are increased in size. On the slender body of the Jellinge style animal there was no room for more than a single row of bars or beading.


The Mammen style might be dismissed as little more than a transitional phase which links the Jellinge style with the Ringerike style. The Mammen style seem not to have been in fashion for more than a couple of generations. But it is marked in the history of Viking Art in one important respect. In the Broa and Borre style there was no serious interest in the use of plants or of their leaves or tendrils, in the Jellinge style there was a suggestion of stubby tendrils providing decoration to the animals' bodies. In the Mammen style appears for the first time full use of foliate patterns.

During the ninth and tenth centuries foliate patters were commonly used in Western Europe. The acanthus-leaf patterns were reaching Scandinavia from the ninth century. A small amount of imitation was attempted, but it came to very little. In the later tenth century was a step in this new direction -  one side of the Mammen axe, to which the style owes its name, is entirely decorated in a straggly foliate pattern.  This magnificent iron battle-axe was found at Mammen in Jutland. It is inlaid with silver wires on both sides, one with a foliage pattern, the other with a bird. The bird has a spotted body and its wings and tail are drawn out into elongated, curving tendrils. At the top of the axe is a pair of round eyes above a large nose, beneath are moustaches and a spiral-marked beard.

sword-mount , sigtuna, Sweden

The Bamberg casket

The same human mask looks at us from one of the Mammen-style masterpieces: the Bamberg casket. The Mammen style was well suited for carving, which is seen from the walrus-ivory at this casket. Tradition says that this was the jewel box of Kunigunde, the wife of the German Emperor Henry II.

Source: Moesgård Museum, Århus

Next: The Ringerike style, ab. 980-1080

Tønder, a lively Market Town in Sønderjylland

lambs in the marsh, the dikes in the background

Another town in Sønderjylland is Tønder, ( Sønderjylland is the old borderland to Germany, please read the description in the link. North of Sønderjylland is South Jutland!) The market town Tønder is placed in the southwestern part of Sønderjylland, 80 km south of Esbjerg and 40 km southwest of Aabenraa. It has ab. 8.200 inhabitants. 
 

Tønder started originally at a ford across Vidåen-river, where the heaths meet the marshland. The town is placed only 1-5 meter above sea level. East of the town is the marsh replaced with meadows and fields. The marsh west of town is reclaimed and protected by large dikes. Tønder was through centuries an important harbour. In the Middle Ages they sailed along the Vidåen-river up to Tønder, but the diking of the marsh and a regulation of the river cut off the connection to the sea already in the 1600s.

Tønder has had municipal rights since 1243 and was through centuries an important harbour, although the sea is about 12 km from the edge of the town. The name Tønder is of unknown origin, but is mentioned for the first time in 1130, when the Arabian geographer al-drisi describes the town Tundira as an anchorage "protected against all winds and surrounded by buildings". The first beginning of the town was possibly at that time, and it was then a harbour-place of the town Møgeltønder, which probably is older. The city-seal with a ship from the 1200s shows that Tønder originally was a shipping-town, and the seal still looks like that, althought there is now 12 km to the sea.

Tønder got its municipal rights in 1243 from hertug (duke) Abel. In the 1200s the castle Tønderhus was built, and it played an important role in the eternal feud between the duke, the Holstein grafs and the Danish king, until it was demolished in 1750.

 











A dominating element in Tønder are the bays, the street-doors and portals. A very used door-type are the double panelled doors, which especially in the late half of the 1700s were equipped with monumental portals. There are several Baroque-portals with Rococo-doors. In the Dike-count's listed house from 1777 in the middle of the city is a magnificent Rococo-portal. In a fine Patrician building nearby from 1794 , marked by the Renaissance, is an impressive door-section in Louis-Seize-style.



 




Tønder Museum is placed upon the old castle-bank  together with Sønderjylland's Art Museum. The gate house of a demolished Tønder-house is a part of the building. The museum has a large collection of arts and crafts, silver, lace, tiles and furniture from West Schleswig.The art collection at the art museum are works by Danish surrealist painters and Nordic pictorial art from the 20th century.At the same address is the old water tower with an exhibition of furniture by the Danish architect Hans J. Wegener,who was born in Tønder.




 


A pretty restored gable house from 1672 is now a branch of Tønder Museum, which among other things has exhibitions about lace. In the summer season are often working lace makers in the old house.

The Zeppelin-Museum informs about the German base during WWI with exhibitions from the dramatic period, where Tønder was the homestead of northern  Europe's largest military airship-base.





 

Upon the city-square is the oldest building in town, the Klosterbaker's House, which is a grand late Gothic gable house from about 1519. Here is also an old inn named "Humlekærren". Upon the square is a copy of the only preserved monument of infamy in Denmark, a socalled kagmand. The kage was a medieval means of punishment. People were tied or chained and whipped, if they had done something wrong. The two meter tall wooden figure stands with a whip and a sword for fear and warning.The original figure is at Tønder Museum.

