Rosemary /Rosmarin

Spice Herb

Rosmarinus officinalis.

There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember.” 

William Shakespeare, Hamlet 

Rosmarinus officinalis is an evergreen halfbush which is often sold and cultivated as if it was a perennial. It is cultivated for its aromatic leaves, used in various Mediterranean inspired dishes. The plant contains a strongly fragrant tacky rresin. The leaves are narrow and grey-greenish and the little flowers are pale blue to dark blue . tTe flowers arrive early spring (in Denmark often in March-April). The fruits are nuts, each with an Elaiosome. The roots go very deep with many fine side roots. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae, which includes many other herbs. The name "rosemary" derives from the Latin  "dew" (ros) and "sea" (marinus), or "dew of the sea" The plant is also sometimes called anthos, from ancient Greek, meaning "flower". Rosemary's natural habitat is in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, where it prefers light-open, dry places with a calcareous and nutrient-poor soil. Rosemary is used as a decorative plant in gardens where it may have pest-control effects.


Rosemary in Denmark.

In Denmark rosemary is one of the oldest houseplants, it was cultivated around 1500s and maybe even earlier. In 1559 the king's gardener had to provide rosemary plants for the king's herb garden, and in 1618 were 60 rosemary plants provided for the royal garden at Rosenborg slot. It is told about one of Chr. 4's daughters that she did not tolerate the scent of rosemary since it reminded her of the death of her childhood friend. Rosemary is mentioned in the first Danish garden book from 1647. It was said that it should be planted and cultivated in "posh gardens" . The plant was also a part of the verse in some Danish psalms. Rosemary was used as a houseplant outside in summer and inside in winter, but the cultivation ceased almost completely around 1850, and in 1880 Rosemary was referred to as a rare plant.  


Medicine/Folk Medicine
Christiern Pedersen 1533: wine decoction to drink against various diseases; to smoke the crushed plant into the nostrils against headache and sneezing; a water- or beer decoction of rosemary and 
rue (herb-of-grace) -  or a wine decoction of rosemary against epilepsy. The leaves were eaten as an appetizer. The dry leaves to take with a drink against stomach pain. Crushed rosemary upon haemorroids. Rub black teeth with a powder of burnt twigs.
Henrik Smid 1546: wine decoction of flowers to drive out jaundice, to counteract shortness of breath, stimulate the digestion , this decoction was an antidote, it was cleansing the blood and it was diuretic.  Destilled water from the plant in order to regain a lost voice. Rosemary sugar strengthens the brain and heart and counteracts poison.
Simon Paulli 1648 said:  " this herb is one of the very best for the weaknesses of the head and extremely good to use against strokes, epilepsy, catarrh, weak eyes, dizziness, toothache, pain in the tongue and in the whole body, stitches in the chest, shortness of breath , vomitting, jaundice, colic, flatulence, diarrhea ". Malaria patients were cured with Rosemary oil. The pharmacy had a Rosemary balm, which was rubbed under the nose in times of the plague . 

The rosemary leaves and flowers were written into the Pharmacopoeia in 1772  and in a medical book in 1807.

In the 1700s and 1800s:  rub rosemary oil on the forehead against frenzy. Wine and rosemary for a weak heart ; rosemary as a component in snaps against gout. Tea of rosemary and lemon balm against various diseases; rosemary tea was a good help for the whooping cough. Old peope should bathe their weak eyes with rosemary in snaps; a decoction of rosemary against toothache and against hair loss.

Live stock: horses were smoked with rosemary for various horse-diseases. A decotoion of rosemary drove out lice, mange and scab of livestock.

Other use: Rosemary is used in the kitchen for both food and drink. The leaves are used to flavor various foods, such as stuffings and roast meats. The dry leaves in vinegar and for giving a steak a taste of game .Rosemary oil is used for purposes of fragrant bodily perfumes or to emit an aroma into a room. It is also burnt as incense, and used in shampoos and cleaning products.


Legend/Mythology
According to legend, it was draped around the Greek goddess Aphrodite when she rose from the sea, born of Uranus' semen.  The Virgin Mary is said to have spread her blue cloak over a white-blossomed rosemary bush when she was resting, and the flowers turned blue. The shrub then became known as the "Rose of Mary"

In the Middle Ages, rosemary was associated with wedding ceremonies. The bride would wear a rosemary headpiece and the groom and wedding guests would all wear a sprig of rosemary. From this association with weddings, rosemary was thought to be a love charm.

