The Army Road, the Lake District. - and Mushrooms in September

A Taste of Denmark 

 

Smurfs are little blue people who live in magic mushrooms. Think about it.
--Unknown


The weather! I always mention the weather, but it is important! No rain that day. We have had so much rain lately, but we were lucky. First we went to "our" field in Gammel Ry, where we have been a hundred times! It is often an indicator for what is to be seen elsewhere. There were many mushrooms in all three places we visited on this one of the first days of  September, but I have only selected a few mushroom-pictures. 

Common Centaury

Lonely White Butterfly

Wart Biter (click to enlarge)

Nature's Lace

Common centaury (Marktusindgylden) was named after the centaur Chiron, famous for his skill in medical herbs. Other names among many are Bitter clover, Christ's ladder, Feverwort, Rose pink and Thousand guilder herb.

Vrads, cats in the window

Vrads, three horses

At Hærvejen

Karl Johan

Anthill

Hærvejen (Army Road) is a system of roads running up through Jutland, once mostly trade roads, but the name Hærvejen refers to their use for army transport. In the 1100s a Wendic army forced its way up through the peninsula on the army road. The Jutlanders built dikes and fortifications and some are still seen along the road.  As a trade road the road system was known by the name Oxen road. The oxen were lead on the road down to the destination in countries south of the border and slaughtered there. Meat was one of the most important Danish products, and it was swapped with exotic products from the South. Settlements were gradually established in connection to the trade road., and they developed into important centres, like the town Viborg and the royal centre Jelling. The Oxen road is estimated to be about 4000 years old. The written sources begin in the Middle Ages. Today the road is mostly used by tourists, bikers and hikers.

eaten by squirrel or woodpecker?

The mushroom hunters say that this year is a fantastic year for mushroom-picking, it is 30 years since it was that good. The moist climate this summer has made perfect conditions for the mushrooms out there in the forest.  I like to go mushroom-hunting with a camera, but I don't pluck them - only if we find some Karl Johan mushrooms. They are easy to recognize, they look like a upper part of a bun.They are better than chanterelles IMO. And  they make a good mushroom soup. Karl Johan is the Scandinavian name;  Latin: Boletus edilus, in English commonly known as penny bun, porcino or cep. Widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere across Europe, Asia, and North america, it does not occur naturally in the Southern Hemisphere, although it has been introduced to southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand.The western North American species commonly known as the California king bolete (Boletus edulis var. grandedulis) is a large, darker-coloured variant that was first formally identified in 2007.
The mushroom with the red hat is a Russula emetica, called the Sickener. It causes vomiting and diarrhea when consumed. Known from woodlands in Europe, Asia, North  Africa and North America. Can be very common. A study in England and southern Scotland found that the Red Squirrel is known to forage for, store and eat the Sickener.

Hampen lake

The Sickener

Lobelia, stig bachmann nielsen,Naturplan Foto 

Sympetrum

puffball mushrooms

Hampen lake in the lake district of Mid Jutland  is a so-called Lobelia-lake, a calcareous and nutrient-poor freshwater lake with clear water where plants are able to grow on the bottom. Lobelia-lakes are rare in Denmark, caused by pollution with plant nutrients. These lakes are found in heaths, dunes and forests, especially in Jutland,  like Madum lake in Rold forest.  Hampen lake is actually two lakes, a big and a small lake. The big one is a deep dødishul (a kettle hole from Ice Age), the small one is a low inlet with a bathing place. Lobelia: English names include Lobelia, Asthma Weed, Indian Tobacco, Pukeweed, and Vomitwort.

A view to the lake.

photo Mid Jutland September 2011: grethe bachmann
photo Lobelia: stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan Foto

 Folklore
Cyprianus

I once had a simple little book in my drawer at the office. We girls used it when we wanted to interpret a dream. It was very entertaining. The title of the book was Cyprianus. I had inherited it from my aunt, and I don't remember a word from it now, but the book disappeared from my drawer one day. When I read about the dangerous book now, I'm sure it would not be a good idea to steal it, if you believe in magic! So where is it? ´)

Cyprianus is the common name in Denmark of a witch- or witchcraft book. Books like these were spread among people for centuries, either handwritten or printed. The name came from a bishop Cyprianus of Antioch, who suffered martyrdom in emperor Diocletians's rule. He had before his conversion to Christianity been a famous magician. There is no other connection between the book and the bishop than the name.

