Chatelaine - a keychain or a mistress of the house

Antique figure with chatelaine

chatelaine jewelry

Named after the French word for "a lady who controls a great house," a chatelaine was the precursor to the keychain, the swiss army knife, the multitool, the tool belt etc. Attached to the waist of the dress, a chatelaine consisted of a series of chains from which hung keys, scissors, pen and paper, eyeglasses, whatever tools a lady thought necessary. They tended to be amazing pieces of jewelry.  Most major jewelers made or sold chatelaines, including Tiffany, Liberty,  Boucheron, Faberge and Lalique.

Chatelaines were quickly adopted by nurses and professional seamstresses who needed their tools handy. Purses were tiny and most dresses didn't have pockets. When pocket watches became all the rage, many chatelaines started out as watch chains with added accessories.

Each chain is mounted with useful household appendages such as scissors, thimbles, watches, keys, vinaigrette and household seals.The chatelaine was also used as a woman's keychain in the 19th century to show the status of women in a household. Similar jewelry was worn by Anglo-Saxon women, as seen from the

medieval chatelaine

burial record, but their function is uncertain. Chatelaines were worn by many housekeepers in the 19th century and in the 16th century Dutch Republic where they were typically used as watch chains for the most wealthy.  Ancient Roman women wore chatelaines with ear scoops, nail cleaners, and tweezers. Women in Roman Britain wore 'chatelaine brooches' from which toilet sets were suspended.

chatelaine Victorian.

The woman with the keys to everything important in the house was "the woman of the household". She was the one who would direct the servants, housemaids, cooks and delivery servicemen and would open or lock the access to the valuables of the house, having total authority over who had access to what. When a woman married a son and moved into his father's house, the son's mother would usually hold on to the keys.  But if the mother became a widow, the keys and their responsibilities and status were often passed to the oldest son's wife. In the case of the absence of a woman of the house, the controller of the keys was often a hired housekeeper.

Dill / Dild - a useful and pretty spice herb

Anethum graveolens

Dill is an annual herb in the celery family apiaceae, and it is the only species in the genus Anethum. Dill is widely grown in Eurasia where its leaves and seeds are used as a herb or spice for flavouring food. Dill is related to fennel and parsley and its leaves are very similar to fennel. The Danish name Dild comes from a Nordic word meaning pjalt (rag), which might indicate that the plant has a Nordic relation from origin, contrarily to all other spice- and kitchen herbs.

Dill originates from Central Asia and the plant grows wild in the Middle East. It was known in ancient Egypt, and from here it spread to Greece, Rome and the rest of Europe. Today dill is first of all used in northern, middle and eastern Europe while it used to a minimum in the Mediterranean.

Dill grows up to 40–60 cm with slender hollow stems and alternate, finely divided, softly delicate leaves.  The flowers are white to yellow, in small umbels. Fresh and dried dill leaves (sometimes called "dill weed" to distinguish it from dill seed) are widely used as herbs in Europe and Central Asia.

Culinary

Dill is a commonly cultivated spice herb and medical plant. It is a magnificent  culinary spice and also used in tea. The young fresh leaves are used in salads and fish dishes and as a ganiture. Later in summer the ripe dill umbels are used as a spice in fx cucumber pickling. Like caraway, the fernlike leaves of dill are aromatic and are used to flavor many foods such as gravlax (cured salmon) and other fish dishes, borscht and other soups, as well as pickles. Dill is best when used fresh as it loses its flavour rapidly if dried; however, freeze-dried dill leaves retain their flavor relatively well for a few months.

Dill seeds, having a flavor similar to caraway but also resembling that of fresh or dried dill weed, is used as a spice. Dill oil  is extracted from the leaves, stems and seeds of the plant. The oil from the seeds is distilled and used in the manufacturing of soaps.

In central and eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Baltic states, Russia and Finland dill is a popular culinary herb, used in the kitchen along with chives or parsley. Fresh, finely cut dill leaves are used as topping in soups, especially the hot red borscht and the cold borsht mixed with curds, kefir, yoghurt, or sour cream, which is served during hot summer weather and is called okroshka. It is also popular in summer to drink fermented milk (curds, kefir, yoghurt, or buttermilk) mixed with dill (and sometimes other herbs).In Scandinavia dill is a common spice/kitchen herb.

In the same way, prepared dill is used as a topping for boiled potatoes covered with fresh butter – especially in summer when there are so-called "new", or young, potatoes. The dill leaves can be mixed with butter, making a dill butter, which can serve the same purpose.


