Easter Customs in 16th Century's Scandinavia.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Netherlandish proverbs.

 
A Time of Change. 
Easter was not only a Christian celebration in the 16th century. Many customs were influenced by the early Middle Ages and before that, both by ancient Norse mythology and ancient pagant belief. It was not easy for the Catholic church fathers to handle or "rule" the Scandinavian people during Easter, considering all those various opinions and old customs. In some desolate districts of Norway the customs were still of an ancient origin and still very much alive, and in all of Scandinavia people still believed in witches and witchcraft. But when the reformation arrived in the middle of the century everything changed. This was the end of the Middle Ages. A time of change.

The Quiet Week. 

Ghirlandio: St. Jerome

Although the fasting-time was abandoned since the reformation, there were still old-fashioned people, who maintained the ancient customs around Lent - even people in the next generations who knew nothing or little about the Catholic period. But although people in general did not take it so seriously, it was very characteristic that nobody held a party, wedding or alike between Shrovetide and Easter. The last week before Easter was called "the quiet week",  and on Palm Sunday were some religious customs with inauguration of palm leaves or of flowering willow twigs. It was not easy to get hold of palm leaves in Scandinavia. But these customs disappeared quickly as soon as the Catholic church fathers  said good-bye after the reformation. The quietness and the gravity from before were more obviously seen in tne names of the Easter days: Palm Sunday, Blue Monday, White Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday.


Cabbage and Loke's Sleigh.

Loke

Contradictions met at Maunday Thursday. Folklore fought between light and darkness on this day. The bright sides of the day were first of all the power transferred to the only green plant which had survived winter, the cabbage. Nine cabbages cooked together protected against disease and other evils in the year to come, nine various cabbages or herbs, plucked and gathered in the morning and cooked together. The air had a healing power on that day. If the clothes were hang out in the air they would be freed from the moths, and the bedlinen would be freed from the fleas.  In Telemarken in Norway they had to do a little more work to free the bedlinen from the fleas, they had to plait three strings to help the god Loke's broken sleigh. Every Maundy Thursday Loke came with a load of fleas and since the load was heavy his sleigh broke, and if they did not assist him, they would not get rid of the intruders in their bedlinen the whole next year.


Malicious Witchcraft on Maundy Thursday. 

Medieval drawing.

Maundy Thursday was influenced by some sinister witchcraft. This day was similar to other wellknown witch-days - Valborg's Day and Midsummer's Day - and everyone who did not safeguard himself against the evil was higly exposed to danger. In a socalled "clerical law" from Christian II's time the magistrate ordered to closely watch all, who were suspected of witchcraft. But it was not easy to watch the elusive witches, when they in the dead of night on Maundy Thursday rode on a broomstick to their meeting-place. The safest precaution and protection against the witches was to fasten steel above the doors, put steel into the bed and with the cattle, and to spread axes and iron wedges upon the newly sown fields. Furthermore they had to remove the fourth wheel from the plough, so the witches, who planned to ride the plough, would fail. But it was impossible to keep oneself completely safe from the powerful and malicious witchcraft. A witch, Ingeborg Bogesdatter in Högalöff in Sweden, confessed in 1618  ( most probably under torture) that she had stolen a calf, put a bridle on it and rode above the forests, fields, mountains and waters to Blåkulla, where she took part in the witch-feast. Before her airborne journey she had been so sneaky to blow wind into her nightgown and made a skin in her own looks, whom she laid down beside her husband. Young witches did not need any mount or traffic tool. They had power enough by themselves to rise in the air and fly away.

Ringing the Bells, Finding the Witches.

woodcut 1700th century

The best way to avoid all this witchcraft was to ring the church bells. Still in the 19th century people rang the bells in Smaaland in Sweden each "Dimmelonsdag" ( "Ringing Wednesday") in the evening after sundown and the next morning, on Maundy Thursday, before sunrise. People knew that the witches wanted to whip the church, a very  dangerous witchcraft to the church and to everyone. So they wanted to ring down the Easter witches. There are many stories about this.  A Dean's servants rang the church bells, while three witches flew above the spire. They fell down, but changed skin and transformed into goats. The three goats run up into an old birch, but a man next to them cut one goat in the foot, and since then an old woman in the neighbourhood was limping, and no one doubted that she had been on her flight to the feast of the witches. In another case the downfallen witch transformed into a white sow. Three Easter witches, who had been rung down just before they had to whip the church, were found downside the church, quite naked. People were able to examine the witchcraft in their neighbourhood, if they used an egg, which had been laid by a hen on Maundy Thursday. It was best if this was the very first egg the hen had ever laid.  If they brought the egg with them to church in their pocket, this might be good enough, but the best way to discover the witchcraft was to look through the egg in the sunshine when they came to church. Then they would be able to see among the churchgoers exactly who was a witch and who had been out flying the night before.