In myths, rosemary has a reputation for improving memory and has been used as a symbol for remembrance during war commemorations and funerals in Europe and Australia. Mourners would throw it into graves as a symbol of remembrance for the dead.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia says, "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance." (Hamlet, iv. 5.) In Australia, sprigs of rosemary are worn on ANZAC Day and sometimes Remembrance Day  to signify remembrance; the herb grows wild on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Hungary water was first prepared for the Queen of Hungary Elizabeth of Poland to " ... renovate vitality of paralyzed limbs ... " and to treat gout. It was used externally and prepared by mixing fresh rosemary tops into spirits of wine. Don Quixote, (Part One, Chapter XVII) mixes it in his recipe of the miraculous balm of Fierabras.


Music/ TV 
The song "Scarborough Fair " (popularised by Simon and Garfunkel) has the refrain "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" which is also the title of their third studio album.

Rosemary and Thyme is the name of a British TV detective series, starring Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferrim.
Rosemary song by Suzanne Vega, first published 1998 on her album Tried and True. 



Source: Brøndegaard, Dansk Etnobotanik, folk og flora, bd. 4. / Dansk wikipedia /British Wikipedia
photo: wikipedia
sketch: gb

The Trundholm Sun Chariot/ Solvognen - Bronze Age

front side with gilding

The sun chariot (the Trundholm Sun Chariot)  is a Danish national treasure and a uniqe find from Bronze Age made in bronze and gold. The sun chariot is a horse drawing a sun disk. The horse and the disk stand upon the rests of six wheels  - and both horse and disk have eyelets in order to fasten the strings. The sun disk is coated with gold in fine patterns and circular motifs.

landmark/Odsherred municipality

The sculpture was found on 7th September 1902 in Trundholm Mose (a peat bog) in the northwestern part of Zealand in the region Odsherred in connection to the first ploughing of the moor. The finder Frederik Willumsen brought his discovery back home and let his son play with the horse, he thought  it was just an old piece of toy. The sun chariot had however already been damaged once in Bronze Age when it was placed in the moor as a sacrifice to the gods. A metal detector revealed in 1998 new fragments of the six wheels in the same spot. The sculpture is dated by the Nationalmuseet to about 1800 to 1600 BCE though other dates have been suggested. Unfortunately the chariot was found before pollen-dating was developed, which would have enabled a more confident dating. The sun chariot is now in the collection of the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. 

backside with no gilding

The disk has a diameter of approximately 25 cm (9.8 inches). It is gilded on one side only, the right-hand side (when looking in the direction of the horse). It consists of two bronze disks that are joined by an outer bronze ring, with a thin sheet of gold applied to one face. The disks were then decorated with punches and gravers with zones of motifs of concentric circles, with bands of zig-zag decoration between borders. The gold side has an extra outer zone which may represent rays, and also a zone with concentric circles linked by looping bands that "instead of flowing in one direction, progress like the steps of the dance, twice forward and once back". The main features of the horse are also highly decorated

The gilded sun disk is placed upon the sun chariot and the chariot noves from left to right towards the sun during the day The opposite side of the chariot lacks the gilding on the sun disk -  this is the darkened sun at night on its way back from right to left to its starting point at sun rise, so the sun chariot illustrates with the two different sides the movement of the sun during day and night.

A Sun Horse in Mindeparken in Aarhus /photo gb.

People in Bronze Age did not believe in human gods as is known from the Viking period. They worshipped powers which preserved nature, powers which arranged for the rebirth of the day each morning and the rebirth of the planets each spring. They worshipped the sun as a divine power. The sun gave life and light at day, made the plants grow and the corn ripen in the summertime. It was necessary that the sun's travel across the sky continued day after day and year after year. The sun chariot was an image of this travel -  and it is possible that the priests of Bronze Age used it in religious feasts to show how the horse was drawing the sun across the sky.

The sun chariot is a witness of the religion of Bronze Age. The sun was center of the religion. People  in Bronze Age imagined that the sun was being drawn across the sky in the daytime. In the morning a fish brought the sun to a ship which carried the sun until noon. The sun horse took over and brought the sun to the afternoon ship. At evening a snake brought the sun back to the underworld which lay below the flat earth. Down here the sun was dark and it was by night ships brought back to the starting point in the morning where the fish once again took over. Thus the cycle of the day was kept for all eternity by the helpers of the sun - the fish, the horse the snake and the ships.

petroglyphs/ Grevinge

The conceptual world of the sun chariot is supported by several petroglyphs and decorations upon razors, upon jewelry, weapon and tools.Both in the petroglyphs and on the razors the horse is drawing the sun in a string, the wheels on the Danish sun chariot do actually not belong to the story. The wheels were added so the sun disk and the horse in ritual ceremonies could be drawn forth and back to make an image of the solar motion. By examining over 400 bronze artifacts the Danish archaeologist Flemming Kaul found out that the figures show the Bronze Age man's experience of the eternal travel of the sun.  All these figures and creatures were not only found in the Danish Bronze Age but were also a part of the religion of Egypt and large parts of Europe at that time. In Denmark the Bronze Age people had contacts to people far away -  they exchanged wares and got the popular bronze in return for amber and fur.