The etheric oil is used in the perfume industry and in some liqueors.

Folk Medicine

Dill was recommended for breastfeeding women, since it stimulates the milch production and secures that the baby will get a better sleep. Dill seeds were often used as a laxative, and dill-water was drunk against nausea, acid reflux, flatulence and other stomach trouble. Henrik Smid warns against the use of dill since it makes people lazy and incapable of sex.  If the flower umbels were hung up by the bed they worked somnolent. Dill in oil was said to be effective against ear ache - and it was recommended as the best means against hickups. The etheric oil has a driving and calming effect. Abscesses from the plague were rubbed with dill.

Dill Snaps

The dill seeds were written in the pharmacopoeia in 1772.

Medicine for livestock:
Dill was used as a prevention against rinderpest. Calves with tympania were given dill-tea. Dill was also used in diseases of the horse.


Superstition:
A young girl should wear dill, when walking in the woods. At her wedding the bride should have dill seeds in her shoes, and the groom should have dill seeds in his pocket. This would make a happy wedding. Valborg-evening 30/4 or Midsummernight 24/6 the cattle was given dill with garlic as a protection against witchcraft. If the dill plant was placed upon the brewing tub the beer was not bewitched. On Christmas night dill and honey were given the cows as a protection against witchcraft. 


History:

Dill has a long history and  is mentioned already ab. 1500 BC in the Egyptian papyrus-rolls . Dill was also used in the Roman Empire and is mentioned here in a collection of recipes Apicius from ca. year 400 BC. The Romans brought the plant with north - later it was also spread with the monks up to Scandinavia.

In Anglo Saxon England, as prescribed in Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England (also called Læceboc, many of whose recipes were borrowed from Greek medicinal texts), dill was used in many traditional medicines, including those against jaundice, headache, boils, lack of appetite, stomach problems, nausea, liver problems, and many other ills. Dill seeds can also be used to prepare herbal tea. In ancient Greece fragrance was made from the leaves of dill. Also, athletes used to spread essence of dill all over their body, as muscle toner.

In 1967 were at the market of Copenhagen sold 1.125.375 bundles of dill.


images from wikipedia 

Source: Klosterurter, Krydderurter i haven, Køkkenurter, Brøndegaard: Folk og flora. 

The Vikings /The Expeditions

Norsemen, Danes, Swedes

The Viking expeditions are grand. They include all of Europe, to the east along the large river-roads through Russia, to the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, to the west along the Atlantic coasts down past Arab Spain through  the strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean. But they also include the wild unknown North Atlantic with the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, even America. 

The three Scandinavian countries had each their own geographic profile externally, and their own political interests. The names Sverige, Norge and Danmark show that each country had memories of old historic life. The name Sverige (Svearike) is the rige of the Swedes, a rige meant in that period a land where a king was the ruler  (= English: a kingdom). It is not a coincidence that the name of the land of the Swedes pointed to the authority and power of a king. The Swedish kingdom existed long before the Viking-period.

map from 1539 with Danevirke

Danmark means the mark (land/field) of the Danes. The old meaning of the name "marc"  = uninhabited borderland.The Mark must in this connection be the land at the south of Jutland's foot, the wild land south of Danevirke, which divided the Danes from the Saxons to the southwest and from the Slavic people to the southeast.The name Danernes mark = Danmark was gradually used in general already before year 900.   The Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great wrote Denemearcan in his foreword to Orosius' world history, and this is the first time the name Danmark is mentioned in the world literature.

The name Norge has an old root, but in a different way from the Danish and Swedish. Norge was also a collected kingdom under Harald Fairhair, but much later than what happened similarly in Denmark and Sweden. The name Norge has a commercial historical meaning. It means "den nordlige vej" (the northern road) or Nordvejen ( the Northroad), an appellation of commercial historical origin. This road was the trade route along the long, long coast of Norway, from south to north and back, a route which is described in the before mentioned king Alfred's document from the late 900s. It was a sea route from the trade center Skiringstal at the Oslofjord, via the seas of Kattegat, Skagerak and the North Sea up to the White Sea, where they fetched sealskin, polarbear skin and walrus-tooth. 

Sea Stallion model of Viking ship on its first voyage Denmark-Ireland.