Queen Elizabeth I and the Foot-Washing.

Hilliard: Elizabeth I

In England was celebrated a special act in the 1600s, which is still used in some Catholic countries. A number of poor people were gathered at the palace, and queen Elizabeth had to wash their feet. The cleaning was rather thorough, since everyone, before meeting the queen, was being washed by a washer woman, then by the subordinate of the charity-man and at last by the charity-man himself. When the gospel of the foot-washing had been read, the queen washed everyone's feet the fourth time, assisted by a noble lady. The humbleness of the queen increased with the years, this was indicated by the numbers of the poor which corresponded to the queens' age. 39 poor  people had their feet washed in 1572.  After having finished the washing, the queen kissed them, gave each one both money, clothes, food and drink and a towel and let them go at sunset.

Whipping, Weighing and Salt-cookies.  
After the sinister Maundy Thursday the Dark Good Friday came. (Danish: Langfredag). No one was allowed to be happy on that day, and the fasting and the self-torture reached a peak. In some places in Norway everyone had to be whipped with rods in the morning, no one had anything to eat until the evening, and they had to use all their strenght and torture themselves with overwhelming work. The conditions were just as strict in Denmark, the priest at court let his children summon into his study each Langfredag , where he flogged those poor little kids, so they could feel how awful the Saviour had suffered on Good Friday.  A reason for a punishment was, if someone did not pass the fasting-test. In many districts people had to be weighed, and if they had not lost weight after the Lent this indicated clearly that they had not respected the fasting - and they had to be punished. In some districts people knew how to prepare themselves for this test. On the first weighing before the Lent-period  they put sand in their stockings and pebbles in their pockets to get a better result and to avoid punishment on the second weighing. The fasting was also extended to the livestock. On Good Friday the cattle did not get their usual fodder, but only what was found in the forest and in the field, and humans had the humblest meal in the evening time, usually flour-porridge or eggs in a mustard sauce. In some districts they remembered how thirsty Christ were on that Friday, and before bed-time they had to eat three salt-cookies, which of course evoked an unbearable urge to drink water during the night.

Food-Blessing and Mass

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Wheat Harvest.

Next day, Easter Saturday, the preparations for the happy time finally started. In days of the Catholicism the priest blessed the food and sowing seeds of the farmers, and this continued for a period after the reformation. The blessing still took place in 1566. People came with all kinds of food, rye, barly, oats; the priest blessed it and read a special prayer, a mass was held in the evening and the farmers were now sure that their food and corn were secure for the whole following year. But both the food-blessing and the mass were later prohibited by the bishop of Sjælland. (Zealand). People were now forced to be content by celebrating the Easter Saturday inside the walls of their own home with the old feast-dishes, sweet porridge and soft-boiled eggs.

Dancing Sun and Evil Smoke. 

di Paolo: Angels dancing in the Sun.

The Easter Sunday was entirely a happy festive. People were up and about from early morning to watch the sunrise, to see the sun play and dance with joy upon the sky.  Only in a few places some sad superstitions were connected to this Easter morning. In a Norwegian district the farm-people were afraid of lighting the fireplace, they believed that the smoke from the house meant they would be plagued by predators. They were later persuaded to forget their fear, but they were still cautious; instead they used nine kinds of wood and a wooden spoon, the ear of a pot, a broom and gunpowder and sulphur to light the fire. In this powerful way they intended to cleanse the chimney from the infection, which had been there since the night of Maundy Thursday, where the witches flew through the chimney. Even the smoke was infected. Everyone went out to see where the smoke went. If the smoke went towards the church, it was an omen that someone in the house was a coward and was soon to die.

Agnus Dei silver jewelry.

Easter Lamb and Agnus Dei.