Sól and Mani, drawing by Lorenz Frølich 1895

Norse mythology. 

Despite the enormous gap in time, between varying sources, particularly Norse mythology, known from 13th AD century sources, the distinct reference of the sun being drawn by chariot is found in Norse mythology. Many attest that the Norse myths were preserved orally for an unverifiable time period before being written down, similar to the Vedic texts. In Norse mythology, Sól is the personified goddess of the Sun, the corresponding Old English name is Siȝel, continuing reconstructed Proto-Germanic Sôwilô or Saewelô. The Old High German Sun goddess is Sunna.. Every day, Sól rode through the sky on her chariot, pulled by the two horses Arvak and Alsvid. The sun chariot has been interpreted as representing a Bronze Age predecessor to the goddess. The chariot has also been interpreted as a possible Bronze Age predecessor to Skinfaxi,   the horse that pulled Dagr, the personification of day, across the sky.






Source,   Gyldendals og Politikens Danmarkshistorie, bd. 1, "I Begyndelsen";
samt Wikipedia dansk og engelsk og Nationalmuseet, København.     


photo fra Wikipedia, Wikimedia,
photo Solhesten, Mindeparken, Aarhus: grethe bachmann          

The Raven is a Clever Bird....

The raven might be the brightest of all birds , the myths about it are manifold. The raven was the messenger of the Nordic god Odin -  it was also aboard Noahs Ark, from where it was sent out to find land after the Flood.


After being almost extinct in Denmark for about 100 years the raven has now taken the old land in possession. The raven has a weight of about 1 1/2 kilo and a wing span of about 1 1/2, which means that it is the largest passerine in Europe. When you see the raven from a distance it looks as if it is black as coal, but if you look closer the plumage is more metal shining with a bluish sheen and greenish hues. The older the bird is the more metal shining feathers.

 A scientist and photographer had made a photo hide in the late winter, where the birds really need some food, and he had put out some baits for his models, the birds of prey and the crows. The first hungry birds were the crows, then came the buzzards and the seagulls. Suddenly came the golden eagle - and then he really got busy with his camera. It is rare to be that close to one of the great eagles.

But the raven kept away from the hide, it had discovered that someone was sitting inside under these camouflage nets. The guy had been there an hour before sunrise in order to "fool" the birds, but the black bird had fooled him instead. All the other birds were munching away, while the ravens were hovering above the feeding site and the photo hide shouting its krårk, which can be heard far and wide. He never got his close-up of the raven. His opinion is that the raven is the only bird whom he suspects being able to reason and figure things out.







In the Nordic mythology Odin used the ravens Hugin and Munin as observers. Hugin was the thought and Munin was the remembrance. This was a thousand years ago and there was a great deal of respect around the raven back then. It was a symbol of power, sharp senses and wisdom. Before Dannebrog came down from the sky in 1219 as the oldest national flag in the world, the Danes used the Raven Banner, a red cloth with two black ravens representing the national symbol of the Danes. The raven was a sacred bird.

Yggdrasil and ravens, Silkeborg Museum

Odin depict on a helmet, 7. century. wikipedia.

From the middle of the 1800s the view of nature changed in Denmark, and the raven was brought down with it. Together with raptors and largely all carnivors the raven was excommunicated and violently pursued. The wise black bird was virtually eradicated in the Danish nature, and it has not come back to its old land until the latest decades. But it came back in honor and dignity!  The Danish breeding population of ravens is today more than 1000 pairs and there is probably place and food enough for twice as many.




The raven, the raptors and other carnivors were in the 1800s indirectly victims of some high political changes, which contributed to feed a new approach in many Danes. The time of the land reclamation had taken off . A large part of the Jutland heath was cultivated, and furthermore came the comprehensive drainage of the "useless" wet areas. The new view of nature divided birds and animals in vermins, who had to be killed and useful game who had to be protected at any price. It was a kind of household philosophy. Raptors, ravens and other predators were shot, caught in traps, poisoned and had their nests destroyed. Shooting prizes were given for dead and unwanted birds and mammals. During only half a century several species of raptors were extinct in Denmark - and the raven held barely out.




