Chapter 4 Imagination and Explanation: Landscapes of the Mind

People and landscape and Good Government mural in Siena, Italy An eminent English archaeologist, Sir for example. The Netherlands was a country Mortimer Wheeler, once famously said that where the environment had been heavily ‘the archaeologist may find the tub, but altered by human intervention, notably altogether miss Diogenes’. In this reference through extensive land reclamation to the ascetic Greek philosopher who programmes. Landschap paintings therefore renounced riches and comforts and lived in a emphasised human activities and actions such tub, Wheeler meant that archaeologists as cattle droving, settlement and farming. sometimes forget the people of the past in However, landscape paintings in the common their obsession with ‘things’, and in particular sense came to depict the environment in forget about how people thought and felt. In picturesque terms that highlighted nature, not this chapter we will be moving back to culture. In the Welsh context, for example, ‘people’, real and imagined. We will ‘put literary descriptions of ‘landscape’ before the Diogenes back in his tub’. We will be moving 19th century are very few, and this is not away from material landscapes to landscapes unusual. of the mind and imagination, mental For archaeologists over the past fifty years landscapes. This has been a continuously or more, ‘landscape’ has served as a underlying theme of the whole book, of convenient (and sometimes not particularly course, but in this chapter we turn to older accurate) term to provide an escape from ways of explaining the landscape. single site studies. It implies not simply a Today’s cultural landscapes can too easily broad tract of land, but an area that requires be viewed principally as physical landscapes, a careful and informed attention: the attention material past made up of features which of the intellect rather than of the eye. It has have been shaped by historical processes – become an area of study in itself. subsistence, industrial exploitation, hunting, Now, and embedded within the European religion or warfare, for example. The cultural Landscape Convention, we can see emerging landscapes inhabited by people in the past a new understanding of what landscape is. seem to have been altogether more subtle, This is an all-embracing concept, and an very much ‘mental’ landscapes, recognising inclusive one socially, not restricted to Part 11- Chapter 4 the ‘built’ elements of the landscape, but also ‘beautiful’ or special landscapes, for example. consisting of natural features such as woods, It draws on historical and literary associations mountains, ri vers and stones, and in worlds as well as the physical and material. It inhabited by gods, giants, trolls and legendary combines nature and culture. Most heroes. importantly it views landscape very clearl y as a matter of perception, an idea not a thing. It is an imagined construct looking to the Landscape – what does it mean? environment and to the real world for its It is important to bear in mind the origins raw material, and to the inner eye, to the of the term ‘landscape’ when we try to intellect and to the senses for its meaning project ourselves back in time to the minds and character. But if this is not a new idea of ancient people and how they understood (being partly a return to the 16th-century Pathways to Europe’s Landscape their surroundings. Landscape is a relatively artists’ definition of landscape as the recent invention, derived originally from the depiction of the world rather than the world term landschap that developed in the itself) this book does demonstrate an idea Netherlands in the late 16th century, for new to many. This is that although ‘landscape’ painted depictions of an area, although there can only exist in the ‘here and now’, its had been earlier largely symbolic depictions perception must take account of the such as the 14th century painting of the Bad environment, with its very long visible,

67 The Kaali meteorite is the only shower For a very 2500 years) time (over long We have already told a story have about the We Broadly speaking, myths seek to rationalisemyths speaking, Broadly cosmic catastrophe in Europe of any magnitude that has hit a populated area. It also happened at a time when everything veryconnected with heaven was carefully of it have survived clear traces and followed, Latvian and Germanic in Estonian, mythologies. More distant allusions can also Christian Greek and even in Celtic,be found mythologies. people had no idea that the Kaali features were meteorite craters. Who could imagine from the sky? down that rocks could fall were therefore Where from? Many legends created about the formation Kaali. of Lake One of them tells us that once there had been a fortification in Kaali. Another version Kaali meteorite, to show the physical traces the physical it to show Kaali meteorite, and in the next chapter left in the landscape, modern how archaeological will show we science explains it. look at the Here we that its fierymyths trail and fall to earth has left behind. and explain the universe and all that is in it, including contemporary landscapes. They had religion, theology, a similar function to science, history in modern and archaeology societies. Myths remain importantand we and alive, including in our no apologies for need make book a chapter of stories which examine a that exist in our myths of the many few areas. twelve describe Some may actual as they all belong to pre-literate but, events been embellished they have oral traditions, variousand re–fashioned by story-tellers time. over to tell impossible almost It is now what originally happened to inspire them. societies at a certainsocieties their stage in development. from itself comes The word which originally meant ‘mythos’ the Greek discoursespeech or (as they were which but reliable more apparently by supplanted written stories) or came to mean fable later legend. refers usually It now to stories of forgotten or vague origin that are mainly religious or supernatural in nature. Originally, sought to explain or rationalisethey however, the supernatural and society. (like All myths modern explanations) were scientific to believed at some stage actually presumably be true who the people by at some level used or originated them. A modern ‘urban myth’–stories the equivalent is perhaps ridiculous that but that are superficially nevertheless contain a deeper widely recognised truthabout the modern world. 68 Explanations have become more become Explanations have Early explanations of the world are So in what way did people in the more So in what way Crucially, this view insists on a distinction this view insists on Crucially, sophisticated with the passage of time, but but sophisticated with the passage of time, society has forgotten as it at least as much which after all is one of the has learned, needing archaeologists. reasons for The myths and ideas embedded in stories,words and traditions suggest the thought may rise to our landscape.processes which gave Archaeologists need to study both in order to approach the past. and are present in all called myths usually distant past have any clear sense that they any distant past have rather than as such, ‘landscape’ inhabited a a worldinhabiting in living on the land, simply which the raw materials present, were recognised and respected. There are not the world, tales from all over numerous which are concerned with from Europe,only mountains, the essential matter of landscape, as as well swamps and stones, woods, rivers, the cycle of the such as floods, events seasons and the origins of societies. all of these are connected with Moreover, often named (names people or beings, none occur unattached and meant power): isolated. are clear indications that These of what we appreciative fully people were and their ‘local landscapes’ termwould their stories of trying are a way the to explain myriad of observed phenomena. today, Even are imagined rather than ‘states’ and ‘nations’ natural communities. One of the principal then as of agreeing culturalways identity, inheritance a shared was by of myth, now, and tradition.folklore between environment and landscape. and environment between There changing an environment, been has always or without human with through time, with exists the landscape only but influence, time. in our own people and only can We documentaryuse archaeology (and as one shows, as the last chapter research), to reach an understandingway the of to create our in order environment landscapes. guess as to can only But we in their ‘landscape’ had whether past peoples we that the same way like minds in anything of trying are one way myths do. Traditional and of bringing to approach this subject, some past perceptions of the world into our mental landscapes. own Explanations from the past Explanations from tangible and retrievable and historytangible (and prehistory).