The Danish Cyprianus has a very mixed content, like magic formulas, magic healing, medical prescriptions and some conjuring tricks for entertainment. And about interpreting dreams of course! But the book was not just an instruction in magic -  it had in itself a strange and dangerous power, and it played a considerable role in the national mind. People also called it den sjette Mosebog (the sixth Pentateuch). The legend says that Moses, after having written the five Pentateuchs, was tempted by the devil to write number six, which was later used for witchcraft.

People said that when you read the Cyprianus, you were able to see the devil himself - or you saw a devil peeping out from each corner of the room. Ignorant people should keep away from the dangerous book. Once, when the owner of a Cyprianus went out, his farmhand took a look in it. When he later was graining corn in the mill, it was suddenly filled with fluttering birds, so he had to take flight. The reason why the book possessed such a power was that it was written in human blood.

It was a common "fact" that people, "who knew more than their Fadervor" (Lord's Prayer), differed from other people. They were suspicious. They went out in the middle of the night when Christian people had to sleep. They went across the field without any reason, and after their walk the corn would not grow. They simply took people's luck. And if they wanted to go into the stable, the farmer had to be very watchful, for they might look at the cattle with an evil eye, and the animals would be sick and die. It was easy to achieve  the title of witch or wizard among people. And if the suspects liked to show their magic power, he or she could strengthen people's suppositions by "demonstrating" their hidden magic talents. This would give them power over people.

 There was a man on the island Læsø in the seas of Kattegat. Per Ajsen was his name. He was a fisherman, a blacksmith and a carpenter. He made coffins. His income was modest and most of the profit was used for snaps and rum. A girl named Tine was a servant in his house. She didn't like to be there. She said that he was a "ræderlig troldkarl" ( a terrible wizard). People, who passed Per Ajsen's house at night, while he was asleep, noticed light in the smitty. Tine was sure that it was the devil himself who was bustling about there. Tine told people that Per Ajsen knew when someone had to die, because his tools began working by themselves. If something was stolen he could tell, what had happened by the help of sieve and scissors. And he was the owner of the sixth Pentateuch! Tine had seen it herself on several occassions, but she had never touched it. Once when Per Ajsen wanted to show the book to a neighbour's wife, Tine saw the red signs and lots of criss-cross squiggles in the book. The neighbour's wife protested wildly. "You must not show me this book! It would not be good for me!" she said.

After Per Ajsen's death Tine was asked about the whereabouts of  the Cyprianus. She did not know. She knew that it was impossible to burn it. Maybe it was hidden down in the earth? The owner had to get rid of the book before his death, and some people were sure that Per Ajsen had hidden it under a three-man's boundary, a place where three boundaries meet. An expert from the National Museum in Copenhagen decided to track down the Cyprianus. He found that one of Per Ajsens' neighbours had got it. His widow still lived there, she said that her children had played with the book. She was not very impressed by the notorious Cyprianus: " It was nothing else but a tiny miserable dream-book, which can be bought in every shop for a penny," she said.

But in people's imagination the little book had grown and was equipped with the original marks of the real Cyprianus. Per Ajsen had done something himself to help loosening the imagination of people. Upon the title page the word Cyprianus was printed in capital letters, and he had painted the letters red with beetroot-juice. It looked like it was written in human blood. These were the red signs Tine had seen. 

Asger Jorn detail from painting

Per Ajsen's Cyprianus is now in the archive of the National Museum. It is not a bibliophile rarity, it is just a simple, cheap leaflet of 50 pages from the 19th century. But it has however a cultural historical value as an evidence of, how a man with small modest means could convince credulous people about his magical power and his abilities as a terrible wizard.   


Source: Skalk, Archaeological Magazine, nr. 2, 1958, Bjarne Stoklund: "Per Ajsens Cyprianus".