Wool Street

 

The monument of infamy at the square.

The house from ab. 1519

Tønder is a very lively town with lots of cafés and restaurants and with many shops and special boutiques. the town is close to Germany and there are many tourists from near and far coming here. a veru cosy town to visit and then there is the vast marshland with a rich birdlife for people who are interested in this.

The old pharmacy was built in 1670 by mayor and Dike-count Johann Preuss. Here was established a pharmacy in 1697 and a winestube (serving wine), which at that time was almost the same. The entrance is equipped with a fine Baroque-portal in sandstone. Tønder Kristkirke was built in 1592 as a replacement of the medieval city church Sct. Nicolai. The strange tower from 1520 has a tall lantern-spire. The interior is richly decorated. Near the church is the old Latin-school from 1612. An old merchant house from1729 is a splendid two-storeys gable-house with bays, named "Soli Deo Gloria". A street called Uldgade (wool-street)  might be the most picturesque street in Tønder with low gable-houses with small bays, small-paned windows and finely carved doors. In this street and in some nearby fine little streeets lived workmen and humble folk

the old pharmacy

The Lace.
Tønder is known for its fine lace, in Denmark we talk about the Tønder-lace (Tønder-kniplinger) and know exactly what fine quality it is. Each year is a lace-festival. Lace makers from all over the world meet to take part in workshops, goto exhibitions or just have a talk about the lace-work. There are many lace-exhibitions in the inner town.

lace-working board

Source: Potitikens Store Danmarksbog 2003; Danmarks Købstæder, 2000.

photo Tønder 2002 & 2007: grethe bachmann

Common Foxglove/Thimble/ Fingerbøl

Digitalis purpurea

Digitalis, Rold Skov

Digitalis is named fox-bell i  Norway, Fingerhut in Germany  - other names are Death Bell, Witch Bell, Bloody Bells, Bloody Fingers. The Latin name digitalis comes from the word digitus, meaning finger. The name purpurea refers to the purple colour of the flower, but there are digitalis with white flowers.

Digitalis is also called Our Lady's Gloves, Our Lady's Thimble or Virgin Finger. It was especially cultivated in village garden for the pretty flowers. The digitalis grows wild in the mountain areas of Western Europe, from Sardinia and Corsica in the south to the northern Atlantic coast, including Norway.

Folk Medicine:
In folk medicine digitalis is mentioned in 1775, when the physician Withering discovered perceptible results in the use of the plant. He had been introduced to the plant by an old woman, who cured herself from dropsy with digitalis. Also Withering's wife got digitalis for her bad heart-condition. Digitalis is also used to treat infections and to cure headache. Since the flowers look like little fingerstalls, they were used as a plaster on fingers, when people had cut themselves. The leaves were used against epilepsia and upon tumors.
In 1824 a French physician succeeded in isolating the alcaloid digitalin from the leaves, and this medical means helped since then numbers of people with a bad heart-condition. 

church dike, North Jutland

Superstition and Legend:
It was believed that the plant could only cure heart diseases if it was plucked with the left hand. If the flower itself was plucked, the elfs were disturbed. The flower reminds about the hats of the druids, therefore the plant was regarded as the flower of the druids. If elfs steals a baby, the juice from the plant can secure that the baby comes back.

According to a legend from Greece the goddes Juno onne day was embroidering a tapestry. In order to avoid to be stuck by the needle she had put on a digitalis-flower, but Jupiter got irritated by this finger-stall, and  he took it off her finger and threw it on the ground. Where it hit the ground the plant grew up. This legend has since been recreated and was now Virgin Mary, who lost her thimble, and where it hit the ground, the pretty, but poisonous plant grew up.

Practical Use:
The tall stalks of digitalis were used as a handle for umbrellas. Since the plant thrives best in a soil rich in iron and coal, new coal-fields were discovered in the earlier Sovjet Union by looking at the growth of digitalis.

Western Jutland

Today:
Today are the various substances in heart-medicine produced chemically, and the plant is no longer necessary in order to secure heart-medicine.
All substances in digitalis work upon the heart-rhytm and should only be used with professional help from a physician.

Forst Botanical Garden, Århus

Warning: The plant is extremely poisonous, two leaves could kill a small child

Source: Anemette Olesen, Danske Klosterurter, 2001; Anemette Olesen, Marias Planter, 2007.
photo: Digitalis, Jutland: grethe bachmann

Sønderborg in Sønderjylland, a Market Town and a Castle

                                                                                       


















  I sometimes forget which posts are in this blog, because I had to delete my old blog about Denmark and start a new last year, but I now see that I haven't told you about some of the southern cities of Jutland like Sønderborg and Tønder.