Part 11- Chapter 4 Pathways to Europe’s Landscape is that this is an old volcano crater. A third Scotland, yet several scientists have deduced version is that an old cave collapsed, leaving from the descriptions that the spot where ‘the rocks and stones piled up. barbarian showed me the grave where the The Finnish national epic Kalevala, the Sun fell dead’ must instead be Saaremaa. oldest parts of which recall events that Pytheas’ descriptions of the way of life on happened thousands of years ago, describes Thule also seem to fit better the pre-Roman in its songs how the Sun had fallen down and Iron Age in Saaremaa than with the far-off caused a terrible accident on a distant island North Sea. The same place seems to be across the sea. Colourful motifs about the described in the epic ‘Argonautics’ of Rhodos burning of marshes and lakes in Saaremaa Appolonios (295-215 BC) where a sailor and weeping for the perished are frequent in found a ‘deep lake in the far north – the Estonian folklore, too – ‘the swamps were set burial of the Sun, from which still fog rose as on fire, the lakes stood in flames …’. Some from the glowing wound’. of this folklore has survived in folk songs that The Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus are still sung today. described the cult of Nerthus of the The fall of the Kaali meteorite could Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland settlers in the indirectly be the event which inspired the 1st century AD ‘in a secret lake concealed ancient Greek legend about Phaeton. from everybody’ on a mythical island. On this Phaeton took over driving the Sun cart from sacred island of the Germanics, slaves were his father, Helios, but lost control of it and let sometimes sacrificed to the lake. It seems the flaming cart fall into a mysterious river, quite possible that Tacitus was speaking the Eridanos, that no human had ever seen. about the Kaali crater. He was also the first Phaeton’s sisters were turned into trees, writer to mention the Estonians: ‘Upon the weeping for Phaeton at the place where he right of the Suevian Sea [the Baltic] the was drowned, their tears fell as amber. This Aestyan [Estonians] reside, who use the same beautiful legend was born in a far-away customs and attire with the Suevians southern country, perhaps simply to explain [Swedes]. They worship the Mother of the this exotic and mysterious substance, but the Gods’. mention of amber alone suggests that it is a Even later references to the Kaali reference to an event that happened in the meteorite can still be found. In the course of Baltic, and very likely the fall of the Kaali converting the Estonians to Christianity in meteorite. 1220, missionaries cut down the wooden The knowledge and memory of the figures of Estonian gods on a sacred hill in disaster travelled far in both space and time. East Estonia. Henric’s Livonian Chronicle The earliest surviving written sources that describes the incident, mentioning also that may refer to the Kaali catastrophe date from Tharapita, the great god of the Saareans, was the years 350-320 BC and are connected born on that hill and had then flown across with the mysterious island of Thule. The to Saaremaa. Modern science tells us that Greek traveller Pytheas of Marseilles placed the meteorite came from the east, thus this island north of Brittany, and others have creating this belief in the birth and life of a Part 11- Chapter 4 suggested it was the Orkney Islands north of god just as it created the lake of Kaali and its religions, exemplified today by finds of