     
         
 photo: cattle, dark landscape, photo of painting: grethe bachmann

The American Bison - A Bison Farm in Denmark

Langesø

It was really true. My eyes did not fool me. Bisons on a Danish field! We had seen Danish cattle and Highlanders, Danish horses and Icelanders today, and now the American bison. I had seen European bison in a reserve by Randers, but we soon found out that this was the American bison. I stood close to the fence, but they stayed far away, didn't notice anything at all. It would be so fascinating, if just one of them would come to the fence. Just imagine to look into the eye of an American bison. It would be like looking into the History of the West!

I had to find out more about these magnificent creatures. They are breeded for their meat, and I really do not like to write about this after having seen them grazing so peacefully. But this is hippocratic. I eat  meat at least once a week. Well, ............

There is a small branch of the American prairie in the northern part of the Danish island Funen. 160 bisons are grazing in the soft Funen landscape. Ditlevsdal is an old parish farm -  situated in a scenic place close to the manor Langesø. This is an old Danish idyl but the bisons bring an exotic touch to the whole. I was astonished to hear that you can get guided tours in the summer season, where you'll see the special casing and pens, where the flock is being gathered, those huge animals cannot be caught by a lasso. There are five flocks, each flock with a bull, cows, young animals and calves.



The owners of the farm, Yvonne and Niels Henrik Ove were respectively medical secretary and accountant. They started in 1993 as the first in the North to breed the American bison. Now the bisons mean everything to them. The enterprise has developed from a small farm shop till tourist-visits and a large restaurant  In the summer season the couple arrange activities at the bison farm for children and adults. In July and August is Bison-barbecue each Thursday night. The farm shop is inspired by Native American culture and bisons. Here is sold wine, applied art, souvenirs and of course bison meat which tastes like something between veal and venison.

Ditlevsdal has become a tourist attraction, but Yvonne Ove rejects that the main purpose is to entertain tourists. The Central point is the breeding of the bisons. She also says that one of the vaslues of Ditlevsdal, which must continue, is the animal welfare - they try to handle the animals as little as possible in order to give them as much peace and quiet as needed. So you are not allowed to scratch a bison behind his ear, the tonne-heavy animals are usually very harmless, but they must not be compared to Danish cattle. If they get alarmed they might attack.

Source: Article in Ekstrabladet by Jørgen Lind, 24 Juli 2009.
  
I shall not involve myself in writing a story about the Amercian bison, it' s a complicated history, but I have gathered a few interesting facts from Wikipedia:
The heaviest wild bull ever recorded weighed 2,800 pounds (1,300 kg)
Bison is a  Greek word meaning ox-like animal,
Bison herds are difficult to confine, because they can jump over or crash through almost any fence.
Bison were the most numerous single species of large wild mammal on Earth

Are you really able to jump the fence?

Wow, the bison can jump over almost any fence! I wonder if they know that on Funen?


photo 10 September 2011: grethe bachmann

Paying H.C. Andersen a Little Visit....

                                                                                                                                                                "My life is a fairy tale", said H.C.Andersen. " So rich, so blissfull!"  H.C. Andersen was a multitalent. He wrote his famous fairy tales and his wonderful descriptions about his journeys and his fantastic life, but he also made paper-clips and drawings. His paper clips are funny and odd,  but they also bring some idea about the poet's social and private life. "To clip, this is the first beginning of poetry", he wrote to his friend Dorothea Melcior in 1867. The paper-clips show us his vivid imagination. He was in many ways ahead of his time as a poet and visual artist. He made collages before the idea was invented and experimented with materials like he was experimenting with words. He was able to remember details with an astonishing accuracy, he had a sense of proportions and details, and his literary works make their mark by the very strong formation of pictures, which is why his fairy tales have such a rich history of illustration. All through his life H.C. Andersen had a colossal imagination, he considered it both as a gift of spirit and a disease of the soul.

