1. Introduction
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Welcome to the NOREGR exhibition – Stories from the Middle Ages
Here, you will encounter the knight, jester – and the cook. Alongside other archaeological finds, they tell the story of Norway from 1000 AD to 1500 AD. In these centuries following the Viking Age, Norse traditions, Christianity and ancient culture meet. Impulses from Europe are changing culture and society and pointing towards the Norway we know today.
People meet at the town square, at church and at the inn. What are they cooking in their pots and what do they fill their cups with? During the Middle Ages, food culture received new inspiration from the Middle East and Central Europe. The scent of spices mixed with local ingredients, especially in towns. German and English traders provided luxury goods from distant lands as well as a steady supply of rye, malt and beans.
Some of the objects you see in the exhibition have been found in Oslo in recent years. New knowledge about the medieval kitchen has been gleaned from studying pots, animal bones and plant remains found in the city, as well as from trying out old recipes and techniques.
To hear more about life in the Middle Ages, select the number on the audio guide symbol. For more on mediaeval food culture, just scan the QR codes. If you have any questions about the audio guide, ask one of our museum employees.
Enjoy your trip back to Noregr!
2. Norway in Europe
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The knight – a piece of Europe in Norway
This little knight turned up in Bjørvika in Oslo when the Follo train line was being built in 2015. Is it a toy or a souvenir that someone brought to Norway from abroad? We don’t know, but what we do know is that also Norway was influenced by the medieval culture of chivalry and knighthood. The figure is made of tin and is probably from somewhere between 1250 and 1350. A similar figure has been found in London.
In 1277 King Magnus the Lawmender decided that some of the men in his court should be called knights. Previously, these close associates of the king were called skutilsveiner. A knight is the king’s faithful warrior on horseback. He serves God and society, but also becomes a role model for everyone in society. This is because the knight is brave, knowledgeable, and self-controlled, even when in love. He must behave restrained and chivalrous. The knight simply behaves courteously, meaning ‘as is appropriate at court’.
The ideals of chivalry are spread through art, literature, and music, but also through the Crusades and marriages between Europe’s royal houses and princely families. In 1299 Magnus the Lawmender’s son Håkon marries Eufemia, a princess from today’s Germany. Queen Eufemia brings a keen interest in literature to Norway. At the royal court in Oslo, European stories about chivalrous knights are read aloud, and Eufemia ensures that several European tales are translated into Swedish.
3. Crafts on the move
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Stone fragments from medieval Oslo
Craftsmen and knowledge travel from country to country, and new building methods arrive in Norway. Here we see remains from two stone buildings in Oslo. You can touch these if you like. This capital, a top piece of a column, comes from a monastery on the small island of Hovedøya, just outside Oslo in the Oslo Fjord. It tells us about connections throughout the European Middle Ages that reach back to the culture of Antiquity. While Viking-Age craftsmen in Scandinavia tended to carve motifs of serpents and mythical beasts, now in the Middle Ages, motifs of plants become popular.
The second stone is probably from St Hallvard’s Cathedral, ruins of which you can still see in Oslo’s Old Town. It is a so-called keystone that connects the arches of a vaulted ceiling. In the Middle Ages, builders are able to erect tall, arched cross-vaults. This gives the church new acoustical properties. A keystone may be decorated on its underside because it is meant to be seen when you look up at the ceiling. Here in the exhibition, it is presented upside-down.
Churches in Norway are normally made of wood at this time, but a stone building gives more prestige to the patron who has it built – whether he is a king or a bishop. Recent excavations in Oslo also show that many other buildings in the city had cellars built with stone.
At the bench, you can hear more about the stonemason’s work.
4. Powerful rings
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Rings and powerful gemstones
Rings are beautiful, but in the Middle Ages, people also think they have hidden powers. Things in nature have forces that can affect the future, and a beautiful gemstone can help the one who wears it on a finger or around their neck. Which forces a ring or piece of jewellery has, depends on the gemstone that is used, and its colour, shine, and shape. A blue sapphire makes a man courageous and cools inner heat, writes one medieval gemstone expert. Maybe the gold ring with the blue sapphire is a smart choice for a man who is getting engaged? Rings can be used to create alliances. The gold ring with a rock crystal has an engraved image of a handshake.
If sacred names, words, or prayers are engraved on your jewellery, it gains extra power. ‘Ave Maria Gratia Ple’ is engraved on the silver ring with the white stone. It means ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’. The letters are made with the alloy niello, which consists of silver, lead, and copper. The stone is chalcedony, which is supposed to help with depression, melancholia, and weakness. The ring was found in 1868 in the ruins of St. Mary’s Church in Oslo’s Old Town neighbourhood. We know that Queen Eufemia’s father is buried here. Witzlav of Rügen visited Oslo during Christmas in 1302, but he fell ill and died on the 29th of December. Could it be his ring?
5. Clothing shapes identity
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Medieval sculptures and paintings often depict people with fine clothing, power, and wealth. They can afford silk, finely dyed wool and thin linen. But the clothing of ordinary people is usually homemade and repaired over and over again. Plants and insects are used to dye the textiles blue, red, yellow, and green. The naturally varying colours of wool can also be used to weave beautiful patterns.