The face of Norway turned west, towards the great oceans and their islands. It was mostly the Norsemen, who before and during the Viking period braved the immense, icegrey, stormy North Atlantic - and they started their voyage with no knowledge of, what they might meet or find. The Norwegian interest was split in two, the first one expeditons/raids to the southern, starting by a north-Scottish island, which was inhabited by Norsemen at the very first beginning of the Viking period; from here to the coast of Scotland, to Ireland, to the Isle of Man, to all Irish and English coasts around the Irish Sea - from here the Norse expeditions went deep into England from northwest, where they were fighting and competing with the Danes, but the Norse went still farther away, to the northern and southern France and into the Mediterranean - the French part of the expeditions is the same for Norsemen and Danes. The Norsemen's second interest, the northern expeditions went to the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. These expeditions were probably due to the pressure, which king Harald Fairhair put on the Norse earls and free farmers, when he roughly forced them to accept Norway under one Crown in the end of the 9th century. These later Norwegian expeditions across the Atlantic were not raids or piracy, they were more colonization of desolate areas.

Sweden looked to the east. The Swedish expansion had started already in the 8th century (across the Baltic Sea). The mighty Swedish trade developed and branched in a grand manner southwards through Russia to the southern states. The Baltic Sea was considered common area for Swedes and Danes.

Thousand years ago the Viking Ingvar Vidfarne went towards the east. In 2004 a Swedish expedition revived his tour from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, a a wearing tour across sea, mountains and along tortuous roads. The magazine Illustreret Videnskab  was onboard on the almost ten meter long Himingläva.

The Fyrkat house, copy of Viking stone (London stone)

And south of the Scandinavian peninsula was Denmark with lots of islands and the peninsula Jutland, the main land. Jutland had its foot upon the Central European continent, but this did not mean a connection between Denmark and the countries south of the border. On the contrary was Jutland and thereby Denmark  withdrawn from their southern neighbours, the German Saxons to the southwest and the Slavic Obodrits and Wends to the southeast. The Vikings preferred to use the water routes on the sea and the rivers. The Danish interest went therefore not directly to the south, but to the southwest along the Frisian and Frankish coast and towards west to England. To the east was the western part of the Baltic Sea. To the southwest were all the coasts and rivers of the northern France deep into the Danish field - but the Danes did not stop here -  they went farther away and came to the Mediterranean together with Norsemen and Swedes.


Sea Stallion Vikingship Museum Roskilde


Source: Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne,1960; Illustreret videnskab, 2004.


photo: grethe bachmann     

February/Solmonað.

Anglo-Saxons

Before they converted to Christianity and adopted the Roman calendar, the early English (‘Anglo-Saxons’) used a calendar based on the cycles of the sun and the moon. February was known as Solmonað. According to Bede, the name comes from the cakes which they offered to their gods in that month. However, the word sol is not used in any Anglo-Saxon source to mean 'cake'. It's most common meaning is, in fact, 'mud'. Two possibilities arise. Either the kind of cake offered was called 'mud' due to its colour or texture, or, more plausibly (to those familiar with the English climate), February was simply known as 'Mudmonth'.


Month of the Pearl
In Finnish the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl"; a beautiful name describing when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they are like pearls of ice.

Fire and Ice.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost

photo: grethe bachmann

January

Anglo Saxon Wolf Monath

It is exciting to know how people lived in ancient times, and the legends are fascinating reading IMO! I have a soft spot for the Anglo-Saxons and this legend fits for January.

The Anglo-Saxons called the first month Wolf monath because wolves came into the villages in winter in search of food. In Teutonic Europe many pagan people were devoted to the wolf, evidenced in the popularity of Wolf or Wulf in place and personal names: Beowulf, Athelwulf, Wolfram etc. The old Saxon sacred year began with Wolf-monath - Wolf month - and the wolf skin was believed to impart power and healing, while its teeth were worn as an amulet. Cults such as that of the Great Goddess Lupa and Lupa-Kali - an Oriental goddess in wolf form - had many devotees, while the Amazones who worshipped the Triple Goddess had a tribe named the Neuri who were said to turn into wolves for several days each year while a similar tale is told of an Irish tribe.

The 1st of January was a highly significant day in medieval superstitions regarding prosperity, or lack of it, in the year ahead. A flat cake was put on one of the horns of a cow in every farmyard. The farmer and his workers would then sing a song and dance around the cow until the cake was thrown to the ground. If it fell in front of the cow that signified good luck; to fall behind indicated the opposite.

Calennig is the Welsh tradition of New Year gift giving. A Calennig is an apple with three twig legs stuck with dried fruit, cloves and a spray of evergreens stuck into the top. It is a traditional Welsh decoration to give friends and families on New Years day to with them luck during the new year. Placing a calennig on the window sill or shelf will bring luck to the house. Calennig is a Welsh word meaning "New Year celebration/gift," though literally translates to "the first day of the month," deriving from the Latin word kalends. The English word "Calendar" also has its root in this word.