An historical map of Kaali Pathways to Europe’s Landscape

69 prehistoric ritual deposition of goods and explaining how supernatural beings such as artefacts. giants, gnomes or ‘subterraneans’ created But here, too, myth tells a different story. aspects of the landscape that are either One describes how people decided to find natural or that seemed impossible to be out how deep the crater was. Modern humanly-made. Interestingly, two of the focal archaeologists and scientists do this with points which appear in the stories, churches bore-holes through the lake sediments; the and burial chambers, although several local villagers tied together all the ropes in thousands of years apart, are both connected the village and lowered down a cauldron with religion and faith. We’ve told other filled with sand. It did not reach the bottom stories in this book about the creation of of the lake, but when pulled out, it was found symbolic landscapes such as the bog deposits to contain a bloody ram’s head with a knife in Ireland, the precise perception of crannogs, in it. This was evidence enough for the the burial rites of the Danish Iron Age, and villagers that someone was still living in the ritual deposits at Kaali. We have used depths of the lake. archaeological evidence for these, but the These tales clearly show how difficult it is following stories show how people in the to know where to draw the line between past saw religious and cultural significance in true myths and the evolving traditions, landscape. The first example is about trolls in written history and archaeological narratives Bjäre: that follow them. If myths describe the There is a rich mythical world associated actions of gods and the way the world with burial mounds, often connected with works, folk tales are mythology in decline, trolls or giants. These creatures used to where gods become super-heroes (or ogres inhabit remote places in the area, enjoying and witches) and their landscape is no longer the peace and quiet of Bjäre. Unfortunately timeless but almost the familiar world, which for the trolls and giants, churches were built we ourselves inhabit. in the medieval period with loud bells that destroyed their solitude. To silence them they threw stones or earth at the churches, but Giants and gnomes – tales of the very often they missed and a mound or supernatural standing stone was created. Soon all the We now present four more tales, from giants disappeared from the area, no doubt Sweden, Finland, northern Germany and because they could not stand the noise, but northern Italy. Although quite different in the trolls were more persistent, or less their settings, they have common threads, all sensitive. They used the mounds as dwellings

Elna Mårten where trolls dwell with their treasure, Bjäre Part 11- Chapter 4 Pathways to Europe’s Landscape

70 and hid their treasures inside them. Once a year the treasures and the insides of these dwellings became visible for ordinary people, and of course many wanted to get hold of the troll treasures. The failures and successes of those people who tried to steal this treasure are the subject of many other tales. Finnish legends also explain how the landscape was inhabited and shaped by The Giants Whetstone, giants before humans came along. The oldest Untamala giant stories are probably dated to the Iron Age, but the majority of the surviving stories are from the historical period. In addition to natural phenomena, they were also used to explain the pagan monuments whose meaning had been forgotten since the arrival of Christianity. As explanations for landscape The churchyard where the features, they form a rich and easily whetstone stands, Untamala understandable tradition. Characteristic of the Vakka-Suomi landscape is its hard, hostile, stone-filled soil. There are great boulders on the fields, and rocky, unfarmed areas. The local rock – – they could stride across the bottom of the ‘rapakivigranite’, unique to Finland – makes sea. It is told that some giants walked all the the soil acid and low in nutrients, an infertile, way to Sweden, but had to return hungry inhospitable land. The barren landscape is because the Swedish people, not then as fruitful in other ways, however, and it has hospitable as the Finns, would not feed them. given birth to a great many stories about the Especially popular were stories about the giants who lived in the area before humans. giants as church builders. These rather recent When the humans came, conflicts occurred stories explain the presence of the many and the relationship between humans and stone churches in the area that we would say giants didn’t always work smoothly. The were built by people during the 16th and giants tried to mimic human ways of living, 17th centuries. The stories tell of huge but often the results were pitiful failures. female giants carrying stones in their aprons The giants were the sons of Kaleva, a for the male giants to do the masonry. They name apparently originating in the Iron Age, handled large boulders in the same way that when the Finns had connections with humans handled bricks. The giants were northern Estonia. The first-known written usually paid in food but the payment caused reference to this name is not until 1551 quarrels and, after a dispute, the giants would when Bishop Agricola, who was responsible destroy the church they had built, thereby Part 11- Chapter 4 for translating the Bible into Finnish, wrote a neatly explaining the area’s many natural list of gods of the ancient Finns. The stories stone piles. about the sons of Kaleva were creation Another popular type of church-building stories, used to explain how odd natural story tells about contests between humans formations had come into existence. and giants. Humans usually won such According to the stories, the giants were the contests because, to their misfortune, the original people of Vakka-Suomi, whose fate giants weren’t too bright. This sort of story is was to clear ground for the humans who linked, for example, to Kirkelinna of Laitila, would arrive later. which is a hillfort dated to the Iron Age. According to the tales, the giants looked According to the story the giants tried to like people except that they had six fingers build their own church where the hillfort on their hands and six toes on their feet and, stands but after they lost a contest with Pathways to Europe’s Landscape of course, were of gargantuan size. The eyes humans they got angry and in their fury they of a giant were the size of saucers. destroyed what they had built, now all that According to one story, when a young giant remains of it are the boulders and a small was old enough to attend to a confirmation section of a stone wall. class, the ladders of an entire village were In the churchyard of Untamala there needed to be able to take the hat off his stands a two metre tall granite boulder that head. To cross water they didn’t need boats was discovered during excavations in the