Have a look at Norway’s only preserved long-tailed hood – a liripipe. This is a good example of how fashion travels. It was found on the head of a girl buried under the floor of Uvdal Stave Church. The hood from Uvdal seems to be home-made, but the idea behind it travelled quickly from rich and fashionable centres in Europe in the late 1200s. The length of the tail, the fabric, and the colour signal distinctions between people. In Iceland, the bishop eventually sets a limit on the length of the priests’ liripipe: No more than two fingers wide and half a metre long!
In the showcase, you also find a dress with sharp pleats. This fashion emerges in cities in the 1100s and is popular for a hundred years. By the late 1300s, buttons make it possible to make tight-fitting clothes, another fashion phenomenon. But King Haakon V forbids people from wearing expensive clothes in order to show off. ‘It is of little use to this poor country’, he says in the early 1300s.
6. Free men owns weapons
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Arms and arms control
The law requires that free men or commoners who are not enslaved must own weapons, all according to how rich they are. Ordinary people must have shields and spears, and swords or axes, as mandated by King Magnus the Lawmender. The rich must also have steel helmets. The law for the king’s men in the Hird, states that the king’s guard must have a sword and buckler. This is a small parry shield. Furthermore, they are required to have a steel helmet, and a spear. But in times of unrest, they must be fully armed. If you are in the Hird, this means you also need armour or chain mail.
If you are a farmer, you are required every year to muster at ‘a weapon assembly’, to show that you own the proper weapons. This meeting is held in February in various parts of the country. You are fined if you do not meet up: 1 silver ounce, plus 1 ounce for each missing weapon. An ounce is here a monetary unit equivalent of 30 pennies.
The helmet to the left has a style that is widely used by the upper class in medieval Norway, but this one is especially well made. Few warriors in Norway fight on horseback; most of them fight on foot. This exposes you to dangers from above, for instance from sword strikes, arrows, or stones thrown from fortified walls and towers. So, it is smart to wear a wide-brimmed helmet that you see in the top right corner to protect your neck and shoulders.
7. Trade and religion connect Norway with Europe
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German merchants in the Hanseatic League dominate trade in Northern Europe. Ships loaded with fish, butter, and timber sail from Bergen and other Norwegian ports. They return with rye, textiles, and wine.
Monks and nuns from elsewhere in Europe establish their communities in Norway. The very first was probably at Nidarholm near today’s Trondheim, while Hovedøya Monastery outside Oslo was established in 1147. Life in such communities is meant to be simple. But as these floor tiles show, the religious communities also introduce aesthetic forms and ideas from centers of learning in continental Europe. Amongst the monks and nuns are people who can read and write, and they bring to Norway new knowledge about medicines and gardening.
Pilgrims from Norway travel abroad to seek salvation and to cure their ailments. People with time and resources may travel all the way to Rome or Santiago de Compostela. But most people go on pilgrimage to places closer to home: for instance, to St Hallvard’s Cathedral in Oslo or to the grave of St. Olaf in Nidaros. Someone surely visited Charlemagne’s city Aachen in today’s Germany, as this circular pilgrim badge shows. It was found at Tynset, a few hours’ drive north of Oslo. Metal badges or pins such as this prove that a pilgrimage has been completed. They add a sense of the sacred to everyday life on the farm or in town.
Crusaders leave to fight for their faith with weapons. From the Middle East comes the tradition of beautiful water vessels for ritual hand washing in the church, such as this shaped as a knight on a horse.
8. New stories
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The Middle Ages bring new ideas and new stories to Norway
This is what this room is all about, but let’s first look at the carved wooden face discovered in Oslo’s Old Town neighbourhood. Could it have been the top of a staff, or sceptre, that a jester used when juggling and telling stories? On a Dutch painting from the 1500s, the face on the jester’s staff looks like the jester himself. The staff could speak for the jester while he entertains. Does this mean the jester could be more rude or brash than otherwise? This top of a jester’s sceptre may date from around 1300.
Good storytellers are still important at gatherings around hearths, in ale houses, and on royal estates. But written works now gain greater importance. Stories of knights and legends of saints are meant to educate and entertain at the same time, often by being read aloud. When the father of Magnus the Lawmender is on his deathbed, he requests that someone read to him from the Sagas of the Kings. Visual images and music also convey values and create new experiences and communities. Colourful sculptures of saints and altarpieces in churches point the way to the true faith.
Runic writing is used throughout the Middle Ages. They are often present on simple sticks and bones and personal items. Runic inscriptions also appear in medieval churches and farm buildings. Finds of runic inscriptions allow us to get closer to ordinary people, regardless of whether they share news and gossip or ask for God’s help.
9. Saints and role models
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St Mary and St Olaf
We are standing in front of the most well-known saints in medieval Norway. Mary and Olaf become important role models for all inhabitants, regardless of whether one is a king, a queen, or an ordinary farmer. Both sculptures come from Fresvik Church in Sogn, in Western Norway, and are from the period called the high Middle Ages in the mid-1200s.