window mirror

Chinese tourist

He would probably be astonished, if he visited his home and the streets of his childhood today.  He would say: "How pretty! How nice! It's like a fairy tale!".When he was a child, it was actually a slum and not a good place to live in. Today the houses are well-kept and in matched colours, the streets have kept their old pavements and the windows in the pretty houses are decorated in the most delicate way with china and flowers. I would certainly also keep my windows in order, if I lived in that street! Some ourists consider the whole street an exhibition and stare into the windows! Well, only a few. It was not the Chinese family we saw that day. Don't wear high heels. The pavement is a high-heel-killer. But the whole little quarter in the city of Odense is a pretty harmonious place, it's like you're walking in a "time-pocket." Cars are forbidden, you can easily imagine that you are walking in a car-less time!    

alleyway

In H.C.Andersens hus is a museum and also an exhibition of his paper-clips, drawings and collages.

H.C.Andersen Museum

photo Odense 10. September 2011: grethe bachmann

Folklore - The Mother Goddess

Geo Center, Møns Klint.

Our beautiful planete is Mother Earth, also known as the great Mother Goddess in prehistoric time - in various cultures named Demeter, Istar, Astarte, Afrodite. From southern Europe she walked to the German people and to the Celts.

The goddess appeared in many forms in the North, not at least by the Celts. The Moon was one, the Sun another. When the moon was waxing, the period was fertile, and the peasant had to sow, while the springs and trees grew stronger at full moon. It was not advisable to sow, when the moon was decreasing. When the sun went into hibernation, she had to be strengthened at winter solstice by cultic ceremonies, and when spring arrived, she was awoken by spring rituals, typically of a strong sexual character. At harvest people were singing her lullabies, before she went into hibernation again.

Mother Earth appeared in animal shape like other deities. Her most important sacred animal was the Sow. The sow grew fast, was very fertile and round like the full moon. When she appeared as the Sow, she was usually followed by nine or twelve pigs, her priesthood. The goddess, the Big Sow, was sacrificed at winter solstice, when the pig was fattened and slaughtered for the great sacrificial feast. The deity herself was eaten in order to wake up her life forces. This custom is known from other religions, even from Christianity, where the body and blood of Christ is given in church at the sacred supper. Pork roast at the Christmas table is an ancient  phenomenon.


The great Goddess of Earth was worshipped in the North up till present time. One of the old customs was to hide the last sheaf from the field in the furrow. The furrow was the womb of the earth, and the sheaf was a sacrifice to Mother Earth. The sheaf was in other districts hidden until Christmas time. The sheaf was considered as the goddess herself, it was given obscene names, and at Christmas it was sacrificed by giving it to the birds - another continuing custom. 

The Danish archaeolog, professor P.V. Glob wrote a book "Mosefolket" (the Moor People), where he gave a representation of Mother Earth's role in the Danish prehistoric period, based upon archaeology. The finds tell us that the goddess was a dominating female deity from *Bondestenalderen up through Bronze Age. The male influence grows during Iron Age, and in the Asatru the male god Frøj took over some of the functions of the great goddess. The female Asa-god Freja inherited the role of the goddess. She adopted the sow as her sacred animal, and she is called the Sow in myths.

It seems that people held on to the great goddess, not just in Asatru, but also later, when the church was the victor. The Mother Goddess was in southern Europe replaced by Virgin Mary, who was worshipped as an independent goddess, but in the North she never became a goddess of the people in spite of the efforts from the church. The old legends describe women figures, who protected village, life and growth. This figure had  various names, and it seems that she had a central place in the consciousness of the peasant. She was a buxom and motherly protector, and she is often described as a pious and mild, but also a masterful and just woman figure with power over things. She was always on the peasant's side. The old Mother Earth was still earth itself to the peasant, and life and growth were created in the sacred marriage between the goddess and heaven.

The Celtic influence on the Nordic religion is not fully known, but there was a close connection in the great migration-period and Viking period between the North and the Celtic land areas in Ireland and North England. This might explain the strong position of the goddess by the Scandinavian farmer.

