Meet the Middle Ages
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Meet the Middle Ages in Sevede
Find your own Middle Ages
Places to visit in Sevede
Experience the Middle Ages
Most people were peasants
How do we know so much about the Middle Ages?
Meet the Middle Ages in Sevede
What was it like to be one of Birgitta Birgersdotter ´s tenant farmers in 1350? What was life at the farm like? The farm-house, meadows, cattle? How were relations with Birgitta and her bailiff? What tales were told of Birgitta? What did she tell and what did she look like? Did men from Sevede join Sir Israel when he went on a crusade to Novgorod?
What would it have been like to be a tenant farmer on the estate of Karl Knutsson Bonde or Ivar Axelsson Tott in the 1450 ´s? How did the Union Wars affect the region?
Compare the life of a tenant farmer to that of a free-holder.
How did the citizens of Vimmerby keep in touch with the peasants? How did merchants and craftsmen live their lives in Vimmerby? What were the manors of the noblemen like? Who may have crossed the bridge to the stronghold at Refsholm? What was life like in 1389, as Queen Margareta ´s army attacked the region, and the manors were besieged?
Imagine your own life in the Middle Ages. Choose an event, find facts and write your own story. Re-create medieval life at a historical site near your school or home.
Find your own Middle Ages
Sevede has many historical sites, but they are not always easy to find. In some places, though, there are still visible remnants from the Middle Ages. Make an imaginary trip to these sites, perhaps relatives of yours lived there long ago! Medieval farmland still exists in many places, but it can be quite difficult to spot. In Sevede, many farmers made iron, and remnants of this production can still be seen in the woods (the so-called "slag-heaps").
Visit your church to find out if parts of it are medieval.
- Pelarne church
- The fortified manor at Refsholm (Krönsborg)
- The foundations of a fortified manor at Sverkers Udde and at Garpön
- The medieval village of Djursdala (in the woods)
- The old main road to Stockholm. It is to the west of Vimmerby and of the new road. There, you can walk on it.
- The town of Vimmerby, where the sites of the market-place, High Street and church have not changed since the Middle Ages.
Experience the Middle Ages
Re-create medieval life at a farm, manor or castle. There are medieval sites in many places. Try old crafts and prepare a medieval meal. Kalmar County Museum can offer you suggestions and give you practical advice on how to prepare and arrange a medieval experience. The museum has many years ´ experience of historical/educational events.
Most people were peasants
In the Middle Ages, almost everybody was a farmer. However, none of the farms from this time remain. New land has been cleared and new houses have been built where these farms once lay. Medieval farmland is still to be found here and there. Even though the farm-houses are gone, perhaps you can imagine what it would be like to be a farmer ´s son or daughter in the 14th century.
"At last you have arrived at the pit furnace in the woods. It is near the water and no trees grow here – they have been burned down to make charcoal. It has been quite a long walk. The furnace looks good, your father and his helper, Axel, built it a couple of days ago. The pit is one meter deep and made of clay and stones. The iron ore which you dug up from the bogs last spring, will now be refined. The furnace is filled with charcoal and iron ore. The bellows, with which you fill the furnace with air, is put in place. Your father lights the fire. You start to blow air into the furnace, working the bellows. Axel is helping you, but you manage quite well on your own. You are very proud when your father says that you are doing a good job. Now there is a good fire going, and you have to put more charcoal and iron ore into the pit. It will take many hours before it is ready, and many days before the ore has been properly purified. When the iron is ready, it can be forged. This time, you will get a knife of your very own! You are also waiting for the oddly shaped lumps of iron which are left at the bottom of the furnace. These lumps are called slag and you and your little brothers and sisters play with them; they are your toys. What happens during the day? Will the iron-making be successful? What are you going to do with your knife, once it is ready?"
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 perhaps 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 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 about people ´s thoughts on different matters. There are even history books written in the Middle Ages!