St Olaf is dressed as a king in an elegant red cape with a fur lining, and he wears it over a long golden tunic. He displays a very finely-patterned stocking and pointed shoes.
In his youth, Olaf had ravaged Northern Europe as a Viking, but he used priests and weapons to become the king of Norway. As king, he required that everyone must believe in ‘White Christ’, as Jesus was called during the period of Norway’s Christianisation.
Nevertheless, Olaf made many enemies and was killed in the year 1030. Soon, stories started spreading about miracles occurring at his grave. The bishop of Nidaros declared Olaf a saint, and the city now became an important destination for pilgrims. Later in the Middle Ages, Olaf comes to be considered the founder of the Christian kingdom in Norway, and the maker of the oldest Norwegian laws.
Mary’s cape is golden, and it too has a fur lining. Under the cape, she wears a long golden tunic reaching all the way down to the pointy tips of her shoes. The sculpture is inspired by English precursors, but it could have been made in Norway in the mid-1200s. Mary is the mother of Jesus and the helper of all humanity. Many medieval churches have a separate altar devoted to her.
10. Amulets and seals
Transcription
Now we stand in front of several objects made of metal
Some of them are amulets meant to protect the owner against illness and evil. Carved words and the metal itself give power to the amulet. To ward against elves, one should write on lead, says a manuscript from the 1300s.
The folded piece of lead is a find from Oslo’s Old Town neighbourhood. One readable word on the amulet is Greek Tetragrammaton. It means ‘the four letters’ and refers to the Hebrew way of spelling God’s name: J H V H [pronounce each letter separately], meaning Yahweh. The runes that follow could contain the name Olavus Sanktus, which is St Olaf, Norway’s national saint. Researchers have also read parts of the inscription on the inner layers of the amulet using an advanced radiation and imaging technique.
The lead seal at the right end in the showcase was found close to the medieval bishop’s residence in Oslo. It is the seal of Innocent IV, who was pope from 1243 to 1254. A seal proves that a letter really comes from the person who claims to have sent it. He or she is present, as it were, by the power of the seal. A seal is made by pressing a matrix or stamp into a lump of wax or lead. Whoever forges the king’s seal is convicted as an outlaw. The circular stamp in the front belonged to the dean of St Mary’s Church in Oslo. He was the king’s most important associate and became the country’s chancellor. St Mary’s Church could therefore be called Norway’s first government ministry.
11. Maternal love
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A painting telling stories
This painting stood in front of an altar in St Petri, or the old Tingelstad Church, in Hadeland one hour north of Oslo. In the middle, Mary and the child Jesus look lovingly at each other. Mary is the mother of God and the church’s most important saint. Here she is dressed and crowned as a queen – the Queen of Heaven. The fruit in her hand is a sign of fertility.
The pictures surrounding Mary and the child are about the great mystery of Mary giving life to Jesus – the son of God. At the upper left, we see the angel Gabriel who lifts his finger in order to tell Mary she will become a mother. This is called The Annunciation, and it is celebrated in late March. Gabriel’s first words to her are painted across the whole scene: ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’. To the right of Mary, we see two women embracing each other. This is Mary visiting her relative Elisabeth, telling her that she is expecting a child. Elisabeth too is pregnant. This is The Visitation, and it is a feast day celebrated on the 2nd of July.
In the upper-right corner, an angel appears to shepherds outside Bethlehem, announcing Jesus’ birth. Notice that the one shepherd wears clothes that are sewn together with textiles in different colours, both green and yellow – a fashion in the Middle Ages.
To the lower-left are the three kings, also called the three wise men, who give Jesus gifts. The 6th of January becomes an important feast day commemorating the three kings who confirm Jesus’ birth.
In the lower-right corner, Mary and Joseph take the child Jesus to the temple. This happens 40 days after Christmas Eve, when Mary’s so-called purification is finished. This was later celebrated with Candlemass on the 2nd of February.
The painting’s somewhat brownish background was originally shiny silver leaf, polished and covered with a transparent yellow glaze. It was painted in the late 1200s. Since then, both the silver and the glaze have darkened. The colours also show signs of the painting being over 700 years old. Now, painting conservators have made a reconstrued copy of this same painting. It shows how the imitation gold shone when light fell on the painting, where it once stood in front of the altar in the medieval church. To see the reconstruction and to read more about the painting, download the QR code.
12. Two alphabets in use
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Runes of the Middle Ages
Along with Christianity comes the Latin alphabet. It is written on thin calfskin parchment and used to record agreements and convey knowledge, values, and laws. But as we see here, many finds from medieval towns show that people continue to carve runes all the way up to the 1400s. In the Middle Ages, people use more runic characters than during the Viking Age. The shapes of some runes also change. In the runic inscriptions on wood and bone, which you see in the glass case, we find traces of people’s everyday lives, their emotions, and their faith. Who, for instance, is this Nikolas, ‘who loves so much the woman called Gyrid’ [iyrid]? And who is Gyrid? And was the spinning wheel around which the words are carved, someone’s gift to her? Or were these words but entertaining gossip that some women working together took pleasure in sharing? The rune bone up in the middle, gives us insight into more picante stories and gossip from medieval Oslo. At the bench, you can hear a reading of it in Old Norse, along with an English translation.