The Tollund Man

Who was the strong deity of the Moor? The springs and water streams and brooks gushed forth from the womb of Mother Earth. There was a direct access to the great goddess through the water. This might be the final explanation why moors were a preferred sacrificial place.Several moors - or lakes which they were in ancient times - were sacred places for a large piece of land. The sacrifices go back to *Bondestenalderen, and they seem to have continued for the rest of prehistoric time. The Great Goddess was known and honoured through the whole period. Some sacrifices were invaluable treasures, like the magnificent Gundestrupkar
  , lurerne , or valuable members of the society. (Tollundmanden) . Sacrifices like these must have been absolutely necessary - there was either famine, hostile attacks, epidemics, floods or sand drifts, all threatening the existence -  and people went for the last resort in order to avoid destruction.

*Bondestenalderen = 4000 BC - 1700 BC

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

photo : grethe bachmann 
photo The Tollund Man:  stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan Foto  

Stag's-horn Clubmoss/Wolf's Claw/Ulvefod

Lycopodium clavadum

Wolf's Claw/Stag's-horn Clubmoss/Ulvefod,  LilleVildmose

This genus consists of about 450 species of rhizomatous, evergreen, perennial clubmosses, which may be terrestrial or epiphytic in habit. They are primitive plants, with small, scale- or needle-like leaves, reproducing by spores.The botanic name comes from the word lykos meaning wolf and podion meaning little foot, it refers to the scale-like soft tips of the leaves, which remind about a wolf's foot.

Various English names : Antler Herb / Club Moss / Common club moss / Foxtail / Ground Pine / Lycopod / Muscus Terrestris Repens / Running clubmoss / Running pine / Stagshorn Clubmoss / Vegetable Sulphur / Witch Meal / Wolf's Claw

Ulvefod /Wolf's claw was earlier a characeristic and common plant in Danish heaths and pastures, but it must now be considered very rare in Jutland and at Bornholm and rare upon the other Danish Isles.   

Ulvefod/Wolf's Claw, Lille Vildmose

  












Folk Medicine

The spores of the plant were once used as an antispasmodic means for children and against  hiccups,cough and whooping cough. All green parts were used in liver-, bladder- and gall -disorders. The use of the spores alone dates from the 17th century. According to Mrs. Grieve (A Modern Herbal, 1931), "they have a strong repulsive power, that if the hand is powdered with them, it can be dipped in water without becoming wet". This property is put to use in coating pills, to seal in any unpleasant taste, and to prevent them from sticking together. The Witch flour from the spores was mixed in powder as a means against raw skin and nettle rash. In Cornwall, club mosses gathered during certain lunar phases were historically used as a remedy for eye disease. The plant contains poisonous alcaloids.

Wild collection of Lycopodium species may be subject to restrictions in some areas.
 
Witch Flour
The fine spores make a yellow powder called Witch flour, because it when set on fire burns without smoke. Clubmoss spores are used in sound experiments, being so fine that they vibrate into patterns of sound waves, and also for stage effects and fireworks, since they are flammable. The spores have been used by violin makers as a pore filler.

Stag's-horn Clubmoss, Lille Vildmose

Superstition
Stag's-horn Clubmoss or Wolf's Claw  was considered a magic plant, which was able to protect against witches and trolls. In order to protect oneself against the evil forces you could wear a belt made of  Wolf's Claw on Midnight's Eve. The animals in the stable were protected, if the farmer hung the plant above the stable door.
 

Source: Anemette Olesen, Danske Klosterurter, 2001.
photo Lille Vildmose June 2009: grethe bachmann

Sunday Greetings!

.........from a cute Highlander I met yesterday!
It was a very hot day, so it was probably therefore it stood out there in the water. It kept staying in the same place like a statue. I guess it's still standing there!!

 photo September 2011 Funen: gb
 

The Middle Ages - Go thee to a Nunnery, go...

......the father said to his daughter or the brother to his sister. In the Middle Ages were the unmarried daughters often sent to a nunnery. A young girl, Elisabeth, said to her brother, the duke of Pommeranian that he might better marry her to the poorest knight than burying her in the nunnery. The fathers of those surplus daughters were mainly rich landlords, who paid for the kloster buildings and gave the klosters the sources of income, which were the material base of their existence. It was mostly noblemen's widows and unmarried daughters who entered a convent.