In the beginning of the new year is the time to make New Year resolutions:
1) ?
2) ?
3) ?

I'll think about that to-morrow like Scarlet did!

photo: gb

Watercress/ Brøndkarse
Nasturtium officinale

- a brook almost overgrown in watercress.

Watercress is native from Europe to central Asia and one of the oldest known leaf vegetables. The plant is a member of the cabbage family, related to garden cress and mustard, known for their peppery flavour. It is not related to Tropaeolum, popularly known as "nasturtiums".
Watercress grows mainly in running water, with its long creeping, hollow stalks floating on the surface. The small flowers are white or green - and like many plants in this family the foliage of watercress becomes bitter when the plants begin producing flowers. If unharvested, watercress can grow to a height of 50-120 cm.

Watercress thrives in clean, running water, but can be cultivated in a garden or in a pot. The plant is immensely rich in minerals and vitamins and works fine in the kitchen. Watercress has more iron than spinach, more calcium than milk and three times as much vitamin E as lettuce. It's packed with vitamins A and C, and is low in calories. It is dealed fresh and the young shots are used before flowering. Its taste is spicy and piquante, it can be used raw or cooked in salads, soup, shellfish and as a green sprinkle; suits for Hamburg parsley, pork, champignons, chicken, grill, fish and dressing. The seeds kan germinate like common cress and the dry seeds can be crushed to a mustard. One of Britain's best known dishes, watercress soup, became very popular in the 17th century when it was claimed to cleanse the blood. Watercress was once popular as a tea, freshly made with lemon and sugar. It was drunk as a tonic to ease aches and pains.

NB: It is not advisable to gather watercress out in nature unless it is absolutely certain that no animals are upstreams, especially sheep. People can get a deadly serious infection from a liver parasite. (The parasite dies by cooking.)

The juice from watercress is used in bathing soaps, and the cooked plant in baths for soar muscles. It has a long-standing reputation as a hair-tonic, helping to promote the growth of thick hair when rubbed on the head. Watercress cooked in milk and added honey is used for a face lotion, which keeps the skin soft and brightens freckles. Victorians actually thought the plant could remove freckles, and they also used it as a cure for toothache and hiccups. Eating a bag of watercress is said to be a good cure for a hang-over.


Dollerup Bæk

When Hippocrates founded the first hospital on the island of Kos around 400 BC, he grew wild watercress in the natural springs and used it to treat blood disorders. As a medicinal plant watercress has been traditionally considered a diuretic, expectorant, purgative, stimulant, stomachic and tonic. It has also been used as a remedy against anemia, eczema, kidney and liver disorders, tuberculosis, boils, warts and tumors. It is commonly detoxicating and strengthening by long illness. According to Pliny the smoke of burning cress keeps away serpents.

According to the book "James Cook and the Conquest of Scurvy", Captain James Cook was able to circumnavigate the Globe three times, due in part, to his use of watercress in his sailors diets. Maybe he had read about the Persian king Xerxes who ordered his soldiers to eat watercress to keep them healthy during their long marches. It was also used by soldiers in general to both prevent and cure scurvy. Irish monks were said to survive for long periods eating only bread and watercress and referred to watercress as"pure food for sages". Lord Byron was quoted as saying that watercress "doth restore the bloom to the cheeks of a young maiden". He also called it the "Herb that while young is friendly to life."

Superstition:
Watercress belongs to the Moon. It is connected to the water's elementary creatures, the Undines. If it is worn in a red flannelbag it protects people who sail or flies over water. It gives insight in the nature of water. If watercress is eaten by day peoples' dreams will be more provident, mysterious and visionary. The plant increases empathy and understanding.

Anglo-Saxons swore by watercress potage to "spring clean" the blood. The British vegetarian writer Colin Spencer says that the Romans treated insanity with vinegar and watercress. Roman emperors ate it to help them make "bold decisions". Watercress is believed by many to be an aphrodisiac and in Crete, islanders swear by its powers and ancient recipes are handed down from one generation to the next. The Greeks had a saying that "Eating cress makes one witty". According to Cretan legend watercress grew in the springs of the Dikton Cave on Crete where the god Zeus is said to have eaten the plant to fortify himself against his murderous father Cronos.