One end of the small stick in the middle is shaped into a simple carved, human head. The opposite side shows the first six letters of the runic alphabet, f u þ o r k. This is a handy writing exercise, and it is these runes that have given the name to the runic alphabet, the futhark. A bottom part of a wooden plate from Oslo’s Old Town shows only the first three runes of the futhark. Did someone carve the runic ABC as decoration on this piece of wood? Or do the runes have a double meaning? Fuð in the Old Norse language also refers to the body part between the buttocks, and it is probably related to one of the words for female genitals, in today’s Norwegian, ‘fitte’, that is ‘pussy’.
Latin letters and runes can also appear alongside each other. On the rune stick at lower-right, we read ‘God’s hand …’, manus Domini, in Latin. On the two other sides of the same stick, the language is Old Norse. The text is partly damaged, but it might say ‘Bryngjerd, is that … That is true’. Does the pious message mean that Bryngjerd has put her life in God’s hands?
We find the longest inscriptions on the thin, runic stick in the bottom, right corner. It was found in the town Tønsberg and has text on all four sides. Alongside other messages, we hear about learning runes: “Steingrim and I have talked much between us two for the reason that I wish to learn runes from it.”
13. Courteous and wise rulers
Transcription
‘With frozen fingers, I pulled what I thought was a large fish bone out of the dirt. When I turned it around, I stared straight into the smiling face of a figure with a crown and a hunting falcon on its arm.’
These are the words of archaeologist Ann-Ingeborg Floa Grindhaug from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU), who found the figure with the falcon. It is probably the handle of a knife or some other tool.’
Kings and queens pick up ideas about the good and right way to live from European courts. Around the year 1300, Queen Eufemia in Oslo commissions the translation of some chivalric poetry which she knows about from her childhood at Rügen in modern-day Germany. The word ‘court’ gives rise to words such as ‘courtly’ and ‘courtesy’, and these ideals spread throughout society.
The book The King’s Mirror is written in the mid-1200s in order to educate and enculturate the sons of Norwegian kings. They must learn languages, geography, and trade. A king must first of all care for his people and his kingdom, but he can also sometimes amuse himself ‘with hawks, dogs, horses, or weapons’, the book says. The king must exercise restraint in front of his wine glass and game board. This is because he must set a good example for others. The unknown author gives a warning: “… never get drunk; for it can often happen that you will be called upon to preside over legal disputes between people … or that you need to sort out your own difficult matters.”
14. True to God and king
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The Church, The King – and the Pope
In medieval Norway, everyone is a member of the Catholic Church. The pope in Rome is the foremost leader. This oil painting depicts the very first pope, St. Peter. He was one of Jesus’ disciples, and, according to tradition, he eventually became the bishop of Rome. In this painting, St. Peter holds his attribute in his right hand which identifies him – two keys signifying that he has the right to open the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Middle Ages, everyone is required to pay a tax to Rome, also called the ‘Peter’s Pence’.
St. Peter was painted around the year 1250 on an oak door. The door was one of four doors of an altarpiece in Fåberg Church, to the west of Lillehammer. On days celebrating St. Mary, the priest would open the doors. Inside, one could see an image of Mary that was about the same size as the sculpture of Mary from Fresvik, which we see to the right. On the inside of the door, there were painted reliefs depicting scenes from Mary’s life, seen against a background that glittered with imitation gold.
In the Middle Ages, religion is part of people’s everyday life from birth to death. On special days in the church year, the congregation walks in solemn processions from altar to altar, or outdoors. The priest leads the way with a crucifix or a staff. The crucifix with blue enamel is made in the city of Limoges, in France.
The Law of the Land states that God has appointed the king to be his representative in the secular world, while the bishop is to govern the spiritual realm. Sometimes, disputes arise as to whether the king or the church should have the final say. But for long periods, they coexist peacefully, with the church and the king benefitting from each other’s power.
15. Encountering the sacred
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A window to the sacred?
This is an opening that used to be in the wall of Nes Stave Church, which was dismantled in 1864. There are several suggestions as to what it was used for. Was it for confession, with the priest on one side and the parishioner on the other? Or did the priest use it to give communion to sick people, for instance leppers, who did not enter the church itself? The most likely explanation is that it was an opening in the church wall that villagers could look into from the outside. They could then glimpse an altar with the figure of a saint, and they could pray their prayers without entering the church itself. We could call it a ‘devotional opening’. Colourful images and sculptures in the church brought the sacred realm closer to people and gave them strength in everyday life.
Nes Church was built in the 1200s. In the 1800s, many churches needed more space to accommodate the growing population. People also wanted lighter and warmer churches, but most preferably on the same spot where the old church stood. The result was that many old churches were torn down. Eventually, some got the idea to preserve the finest parts of the old churches and the church art. On the museum’s ground floor, you can see several stave church doors and decorations from medieval Norwegian churches.