The nuns in the Benedictine convents were surplus women of the aristocracy; but there was a difference between the nuns and the old widows. The widows entered the convent freely; they might have a safe and comfortable old age here. To a young nun the kloster life could be terribly depressing and lonesome, she had been placed in the convent by her parents ever since she was a little girl or a young girl, who was still dreaming about a life with husband and children. But a normal life was not for her. As a nun she had to resign and obey the discipline; the world outside was forbidden land.

Ringkloster

Usually was paid a rather large entry-sum by the parents. The convents had also a good income from the inheritance of the personal property of the deceased nuns. And they had yet another income in receiving the old women, who were not subjected to the discipline; those women or widows transferred their estate to the kloster, which in return undertook to give them food and care. A lady, Bodil Hemmingsdatter, gave farms and land in 12 villages to the kloster, besides a large forest. In return she demanded to have as much food as 3 monks were entitled to, and some good clothing like lamb skin, a skin-robe every second year, and two pairs of night-slippers each year. Most convents became gradually very rich institutions.  The medieval documents from Ringkloster by Skanderborg was examined in the 1970s, and the extent of the estate at the reformation was about 10.000 tønder land (acres) plus mills and eel-farms. The estate was spread over large parts of East Jutland. 

Sebber kloster

All sisters were equal in the convent. The same clothes, the same terms, they slept in a common dormitory with simple beds or in small Spartan equipped cells - and they had their meals in a common dining doom. Only the leader, the prioress, was above the sisters. She had her own apartment and was allowed to have guests at her table. If the ordinary nun had visitors, the conversation took place through a grated window. The nun was not allowed to visit the world, and the world was not allowed to enter the convent. 

Tvilum

The novice made three vows, before she entered the holy society. In a ceremony in the convent she took off her secular clothes in front of the audience and was dressed in the usual simple dress of a nun. She solemnly promised to stay inside the walls of the convent, to live her life in poverty and chastity all her life and to submit to the will of the prioress with unconditional obedience. The intention with these promises was that  the nun renounced all connection to the world. It would not be accepted if she got some new impressions from outside the kloster; no secular possessions or connection to other people or to her co-sisters must lead her mind away from the only significant : the constant and devoted occupation with the Divine. The obedience towards the leader of the convent had to secure orderly conditions and peace in the convent. It brought peace to everybody's soul that decisions were made by someone else.

Helsingør Kloster

The pious sisters had to spend their day with prayers, church services and practical work - and in complete silence. Several times a day common worship and prayers were held in the church. The first service was at midnight, then two daily masses followed, there were confessions every fortnight and communion at least once a month. The convent had its own priest; he might also be the prior - a man who together with the prioress took care of the outwards functions of the convent and managed its estates.  The prioress was a woman, and women were not allowed to meet on the Thing or make business on behalf of the kloster. It became gradually common to let business-experienced seculars  function as managers of the convents. In the time close to the reformation the king gave often the kloster as a vasalry to a nobleman. These vasals unraveled the necessary funds for the daily operations of the kloster, but they often put the profit in their own pocket.

The sisters had to do the housework, but the rough work was undoubtedly taken over by servants. The Benedictine-nuns came mostly from the highest strata of society, and they had probably no wish for cleaning and washing. The convents abroad were often education places. There is no testimony about any education among the Benedictine-nuns in Denmark, but they read the Holy Scripture over and over again, and texts and songs were rehearsed for the church service. Several nuns worked as teachers for the children, who were placed in the kloster to be brought up. This was a learning with a religious purpose, but the children had both reading and writing and maybe music and drawing.

Scissors and needles from Ringkloster

The nuns spent much time doing fine needlework , magnific embroideries with gold and silver thread, especially biblical scenes and the life of the saints. This was also a way to honor God, and this was the most noble duty of the sisters. At the convent Ringkloster by Skanderborg was in excavations found a thimble, two little fine scissors and several embroidery needles.