The pheasant from Southeast Asia had an impact on the raven and the raptors, when this colourful fowl was introduced in Denmark as a hunting object in the 1800s. The hatred grew of the species who ventured to eat some meat now and then, and the omnivorous raven took of course a dead or wounded pheasant, if it got the chance. The raven has a secondary job in the renovation of nature.






In the 1950s were as far as known only about 10 pair of ravens in Denmark, most of the nests were in the southern part of Jutland - and it was from here the raven spread up through Jutland. It is now breeding in the main land of Jutland except in the outernest dunes at the west coast. The ancient bird of the Nordic gods has also won a terrain on the Isles, but it is shy and sceptical everywhere. It might take generations for it to get the distrust out of the body and achieve the confidence in the most dangerous mammal on earth, Man.






Source: 
Ravn til Gavn. Som sendebud og sladrehank, Jan Skriver, Natur og Miljø, nr. 1, 2013, Danmarks Naturfredningsforening

photos of ravens: grethe bachmann, Vilsted sø, 2009. 
photo: Silkeborg Museum: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk 


 EXTRA:
I have found the most wonderful Japanese blog about ravens and crows. If you are interested try to see this:

www.avesnoir.com/yata-garasu-the ravens-of-japanese-myth

Grethe ´)

The Vikings - the Old Religion.

The world before the new religion. 

Bjørn Nørgaard: The Viking Age. Tapestry, Christiansborg Castle

Ygdrasil, Silkeborg Museum

The Midgard Serpent, Silkeborg Museum

Johannes Gehrts: Valhalla

Iceland gave with  Vøluspa and Snorre Sturlasson great literature and a magnificent insight into the old religion of the Vikings. The ancient myths in the Edda,  all very different and from everywhere, old legends and religious traditions, foreign and local ideas and thinking, the story of the figths of gods and jotuns, the æsirs and the vanirs' pantheon. In the center is the residence of the gods, Asgard, where the major god Odin has his Valhalla with 640 gates and from where he in his high seat looks across all creation, and here is the bridge Bifröst, the trembling rainbow, that divides heaven from earth. Around the disc of the earth lies the ocean with the big monster, the Midgard Serpent, and by the faraway shores stretches the homeland of the Jotuns, Jotunheim with the castle Udgard. Under the disc of the earth is the kingdom of death, Hel. And in the corner is the mighty ash, Ygdrasil, in itself a worldly image of good and evil, of joy, sorrow and pain. Mighty is Ygdrasil. Its crown reaches the sky, its branches overshadow the earth, its three roots reach Hel and Jotunheim and down under Midgard, the world of humans. At the trunk of the ash is the spring of the god of wisdom, Mimir and the spring of the goddess of fate, Urd - in the branches sits the eagle, and between the eyes of the eagle is a hawk, paled by wind and weather; at the root of the ash a snake gnaws, and between the snake and the eagle a squirrel brings evil words up and down. Four deer bit off the young buds of the ash, and the trunk is rotting along the side. Indeed  - the ash Ygdrasil suffers more than humans know. But the norns give solace at Urd's well, where they pour water over the ash each day to prevent it from drying out. And the bees are nourished by Ygdrasil's honeydew. Upon a sacred place at Urd's spring are the gods gathering at the Thing, and here live the highest norns, the goddesses of past, present and future, Urd, Verdandi and Skuld. In the middle of the world, above the humans, lies the residence of the gods, where the families of the æsirs and vanirs live.

Dagfinn Werenskjold: The Norns, Oslo Town Hall.

Ragnarok

Johannes Gehrts: Ragnarok

Lorenz Frölich: Heimdall.

Nothing exists forever, and when the gods have worked through their time, the final is near where everything and everyone shall pass away. The great poet of Vølvuspá describes life's final, and Snorre Sturlasson completes the picture. First evil times will come among humans, all desires are out: sword time, wolf time, whore time, brother and sister beget children and brother kills brother. The cocks crow in the halls of Odin, in Hel and in the sacrificial grove. Horror and scary grows, the time of the big monsters has come. The hellhound Garm howls, the Fenrirwolf is loose from his chain, his gap reaches from earth to heaven, the Midgard Serpent whips the ocean into foam and spits venom across the earth. The jotun Hrym comes across the ocean in the ship Naglfar, built from dead men's nails, and the Muspelsons sail out with Loki as their leader. The ash Ygdrasil is trembling, the sky is breaking, the rocks are falling, Jotunheim is rumbling, the dwarfs are whining. Odin scouts, Heimdall blows in his Gjallarhorn, the bridge Bifröst breaks, the jotun Surtr rushes forward with his flaming fire. Then comes the world's last great duels between gods and monsters.The Fenrirwolf swallows Odin, but is killed by his son Vidarr, who tramples his gap into bits with his heavy shoes. Thor kills the Midgard Serpent, but only walks nine steps before he falls and dies, poisoned by venom. Tyr and the dog Garm kill each other. Heimdall and Loki kill each other. Surtr kills Freyr and burns everything with his fire. The sun turns black and the stars go out. But hope lives. Earth rises from the ocean again. Two blameless among the æsirs, Balder and Hoder, return and live guiltless upon the golden Gimli. The eagle flies across the roaring cataract. A new sun shines over a new world.