71 1950s, the memorial of two women buried Archaeologically speaking, the Brutkamp there during the 12th century. The village is a megalithic burial chamber, more than story, however, tells us that it is a whetstone 5000 years old, built by a group of early of a son of Kaleva. The giant was sharpening farmers in northern Germany. It is an his scythe in his meadow and sent his wife important monument, with the biggest for water. When she had been too long on capstone in the whole of Schleswig-Holstein her journey, the giant became angry and (weighing about 23 tons). It does not stand threw his whetstone away. The giant’s throw alone, but as part of a group of megalithic was so powerful that the whetstone reached tombs near Albersdorf. Along with later the churchyard and buried itself so deep that Bronze Age grave mounds, these Neolithic it could not be dug out. tombs add to the special cultural landscape Our next story is from northern character of the area, and it is surely Germany, and combines two themes significant that they have shaped local myth common to many of Europe’s folk tales – an just as much as landscape. explanation of how burial chambers came The idea that giants built monuments into being, and the traditions connected with associated with ritual, religion and ceremony marriage and fertility. Archaeologists still take is a common theme across Europe. In Wales, an interest in one of these, but both are of several Neolithic burial chambers are equal interest to folk story-tellers. associated with giants: e.g. Barclodiad-y- In Albersdorf there is a famous stone Gawres (‘Apronful of the Giantess’) and a monument traditionally known as ‘The tale tells how such a tomb was created when Brutkamp’ or ‘Oven-Stone’. One story tells of a giantess let a load of stones that she was the subterraneans (who could bring luck to carrying slip from her apron. visitors) who lived here, while another tale Another tale of this sort with small, not says that only giants could have built it. A giant beings, and this time from northern Italy, modern tradition is that newly married explains how gnomes, again working with couples will have luck in their life if they visit people, transformed the mountainous region the Brutkamp. of the Dolomites.

The Brutkamp dolmen, Albersdorf Part 11- Chapter 4

A drawing of the Brutkamp dolmen, Albersdorf Pathways to Europe’s Landscape

72 Once upon a time there lived, in a remote kingdom of the Alps, an unhappy prince. He could have anything he desired in his realm, but the only thing he really cared about was beyond his reach. He spent the days riding wildly, driven by an inner fire, and the nights gazing at the friendly moon. Everything around was so still and sombre that the only relief was the appearance of the moon in the night sky, giving a pale hue to the landscape. One night he was riding his horse impatiently while around him vertical cliffs rose over his head, dark and cruel. When he reached the top of the hill he sat down waiting; it was a night with a waning moon, which meant that he had to wait long before it appeared in the east, and he fell asleep and dreamt. He dreamt that he was in a wonderful place where everything around him reflected the unreal bright light of the moon. A beautiful girl appeared ‘the princess of this beautiful place’, he thought ‘the princess of the moon’. What he had desired so much was there in front of him. He spent a long time, hours, probably days, in this idyll, but the moonlight was so strong that he was rapidly becoming blind. He could not stay longer, and had to return to his gloomy mountains. The princess was fond of him and would have followed him anywhere, but she found that in his realm everything was dark and gloomy and she withered away, growing melancholic. She would soon die if she did not return to the moon. A huge dark cloud covered the moon and The Pale Mountains an eerie thunder awakened the prince. He When the full moon came, the prince was of the Moon, was wistful and desperate, and the moon sitting as always, contemplating the moon, Paneveggio was again far away, out of reach. Soon it when he saw thousands of gnomes appear started raining. The prince saw a chamois from every small crevice in the rocks and Part 11- Chapter 4 climbing the mountain slopes and followed it. every hole in the ground. They rode the He arrived at a cave lit by a small fire, and faithful chamois up all the highest mountains. in front of him were two small strange men They were so far up that it seemed they staring at him with smart and twinkling eyes. could touch the moon; then with the They were ‘Salvans’, the small people of the moonlight they started to weave a long mountain who dwell in the underworld, shining thread that little by little they feared for their magical powers. The prince wrapped around the mountains. told the two gnomes his sad story. They The following morning, when the prince listened patiently until the end, and then one woke, he saw something amazing: all the of them said ‘I am Laurin, king of the Salvans. mountains around him had become incredibly Long ago we lived in peace in these beautiful and shining white; it was like being

mountains before we were betrayed and on the moon. The news spread by word of Pathways to Europe’s Landscape defeated: the garden of roses that was the mouth from village to village, from valley to pride of our kingdom was destroyed and my valley, from kingdom to kingdom, and many people were slaughtered. Now we have no people came from far away to see the land to live in, but if you promise to let us live miracle. in peace as in the old days, we will help you One day a beautiful princess came from to find what you are looking for. Wait until afar to see the pale mountains and, while she the next full moon for my people’. was admiring them, the prince recognised her