The supervision of the various functions was shared among the sisters, but the prioress was the highest instance in all matters, both spiritual and temporal. She supervised the work of the nuns, encouraged the pious and diligent, punished the thoughtless and negligent. She decided who was allowed to have a visit or make a journey. The rules were later not that strict. Abesses and prioresses went to church meeting and on pilgrimage. People could meet ordinary nuns in the city-streets or in the country road, often to visit their families. But this created an outrage, and in 1447 the king commanded that a building should be raised by the convent in Ålborg, where the nuns could follow the rules and do their church service, locked up like before, so they could neither go out or be in company with anyone else than church people.

The promise of poverty was not kept either. The Benedictine nuns in Denmark were not poor. A nun's testament from 1292 concerns several monks and nuns, and her own sister Margrethe, who was a nun in Ringkloster. In 1365 two other nuns in Ringkloster inherited a large sum of money. The aristocratic nuns owned probably both fur and silk. The record is probably held by a prioress in Easebourne in England, who in the 1400s brought her convent on the verge of bankruptcy by lavish sociability . She was told by the bishop to sell her furs in order to correct the economy of the kloster.

The ascetic life was softened. The Benedictine rules told the nuns not to eat meat. This rule changed, and they were now allowed to eat meat from two-feet animals. But more happened along the way - also the four-feet animals ended on the dinner table. The finds of animal bones in the excavations at Ringkloster show that the nuns loved pork. From a convent in Lund (Skåne) is a list of what the prior in the late 1400s had to deliver to the nuns:  (usually 12 nuns in a convent) : Beer, four barrels a week; bread, barley, butter, herrings, fish, pork, peas, beans, beef, porpoise-pork, onions, cheese, barley- and oatmeal, salt. Milk from six cows, oil for the Lent, free cabbage-land , barley and oat for the geese. It was not different from what people had outside the convent, if they lived well. (The beer must be seen in connection to the bad drinking water).

The nuns lived like other classy people. They wore furs. They had linen instead of rough underwear , and on cold days they were cosying in the warm room with their needlework. Some of them adorned with fine jewelry.  The rule of silence was forgotten. While sewing and embroidering they might have told each other tales which were not always from the Holy Scripture, and some little kloster virgin might have dreamt about a handsome young knight.    

Stubber kloster

                                                                                   In the middle og the 1400s was made an attempt to bring the kloster life back to the serious earlier ideals. A strong reform movement was established in Germany, and a monk was sent to Denmark. In a convent - probably at Sebber kloster in North Jutland  -  he was received as an angel from heaven, and the convent at Gudum joined him too. But in all other places the nuns were not interested in any changes back to the old rules. They kept under water until the storm was dead and over. But the nuns were not non-religious. They were still very religious people. People in the Middle Ages were religious. The religion was a very important part of daily life - and this crucial importance is difficult to understand by people of today.The whole heavenly hierarchy was a present reality to medieval people. Not only monks and nuns, but common people went to mass or to prayers each day.


At the reformation in 1536 the Saga of the klosters was over and out; their estates and manors were confiscated by the State, and the monks were without mercy kicked out from their klosters and persecuted in every way. But the nuns were noble ladies, and they lived unchallenged in their convents. The noblemen ,who were royal vasals at the klosters, were ordered to provide properly for them by the king. In Stubber kloster in Jutland the vasal had to take care of 12 nuns in 1547. And when Frederik II in 1581 sold Hundslund kloster, the buyer had to provide for two die-hard ladies until their last day.

Maribo

Some klosters were allowed to continue , a continued practical possibility in order to get rid of the surplus daughters and the troublesome widows. The Birgittine kloster in Maribo at the island Lolland was re-established in 1556 into a Lutheranian convent, where the ladies like their predecessors should live a withdrawn life with strict discipline. But it was not possible to go back to the old kloster rules in the protestant Denmark.  The kloster was plagued by scandals and was abandoned in 1621.

Vallø

New foundations were established later for women from nobility in Roskilde, Gisselfeld, Odense, Støvring, Vemmetofte and Vallø. But with a free life.

Source: Archaeological Magazine Skalk Nr. 6, 1972: Nonneliv, Rikke og Olaf Olsen.
    
photos and sketch: grethe bachmann 
images of nuns; scissors and needles from Ringkloster: Skalk.