16. A reindeer horn spoon
Transcription
This spoon was found by archaeologists in the Old Town of Oslo in the 1970s. It was made at some point in the 12th century and could have been used for both making food and eating it. A spoon was indispensable for the cook and their guests.
Spoons came in all sorts of shapes and sizes and could be made of horn, bone, silver or bronze. But most common of all was wood. This one is made of reindeer horn and is decorated with double circles, which was a popular pattern in the Iron Age and the Middle Ages. Reindeer horns – or more accurately antlers – are easy to work. They were also frequently used to make combs. The antlers were often collected from reindeer hunting in the mountains, like on Hardangervidda, Rondane or Dovre.
17. New goods and new impulses
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The Hanseatic League was an efficient trade network across the entirety of the North and Baltic Seas. From the middle of the 13th century, these German traders held an increasingly important position along the Norwegian coast. Alongside spices, wine, beans and rye, came new ideas on how the ingredients should be used. Norway was now able to take part in the culinary trends from mainland Europe. Spices that we today associate with Christmas, were crushed with a pestle and mortar and used to season meat and fish. The inspiration came from Middle Eastern cuisine, as did ideas about pleasure and sensory experiences – ideas that mixed with medieval knowledge about how food could be used as medicine.
Many of the new ingredients were imported in ceramic jars. New research shows that the light, narrow jug in the display would have once been filled with red wine and possibly sealed with resin. It was dug up by archaeologists in 2022. The ceramic fragment of a bearded face comes from a jug produced in Scarborough, England. Such jugs were coveted, and some even found their way to medieval Norwegian towns. They were used to serve wine and beer and were popular amongst tradesmen and others with adequate means.
Jars with narrow necks and two handles are called amphorae. These were used to store and ship wine, oil, grain and other food stuffs across the Mediterranean. In the Middle Ages, they also made their way up to Northern Europe. We have only found a handful of these here, and this one, found in Oslo, may have come all the way from Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire.
18. Spices in mediaeval cuisine
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The new spices came from distant places including Indonesia to the east and Guinea in Africa to the south. In the 12th and 13th centuries, such spices increased the status for both food and host. They could also be used as prestigious gifts, like silk and jewels. Today, we mostly associate these spices with Christmas and sweet baked goods, but in the Middle Ages, they were used for entirely different purposes. Exotic spice mixes were expensive ingredients in fine sauces for meat and fish.
In the display, we have gathered some of the spices known from medieval manuscripts. The recipes also include spices that are rarely used in Norwegian cuisine today, such as long pepper and grains of paradise, also called Guinea pepper. The map shows where many of the spices originally came from. They were also gradually exported from other areas. For some spices, such as saffron, the true place of origin is unknown.
The mortar was essential in the mediaeval kitchen. It was used to grind herbs and spices, much like today. However, it could also be used to crush bread for thickening stews and sauces. To make nut oil, you would need to warm up the mortar before crushing the nuts and salt in it. Medieval mortars were often made of soapstone, though this one is made of rock.
19. Basic kitchenware
Transcription
In mediaeval kitchens, we find many basic utensils similar to those we use today, almost 1,000 years later. Spoons were mostly made of wood and came in different shapes. During archaeological digs, we have found spoons with holes in the middle, just like the ones that are sold today. The mediaeval whisk was called a tvare. It was made from the top of a tree with a wreath of thin branches around it. Ladles were often shorter than those we use today and made of materials such as soapstone and wood. Stone ladles could also be used to crush spices and grind herbs.
The flat and narrow baking sticks are practical tools for handling baked goods, for example turning the lefse and flat bread on a griddle. People mostly ate unleavened, flat bread as their daily staple. These were often made of barley or oats. Making sourdough bread required a baking oven and grains with more gluten, such as wheat and rye.
20. Looking after your ingredients
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It was vital to prevent the food from rotting or moulding. But how did people manage without fridges and freezers? They used methods like salting, drying, baking, smoking and fermenting! These preservation techniques also added a wide range of aromas and tastes to the food.
In the Middle Ages, dried fish was the most important overseas export article. Meat could be preserved by curing or salting it. Offal and fat were stuffed into intestines and turned into sausages. Long sticks would be inserted into each end of the sausage to keep the meat mixture in place before hanging it away to cure. Many of these sausage sticks have been found in mediaeval towns.
Milk was churned into butter, cheese, and other long-lasting dairy products. A piece of wood similar to the basket of a traditional ski pole was one of the utensils for churning butter. The cream or soured cream was poured into a tall vessel and then the stick would be pumped up and down until the contents thickened into butter. Butter was a valuable commodity. Before putting it on the table, some would press it into a wooden form in order to make a decorative butter house. Some also curled the butter with a knurled butter knife before serving the guests.
The oval wooden board comes from a cheese form. Sour cheese, a homemade farmhouse cheese, was common in the Middle Ages. It is made by heating sour, skimmed milk. Then the curds are separated from the whey. The whey would drain through the small holes at the bottom of the cheese form.