73 When he led his army out from Caer Traeth Pryderi,crossed enemy, Math’s But (perhaps for the same reason, to same reason, the But (perhaps for Gwydion and Gilfaethwy are turned are and Gilfaethwy Gwydion into a young and princes die in battle, animals, is born, story’sthe hero, new Lleu, man called and with human shape, regains loses and inheritsmagic powers eventually lordship. revenge, betrayal, there is love, way Along the turnedand people are attempted murder, and eagles.into owls It is a convoluted, tradition, emerging an oral from tale, complex characters and symbols,with many different designed to construct kinship and validate and lineage. Dathyl, the places Math passed through, or the places Math passed through, Dathyl, are still to be found where battles took place, along the former Roman road from y Mur. The manors of Tomen to Segontium and Alun are mentioned, and Coed Pennardd on the placename evidence by can be traced where the name Nant Call, modern map; is remembered in firstbattle was engaged, where a while Dolbenmaen, farm names; is further south temporary made, peace was again at a river crossing where there stands once the another motte and bailey castle, centre of Eifionydd (another administrative cantref). formerly a wide estuary Mawr, but now being killed in before enclosed and drained, single combat at Felenrhyd and buried at both places still to be found. Maentwrog, Felenrhyd is remembered in several while and a mill, including a ford placenames, confirm land ownership) all the fantastic place at specific real places action takes and our in the text, which are mentioned most of these can still that project has shown today. be traced place The action takes within two genuine historical cantrefi and Arfon districts), administrative (medieval through which can be traced Ardudwy, historical records. The two principal courts (palaces) of these real historical areas are mentioned as the homes of some of the characters in the story.(fictional) central which is Arfon, Math lived at Caer Dathyl in tentatively identified as ,where there Arfon Segontium/Caernarfon in a Norman motte and bailey is a Roman fort, castle and walled castle and the medieval I. of Edward town Lleu lived at Mur Castell y Mur, Tomen the modern site of Ardudwy, in another Roman fort and later complex Norman bailey. motte and of Interestingly, at palaces such as these that it was course, passed on the Mabinogion the cyfarwyddydd form. in oral 74 Math vab Mathonwy, the lord of Mathonwy, Math vab The four stories, like those we have heard have those we like stories,The four These tales share a clear trend, that clear trend, These tales share a Gwynedd lived at Caer Dathyl. He could live were in the lap of a virgin, only if his feet fighting in the turmoilunless he was war. of low, even hear whispering,He could however world Math’s is carried on the wind. fab Gilfaethwy disrupted when his nephew, with his virgin love in footholder, fell Dôn, of a under cover and took her away Goewin, his brother Gwydion to steal the pigs by raid Annwn (the Underworld) from Pryderiof in with Math Arfon, Dyfed. in This led to war and Gwydion pursuing and killing Pryderi. in a tale of magic and wonder, Subsequently, flower, the emblem of these mountains; we we of these mountains; the emblem flower, the Edelweiss.Alps – call it the star of the as the woman from his dreams, the princess from his dreams, woman as the of the moon. mountains have Since then the a the moon, the mountains of been called gnomes and chamois people,place where in peace.live together And the story does said that one day the it is not end here: princess returned her to the moon to visit back to the highest parents and brought a small white peaks of the pale mountains from Finland and Italy, are set in a from Finland and Italy, talking birds, worldmythological of giants, the fourthbut magician and shape-shifters, can be Math vab Mathonwy, story at least, which up seen to describe a real landscape, to a point can still be seen and experienced today. place in our Much of the action takes and the tale is a study area, Welsh project’s as to the culturalto the past as well Pathway landscape. is a long story Math’s as our summary shows. humans once shared the worldhumans once shared with supernatural beings. tales which set out Folk into the to explain landscape continued historical period and retain similar themes. devised to entertainThese tales were as well as to explain. culture, Welsh In medieval of the great honour was attached to the role who went cyfarwyddydd (or tellers of tales), from court their plying Wales to court across art. is described in Gwydion, of these, One Mabinogi as Welsh the fourth branch of the ‘the best teller of tales in the world’. The branchesfour of the Mabinogi together form medieval Welsh of one of the jewels literature. collected and writtenThey were many they are but in the 14th century, down passed on orally in the bardic centuries older, tradition. Historical tales Historical tales

Part 11- Chapter 4 Pathways to Europe’s Landscape Caernarfon, site of a Roman fort and medieval castle, Wales

The coastal hillfort of Dinas Dinlle where Lleu was raised by Gwydion the magician, Wales

the village of Maentwrog is a mile away (and sitting in an oak tree between two lakes. This is the burial place of the giant Twrog, marked translates in Welsh as ‘Baladeuly’ and we

by a huge prehistoric standing stone in the know from historical records that this was Part 11- Chapter 4 churchyard – but that is another tale). also the centre of one of the royal estates of The story then describes a surviving Arfon, with the princes’ common lying above Roman infrastructure. Roman or early post- in Nantlle. The court connection is Roman administrators had left the area in emphasised again. the 5th century, but this tale, created, re-told Lleu is taken to Caer Dathyl to recover, and embellished between (or before) then and when he has done so he and Gwydion and the 14th century when it was written set out with an army to Mur Castell. down allowed a Roman or post-Roman Blodeuedd, Lleu’s magically created wife landscape to survive through oral tradition betrays him and flees, and her maidens into modern place-names. drown in a lake; and a nearby lake is known Landscape associations continue as Llyn Morwynion, ‘lake of the maiden’. Lleu throughout the story. Earlier in the tale, we kills Gronw (Blodeuedd’s lover) by hurling a Pathways to Europe’s Landscape had been told that Goewin is the daughter of spear into his body, which first pierces a stone Pebin of Dol Bebin yn Arfon: this is now a Gronw holds in front of him. This takes place farmhouse in Dyffryn Nantlle, not far from in the spot by the Afon Cynfael, where Lleu the place where Lleu was transformed back was struck by Gronw, and some years ago a into human shape. When Lleu flies away in stone was found nearby which had a hole the form of an eagle, Gwydion tracks him through the centre. This was known as the down in the valley of Nantlle, where he is stone of Gronw. What is more, a local

