Snusmumriken

Since my last post, i’ve been to finland, and to england, and i’ve ben high and low doing loads of stuff that I’ve been either planning to write about later, or just pushing to the back of my head. I just came home from Solmukohta and Finland where i and Martine made a larp, and where I got all kinds of inspiration for stuff i don’t really have the time to do, but sorely want to. I might write better about it later on. The real reason why i’m updating, is to tell everyone that I can’t find my phone. It’s probably somewhere in the luggage, seeing as i had it on the plane, but if anyone needs to get hold of me, it’s probably easier if you contact me here, on facebook, on mail or skype or even call my neighbour, Mikael. I’ll get back in touch as soon as i manage to.

There once was a man called Elling Pedersen, a sailor who was happily married to a girl called Marthe Thorsdatter. His father, who was called Peder had died a few years before, - thus his firstborn son, born in 1750 was called Peder Ellingsen (nr1). Unfortunately he died before he was christened. Three years later, the couple got a new son, named him Peder Ellingsen (nr2) and he dies before he’s christened. In 1756 they got a third son, called him Peder Ellingsen (nr3), and christened him in the local church in Lyngør. Three years later, they got a new son, named him Nils Ellingsen, and having two living kids they must have been happy for some time, - until something happened and both the wife and both sons died.

Elling waited twelwe years before remarrying in 1773, and in 1774 he got a son and christened him Peder Ellingsen (nr4), but unfortunately he died the year after. Only one year later he got a new son. He was called Peder Ellingsen (nr5) and lived to get married and have kids. He also got a daughter, and named her Marthe, after his fist wife. She got to be twenty nine, but never married.

I’m writing about a food riot in 1801, where both Peder and Elling receivs a barrel of wheat. Fortunately. If the only surviving of six sons, or rather the only surviving of sive sons named Peder Ellingsen had died of starvation at an age of 24, it wouldn’t have been too nice.

I’m not sure if it’s a victorious story about the guy who never gave up, or if it’s a story about the guy who didn’t realise that the name of Peder Ellingsen really was cursed.

Today, I’ve been reading Merry Wiesner’s book “Women and gender in early modern europe“, a book that makes generalisations about all of europe during the early modern period, stating things that puzzles me, sometimes things that are plainly wrong. Of course I can’t control her source material, because the book doesn’t have a single footnote. It’s obvious that by “gender”, she means means “women”, by the way. Not that writing a book about women is wrong, but if she had called the book “aspects of womanhood in early modern europe” or something like that, it would have been more fitting. After all, even men belong to a gender.

In the chapter about lesbianism, wiesner mentions “Maria of Antwerp (1719-81) who was arrested twice for marrying a woman. In the trials, she described herself not as a woman attracted to other women, but as a man in a woman’s body, indicationg perhaps that, like those who arrested her, she had difficulty figuring out how to describe sexual love between two women”. Everytime wiesner returns to the example of Maria, she repeats that she had to use the “man in a woman’s body”-metaphor to describe her own lesbianism. Not once does she discuss the option that Maria might have been telling the truth. I wonder why it’s so hard to imagine that a woman living as a man, who dress like a man and wants to marry another woman, and who even states in court that she’s a man in a woman’s body, might be genderqueer. I’m not saying it’s the only option, but it’s really not that far fetched.

The woodcut below is called “recipe for marital bliss” and is made by the Augsburgian artist Abraham Bach. The caption reads: “The qualities on the part of the wife which merit a beating, according to the artist are laziness, talkativeness, vanity and lust for other men, and on the part of the husband drunkenness, laziness, and not supporting his family”. According to Wiesner, it’s dated 1680, which must be about a century too late. What made me happy, is how similar the wife’s dress is to Anton Weihenmayer’s Woman at the virginal from 1586. Both woodcuts are from augsburg and the clothes are almost identical. This makes me happy. What i can’t figure out, is whether it’s socks or breeches the woman is wearing.

Yesterday, I went up to riksarkivet in order to get a few copies. That was the only thing I was going to do there, as I had about 100 pages on my study plan that day. But as I had my source in my hands, I thought I could just as well take a look. Which led to me finding the most interesting interviews and me being really excited about the source material. For those not in the know, reading gothic handwriting is rather exhausting. You get completely drained. And when I came home, I didn’t end up reading from my crriculum at all. I wish I could call reading my source material useful studying, but so close to my exams, I cant.

Who invented four exams a year during the master program anyway?

Anyway. Here’s the fun bit, but probably most fun for the norwegians, but as i decided to write in english, I wont falter now. One of the things I like, is when accent words, or everyday speak sneek into the formal language of 1801. In the middle of the text below it says: “Dette skib havde eftter Vidnets Meening allerede samme Tid Lagt der i Havnen omtrent 8te Dage, og laa et lite Støkke fra Bryggen”. Isn’t that wonderful?

Peter Burke, I have something to tell you. I guess you know that for a long time, you have been the man of my dreams, I’ve been wanting to go to Cambridge, so that I could go to your office, and as casually as one can while drooling, try to say hello. I’d exchange my eyes with shining stars and sit, sparkling, outside your office. But that was before I met E. P. Thompson. For a long long time, I thought mr. Thompson was a woman, I assumed he was called Emma Pauline or something like that, and as I know that I could deal with having one woman, and one man in my life, I settled with having my heart split in two. But I know for sure, that having two men in ones life is alot harder to handle. Peter Burke, after a long long debate with myself, i’m afraid that I have to accept that mr Thompson won. And he’s dead. Now I’m dealing with necophilia.

Burke

thompson