Well, then I'll start with a lovely day in Sønderborg in May in 2007. The harbour was a wonderful sight with lots of fine yachts and other sailing boats. There was a regatta. I love the colours in a harbour, and on such a summer day they are extra bright and beautiful. The hawthorn was blooming, one of my favorite bushes with their thousands of little white flower heads. That was summer in all its splendour.





Sønderborg castle lay there, close to the edge of the coast, imposant and heavy in the middle of all the easyness of the day. Along the circular shape of the castle run a beach road with cosy corners with benches and flowering hawthorns.The castle dates back from 1169, it was built in order to protect the Danish kingdom from the harrassing Wendic pirates, and sheltered by the castle at Als Sound and Sønderborg Bay grew up gradually a small town, which in 1461 had its municipal rights confirmed. the town became gradually an important harbour at the ferry station from Jutland to the island of Als.

 












Sønderborg castle is now a museum which holds archaeological collections and exhibitions about church art and the history of the city, about shipping trade and the wars in 1848, 1864 and the two world wars. In the castle is the oldest preserved church room in the North from the Renaissance. At the museum is also an art collection.



The castle is by Danes especially known from their history school book. King Christian II was imprisoned here for 17 years (1532-49), and a Danish painter immortalized a scene in a painting, where he let the king walk around a circular table in the castle, where he wore down a groove in the wood. This was all in the artist's imagination - actually the king enjoyed a good portion of freedom and was often seen in the streets of the city. So the school children later lost their illusions.






Sønderborg was like other towns in Sønderjylland and North Schleswig marked by gable houses, but much of it was destroyed under the German bombardment in 1864, and the new houses were extensively built in late classististic architecture. There are many pretty houses from the 1700s. In Sct. Mariæ church are fine woooden carvings from the 1600s.

Sønderborg, the bridge

Sønderborg is known for its yearly "Riding at the Ring"-festival which in the second week-end of July turns the city and the whole neighbourhood upside down.  In connection to the festival are held large processions with ab. 500 horsemen , riding from the castle up through the streets of the town.

Dybbøl Mølle

A few km west of Sønderborg is Dybbøl, one of the most famous places in Denmark's history with Dybbøl Banke, the church and the mill, to where the Danish army withdrew from the Preussians in 1864 to defend themselves from the primitive and unfinished entrenchments. This ended as a catastrophic defeat on 18 April. Denmark lost Sønderjylland until the Reunion in 1920. At Dybbøl are many memorials, the soldiers' graves and other memorials. Here is also a new History Center.

 A lovely place to take a rest!

A little north of Dybbøl is Nydam Mose. Here was found the Iron Age ship: Nydamsbåden, dated to ab. 320 A.D . and the oldest known rowing vessel in Northern Europe. Nydambåden is displayed at exhibition in Gottorp Castle in Schleswig.





Source: Potitikens Store Danmarksbog ; Danmarks Købstæder; Se dit land Danmark.
Photo Sønderborg 20 May 2007: grethe bachmann

The Vikings/Viking Art - The Jellinge Style

The Jellinge Style (ab. 900-1000)

The Jelling cup

The Jellinge style takes its name from the ornament on a silver cup found in the north mound of the Danish royal site at Jelling, in the burial chamber thought to be that of King Gorm (the Old), dated 958/59 from wooden fragments in the same site.







The small cup stands on a pedestral foot and is decorated only around its bowl with a pair of interlaced animals. These beasts are typical of the Jellinge style with ornament ribbons and heads shown in profile. The long pigtail and spiral hip joint are also characteristic of the Jellinge style animals. These animals are descendants of those of the Broa style, by way of Borre. It seems to have evolved during the ninth century and was in fashion for most of the tenth century.




 

Jellinge style brooch from Norway,

 

The Jellinge style was introduced to Britain by Scandinavian settlers. It was used by Anglo-Saxon carvers of Yorkshire, generally in a debased version. There were sculptors in the Isle of Man, where the finely ornamented brooches from Skaill of Orkney might have been made. They were buried around 950 or a little after. On these silver brooches are animals with the characteristics of the Jelling cup, but with the addition of tendril-like off shoots from their bodies, a sign of the metamorphosis into the beasts of the next style, the Mammen style.

Jellinge style harness bow

Upon a harness bow from Søllested on Funen is it evident that the Jellinge style metalworkers followed the Borre style, making cast ornaments imitate the filigree work. But real filigree work is also found on a disc brooch from Tråen in Norway. The Tråen brooch has these animals laid out in the same way as earlier Borre brooches, and the pattern can only be understood by reference to the Borre-brooches, since it looks rather chaotic.

As in the Jellinge style, the heads are shown in profile, the three large granules that form the eyes of the three animals are the clearest guide to the location of the heads. In the manner of the Borre-style brooches from Sweden, the heads are placed above the arched bodies. There are no gripping paws, however, but simply u-shaped feet.

Next: the Mammen style.(ab. 950-1000)

 Source: Moesgård Archaeological Museum, Århus