Lam with cross, church North Jutland/gb

A Christian custom was the distribution of the socalled Easter lamb. In the beginning of the 16th century when the Catholic church was still the ruler, this distribution took place in the old-fashioned manner, the priest gave or sold after the mass on Saturday Evening the churchgoers some inaugurated Easter lambs made of  wax; they were considered to be some secret means against all evil. But their miraculous power made people wish to own them in a better material than wax and to carry them always. A custom evolved, where rich people wore an Easter lamb in silver or gold in a chain around the neck.  The jewelry in the chain was like a medal or a coin with the image of an Easter lamb. Jewelry like this was given the name Agnus Dei, and it was very popular both in Scandinavia and in Europe in general. But after the reformation the custom with the lambs were  just as unpopular as the other custom-rests from the Catholic period. The wax lambs disappeared together with the mass on Easter Saturday, or they were inaugurated secretly, until the custom went into oblivion. In Denmark most of the Agnus Dei-jewelry was probably lost during the next century. The silver and gold lambs were still worn openly, but the meaning was soon forgotten. The thirty-year war and the wars between Denmark and Sweden swept away all the old gold and silverware, and towards year 1700 there were only few Agnus Dei left. In the 19th century the old Easter lambs entered the market again, not in wax or as a jewelry, but as some kind of playtoy in sugar or cotton with an attached crossbanner.

Easter, Oster and Ostara

When people came home after the church service in the Easter-period,

Two devils with eggs, National Museum by Kornerup.

they spent their time with all kinds of fun. A special Easter pleasure was the  Easter eggs. They were like today, coloured eggs, usually red, blue, yellow, sometimes with inscriptions. They were used as gifts or in various plays.  The most common play was to let them roll down a hill. The players had to touch or crush the shell of the other down-rolling eggs. In Germany and England was also another play, where the eggs were hidden in "hare-nests". The use of Easter eggs is one of  the oldest known and most spread feast-customs. The blessing of food on Easter Saturday, which in Scandinavia was about both eggs, food in general and seeds, was in the southern countries only about eggs. In the Roman and Greek-Catholic church the Easter began with the enjoyment of eating the inaugurated Easter eggs. And Easter eggs were known from Scandinavia to Egypt,  from England to Persia and Siberia. The eggs were since time immemorial a symbol of the introvert and yet vigilant, fertile, emerging life, and it could as well be used as a sign of spring or resurrection. The English "Easter" and the German "Oster" both origin from the old Saxon word oster = to resurrect. But if it is referred to the resurrection only, then this is weakened by that the ancient Germans worshipped a goddess of spring named Ostara. Her name is connected to the East, to the dawn.

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Source: Dagligt liv i Norden det 16. århundrede, Årlige fester, Projekt Runeberg, 1914-1915. 

Letters with Love Knots and Riddles

 

Bindebrev from 1600s

A Bindebrev was a letter, used in Denmark between the 1600s and 1800s, which had to bind or tie the receiver. The letter had some verse and a silk cord with a lot of knots attached. The idea was that the receiver had to loosen the knots, and if this was impossible, then the receiver was bound to hold a party, give a kiss or whatever it might be. The point was to bind the knots so tight that it was impossible to loosen them. The letter was binding from the moment when the receiver touched it the first time, and the sender had to sneak it into the hands of the receiver.
  

 a letter like a love knot

The binding letter was connected to a person's name day (they did not celebrate their birthday, but only name day in the 1600s) or it could be used at one of four special days during the year called tamperdays. The binding letters came to Denmark from Germany and were known and used since the 1600s.  It was difficult to make contact between the sexes at that time, and the binding letters were originally love letters. The knots on the silk cord were called love knots.  The letters were often very artful and decorated with colours, flowers and verse. A  bindingletter is known from Christian IV to his mistress Karen Andersdatter.

how to begin

a very fine gækkebrev

They were replaced by the gækkebreve. A gækkebrev is a specific Danish tradition from Easter. It is a letter cut in paper in a fine symmetrical pattern. The name gækkebrev is connected to the flower vintergæk (English snowdrop), and besides containing a riddle, a verse or a poem the letter often has a fine pressed flower of the pretty vintergæk. A gækkebrev is sent anonymously with dots instead of letters . "Mit navn det står med prikker. "(My name is with dots) - and often a little Easter poem is added. The poem might be a few sentences or nonsense verse or a more poetic verse.


