Hjortlund Tales

In the old days, local tales and good stories were part of public knowledge. Some stories were about special people or funny incidents, while others were quite true and recounted the way you managed everyday life back then.

The boastful Jørgen Degn

One of the stories is about the fact that boasting was not terribly well recieved. Jørgen Degn, who lived in a rented house in Hjortlund, often talked of his youth when he served in the grand manor houses as coachman. Often he had four horses harnessed to the coach, and to steer them all he had to have a whip that was 14 cubits (8.8 metres) long. He liked to boastfully recount that when he stood in the middle of the manor’s grain barn, he could just about reach its outer walls with the tip.

School teacher arrived at work

Another story is about love's labour lost. In 1864, when the Germans and Austrians went up to Jutland to occupy the country, the schoolteacher Mads Kristoffersen in Hjortlund wanted to save as much of his clothes as possible. He thought that Jernved north of the river Kongeå was part of the Danish kingdom so that the Germans would not be likely to go there. When he had shipped a large part of his possessions over the Kongeå, he set off to Jernved. But then the news came that the Germans had come to Jernved and so the schoolteacher decided to turn around and he took it all back home to the school again.

The unfriendly host                                                                                                       

It might be nice to have guests, but it is also nice when they leave again. A man in Hjortlund always said whenever he had visitors:”Thank you for not walking past my door”. When the guest had gone again, the tone was quite different. Then he said:”What did the filthy man want to come here for?”

The connection between Hjortlund and Jernved

Before the wooden bridge was built north of Hjortlund, you crossed the river Kongeå between Hjortlund and Jernved by boat. At one time there were two men who managed this traffic. One man was so clever that he put a rope on the river bank. When a person arrived who wanted to come over, he or she pulled the rope, and a bell rang inside of the owner’s boat. Otherwise you had to shout until the ferryman heard you. It cost two old Danish skillings (four øre) to be ferried over the river. This crossing stopped when the wooden bridge was built in around 1880.

Author: Truels Truelsen, Hjortlund Parish archives 

Sources and literature:

Hjortlund Parish archives, see www.hjortlundsognearkiv.dk