75 resident remembers that when his father legends have proven to be closer to the truth ploughed the farmland here, he always left than one might expect. More recent studies the corner of one field untouched – because confirm that this is the site of a medieval it was Gronw’s grave. castle, a so-called motte, of which many were Folk tales which set out to explain erected during the 12th century. So here we landscape continued into the historical have an excellent example of modern period, retaining similar themes as earlier explanations confirming older ones (or should (religion, dark deeds and death), but without that be the other way round?) supernatural beings and magic. Following the Many small castles were built at this time tale of Math, which contains both Christian – small hills surrounded by a bank and ditch, and pagan references and symbols, we are a palisade, a wooden or stone tower at the now in a truly Christian era where the centre, a few half-timbered houses and a stories are acted out by identifiable humans village nearby, providing all that was needed (including clergy and knights, some of whom for living. The castles housed ministerial are named) in recognisable landscapes. The officials and lesser nobility. Many castles, following tales from our Spessart project in however, were given up and abandoned Germany are an example of this. before long, including the Ketzelburg in At the edge of Haibach, under tall Haibach. Legends grew up around its deciduous trees, lies the Ketzelburg, a remains and its name. prominent round hill enclosed by a strong One of these legends tells of a knight rampart and a deep moat, and secured on who lived here, and of two maids from the three sides by high cliffs. It towers above the nearby village. What was a game for the Haibach brook, which runs deep in the valley knight was deadly serious for the young below. Local people know the site well. The women. On the way back to Haibach from older people played here as children; the harvest one day, the maids pounced youngsters still come here today for their upon one another in a fierce struggle which nightly rendezvous. The Ketzelburg is a part left them both dead, each killed by the of the Haibach identity, entwined by legends other’s sickle. Two stone crosses were set up and sagas. The stories tell of knights, to commemorate the terrible bloodbath. The dreadful deeds and mysterious treasures. knight was haunted by a guilty conscience. Lately, some local historians have come to His lord, the Archbishop of Mainz, ordered regard the mounds as the remains of the castle to be destroyed, and the knight left Germanic or Celtic ramparts, but the old on a long and dangerous pilgrimage to

The motte of the Ketzelburg castle, Spessart Part 11- Chapter 4 Pathways to Europe’s Landscape

76 Jerusalem. Years later, a lone wanderer came handle. It was never seen again, but the to Haibach, with long hair and a beard and place was henceforth called Kesselburg wearing a dusty pilgrim’s cloak. He knelt at (kessel being the German word for kettle), the memorial crosses and died in prayer. The which eventually evolved into Ketzelburg. people of Haibach recognised the lone This legend combines local elements with traveller as the knight, returning from the features of classical travelling lore, which can Holy Land. His death at the site where the be found all across Europe. One of these is maids had fought, for which he was the gold treasure buried below a prominent responsible, was a sign of God’s forgiveness – hill, a feature also found in the troll legends of so another stone cross was built beside the gold treasures under Bronze Age burial maids’ crosses. The three crosses are still to mounds in Bjäre and Halland. Also the be seen in the woods of the Ketzelburg. obligation to remain silent when getting This saga explains the abandonment of treasure is common. If you say a single word, the castle, for which no historical records the treasure disappears instantly, never to survive. It also seems to depict the struggle return. between lesser and higher nobility for power. Medieval Spessart is reflected in other The legend names the Archbishop of Mainz legends too. The Kreuzkapelle, near as the man who destroyed the castle. In Frammersbach was founded in the 14th reality Archbishop Konrad of Mainz, who was century by the Duke of Rieneck. The chapel driven away by his rival, Christian von Buch, in served the Spessart glassmakers, but when 1165 and only returned after his foe’s death parish churches were later built in Wiesen in 1183, complained that the diocese was and Frammersbach it became more or less badly neglected during his absence. The superfluous, and instead developed into an Church had lost many goods and competitive important pilgrim church, securing its noblemen had erected a castle directly continued existence today. outside Aschaffenburg, threatening the archbishop’s interests. Konrad commended Two legends surround the ‘Kreuzkapelle’ himself on having ‘taken care’ of these (cross chapel), which are similar to legends problems and having destroyed the castle surrounding other chapels and churches. One outside Aschaffenburg. Konrad may not have describes how the Duke of Rieneck got lost in been referring to the Ketzelburg, but the the woods while hunting. He was thirsty and legend does refer to an actual conflict and hungry, and had almost given up hope, when Haibach does lie just outside Aschaffenburg. a deer bearing antlers with a cross appeared before him and showed him the way to a The theme of religion is again to the fore spring near the path. Strengthened and here, combined with the perennial themes of saved, he ordered a chapel to be built in this love (often unrequited) and death. But we spot. have moved on from stories about giants in a dimly-seen past landscape with mysterious This legend explains the name of the monuments to people we recognise chapel with the cross in the deer’s antlers, inhabiting a landscape with which we, like and preserves the memory of the Duke as P them, are familiar (a village, harvest, stone its founder. Later, a second legend 11- Chapter 4 art crosses), and set in an historic period (that of concerning the founding of the Kreuzkapelle pilgrimages to the Holy Land). developed, one that was surely good for the reputation of a pilgrim church. Another legend explains the name of the castle the Ketzelburg. In reality the name A shepherd lay down to sleep. When he probably comes from the builders of the awoke, a cross lay in the grass beside him. castle, the Kesselbergers, who married into He took this to his hut, but next morning it the area near Aschaffenburg. But this was had disappeared. When he returned to the long ago forgotten, so people found other place of his nap of the day before, the cross explanations. lay there again in the grass. He took it back home, only to find the ‘ritual’ repeated, and According to legend, two children, then again for a third time. It was clear to all Pathways to Europe’s Landscape brother and sister, were playing where the the villagers that this was a sign from God castle stands. The girl discovered the handle telling them to build a church on that spot. of a kettle, sticking out of the ground. She dug down and found that it was filled with Legends of treasure were also common. gold coins. But the kettle was too heavy to The ‘Schächerloch’ for example is surrounded lift. She called her brother to help her, but at by numerous stories, even though this the sound of her voice the kettle legendary hall in a cave, which has enough disappeared, leaving the girl holding only its room to hold sixteen people, is not