Gækkebreve are mostly used by children today. When those Easter letters replaced the binding letters they were still used by adults, and the love knots were cut like complicated paper clip, where the pattern fx formed several hearts. The receiver had three guesses to find the name of the sender and if he or she  hadn't guessed it after three attempts, they had to give the sender an Easter egg. 

The word gække : 
To gække means to trick or to fool , which also lies in the word vintergæk, the flower which tricks summer and is in full bloom in winter. To gække each other is to trick each other in a playful way.

If you could not guess the name of the sender, you were a gæk (fool) - and if you had forgotten to attach a vintergæk, then you were also a gæk. But there were many variations. 
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Eurasian Treecreeper/ Træløber

Eurasian treecreeper

Certhia familiaris
The Eurasian Treecreeper or Common Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris) is a small, insignificant bird and has a curved bill, patterned brown upperparts, whitish underparts, a broad, white eye-stripe and long stiff tail feathers which help it creep up tree trunks. The spread of the treecreeper is the northern, eastern and central Europe and eastwards through Russia and Central Asia to the Pacific Coast and Japan. The treecreeper appears especially in hardwoods and parks, but also in older coniferus forests, the species is especially numerous in old nature-forest, where 20-40 couple can breed pr. km2. The treecreeper is relatively mobile and is found all over the Denmark, including most small islands. During the last decades of the 20th century it was during expansion, especially in the northern Jutland and upon the western Lolland. This might be connected to the mild winters of the 1990s and partly an ageing of the north Jutland forests, which made them more suitable for the treecreeper.

alder swamp

The Eurasian treecreeper can be most easily distinguished from the similar Short-toed treecreeper, which shares much of its European range, by its different song.The name refers to that it runs upon trees, where it is fishing insects from the furrowed bark with its small, curved beak. Unlike the nuthatch the treecreeper only runs upwards, when it seeks food. It is almost identically in appeareance with the short-toed treecreeper, which also breeds in Denmark, but the short-toed treecreeper is not as common, and it's mostly spread in the southern part of the country. The two species have very similar requirements for habitats, in spring there are sometimes fierce territorial battles between them. In the field they are best separated by their voices. The treecreeper's song is a light strophe in a falling pitch with an abrupt rise to finish, while the call is weak, uniform strophes in a high pitch.

The treecreeper is a strejf-fugl which means that it is roaming inside its area without being a migration bird. It stays in Denmark in winter, where it is often seen in mixed flocks with tits. Birds from northern populations are seen in migrations, especially on the island Bornholm, in spring and autumn. In cold winters the treecreepers often overnight close together to keep the warmth, and in very hard winters the mortality is high. The overwintering means that the treecreeper already in the end of February starts the breeding-activity, and the singing is at its highest in the middle of March. It begins to build the nest in late April, and it is typically placed in holes in old trees or under large pieces of loose bark.

alder swamp

The food of the treecreeper is insects, insect-larvaes and spiders, which it finds under the bark of the trees. Since the density of insects is highest in old trees with a knotty, rough bark, the treecreeper especially seeks its food in trees like oak, ash, fir and alder. It has a very characteristic way of doing this. It starts from the bottom of the tree and moves upwards in a spiral around the stem, while it's moving its head from side to side to find insects. When it has reached the top, it flies down again and starts the research in a new tree.
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Breeding couple in Denmark in 2000: 15.000-25.000

Source: Natur og Fugle, Dansk Ornitologisk Forening 

photo Klostermølle 10. March 2012: grethe bachmann

Earth Hour 2012

Sweet Flag/ Kalmus

 Acorus calamus

















 

photo Gudensø: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk
In the foreground Kalmus and højt sødgræs (Glyceria) out in the water vandpileurt (Amphibious bistort).In the background bathing guests.

Acorus comes possibly from a Greek word meaning without, chore means pupil, referring to the medicinal use of the plant. The Danish name kalmus is Latin, and the same name is used in Germany and Sweden. The name kalmus origins from  the 1200s, from the older name calamus meaning tube or pipe.  Most used English name according to Liber herbarum is Sweet Flag. Other names: Calamus, beewort bitter pepper root, Myrtle Flag, Sweet Calamus, Sweet Myrtle, etc.

