baleanoptera (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
baleanoptera) wrote2007-06-14 10:00 pm
baleanoptera) wrote2007-06-14 10:00 pm
Entry tags:
Old Woman Plague and the Black Death
I have done a post about some of these images before, but the whole Death-theme over at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
told_tales gave it new relevance. So I've added lots more images, and some text which ended up expanding the post quite a bit.
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In Norway there are many legends and stories about the Black Death. They all usually start with: "The Black Death came to Norway in 1348, and when it left there was hardly a person alive"
My favourite story was the one later illustrated by Theodore Kittelsen, and it goes something like this; During the Black Death the plague took the shape of an old woman, who hobbled from village to village, farm to farm. She’d be in old, raggedy clothes and carried a rake and a broom. If you saw her use the rake that meant that some of the people in the area would die. If she used the broom then everyone, yourself included, would be swept away.
The old woman was called Plague or Old Woman Plague. She smelled of death, dust and nothingness.
The title of this painting is "Mother, there is an old woman coming" - and for me at least that title makes the images even worse.
Old Woman Plague would sweep each nook and corner. She was practical and patience.
You could not hide....
Where she was finished there was nothing left except desolation...
..despair...
...death...
..and deserted farms. This shows the tree that would be planted before the main house on all Norwegian farms. The tree was usually taken as a sign of how the farm was doing. A large and green tree meant a prosperous farm. Here the tree is dark and the nest amongst its branches is abandoned.
In some placed the death toll was so high that whole communities were wiped out. This image is called "The Old Church". Its based on a story of a hunter, a hundred years after the plague, and how he was deep in forest hunting. He fired a shot and a strange clang was heard - as if he had hit metal. He went to investigate and it turned out he had shot the church bell of an old church whose community had all been wiped out by the plague. So many people had died that everyone had simply forgotten the place.
He went into the church and there before the altar was a sleeping bear - and that is what is shown in this painting. The bear attacked but the hunter managed to kill it.
Later the hunter got the nearest priest to re-open the church. And the bear? Its skin was hung on the wall near the alter - it's still there today.
Such was the trail left by Old Woman Plague.
She came to a country filled with people, and left a desolate place where nature had retaken the land. This shows a Capercallie, which is known in Norwegian as a Tiur or a 'trollbird'. It was said to be represent the trolls and hags, and those that dwelt below.
Kittelsen used the bird to symbolise the darkness and uncertainty of the land after the plague.
There was nothing you could do against Old Woman Plague. You could not barter, you could not beg - you could just hope that someday she would leave....
cross-posted totold_tales
told_tales gave it new relevance. So I've added lots more images, and some text which ended up expanding the post quite a bit.In Norway there are many legends and stories about the Black Death. They all usually start with: "The Black Death came to Norway in 1348, and when it left there was hardly a person alive"
My favourite story was the one later illustrated by Theodore Kittelsen, and it goes something like this; During the Black Death the plague took the shape of an old woman, who hobbled from village to village, farm to farm. She’d be in old, raggedy clothes and carried a rake and a broom. If you saw her use the rake that meant that some of the people in the area would die. If she used the broom then everyone, yourself included, would be swept away.
The old woman was called Plague or Old Woman Plague. She smelled of death, dust and nothingness.
The title of this painting is "Mother, there is an old woman coming" - and for me at least that title makes the images even worse.
Old Woman Plague would sweep each nook and corner. She was practical and patience.
You could not hide....
Where she was finished there was nothing left except desolation...
..despair...
...death...
..and deserted farms. This shows the tree that would be planted before the main house on all Norwegian farms. The tree was usually taken as a sign of how the farm was doing. A large and green tree meant a prosperous farm. Here the tree is dark and the nest amongst its branches is abandoned.
In some placed the death toll was so high that whole communities were wiped out. This image is called "The Old Church". Its based on a story of a hunter, a hundred years after the plague, and how he was deep in forest hunting. He fired a shot and a strange clang was heard - as if he had hit metal. He went to investigate and it turned out he had shot the church bell of an old church whose community had all been wiped out by the plague. So many people had died that everyone had simply forgotten the place.