The last words gives a clue about a new and victorious religion, the replacement of the ancient belief. Christianity is not mentioned at all, but the old religion feels and predicts its own final. It is all a great death- and resurrection drama.

The Gods
Odin

Arthur Rackham: Odin

Frölich-Lundbye-Skovgaard: Odin

The religion of the Nordic Vikings was polyeistic. They believed in many gods. Odin was the highest one, a magnificent, demonic, terrifying, sadistic figure. He is obsessed with a devouring craving after wisdom and he sacrifices his eye for it; he is merciless, capricious, callous, he is the god of war and of killed warriors. He owns the spear Gungnir, the self-renewing goldring Draupnir, the eight-legged black horse Sleipnir; he is guarded by his two wolves, Geri and Freki, and he receives news from everywhere by his two ravens Huginn and Muninn, (Thought and Memory). He consults the severed head of the wise Mimir, he discovers the runes and knows their power, he hunts in the night with his entourage across mountain, forest and field, he appears on the battlefield and for those dedicated to death as a tall, one-eyed figure, swept in a long, wide mantle and with a broad-brimmed hat. Odin is also the god of the scalds, he is the manager of the mysterious assignation, the great pathos, the rage of the soul. And he knows about witchcraft and Seid. Nothing in mind and soul is strange to him, he is the god of great people, he's an aristocrat and a dangerous god. To describe him as an Allfather might be true if he leads the seat among the æsirs, but if the Allfather is meant to be fatherly, loving and protecting, mild and understanding, then Odin is not the Allfather. His clientele among humans are kings, earls, chiefs, wizards, poets. Whoever is killed in the battlefield in Odin's name is brought by the valkyries to Valhalla to be incorporated in his incalculable crowd of warriors, the einherjars, who will assist Odin when Ragnarok comes. In order to reach his great purpose, the collection of all knowledge and wisdom , of all secrets and all hidden truth Odin will never miss anything, evasion, cunning, breach of promise; if he's hard to others he's just as hard to himself,  he covers a wide field, from cynical generosity till a Dionysian roaring of ferocity and ecstasy.


Thor

J.H. Füssli: Tor

Frölich-Lundbye-Skovgaard: Thor

There is a big distance from Odin till the next æsir god, his son Thor, the redbearded power guy with his goat-drawn chariot and his electric hammer, Mjölnir. He's the democrat where Odin is the aristocrat. If Odin takes care of the upper-class, Thor is the popular god. And if Odin might lack humor Thor has got plentiful of it. There are numerous myths and anecdotes about Thor, this strong and faithful protector of the Viking farmers; Thor, the big brawler - and the thunder rolls when Thor rushes above the clouds with his goat team. He is irrestible wherever he comes, eager to fight and with his hammer in his hand. But he is not cunning or sly. That's not his ways. The jotuns, who know about witchcraft, often bring him in trouble, but he always manages in the end. The Vikings invented colourful and wonderful adventures about his exploits: he fetches the giantic beer-vessel at Jotunheim, he fetches his stolen hammer, he goes fishing the Midgard Serpent himself, he experiences the weirdest adventures at the king of the jotuns, Utgarda-Loki, where he brings with him the sly Loki - without much luck anyway.  The farmers in the Viking period did like and understand Thor, he was important to the farmer,  he was the manager of crop and wellfare, he was the god of farming, and he seemed more necessary than Odin himself. It was Thor, not Odin who had to "vie runerne" ( bless the runes). It was characteristic that the heathen Vikings in the early Viking period chose Thor's hammer and not Odin's spear as a strong sign against the Christian cross. Thor was a more general god than Odin, he was invoked by many kinds of people, beside the farmer also by the blacksmith, the fisherman and the captain on the sea. He was closer to people,  more down-to-earth and familiar than the incomprehensible and remote Odin.

Tyr, Balder, Heimdall, Ull.

Frank Dicksee: Balder's Death.