The object that looks like a wooden knife was used to remove cream from milk. Milk separates when it is left to stand for a while, creating a layer of cream on top. You could then carefully pour the milk into another container, while retaining the cream using a such a straining knife.
But what does a rolling pin have to do with conservation? Well, baking flatbread or rusk prevents the flour from going mouldy, and these products can be stored for months.
21. Cheers! Good drinks in stately jugs and glasses
Transcription
Brewing beer was not just common, it was mandatory. A toast was both a thanksgiving to Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and a wish for peace and a good harvest. Your cup should be filled at baptisms, weddings and funerals.
Hops began to be used properly for beer in the Middle Ages, giving it a new and bitter aroma as well as making it more long-lasting. During this period, more wine also came to Norway. It was imported from Germany and France, though Greek wine was also consumed. At that time, people drank natural wine that didn’t contain added sugar and sulphites, meaning it had a short shelf life. Wealthy households and monasteries served wine from extravagant jugs. This Bellarmine jug is a luxury product from Grimston, England, that was dug up from the ruins of St. Olav’s Abbey in Oslo.
Glass cups with prunts were popular in the later Middle Ages. The tall glass with rings shows how much you should drink before passing it on to the next guest – giving it the name a passglas. This was the most popular type of drinking glass in Northern Europe between 1550 and the 1670s. All glass was imported, and Norway only began producing drinking glasses in the 18th century.
A wooden cup, however, could be made locally. Such a small cup as this one here may have been used for wine. Larger cups were used for a drink known as mungát. Mungát or “the drink of delight” was a weak, home-brewed beer that was cheaper than imported beer. Statelir was beer served in a drinking horn. The horn was often decorated with metal, and some also had feet. You can see more exquisite drinking horns in the exhibition HERITAGE on the first floor.
22. Pots – the heart of the kitchen
Transcription
In many medieval homes, a soapstone pot was often simmering over the fireplace. Soapstone is good at retaining heat and requires little fuel. This made soapstone pots particularly well-suited for stews, porridge and other dishes that required cooking at low heat for a long time.
Iron and copper pots were expensive but durable. They could be repaired by welding them together with long pieces of iron. However, pots made of metal was not common, as a new iron pots in the latter half of the 15th century cost just as much as a cow. A copper pot with three long legs and a handle was well-suited for both hanging over the fire and standing in the fireplace.
In towns, people were also able to purchase ceramic pots from abroad. From the 14th century, three-legged pots were imported, making it easier to regulate the heat under the pot. A cooking vessel with legs and handles is called a “tail pot” in Norwegian. The handle, i.e. the tail, is hollow so that you can insert a rod into the vessel to lift it in and out of the hearth. Such vessels came into use in the Late Middle Ages and were imported from southern Scandinavia and northern Germany.
While professional bakers had their own ovens, most people made do with a griddle for baking and frying. Hundreds of them have been found in medieval Norwegian towns. The stones were made of slate or soapstone and had grooves on either side. Research suggest that meat and various mixtures of dairy and plant-based products were fried on the griddles.
23. What was served on the table?
Transcription
In everyday life, people would eat by the fire, and everyone looked after their own spoon. Silver spoons adorned with crowns were not for everyday porridge but were used as gifts for engagements and other major occasions. Only the wealthy would set their table with a white tablecloth and small pieces of bread for each guest.
Then, as now, knives were a universal utensil. It was convenient to keep it in your belt and use it to cut up everything from vegetables to meat and bread. With large forks with two prongs, you could cook and serve larger cuts of meat. Forks meant for eating only became common in Norway in the 18th century.
Archaeologists have also found leftovers from meals. In the Middle Ages, you could buy far more types of fish than we find in shops today. Cod and ling were the most popular, but people also ate less common species such as sole and lamprey, which is now at risk of extinction.
Many shellfish have been found in medieval towns. Continental medieval recipes for soup, stews and casseroles using shellfish, are preserved. However, there is little research into how important this sort of seafood was in people’s diets.
Analyses of animal bones indicate that people in Oslo mostly ate meat from livestock. Beef was most popular, with meat from sheep and goat a close second and pork as a good number three. Nothing went to waste, and the bones we find are often crushed and the nutritious marrow is taken out. A recipe for marrow pie shows that marrow was also food for well-to-do people:
“One should boil bones of deer and crack them open when they are cold. And make a dough of wheat flour and cold water, and add salt and pepper and cinnamon, and add the marrow from the bones and make a pastry of it, and bake it in an oven”.
24. Food as medicine
Transcription
In the Middle Ages, the scholars described the connection between everything in God’s creation, from the great cosmos down to bodily health. All foodstuffs had special properties that made them hot, cold, dry or wet. The same properties also applied to the fluids or humours in the human body. Food could therefore help maintain the balance between the four humours: blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. The study of this connection between the bodily humours and illness is known as humourism. Proper food vas believed to both prevent illnesses and make the body healthy.