Kalmus has a thick white rootstock and sword-shaped 40-100 cm long leaves, the small flowers sit in a green bulb, "like little needle-houses". The whole plant has a strong spicy scent. It's found in Denmark in ponds by lakes and water streams. It is sometimes confused in non-botanic literature with German iris and reed. Kalmus likes to grow in water, best along water streams, but the plant can easily thrive in moist soil. It rarely produces flowers in Denmark, and it is reproduced by the outlets.

The species is said to be brought from Asia minor(Constantinople) in 1557 to Europe, where it reproduces only with loose rootstocks, but it was known in Europe long before as an imported droge (medicine) from India, and it might already have been brought from Baltikum in the Middle Ages to the Danish kloster- and castle gardens. In the 1600s it was both wildgrowing and plant in fish ponds. The roots were used for medicine, and descendants from kalmus have been found in several kloster- and castle ruins.



Cancer 
It has been discovered that the etherial parts of the plant can cause cancer, and the plant is prohibited for internal use in Denmark today.


Today's Use: 
The dried and pulverized root is now only used as a fixative in potpourris, since it holds on  to the scent of the other dried scent herbs. Internal use of kalmus was prohibited by den danske levnedsmiddelstyrelse in 1977.



 Folk medicine:
1300s: decoct as a drink for liver and bowl disease; boiled and put in a compress upon abscesses; cures old cough.
Henrik Smid 1546: pickled roots against stomach ache and coldfever (malaria); eaten in the morning for evil and poisonous smell - and it gives a fragrant breath; it is diuretic, it heals disease in blatter and kidneys, it crushes blatter stone and promotes menses.
Christiern Pedersen 1533: decoct to drink for heart trouble; the crushed root in wormwood-water as a drink against stomach diseases; pulverized kalmus together with the juice of mullein (kongelys) against haemorrhoids.
Simon Paulli 1648: The juice works as a diuretic, helps the spleen, "which is hard from evil mucoid and salten fluids", makes impure eyes clear; the roots pickled with honey and sugar is "an extremely wonderful and good healing for cold stomach and cold head", katarr and cold diseases; furthermore against cough and heart's distress and anxiety, bad breath is driven away, in times of plague it makes the air healthy; pulverized and drank in chervil-water to drive out the sweat in order "to loosen the blood which has gathered after blow and impact".

Medicine and Good Advice:  
The rhizome is a component in an appetizing vinegar-drink, (1600s); and it was very used in stomach tonics, put on snaps against colic and used to stimulate digestion; a decoct against stomach ache and a tea from the root to regulate the gastric acid. The droge (bought at pharmacy) was still used  in the 1900s against indigestion. If it was added to snaps together with the root of elecampane (alant) and angelic, then it became "the wise man's snaps" against heartburn, the root was also used against arthritis; together with the root of European birthwort (slangerod) and angelic in rum against chest disease (tuberculosis) and cough; a wise woman let her jaundice-patient drink snaps with kalmus root, and "it had to be drunk by a full moon".

The rootstock was noted in the pharmacopoeia in 1772, and its reputation as a highly invigorating and strengthening medicine caused a big sale of the droge. Det kongelige landhusholdningsselskab ( a union of farmer households) rewarded in 1814 a man, who had gathered 1251 pounds of kalmus- and angelic roots for the pharmacies, and in the late 1800s large amounts were gathered in the river Gudenå by Randers.


If it was very cold, people did chew a piece of kalmus root and sank the juice (1789);  the root was chewed against toothache - or the sore tooth was rinsed with a decoct of water and vinegar, the last drink was also used against scurvy, and the gums around loose teeth could be rubbed with pulverized kalmus root and china bark.

If people were afraid of being infected from patient visits, they chewed a piece of kalmus root; this promoted  a large portion of saliva, "therefore it is used as a means against infection". In 1800 it was said to be enough to walk with the root in the pocket. Kalmus was chewed against infection during "The Spanish Flu" in 1919-25.

Cattle and Horse.......
If the root is thrown into the water, the animals stay healthy. The kalmus root is included in a complex cure "from ancient times" against cattle diseases, and especially if the cattle is bewitched. If the cow is able to stand up in spring, kalmus root and pepper is put into a scratched wound; kalmus was used against abortion of the calf, used together with juniper or the root cooked with juniper and resin in beer. If the cow gave blue milk,  it was given kalmus and cumin in chalked water, and if the milk was without cream, the cow had a powder of kalmus and lovage root, mixed with slaked lime dissolved in water.