Tyr is brave and frank, he loses a hand when the Fenrirwolf is being tied up, and he fights the hellhound Garm during Ragnarok. There is not much information about Tyr except that he's a main god together with Odin and Thor. He was possibly mostly worshipped in Denmark in the Viking period. The handsome blonde god Balder has a special position among the æsirs. He is son of Odin and Frigg. He is helpful and friendly, he has difficult dreams, his death is tragic, his ceremonial cremation, nature's complaint, the attempt of the æsirs to save him from Hel, Loki's evil trick and plot - the whole tale about Balder is a famous piece of the art of storytelling.  Another æsir is Heimdall, the god with the Gjallarhorn, he is alert, sharp-eyed and responsive, he is the watchman of the gods and the guardian of the bridge Bifröst. The god of hunting is Ull, a master of the longbow and of skiing. There are no myths about this deity.

The Vanirs

Bjørn Nørgaard: Freya

Three deities who are not æsirs are Njord, Freyr and Freya. They are vanirs and they belong to another and maybe older family of deities, they are representatives of a half surpressed religion, competing with the æsirs. the working area of Njord, Freyr and Freya is erotica, growth, breeding power, sensuality. They are ancient fertility gods. Njord is the god of seafaring and wind, and he gives prosperity and fertility. Freyr, Njord's son, is the god of intercourse, he is one of the most important gods in Norse paganism, he is highly associated with farming and weather. He has a statue in the temple of Uppsala , where he is fashioned with an immense phallus. Freya, sister of Freyr,  his female counterpart; her domain is love and fertility, she is a generous deity, she has a waggon drawn by cats, she is the death goddess of women, but half of the fallen warriors from the battle field are dedicated to her. The vanirs were very old in the North; they might be earlier than both Odin and Thor,  probably even before Tyr.

Loki

Arthur Rackham: Loki

The last god among the æsirs is Loki, half god and half devil; he was son of a jotun and a jotun woman, he begets three terrible monsters, the Midgard Serpent, the Fenrirwolf and Hel. Loki is sarcasm and corrosive satire, never humor, he knows about cunning and malice, but never about friendship, he can hurt, tease and hit and his attacks on all deities are without any mitigating elements. Loki is the psychopath among gods; he amuses himself by hurting people. He has like all intelligent slanderers a sharp eye for the weak points of his victims, and he owns all nuances of wickedness in his hatred of morality. But he's got a weak point himself. He is venturing too far and meets the catastrophe.

Carl. J. Bilmark: Uppsala hovet

The Cult.
There is not much knowledge about the Viking cults, the heathen services or the heathen temples,  only  few informations exist, partly archaeological, partly from literature, from Adam of Bremen, Tietmar of Merseburg and Snorre Sturlasson. There was a flowering heathen assembly in the big temple in Gamla Uppsala in Sweden. This temple was the heathen center and the strongest fortification against Christianity. It was dressed in gold outside and inside, a golden chain  hang above the roof, and the building was shining far away across the plain, where it was built. The plain was surrounded by mountains in a circle, like a theater. Inside were three statues, in the middle of the hall was Thor with Odin and Freyr on each side. Priests were assigned to the gods, they came carrying the sacrifice gifts from the people. If sickness and hunger threatened, they sacrificed to the idol Thor, if war to Odin, if a wedding had to be celebrated the sacrifice was for Freyr.

Carl Larsson: Midvinterblót

Sacrifice

J. I. Lund: En Offerscene (Sacrifice)

Every ninth year was a common celebration in Gamla Uppsala. Living male creatures, humans, horses, dogs were sacrificed, nine of each, nine was a significant number. The blood of the victims had to reconcile the gods, the bodies were hung up in a grove close to the temple, humans, dogs and horses among each others. A Christian described how he had seen 72 bodies hanging in the grove. Close to the temple stands a large tree with branches stretching broad and wide, it is green both winter and summer, and no one knows what kind of tree it is. There is a spring where sacrifices are done, living humans are lowered down into the water, and if they don't come up, people's wish will be fullfilled. A sacrifice feast, celebrated each ninth year in January, is described in Lejre at Sjælland. 99 humans and 99 horses were sacrificed, and also dogs and cocks; these sacrifices had to give people protection against evil powers and to work as an atonement for evil deeds. A heathen holy sacrifice feast is called a blót. There was a blót feast in Trøndelag in Norway, where all peasants had to come and bring beer and borsemeat. The walls of the celebration hall were smeared with horseblood outside and inside, fire was lit on the floor and the horsemeat was cooked and distributed. The food had to be consecrated to Odin, Njord and Freyr and to the god Brage.

The Lesser Gods. 