A good example is sage. This ancient medicinal herb has traditionally been used to cure everything from constipation to depression and menopause. The name comes from the Latin word salvare, which means “to save”. The German nun Hildegard of Bingen was a scholar of science and theology. In the mid-12th century, she wrote that:
“Sage is of a hot and dry nature, and grows more due to the heat of the sun than the wetness of the Earth… It is useful against ill humours, as it is dry. It is good to eat, raw or cooked, for those afflicted by poor humours…”.
31. Meet the stone mason
Transcription
The Stone Masons work. Chris Fleurie explains
From medieval time to now, when you compare all the traveling to get the information to learn how to be a stonemason, you have to travel around to do that, and that’s exactly what they did in the medieval times. So basically, what happens in the medieval times when you started out as an apprentice, usually it was your father, your uncle (…), you worked with them. You started usually as soon as you were strong enough to carry tools, water, beer. So basically, you were a gofer, you did everything. And then you just worked you way up through the system.
The stone is always local. And that means as close as possible. Because just like today, in medieval times, to transport stone costs money. So, when they take it out from the quarry, they want to make sure it is as close as possible. What they would usually do, is find the natural split in the stone, pound in big, wooden wedges and just let nature take over. The wedges will over time swell up and break the rock along its natural cracks that are in there.
Stone masons and black smiths, they go hand in hand. What normally would happen is, you have five sets of tools. You turn in your tools at night, and in the morning, you pick up sharpened tools.
The most cost is actually in the bottom of the building because that has to hold up all the other stuff that’s on the top. But the design of the building, basically you start with the nave, and then you come out and build a transept. And from the transept you can build out. But most churches and cathedrals are actually built from a little chapel.
In the actual construction of the building, you need a stone that ties everything together and is perfectly formed and fit for that purpose. In France it’s called the clé, in English the key, and in Norwegian, the sluttsten. And that stone is usually – you have all seen them – in an arch, the centre stone. And that stone there is the last stone that fits in, and they have to be parallel to each other with the joint. Otherwise, you have too much pressure in one place, and it will crack and break. A good example of that is if you look around at a lot of ruins, you will actually see the arch still standing and everything else has fallen down.
Once they are finished cutting it, they carry it all way up (…) and you place it in. And then the moment of perfection is to remove all the scaffolding. And once all the scaffolding is out and nothing falls down, you actually have a mass and pray to God.
32. Runes and laws in Old Norse
Transcription
Rune inscriptions from the collection of the Museum of Cultural History, read by studetns and staff at the University of Oslo
e(inn), t(veir), þ(rír), f(jórir), f(imm), s(ex), s(jau), á(tta), n(íu), t(íu), e(llifu), t(olf), þ(rettán), f(jórtan), f(imtán), s(extán), s(jautján), á(ttján), n(ítján), t(uttugu).
These are the numbers from one to twenty in the Old Norse language. Only the first letter in the numeral is carved into the rune stick. Listen to more of the runic inscriptions in the exhibition and some laws from the 1274 codex of Norway.
––
Ásbjǫrn á mik. / Asbjørn owns me. This inscription is probably a tag that Asbjørn had attached on goods that he owned.
––
Sometimes we find the beginning of the runic alphabet, like the three first letters f, u, þ, fuþ. Or the six initial letters, f, u, þ, o, r, k, fuþork.
– Hversu fór mál þat er þú reist í Krosskirkju?
– Óli er óskeyndr auk stroðinn í rassinn.
– … vel fór þat.
– How did the statement go, which you carved in the Church of the Holy Cross?
– Ole’s rear is unwiped and (he is) fucked in the arse.
– … that went well!
––
Eilífr virðivægr á mik. Vit Steingrímr hǫfum mælt mart okkar ímilli fyrir þá sǫk at ek vil nema af því rúnar.... / Eilif the Worthy owns me. Steingrim and I have talked much between the two of us for the reason that I wish to learn runes from it.
On one and the same rune stick, there are several messages without any obvious connections. Here are the two other ones:
Þau eru bæði í búð saman, Klaufa-Kári ok kona Viljalms.... Heit sæl(l) þú þá. / They are shacking up together, Clumsy-Kåre and Vilhjalm’s wife… Lucky you, then!
––
Manus Domini, sit su…
Bryngerðr er þat fol/fól…
(Þ)at er satt.
Manus Domini, sit su(per)…
Bryngerðr er þat fol (fól…)
(Þ)at er satt.
Maybe these runes are telling us that the woman Bryngjerd has given her life in God’s hand? Both latin and Norwegian is used in the inscription.
––
Nikulás ann konu þeirri vel er Gýríðr heitir, stjúpdóttir Pitas-Rǫgnu. / Nikolas loves so much this woman called Gyrid, the step-daughter of Pitas-Ragna.
Laws from Magnus the Law mender’s Laws of the land, translated by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, National Library of Norway, 2024.
In 1274, King Magnus Lagabøte issued a law covering the whole of Norway. It was written in Old Norse. How did some of the laws from the book sound back then? Here are some examples:
Nú skal fátǿka menn herbergja um nætr, ok reka eigi út síðan en sól er sett. / Now, the poor are to be housed overnight, and they are not to be driven out after the sun has set.