A horse who has "stepped over" = sprained the hoof joint, is bathed with a spirits-extraction of the root cut in  cubes, the extract is also poured over the bandage (ab. 1900). It was given for the pig's vomiting, and was the part of an advice against defects in geese. The veteranians used the root as a stomach and appetizing tonic.


 
Other use:
In order to protect the harvested corn and the heaps against mice and rats, fresh cut kalmus roots or leaves were placed upon the barn floor and/or between each layer of sheaf. It was recommended to plait a cornband of the leaves, since the mice could not cut them; the root or leaves could also be placed in rooms and spread on the floor against fleas, or put into the mattress to keep away the fleas. "Who did not sleep in kalmus root in the old days?" This plant was extremely popular as a bedstraw, and it was harvested in numbers and sold to the citizens. Kalmus mixed with carbamate (hjortetaksalt) was used to drive out ants. Many Jutlanders chewed the root instead of chewing tobacco.  "He's smelling of kalmus root, of smoked lard and fish",  is told in an old song. The children gathered the bittersweet rootstocks to chew them.

The hay bundles were tied with kalmus band, which could last for 10 years, reed mats made from the kalmus leaves had a strange smell. Sour beer would be welltasting, if kalmus root was put into the barrel, (1600s). The root was also used for smoking against bad smell in rooms.

Food and Drink:
A jam from the root is mentioned from the 1500s till the 1800s. It was often put into snaps as an extra taste and it was the part of many herbal snaps, stomach bitters and liqueurs.  (like Benedictine liqueur and chartreuse).

Superstition
If you put a piece of the root into a wash bowl or a water tank, it could rinse the water from toxic substances. The root was also used as a sacrifice to the gods.

Source: V. J. Brøndegaard, Folk og Flora, Dansk etnobotanik, Rosenkilde og Bagger, 1980; Anemette Olesen, Danske Klosterurter, Aschehoug  Dansk Forlag, 2001.
photo Gudensø: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk
photo and photo copy: grethe bachmann

From wikipedia: 
Use in other countries:
In Britain the plant was also cut for use as a sweet smelling floor covering for the packed earth floors of medieval dwellings and churches, and stacks of rushes have been used as the centrepiece of rushbearing ceremonies for many hundreds of years. It has also been used as a thatching material for English cottages.
In antiquity in the Orient and Egypt, the rhizome was thought to be a powerful aphrodisiac. In Europe Acorus calamus was often added to wine, and the root is also one of the possible ingredients of absinthe. Among the northern Native Americans, it is used both medicinally and as a stimulant. It is believed by some that calamus is a hallucinogen. This urban legend is based solely on two pages of a book written by Hoffer and Osmund entitled The Hallucinogens. To date there is no solid evidence of any hallucinogenic substances in calamus. Acorus calamus shows neuroprotective effect against stroke and chemically induced neurodegeneration in rat. Specifically, it has protective effect against acrylamide induced neurotoxicity.The essence from the rhizome is used as a flavor for pipe tobacco. When eaten in crystallized form, it is called "German ginger". It's also used in bitters.

Zephyrus and Chloris

The kalmus has long been a symbol of love. The name is associated with a Greek myth: Kalamos, son of the river-god Maeander, who loved the youth Karpos, of Zephyrus, (the West Wind) and Chloris (Spring). When Karpos drowned in a swimming race, Kalamos also drowned and was transformed into a reed, whose rustling in the wind was interpreted as a sigh of lamentation. The plant was a favorite of Henry David Thoreau,  (who called it "sweet flag"), and also of Walt Whitman, who added a section called the  "Calamus" poems, to the third edition of Leaves of Grass (1860). In the poems the calamus is used as a symbol of love, lust, and affection. The name Sweet Flag refers to its sweet scent (it has been used as a strewing herb) and the wavy edges of the leaves which are supposed to resemble a fluttering flag.  
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Bog Arum/ Kær-Mysse

Calla palustris

Bog Arum is native to Denmark and other European countries, northern Asia and northern North America. It often grows in large stocks. It is seen here and there in bogs and fens, it is a characteristic plant of  raised bogs. The Bog Arum has a characteristic inflorescence, where the flowers sit together in a yellow-green bulb, surrounded by a white spath. The plant is also known by the name vandkalla/ Water Calla, because it is similar to the Kalla-flower (which also belongs to the Arum-family). Other names are Arum lily / Calla lily / Water arum / Water dragon / Wild calla. The Latin name  ”Calla” was by the ancient Romans used about another, unknown water plant. The name palustris means "growing in swamps."