Ethel Larcombe: Elves

But people also sacrificed to lower divine creatures like to the disirs and the elves. The disirs were secrecy female creatures, and it was best to keep on good terms with them and not neglect sacrificial gifts. The disirs warned about death and had to do with the worship of the dead; they protected the home and the crop of the field. The disirs were not always friendly, people were often afraid of them. The elves was the name of some lower deities, they were not exactly gods, but they were worshipped in house and home as protecting creatures. Other invisible creatures who lived close to humans were the vættirs and small trolls and pixies, but there was no actual worshipping of them.
 
Primitive cults.

Freyr, Swedish, Bronze

In isolated districts existed some primitive cults, described in a poem from the Edda called Volsapáttr (the chapter about Vølse) - this happens in the northernest Norway upon a lonely farm with six people, a farmer and his wife, their son and daughter and a thrall and a thrall woman. Vølse is the cut phallus from a horse, whish is kept carefully; the farmer's wife has conserved it with onions and herbs and swept it in linen; each evening the Vølse goes from hand to hand, and everyone talks to it in the form of a short spoke. This has bow become a custom, but one night king Olav the Holy arrives unexpectedly with a couple of travelling companions. He ends the phallus cult by throwing the Vølse to the farm dog and teach the family about Christianity. Cults and cases like this were not unique in a primitive Nordic peasantry.
 

Harald Bluetooth's rune stone in Jelling.

Christianity arrived and replaced the old religion; the heathen customs were forbidden or re-shaped into Christian customs. This did not happen in one blow, people kept on being loyal to the old gods and using the old customs for a long time, before they had accepted the new religion. The Christian church was relatively patient and wise, Freya was gradually replaced by Virgin Mary, and various Saints did fill in where it was needed. Everything clicked. Christianity had come to stay. Harald Bluetooth raised the great runestone in Jelling, Denmark's birth certificate. But this was actually meant for all of Scandinavia, although it is not certain that the farmer family in the northernest Norway had given up their primitive cult yet. Communication was a long-winding process at that time, and even in a little country like Denmark were isolated places, where people had not yet heard the latest news. Odin and Thor and the other Nordic gods were still alive for a long period, until they finally faded out. These ancient gods have experienced a certain revival during the latest years, which is quite astonishing. The history and the old legends about the Norse mythology are exciting and interesting and they can really catch the interest of almost everyone.

"The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it. The present is here, live it".       

GB


Source: Johannes Brøndsted : Vikingerne, Gyldendal, 1960.

(click to enlarge pictures, especially the Carl Larsson: Midvinterblót).

Collection of pictures from Norrøn Billedkunst: Dagfinn Werenskjold, Bjørn Nørgaard, Lorenz Frölich, Frank Dickee, Ethel Larcombe, Arthur Rackham, Johannes Gehrts, J.H. Füssli, J.I. Lund, Carl Larsson. , Carl J. Bilmark
Photo Silkeborg Museum: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk.  

Winter Aconite /Eranthis

Eranthis hyemalis

Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) is one of the earliest bulbs to bloom in spring. This plant in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), native to Asia Minor and Europe, has small flowers that resemble tiny buttercups. The solitary, yellow cup-shaped flowers are surrounded by bright green bracts that look like a collar around the blossom. Eranthis is growing on forest floors and using the sunshine available below the canopy of trees before the leaves come out; the leaves die off when the shade from tree canopies becomes dense, or, in dry areas, when summer drought reduces water availability. They are popular ornamental plants grown for their winter or early spring flowering.

All parts of the plants are poisonous, though the very acrid taste makes poisoning a low risk.If you have small children or pets that are likely to dig in the garden you may not want winter aconite in your yard as the entire plant, but especially the tuber, is quite poisonous and may cause nausea, vomiting, colic attacks and visual disturbances.

This ground-hugging plant works well in rock gardens, flower beds and woodland gardens. The flowers first appear in the sunniest spots, just before the first snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) begin to bloom. They can look charming together planted in the border or naturalized in the lawn. Winter aconite is good for naturalizing under trees and large shrubs. They combine nicely with hellebores and echo the flower color of Forsythia and witch hazel (Hamamelis). Because of their small size, they are best planted in groups.

When growing in conditions it likes, winter aconite reproduces easily and spreads readily to form large colonies – almost to the point of being invasive. Lift clumps while still green to keep under control, if desired, or when overcrowded. To propagate, divide the clumps after flowering or collect seeds to sow in the fall.

In Greek and Roman mythology, Medea tried to kill Theseus by poisoning him by putting aconite in his wine, in that culture thought to be the saliva of Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guarded the Underworld. Hercules dragged Cerberus up from the Underworld, while the dog turned his face away from the light, barking and depositing saliva along the path. The saliva hardened in the soil and produced its lethal poison in the plants that grew from the soil. Because it was formed and grew on hard stones, farmers called it 'aconite' (from the Greek akone, meaning 'whetstone').