––
Nú er þat greinandi, at ef sá maðr stelr mat, er eigi fær vinnu sér til fóstrs, ok hjalpar svá lífi sínu fyrir hungrs sakir, þá er sá stuldr fyrir engan mun refsingar verðr. / Now, it can be told that if someone steals food who is unable to get work to support themselves, and so, on account of hunger, saves their life, that theft is by no means worthy of punishment.
––
Ef verkmaðr gengr í fyrstu vist, ok tekr fulla leigu, kaupi sér hit fyrsta sumar øxi, en annat skjǫld ok hit þriðja spjót. / If a labourer begins his first job and receives full wages, he must buy an axe the first summer, a shield the second and a spear the third.
––
En ef hann vill selja vali, þá á konungi fyrst at bjóða, fyrr en ǫðrum. / And if they wish to sell gyrfalcons, they are first to be offered to the king before anyone else.
––
Þat er ok úbótamál at falsa steðja, bréf eða innsigli konungs várs. Þat er ok úbótamál at drepa þann mann er konungs bréf ok innsigli hefir fyrir sér til landsvistar eða rannsaks. / And it is an inexpiable crime to forge our king’s mint, letter or seal. And it is an inexpiable crime to kill someone who has the king’s letter and seal for granting leave to remain in the country or carrying out an inspection.
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at þessi bók skal heðan af ganga um aldr ok ævi um allan Noreg / … from now on and for eternity, this book is to be valid in all of Norway
33. Meet the weapon smith
Transcription
Blacksmith Anders Helset talks about forging in the Middle Ages
"I am now putting the already red-hot coal into the forge hearth, which has been filled with coal. I work the bellows to create more air and more heat. I can hear how the sound changes as the coal starts to get hot. It takes on a deeper tone.
I’m going to keep blowing air onto the coal to make sure that the heat is strong and the iron takes on a golden colour, with a temperature of around 1000 degrees. This is a suitable temperature when working on soft iron that needs to be extensively forged. But the temperature will vary depending on what you are forging.
The temperature consistently drops as I work and the iron is turning a greyish-black colour. I’m going to bring it back to the hearth, where the heat will do the work to soften the iron for me. And I’ll work the bellows.
Unlike the rest of Europe, there were actually laws in medieval Norway requiring peasants to have weapons. How many weapons you had depended entirely on how rich you were. But if you were middle class or higher, you were required to attend the Weapon’s Assembly or Thing with a certain number of weapons. And a helmet. There have been numerous discoveries in Norway of what we often refer to as “iron helmets”, but at the time they were referred to as steel helmets or stálhúfa in Old Norse. This suggests that this could have been somewhat unique to Scandinavia. There have been a number of such discoveries, and we have a good idea of how they were made. They were simply assembled using thin plates.
When the plates have been stretched, I would need to cut out pieces in the right shapes using a chisel and probably also a template, which I look after well. The pieces are then formed using heat from the hearth and sometimes even a tree stump, most likely placed on the anvil. The pieces are formed like small pieces of a bowl through hammer blows. I would then assemble the pieces using rivets and, for a nice kettle hat. I would add a brim to protect the neck and shoulders from sharp and pointed weapons hitting me from above.
After forging the helmet, it would likely be handed over to a polisher. We actually have documents of this from Bergen, specifying the cost of having your helmet polished. It also includes the cost of the leather insert inside the helmet that makes it comfortable to wear. Helmets could even be painted in bright colours. If you weren’t just a poor peasant being called out but say a professional soldier serving a nobleman or the King, you would likely wear a helmet painted in the colours of the mighty person you serve.
I’m forging small items now, so the coal heap isn’t very big. Only a few small, lightweight blanks are sticking out from the hearth. I would probably need to modify the hearth to forge a longsword. I would need to stack some stones to make a large, oblong hearth with a big coal heap. I would also need some assistants. I would start by creating a package. I would select a large, solid piece of iron. I would start by placing fairly thick plates of harder, tempered steel next to the piece of iron ...
I would place the pieces together, perhaps wrapping some steel wire around them to make sure they didn’t come apart in the beginning. I would reheat until the temperature was extremely high, close to melting point. It will be white-hot, the steel will give off steam and the surface will often burn a little, causing sputtering and sparks like fireworks.
We remove the material from the hearth and place it on the anvil to carry out some forge welding. The surface of the steel becomes sticky at such a high temperature. This means that if we put the pieces together at the right time, they will weld together into a single piece. The reason why we do this is because hard steel is a bit exclusive, a bit more expensive. I only use it when I need to and when forging blades.
This is how we work, shape and forge until the item, which consists of several parts, has been stretched out into a sword shape. If this was a medieval city, I would also have been likely to harden it. I would then hand it over to the swordmaker. He would create the handle and finish grinding the sword. In some ways this is almost an even bigger task than forging a sword. The swordmaker would attach the handle and sew the sheath. He would also sell it on to a customer. And I would feel a bit bitter because he makes more money than me."
