New publication: En sjælden Tycho Brahe-udgave

 
In the spring of 2019, as I was finishing up my time in Denmark and preparing for new adventures, I was doing research on medieval manuscript fragments in the special collection of Roskilde Public Library, together with my friend and colleague Jakob Povl Holck. At this time, Jakob and I were co-authoring an article on two fragments from medieval Denmark, and we were asked by one of the librarians at Roskilde if we could contribute a short note on the fragment from Roskilde on which we had conducted some of our research. The fragment can be seen below, and is found on the item Karen Brahes bibliotek J.1. It was used to bind a first edition of the astronomical treatise De Nova Stella by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. 

The note was set to be published in the annual journal of the historical association of Roskilde. The journal is titled Historisk Årbog for Roskilde Amt (Historical annals for Roskilde county). Although the text was only about two pages and for the most part a description of the fragment and its carrier, I was very happy to be contributing to this note, since it was a way to repay the library and the historical association of Roskilde for the time and effort that had been offered us in the course of our research.

As I left Denmark and the publication of the journal was delayed, I lost track of the progress. Today, however, I found out, to my immense pleasure, that the note was published, and can be accessed online. The note is in Danish, and can be found here. The issue of the journal can be found in full here (although it should be noted that there is an error on the site containing the overview, as I am listed as sole author, while it was written together with Jakob Povl Holck). 

Despite its brevity, I am immensely proud to have co-written this text, and it feels that this is a contribution that actually goes straight to the community for whom this fragment and this book might have greater meaning than most other scholarly communities.

Karen Brahes bibliotek J.1
(Roskilde Public Library)

Enduring materialities - change and stability in Norwegian rural history

This weekend I visited Oslo Museum of Cultural History for the first time, and I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the medieval exhibition, which is going to be taken down on October 10. This exhibition, which has been in its place since the 1970s, contains an array of various and very different objects from medieval Norway, from a fifth-century runestones to wooden sculptures produced in the 1520s. There are many amazing and breathtaking objects in the collection, and my hope is that I will have the wherewithal to write more about some of them on the blog. For this post, however, I will limit myself to one item that in and of itself is rather simple, but which did absolutely take my breath away as I noticed it. 

The object in question is what we in Norwegian call "tvare" or "tvore" (in my dialect, "tvøre"). Its function was to stir porridge and stews to prevent lumps or thickening, and a friend told me that this kind of object is called a spirtle in Scottish. The "tvore" always ends in a cluster of small spikes, and was a typical implement in historical Norwegian kitchens. 

Pot (no. C9246) from Lom and spirtle (no. C34761/G.26439) from Oslo
The Oslo Museum of Cultural History

The reason why this ordinary household item took my breath away is that I encountered this implement growing up. That is, I have never seen one in use, let alone used one myself, but the generation of my grandparents (born in the 1910s) still used these for cooking, and they have been kept in the house where my grandaunt lived when I was a child.  

What fascinates me about the "tvore" is not so much that it has been in continuous use since the Middle Ages. Several items used in the modern world came into their known shape in the medieval period, even before, but there are two important aspects with these particular cooking implements. First of all, the "tvore" has remained unchanged in form as well as in its material since the Middle Ages, which is something we very rarely observe in household items. When we consider how certain tools and implements have changed over the centuries - such as the saddle, the spade, the hammer, the bucket - such permanence is noteworthy. Secondly, unlike the aforementioned tools, the "tvore" is no longer in use. This means that something in the way we cook our food has changed so drastically as to superannuate the "tvore" as a kitchen item. The discontinuing of the "tvore" should probably be seen as a consequence of electricity and a change in the diet, and in this way, the "tvore" is a testament to the dramatic nature of the changes in everyday life that took place in rural Norway in the early twentieth century. In short, the way we cook and the way we eat changed to such a degree in the early twentieth century that utensils that had been used since the medieval period were no longer needed.

Naturally, it is important to keep in mind that there were other changes in Norwegian rural society that marked a break or a discontinuity with the medieval period long before the twentieth century. Changes in growing techniques, the introduction of the potato in the early eighteenth century, changes in social patterns, the transition to more commercially oriented farming practices in the nineteenth century, all these and other elements of Norwegian history were different from how agriculture and the rural life had unfolded in the medieval period. Yet despite such changes, certain things remained long into the modern world, such as the "tvore". And because the enduring materiality of the "tvore", in form as well as matter, the discontinuation of this item signals a break with the past - it signals that some aspect of society is irrevocably and totally different. And it is this change that the "tvore" represents. 
      

A blogpost about my work in spring 2021, part II

 





One month ago, I posted a link to a blogpost I wrote for Mapping Lived Religion, the project for which I worked as a research assistant in the spring. That blogpost was the first of a two-parter in which I wrote a bit about various challenges that might be encountered when working on fragments of medieval calendars. 

Last week, the last of my two blogposts was published, which can be read here.

In this second blogpost, I explain some of the difficulties with examples from one of the most challenging fragments that the project deals with, as you can see from the image below. It was a lot of fun, but at times also a lot of frustration trying to fill the blanks.

Fr 25608, Sveriges Riksarkiv, MPO

New office, new view, new beginning

 

As I wrote in a short blogpost back in June, this autumn I am beginning a new job as a postdoctoral researcher at the university of Oslo. Since August 15 I have officially been an employee, but it was not until the second week of September I physically moved to my new place of work, and the past two weeks have in large part been spent getting started and have the various practical details sorted. Since a lot of these practical details take time and need to be completed in stages, there is as yet no rhythm to speak of, and there are still many new things to learn, to get used to, and to get around to. But this week I was able to access my new office, and to enjoy the new view that will serve as a backdrop for much of my coming workdays. It is mundane in a way, but to me it is all terribly exciting.