Photo Forsthaven 2009/2010: grethe bachmann

Spring in Advance
"Now I shall go and buy hyacinths" says a sweet little spring song. The scent of hyacinths is wonderful. It is just like standing in the middle of spring a long time before the sun begins to give us some warmth, and one of the best ways to survive the long and dark winter. The hyacinths are for sale in December and in January they mark the transition from winter to spring.

In Greek mythology Hyakinthos was a young man admired byApollo andZephyr,but killed by a discus in a jealous fight between the two gods. The flower was allegedly named after him when it sprang from his blood.

It has a long history of cultivation as an ornamental plant, grown across the Mediterranean region and later France(where it is used in perfumery), the Netherlands(a major centre of cultivation) and elsewhere. The Garden Hyacinth flowers in the early spring. They grow best in full sun to part shade in well-drained, but not dry,soil. It requires a winter dormancy period, and will only persist in cold-weather regions. It is grown for the clusters of fragrant, brightly-coloured flowers. Over 2,000 cultivars have been selected and named, with flower colour varying from blue, white, pale yellow, pink, red or purple; most cultivars have also been selected for denser flower spikes than the wild type, bearing 40-100 or more flowers on each spike.

The plant is pollinated by different insects such as honey bees. The flowers are very fragrant and attract the insects as rewarding them with nectar.

H. orientalis contains alkaloids and is toxic if eaten in large quantities. The bulb, however, is the most poisonous part and should not be ingested under any circumstances.

And now it is high season for tulips - not in the garden but in the gardeners' hot houses. It's a luxury to buy a large bouquet of tulips and bring it back home.

The tulip origins from Turkey and Persia (Iran) where it was a popular and cultivated plant long before it came to Europe. Tulip bulbs and seed arrived to the European countries in the late 1500s. Those lovely flowers are in so many colours and shapes that it must have been wonderful to experience the first unknown bulbs in bloom. The history says that an Austrian envoy in Constantinople sent tulip seed and bulbs to Vienna in the middle of the 1500s. From here the tulip spread to Germany, France; Netherlands and England. The colourful bulb-plant became quickly popular by the European nobility, but it was rare and very expensive. Tulips became an investment object with no parallels and beyond reason.

In an old garden lexicon is an example of a trade with tulips: For one bulb of the sort Viceroy is paid two load of wheat, four loads of rye, four fat oxen, two fat pigs, 12 sheep, two hogshead wine, a bed with linen, a suit and a silver cup - all valued at 2500 guilden. This was crazy and called "tulipomania" - and this disease raged first of all in the Netherlands in the period 1630-37. Then the prizes rattled down - the tulip was willing to reproduce.

The tulips came to Denmark after 1900,but it has become one of the most popular cut flowers in this country.

Have a Nice Day!

Dyer's Broom/ Farve-Visse
Genista tinctoria



Dyer's Broom is also named Dyer's Greenweed. It has pretty butter-yellow flowers and it grows all over Europe where it is found in heaths and fringes, along roads and the edges of woods and in light oak- and pine woods. All parts of the plant are poisonous.

The plant was always used for dyeing linen and wool, already the Romans knew these qualities. Dyer's broom provides a useful yellow dye which is fast, and it was grown commercially for this purpose in parts of Britain into the early 19th century. The woollen cloth mordanted with alum was dipped yellow with dyer's broom. In England linen and wool were dyed yellow with dyer's broom, then dipped into a vat of blue dye - woad or later indigo - to produce the once famous Kendal Green, which was superseded by the brighter Saxon Green in the 1770s. Kendal Green is a local common name for the plant. With an after care with iron-sulphate the dye becomes dark brown and with copper sulphate olivegreen.

In Welsh mythology Blodeuweed is the name of a woman made from the flowers of broom, meadowsweet and the oak by Math ab Mathonwy and Gwydion to be the wife of Llen Llaw Gyffes. Her story is part of the Mabinogi, the tale of Math, son of Mathonwy.

A traditional hymn from Sussex says:
Sweep the house with blossed broom in May
Sweep the head of the household away.
Despite this it was also common to include a decorated bundle of broom at weddings.

Ashes of broom were used to treat dropsy, while its strong smell was said to be able to tame wild horses and dogs.

In folk medicine dyer's broom was used for numerous diseases like many other herbs. Besides this it was used as a coffe-substitute and a culinary herb. The plant is poisonous so they might need a treatment after a cup of coffee or a spray of broom-spice on the dish!



photo Trehøje, Mols 11. July 2009: grethe bachmann