77 We have only called these mountains the We The Pale di San Martino is the range The Pale By now we have truly the entered have we By now Dolomites for about 140 years, a tiny part of about 140 years,Dolomites for story.their life They were re-christened in the who English tourists1860s by and climbers, named them after the rock they were made that name itself is only a little over of, and named after the traveller 200 years old, who first de Dolomieu, and adventurer Gratet in realised their unusual geological character 1789. that they had been Long before the Mountains of Mountains, called the Pal the Moon. it is said that earlier, But even a time when these mountains had there was but that something happened sombre tones, gloomy hues into shining to turn the dark, white. Those were the days of an unhappy prince who lived in a remote kingdom of the the gnomes... helped by Alps and who was … as an earlier story relates. largest massif of the Dolomites. A quadrilateral square kilometres with of 200 vertical cliffs soaringvalleys wooded above its heart is a rolling, and mountain pastures, with its clear rocky high plateau recalling, a lunar landscape. colours, Its magical such atmosphere has inspired many writers, Tartari’. ‘Il Deserto dei as Dino Buzzatti in his most with snow Though the place is covered its shapes remind us of an of the year, a ancient past when these mountains were atoll emerging of a from the abyss coral tropical sea. But many things have changed since the submarine relief emergedfrom the reaching dizzy heights. sea, Winter-like after a long sleep then, this,lethargy followed as the under thick ice sheets came the new, populated ice melted and the land was animals and people. plants,again by of again. threw away their clubs and fled back to the back and fled their clubs away threw village. and the others Schulze who went seen or heard to dig were never into the hole historical period, where the legends read where the historical period, historicalmore like than invented documents stories tellers spun by of tales as things were. the way explanations for It is a short but now to the period step forward which discoveryof scientific and explanation, is the basis of our modern of accounts cultural landscapes. This story the of how Dolomites of northern their received Italy tale, ‘scientific’ of a name is a good example which also contrasts with the nicely legendary explanation of an earlier name already told have which we gnomes, involving bringsand which therefore us full circle back to myths. 78 Once upon a time, the Steinmark villagers Once upon a time, wanted to retrieve the treasure from the wanted ‘Schächerloch’. On the night of a full-moon they took to the woods with pick and spade. gold When they reached the spot where the their and silver coins were supposedly buried, ‘Let someone stand guard said leader Schulze so no one disturbs our work.’ at the hole, So each carryingthree villagers outside, stood a of men and a handful Schulze large club. and startedclimbed down digging. Suddenly, dark figures several saw the three watchmen carryingand then tree trunks them, towards chopping them into shape. They hammered, chopped and carved carpenters, trained like and soon set up a gibbet. The three guards could see it all clearly but did not say a word, to speak when because one is not allowed retrieving treasure. The mysterious strangers were also silent. Only when they had finished which ‘Hey, did one of them say the gibbet the one with the red one shall we hang first, vest?’. the three guards Upon hearing this, accessible today. today. accessible to the stories, According to shelter and protection gave the room Years Thirty hiding duringpeasants in the War. that Emperor Heinrich It is also said IV, hid VII, Gregory Pope expelled by who was in 1077. in the cave group An adventurous without tried treasures in the cave, to find success. the act and caught in They were the courtbrought before of the sovereign, punished with an incredibly where they were the set according to the value of high fine, to find. treasure they had hoped The to prevent was blasted entrance to the cave of this kind. ‘adventuring’ furtherany Before local villagers also had however, this, the as tried treasure,unsuccessfully find to storyfollowing tells. ain- Tancrede Gratet de Gratet Tancrede Deodat-Guy-Silv name to the Dolomites Dolomieu, who gave his Dolomieu,

Part 11- Chapter 4 Pathways to Europe’s Landscape Sunset on the Pale Mountains, Paneveggio

