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Meet the Middle Ages

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The Middle Ages in Möre
Find your own Middle Ages
Places to visit in Möre
A medieval experience
Most people were peasants
How do we know so much about the Middle Ages?

The Middle Ages in Möre
What would it have been like to live in Möre during the Middle Ages? What was it like to be a farmer under Erik Ummereise or Abraham Brodersson in the late 1300´s? What did a farm look like? On what did one live? What did one eat? How were one ´s contacts with the aristocracy?

The "iron-farmers" lived in the woods, what was their daily life like? How often did they go to Kalmar? How were these peasants treated in town? Did the townspeople find the country-folk hopelessly backward and ignorant, or were they glad to be able to buy their goods? Imagine life in medieval Kalmar where one sold live poultry, strong spices, brilliant silks and German beer. In the courtyards of the town houses there were pigs, hens and children at play. What did it smell like at Christina ´s bakery and at Rodhwy ´s damp bath-house which was filled with herbs? What happened in town as Hakvin made his rounds late at night?

Pretend that you have lived in the Middle Ages! Imagine an event or a situation, gather as many facts as possible and write a story about your own Middle Ages. Re-create medieval life at a historical site near your school or at home.

 

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Find your own Middle Ages
Möre has many historical sites, but they are not always easy to find. In many places though, there are still visible remnants from the Middle Ages. Visit them – perhaps relatives of yours once lived there!

Visit your church and see if parts of it are medieval.

 

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Places to visit in Möre:

• The churches in:
  • Hossmo
  • Halltorp
  • Kläckeberga
  • Mortorp
  • Hagby
  • Arby
  • Voxtorp
• The remnants of fortified manors in:
  • Påbonäs
  • Kungsborgen
  • Brömsehus
  • Rostocka holme
• Other places:
  • Kalmar Castle
  • Site of Kalmar´s medieval market-place and church behind Kalmar Art Museum
  • Farmland in Ljungbyholm
  • Remnants of iron production ("slag-heaps") at Hanemåla, Nybro and at Stackmanskulle in Kristvallabrunn.

 

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Experience the Middle Ages
Try to re-create medieval life at a farm, a fortress or in town. There are historical sites to be found in many places. Try some of the old crafts and prepare a medieval meal. Kalmar County Museum can help you with information on how to prepare and organise a medieval experience. The museum has many years´ experience of historical-educational events.

 

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Most people were peasants
Most people were peasants in the Middle Ages. Nothing, however, is left of the medieval farms of Möre. The land has been farmed and new houses have been built where these farms once lay. But even if you cannot see these buildings, perhaps you can imagine what it might have been like to be a farmer´s son or daughter in the 14th century.

"It is at the crack of dawn in Åby. This village lies at about a day ´s travel from Kalmar. It is in the year of 1349 and it is autumn, just after All Saints Day.
You wake up with a start – what was that sound? You are warm, the woollen blankets and furs keep you warm. Your brother is fast asleep beside you. Through the pig ´s bladder which has been stretched over an opening in the wall you can see the sunrise.

You look around. In the other bunks the rest of the family sleep; your little brother Eskil, your sister Anna, your parents. But wait, something is wrong! Your father is not in his bed! Your mother Maria is a light sleeper. Soon she will leave the warmth of her bed to make fire in the other house. When the fire is burning well, she will prepare the rye-meal porridge. Once again you hear a sound, is it your father who is kindling the fire or did the sound come from the cattle-shed? You get the feeling that this is going to be a very special day. Suddenly some-one knocks at the door, it cannot be your father! Who can that be and what is happening?"

 

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How do we know so much about the Middle Ages?
To learn about what it was like in other times one has to read old books. One must also do archaeological excavations or digs.

This means that one digs the earth in places where people have lived or been. One might find foundations of houses or churches, pieces of pottery, parts of a boat or remains of a meal. These objects will be carefully cleaned and a drawing will be made of them and of the place where they were found.
If, for example, one is digging a site where once a fortified manor lay, one might find combs, a leather shoe, cups and a die. Then one knows that the people who lived there combed their hair, wore shoes, drank and played games.

Most medieval houses were wooden, so by now most of them have disappeared. Not many houses were built of brick and stone, but some of these still exist.

Objects and buildings keep for different lengths of time, depending on where they are left. If a wooden bowl is left in a place where air or maybe animals come into contact with it, it may be destroyed rather quickly. If, however, the bowl has fallen into a well or lake, it might keep for hundreds and hundreds of years The preservation of an object also depends on what kind of material it is made of. A woollen dress will disappear much faster than a nail made of iron.

The things we find from the Middle Ages are of course just a tiny part of all the things that existed at the time. The objects that we do find are those that are not so easily destroyed. The archaeologist who is digging must be thinking: Why do I find this object here? What other things might have been here before they disappeared? The work of an archaeologist is a bit like that of a detective.

There are many ways to find out how old something is. 
From the Middle Ages we have manuscripts – for example law-books, letters, annuals like the "Tänkebok" and the Revelations of St. Birgitta. When one reads medieval manuscripts one can learn what people thought about different matters. There are even history books written in the Middle Ages!

 

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