"When I ask for a water cress sandwich, I do not mean a loaf with a field in the middle of it.”
Oscar Wilde



photo Dollerup Bæk, 25. July 2009: grethe bachmann

Kyndelmisse/Candlemas/Missa Candelarum

If Candlemas day be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
But if Candlemas day be clouds and rain
Winter is gone and will not come again.
Danish: Kyndelmisse, English: Candlemas,
Latin: Missa Candelarum.
Denmark:
Kyndelmisse was in the Catholic period a celebration of Mary’s purification 40 days after the birth of Christ. Before the reformation the day was used for candle light processions and consecration of those wax candles, which had to be used in the church the following year. In 1770 the Secretary of the Danish Cabinet, minister J.F. Struensee abolished Kyndelmisse as Holy Day together with a couple of other Holy days in Denmark. Even though February 2. for over 200 years has had no official status in Denmark, there are still today several churches marking Kyndelmisse with special candle services and musical services.

The word "KANDELABRIS" carved in runes in chorus.
Mosbjerg Church, North Jutland (try to enlarge picture)
Candle celebrations can be traced back to the 6th century. It was a Christian feast, and the feast of lighted candles is mentioned by Bede, but like so many other holy days the candle celebrations have their roots in folklore. The celebration of Kyndelmisse is the celebration of Midwinter , and February 2. was often seen as the turning point of winter, from where we go towards brighter times – towards spring and summer. In the Catholic church are still Candlemass celebrations with consecration of wax candles and candle light processions in the honour of Virgin Mary.

Newly ploughed field.
Folklore:February 2. was an important day. People reckoned that winter had now half gone. In western Europe this was the time for preparing the fields for the first plant. There was a tradition for a ritual midwinter ploughing , where a young girl went behind the horses and a young guy worked the plough. This was supposed to give good crops. The fields were purified and offerings were made. In England a medieval Anglo Saxon plough charm was said by the farmer while cutting the first furrow:
Whole be thou Earth
Mother of men
In the lap of god
Be thou as growing
Be filled with fodder
For fare –need of men.
When it snows on Kyndelmisse spring will arrive early.
Weather signs were read for February 2., some are similar in various European countries:
A green Kyndelmisse gives a cold Easter.
A dark Kyndelmisse makes the farmer a squire.
If it snows on Kyndelmisse spring will arrive early.
As long as the lark sings before Kyndelmisse, as long she has to cry after Voldermisse (May 1.)
If the lark is heard for the first time on Kyndelmisse-day spring will arrive early.
If a hedgehog can see his own shadow on Kyndelmisse winter will last still 6 weeks.(This is a sign of high pressure, which will take some time to disappear.)
Kyndelmisse-thaw is as good as 100 loads of hay.
In former times people in Jutland said that if the wind on February 2. was so strong that 18 bitches could not hold on to the 19th bitch, then spring would arrive early. On Zealand they said the quite opposite. If it was possible on Kyndelmisse-day to put a wisp of straw outside without it blowing away, then spring was just around the corner.


Kjørmes is an old Danish expression for Kyndelmisse, and the day is often called "Kjørmes-Knud", which refers to that February 2. was considered the coldest day of the year. "Kjørmes-Knud" means hard frost, as if the winter has turned into a knot of frost = a chilblain.
In folklore are descriptions of “Kjørmes-Feast” on February 2., a feast like many others in the peasantry, where everyone brought food and drink. On this day they had pancakes and drank beer or snaps. Other dishes were cabbage in white sauce with pork, brawn and sausages.
People had to eat pork in order to prevent hunger, and it was furthermore good for back pain. It was also a good advice to eat some of the Christmas bread, since it was said to ease the pain from a headache or a viper bite. The tradition of eating pancakes might originate from a pagan tradition of worshipping the sun and the light in spring; the pancake being round and yellow like the sun.

Huldremose (Moor of the Wood Nymph) , DjurslandCeltic:February 2. is halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox and signals the beginning of spring in the Celtic calendar. It was called Imbolc in pre-Christian times, meaning “in the belly” of the mother, because seed were starting to germinate and the sheep were pregnant. This time was sacred to Brigid the Earth Mother and goddess of fire, water, healing, poetry and fertility.
Imbolc was a fire festival celebrated with hilltop bonfires. It was also the day when people stopped using candles indoors because the days were getting longer. The fields were purified and blessed with candle light processions, and offerings were made to the goddess. Yuletide greens were burned and people cleaned and purified their homes. This custom lingers on as Spring cleaning.
Brigid was transformed into the Christian St. Brigit, who supposedly was converted from Druidism by St. Patrick. She remained associated with miracles and fertility. Originally Imbolc was celebrated on February 1., but the Catholic church transformed it into Candlemas on February 2.

photo: grethe bachmann