So our ability to set out more rational Kaali appeared, and every midsummer night and convincing arguments about landscape since, two hands wearing wedding rings evolution and change have still not appear out of the lake. But the only people completely replaced our fondness for, and who can see the hands are those who come interest in, the old stories. As well as the to the lake alone and (more difficult to survival of stories of giants and gnomes, achieve), have never lied, cheated or stolen. some of which we have just told, folk Lake Kaali is still connected with wedding traditions are still very much a part of our ceremonies. Young couples bring their guests modern cultural landscapes. Although they to the lake and throw a bottle containing the may not survive in forms that clearly show wife’s maiden name into the bottomless lake their origins as explanations, their association in the hope that she will never need it again. with certain areas of landscape underlies More environmentally friendly couples their importance as past reasoning. Many nowadays tend to throw a bouquet of flowers traditions, as we have seen in some of the rather than a glass bottle into the waves. themes identified above, are connected with All this shows that the heaven-sent lump religion, birth, love and death. There are at of iron has not only shaped the cultural Part 11- Chapter 4 least two such traditions from our areas of landscape of Saaremaa, but that it has also cultural landscape. In Albersdorf, as we have enriched and greatly influenced the mental already read, megalithic tombs have attracted landscapes of our predecessors. New myths of giving luck and fertility to newly legends are still being born. Inspiration for married couples. Another story comes from them does not end, as precisely at the time the Kaali crater, and explains just who is living when this part of the book was first written, at the bottom of the lake. on 21 November 2002, another meteorite Once upon a time there was a splendid fell with much fire and smoke into the sea manor inhabited by a fabulously wealthy a few dozens kilometres off Saaremaa. couple. They had a son and a daughter, and Thunder from the fall was heard also in in order to keep their riches in the family it Kaali ... was decided they should marry each other. Which leads us back again to the present Pathways to Europe’s Landscape After the gorgeous wedding, with many day, and to explanations our own time has guests, the priest told the coachman as he for the landscape that we have read about in was leaving that under no circumstances was this chapter. The final story here brings he to look back. Of course, he did – and together many of the strands, not only of this with a huge explosion the beautiful mansion chapter, but also of the whole European together with all the guests disappeared Pathways to Cultural Landscapes programme, under the earth. At the same spot Lake and – we believe – of the central place of

79 A cartoon of the wedding ritual our local cultural landscapes, and above all that has developed at the the pre-eminent role of people in cultural Kaali crater ©Jaana Ratas landscapes (both as participants and as observers, tellers of tales and listeners). One could say that it also shows that there can be too many experts on the job without anything being achieved! Finally, it sums up the importance of using our imaginations alongside scientific tools when trying to understand and explain cultural landscapes. By combining the two we will be able to put Diogenes back into his tub, where he belongs. Up on the Hallandsåsen just south of the landscape and its diversity within Europe’s village of Hasslöv, Sweden, there is a common heritage. remarkable feature. Not remarkable in itself, because it is really nothing more than a big hole in the ground, but remarkable because it The riddle of the wolf pit has nevertheless challenged people’s The final story in this chapter emphasises imaginations for at least fifty years. This hole, the importance of the oral tradition, not only or pit, has a diameter of about six metres as an end in itself but also as a means of and a depth of approximately one and a studying the past and of getting to know the half metres. It is well-shaped, in the form of people of the past and how they thought a bowl, looking like the hole used by children and lived. It shows that in the end everyone, playing marbles, though only if they were the expert and non-expert alike, might have children of giants! opinions as to what something might be, but We have no information, either oral or that ‘proof’ is difficult to establish. It also written, about when the pit was dug. demonstrates the importance in the cultural Although long familiar to the local people, it landscape of even modest antiquities. It only became more widely known after an shows the excitement and interest there is in

The wolf pit on the Hallandsåsen, Halland P art 11- Chapter 4 art Pathways to Europe’s Landscape

80 archaeological survey in the 1960s. In device such as a cellar-like hollow in the official documents, it has been classified as a middle of the pit, its vertical edges lined with trapping pit of such great value that it has stones so that, once the wolf had fallen in, it acquired the status of an ancient monument. could not possibly climb out again. Local people say it is a wolf pit. The third explanation is that the pit is a One of the meetings of the EPCL project bomb crater. Although Sweden was not was held in Halland and archaeologists and directly involved in the Second World War, in historians and landscape experts from ten the closing phase of the war allied bombers different nations were able to examine the flew over it and it is not impossible that a pit. What should we believe? Several plane dropped the bomb before making an interpretations have been put forward to emergency landing. However, the pit and explain the existence of the pit, but they all surrounding area have been examined using fall short of providing a convincing answer. a metal detector and no traces of shrapnel The first suggestion is that it was used for were found, just a Swedish fifty öre coin from hunting, but the edges of a traditional 1930. trapping pit are not symmetrical. One side So, what next? An archaeological should have a much gentler slope than the excavation to examine the contents of the opposite side so that it is easy for an elk or pit, digging our way down to discover deer to get into the pit but difficult to get (perhaps!) what it was? Even this might not out. Also, there is only one pit – trapping pits lead us closer to the truth. And, finally, is that were usually placed in a long line, which really what we want – always to find the could stretch for tens of kilometres, with truth? It may be that sense of place is small fences between the pits. greater if we give free play to people’s The second explanation is that the pit imaginations. How likely is a simple little pit was dug to trap wolves. Up until the early in the ground to engage the attention of both 19th century wolves were numerous in scholars and laymen, from the locality and southern Sweden, and wolf pits were dug to from other countries, if we know everything catch and kill them. Our pit corresponds about its function? Perhaps its function now, closely to these wolf pits, but unfortunately whatever it has been in the past, is to pose lacks any evidence for an actual trapping questions. Part 11- Chapter 4 Pathways to Europe’s Landscape

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Part 11- Chapter 4 Pathways to Europe’s Landscape