Meet the Middle Ages

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Öland in the Middle Ages
Find your own Middle Ages
Places to visit on Öland
Experience the Middle Ages
Most people were peasants
How do we know so much about the Middle Ages?

Öland in the Middle Ages
What would it have been like to live in a village on Öland? What would life have been like? How would it feel to be a tenant farmer under Erik Ummereise or the nunnery of Kalmar? Were you impressed by or scared of the castle? What was it like when an army, led by Valdemar Atterdag crossed the island in the summer of 1361?

What was life at Borgholm Castle like during the reign of Duchess Ingeborg? What would it have been like to spend Christmas there, or to be part of a wedding-feast? What did one grow in the garden at the castle? What did the farmers grow on their land?

How did craftsmen and merchants lead their lives in Kalmar? When did the people of Öland sail to town and what did they do there?

Think about what your own life might have been like, if you had lived during the Middle ages! Imagine a situation, gather all the facts you can, and write your own medieval story! Re-create life at a historical site near your school or home.

 

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Find your own Middle Ages
There are lots of historical sites on Öland, but they are not always easy to find. Visible evidence of the Middle Ages are to be found in a number of places. On Öland, present-day villages, roads, ports, farm-land and meadows have remained in the same place since the Middle Ages. This is not always the case in the rest of Sweden. The reason that so little has been changed is that Öland has been quite poor from the Middle Ages and onwards. No big towns or roads have been built since. On Öland you really can feel close to the Middle Ages.

Visit your church and find out if parts of it are medieval. In Öland, there is evidence of the Middle Ages in all churches.

 

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Places to visit on Öland:

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Experience the Middle Ages
Re-create medieval life on a farm, at a manor or in town. Try different kinds of crafts and prepare a medieval meal. Kalmar County Museum can give you suggestions and advice on how to organise and prepare a day like this. The museum has many years ´ experience of historical-educational events.

 

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Most people were peasants
In the Middle Ages, nearly all people were peasants. None of the farms from this time remain. New land has been cleared and new houses have been built where these farms once lay. On Öland, the farms lay in a row along the main road. Villages like this still exist, as well as medieval farm-land. Although you cannot see a medieval farm-house, perhaps you can imagine what it would be like to be a farmer ´s son or daughter in the 14th century.

"You are riding along the village street on your little Öland horse. Knut, your father, is down at the sea-flats to bring home the cattle which has been grazing there. You are going to help him. You are tired, because all day long you have been clearing the meadows from rocks and stones with your brothers and sisters. Later, you will grow rye on this land. The horse finds its own way, so you can rest your arms. Now you see the cows who are in the fields by the shore. But wait – there is a huge ship at sea! It frightens you – last year many farms in the neighbouring parish were plundered and burned down by pirates. When you come closer you see that a small rowing-boat has left the ship. Your father shouts that you must go home immediately to tell what you have seen. Someone also has to tell the people at the castle. You break into a gallop to quickly reach the village. What happens next? Are there any soldiers at the castle? Will the farm be all right?"

 

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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 cleaned carefully and a drawing will be made of it and of the place where it was 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, this 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 the 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 which 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 on different matters. There are even history books written in the Middle Ages!

 

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