In the autum the inflorescense is changed into a bulb of crimson berries. The leaves are heartshaped and shining lightgreen; leaves and inflorescense sit upon fleshy, lightgreen stalks, which form the juicy rhizomes. The plant cannot be confused with any other Danish plant. The whole plant and the berries are poisonous, it has a high oxalic acid content, but the rhizome is edible after drying, grinding, leaching and boiling. In Viborg, Jutland, it was in 1795 recommended to use the dried, crushed roots for flour.

Large stocks of bog arum can both form a *hængesæk out into the water or be spread upon land. It is therefore necessary to take care and not walk among the plants, since there is often water down under.

 
*Hængesæk:  A socalled hængesæk is a society of plants, formed by entangled roots and stalks, which grow in the surface of a bog or across open water without connection to the bottom. The stock of plants might be so close that the water below the plants are not sensed. Old hængesække might carry the weight of a human, but not everywhere. It can be highly dangerous to walk out upon a hængesæk, a person can fall through and down under the plant cover.

The flower is polluted by insects, and the seeds are spread by birds, who eat the berries( the plant is hardly poisonous to the birds). It seems like the spread in Denmark is mostly vegetative, since pieces of the rhizome are introduced to other localities by water birds. The bog arum in Denmark is common in northeast Sjælland (Zealand) , but it is rare in other parts of Denmark. It is now and then seen plant in garden ponds etc.


The Danish name Kærmysse: 1793, the syllable mysse might origin from Norwegian myr = mose/moor. It was also called water-ginger in Denmark, since the root and seeds tasted like the spice ginger, and it had the name kalla in many connections, because it looked like the kalla-houseplant.



Some plants from tropical Africa, often termed "calla lilies", have now been transferred to the genus Zantedeschia and should not be confused with Calla palustris.


Source: 
V.J. Brøndegaard, Folk og Flora, Dansk etnobotanik, Rosenkilde og Bagger, 1980. Danmarks fugle og natur, Felthåndbogen, 2012; haveabc, Danmark; Liber herbarum.  

photo: Aqua Mose, Silkeborg 2009: grethe bachmann

Djursland - on the first Week-end of March

 

The fields are definitely more green now, this first week-end of March. It's lovely to see the snow has gone - until further notice. You'll never know when it comes back. You'll just have to enjoy this day with almost 10 degree Celsius. The horses are out in their grazing fields , but they are still wearing an overcoat, except the small ponies and the Icelandic horses with their thick woolen fur. They don't need an overcoat, they never freeze. Denmark is not a challenge to them, they are used to something colder. Well, most of them might be born in Denmark. Iceland will not have other horses "imported" than the purebred Icelandic pony; they want to keep the unique Icelandic horse "clean".

We came to a place after a  village Stabrand where we suddenly discovered a large dolmen out in the field. There are lots of dolmens and hills in this district, but this one was unique. The table told us it is  called the Ildbjerggård-dysse. It's 5.000 years old, from Stone Age,one of the finest in East Jutland. What is also interesting today is that the earth in the dolmen has mostly not been touched since Stone Age, which might result in interesting finds. Between the village Stabrand and Nødager is another dolmen close to the road,  called "Mejdkirken", from the old Danish word Meje, meaning midday time. It is told that the priest of Nødager and Feldballe parish, which belonged to the same priesthood, always passed the dolmen at midday , therefore the name Mejdkirke. This round dolmen is a fine representative of the Danish Megalithic tombs 

A very short summary from a very long report from Naturhistorisk Museum, Århus:  Among many other finds was a new insect species discovered in a Bronze Age grave hill at Skelhøj in 2003. The only place in the world it has been found is in Denmark in a couple of gravehills. This indicates that these insects are prehistoric relicts, which have survived since the hill was digged 5.000 years ago. The soil conditions in the gravehills are unique in the Danish landscape, and the gravehills are therefore  worthy of preservation of the highest degree.