He went into the church and there before the altar was a sleeping bear - and that is what is shown in this painting. The bear attacked but the hunter managed to kill it.
Later the hunter got the nearest priest to re-open the church. And the bear? Its skin was hung on the wall near the alter - it's still there today.
Such was the trail left by Old Woman Plague.
She came to a country filled with people, and left a desolate place where nature had retaken the land. This shows a Capercallie, which is known in Norwegian as a Tiur or a 'trollbird'. It was said to be represent the trolls and hags, and those that dwelt below.
Kittelsen used the bird to symbolise the darkness and uncertainty of the land after the plague.
There was nothing you could do against Old Woman Plague. You could not barter, you could not beg - you could just hope that someday she would leave....
cross-posted to
told_tales
no subject
But that's brilliant! More to talk about, right? :-)
That's sounds really interesting! Is it about the narrative aspects of the murals then? Do you elaborate this in one of your other posts? I would like to know more about this... And the Barabarossa Imagery is a great choice, very popular in the late 19th century, if I remember right. Do you know that there has been a publication about this topic recently? I take it that you speak German working on this topic? Because the monograph I am thinking of is in German: Kaul, Camilla G.: Friedrich Barbarossa im Kyffhäuser. Bilder eines nationalen Mythos im 19. Jahrhundert. Böhlau, 2007. I only know this because my Prof showed it to me a few months back, he was asked to review it, but did not really want to because he was not overly convinced by its scientific value. He said it is a good collection of material, but it would leave a lot to be desired in the analysis of the material. I hope I did not frighten you with this information, that is surely not my intent. When I started with my doctor thesis, I always got a shock when I found anything new on "my" topic... I only wish you the best with your proposal!
Which reminds me I should head back to my work, otherwise I will not get ready, ever. :-)
no subject
Oh absolutely! :D To quote Casablanca - I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. ;D
Is it about the narrative aspects of the murals then?
Yes, parts of it is about the narrative aspect, and how different readings of them widens the possible interpretations. But I've also seen the murals in connection to the palace, and how the reconstruction of the palace with subsequent interior decoration can be seen as a rhetorical device. That the palace and the imagery work together and in many ways support each other in their presentation of a revised and desired history. After all both the palace and the murals can be said to present a rather glorified version of Medieval History.
Do you elaborate this in one of your other posts?
Sadly no. But maybe I will in the future? So far I've used this journal parts as a playground for non-academic things like books and movies, and also as a testing ground for academic ideas that I might try out in the future. I'm for instance very interested in how we choose to picture our history, and how predominately fictional pictures of historical events may or may not influence our view on said history. I have for instance been interested in American World War II films (like Saving Private Ryan) - and how these films create a fictional narrative of historical events. So I've used the journal a bit to explore that in a very informal fashion.
(if it sounds interesting just click on the "picturing history" tag)
Because the monograph I am thinking of is in German: Kaul, Camilla G.: Friedrich Barbarossa im Kyffhäuser.
I did not know that! And that is both great, and as you say a bit frightening. ;) Mostly I think it is great, as I then have some newer research to check out and take a stand to. So thank you for telling me!
(and yes, I speak German - but my spoken German is very rusty. I read much better than I speak - sadly.)
no subject
Absolutely! :-)))
What you write about your master thesis is really fascinating. I had to think about the reconstructed Rhine-Castles or the Wartburg, there the program of the murals and the architecture etc. also have to be seen in unison, as a "Gesamtkunstwerk". It's true for Westminster as well: new-gothic architecture and medieval saga, etc. That's the thrilling thing about 19th century: the interpretation of past epochs and their symbolic re-use in contemporary art. :-)
That's what I was planning to do as well. It's also a good thing to note down certain ideas etc. that otherwise might never get explored, or never published. That's what I had planned, but I have done very little so far.
I have to read through your posts when I do have a little more time for disposal... ;-)