Meet the Middle Ages

Back

Suggestions

Suggestions

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

Meet the Middle Ages in Stranda
What would it have been like to be a tenant farmer during the times of Israel Birgersson? What was life on the farm like? How did one make one ´s living? How did the children spend their day? How were the relations with Sir Israel? When Sir Israel ´s bailiff came? What happened in 1350 when Sir Israel needed men to come with him on his "crusade" to the Russian town of Novgorod? Did anybody join him? At the same time, the plague struck.

Compare with the life of a free-holder.

What was life like for a tenant farmer on the estate of Ture Stensson Bielke at the beginning of the 15th century? How did one keep in touch with the large town of Kalmar? What did it look like at Pata in 1490 as the ships came in and trade flourished? How did the friars at Kronobäck lead their lives at this time? What did it look like inside the monastery? What happened to Laurens Axelsson Tott?

Imagine your own life in the Middle Ages! Choose an event, find all the facts you can and write your own medieval history! Re-create medieval times at a historical site near your school or home.

 

Up

Find your own Middle Ages
In Stranda, there are many historical sites, but they are not always easy to find. In many 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! In Stranda, medieval farmland still exists in many places, but it can be quite difficult to spot. In the forests you can find traces of iron-production, the so-called "slag-heaps".

Visit your church to find out whether parts of it are medieval.

 

Up

Places to visit in Stranda:

Up

A medieval experience
Re-create medieval life at a farm, manor or castle. There are medieval sites to be found 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.

 

Up

Most people were peasants
In the Middle Ages, almost everybody was a farmer. However, none of their farms remain. The land has been farmed and new houses have been built where these farms once lay. Medieval farmland is still to be found in many places. 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 14th century Stranda.

"It is at the end of August, St. Bartholomew ´s. For the first time in your life you may go to Kalmar with your father to visit the biggest fair of the year. You have heard so much about the town. Lots of people live there – many more than you have seen in your entire life! There are big many-storied houses, some of them built of brick or stone. At the market-place in the middle of the town, there is a huge church.
At the crack of dawn you are on your way. Your horse – Ragg – is with you. On his back, he has two baskets which are filled with dried fish, cheese and some butter which you are going to sell.
In your rucksack, which is made of birch-bark, you have some food for the day – bread, cheese and sausage. You finger the pouch which is fastened to your belt, there you have two coins. You have earned this money when you helped a fisherman in Mönsterås to clean herring. You have never before had any money of your own, and you may buy anything you like at the fair! What happens next? Who will you meet on your way? How will you spend your money?"

 

Up

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 and manuscripts. 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. The objects will be cleaned carefully 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. A few houses were built of brick and stone, 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 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 about what people thought about different things. There are even history books written in the Middle Ages!

 

Up