More stones, this time used to build a stable. I like that pretty stone wall. Yellow is a good colour for a house. People in the town of Skagen are familiar with yellow houses. The halftimbered building in black and white is  a stable, it's a well-know building people pass on the country road. It belongs to Skærvad manor. The pretty main building lies close behind the stable. Skærvad origins from the 1300s, and the owner since 2007 is Lone Moldrup, who's a very nice and creative person, not a usual "Lord of the Manor". She lives at Skærvad Hovedgaard with her husband and 6 children. She's a very energetic woman, who has started various activities, also for children. I have included a photo from Skærvad  in 2009, when it was being renovated.

 

The farmers were busy, there were tractors out on each field, they had to use the good weather.  Two buzzards were on their wings, it was a good day for them too, they could rest and sway upon the windy air. And here was a very old house by the edge of the forest. Odd to imagine that someone lived there once, maybe it's a forester's house. It will soon be completely demolished, and no one will be able to see that here lived people, maybe a family for many years.  In a bush out in the next field was a light buzzard, or should I say a blonde buzzard?  Well, the birds' migration has begun little by little, but it's not the big day yet. It might be a migrating bird this one. The photo is blurred, sorry.

 

 

Some horses next to a church were dressed very warmly, overcoat and more than that, one horse had some strange clothing around the neck. I think it was embarrassed, the other horses were laughing, I'm sure! The red house was my grandparents' house once. It is now neglected and dilapidated, and I don't like to look at it. I don't know the people who live there, and the village in itself is not the wonderful village I remember, so there is no reason for a stop. The district has numerous gravehills and there are moors from Stone Age with finds indicating that sacrifice has taken place here.

A stop by a blue lake, Ramten sø. Here were some birds, goosander and great crested grebe, and further away a flock of  white seagulls in the blue water. It was very blue today. The lake is listed together with a joining lake, Dystrup sø. There are many breeding ducks and grebes in these lakes. In the moor district east of Ramten sø were valuable finds from Iron Age.

  

 

 

And a few photos of the landscape on the way home. The twilight is coming a little later than before, but sooner now than later on! ´)

See you soon!
GB


photo Djursland, 3. March: grethe bachmann

Burr Marigold/ Brøndsel

Bidens tripartita
 
The family Bidens (DK: Brøndsel) is spread in Europe and in North and South America. They are herbs and bushes with opposite leaves and small composites of yellow flowers in august-September. The fruits are equipped with barbs.The Burr Marigold is common at ponds, village ponds, lakes, in pit bogs, ditches etc.  The Bidens cernuus grows in the same habitats but is not as common as the tripartita. The common names beggarticks, black jack, bur-marigolds, stickseeds, tickseeds and tickseed sunflowers refer to the burrs on the seeds, most of which are barbed. The generic name refers to the same fact; it means "two-tooth", from Latin bis "two" + dens "tooth". 

The old Danish name Bryndsel means ildebrand (fire), because the flowers dye fabrics in a strong yellow hue called brandgult ( fire yellow).

Painted Lady/Tidselsommerfugl

The plants are zoochorus; their seeds will stick to clothing, fur or feathers, and be carried to new habitat. This has enabled them to colonize a wide range, including many oceanic islands. Some of these species occur only in a very restricted range and several are now threatened with extinction, They were and are still used to make a refreshening tea. Some of the species are sometimes eaten as a vegetable, others are very bitter, others are fine honey plants - and several Bidens are used as food by caterpillars of certain Lepidoptera, like Painted Lady.


Dyeing:
The Burr Marigold  is mentioned in Denmark in 1670 among plants, which dye a strong yellow. The flowers with alum dye yellow, the flowers with potash dye a strong light yellow (1795) - the flowers were ab. 1800 used for yellow dye in general , fx at the island Bornholm. The plant itself dyes red-yellow and golden-brown.


Medicine:
In the autumn the sheep was given Burr Marigold as a protection against worm and disease. (1761).

GB


Source: V. J. Brøndegaard, Folk og Flora, Dansk etnobotanik, Rosenkilde og Bagger, 1980;
Danmarks fugle og natur; Naturegate; Wikipedia; Gyldendal, den store danske; Danmarks flora.


photo September 2010/2011: grethe bachmann