A countryman called Hans Gunder

In Hjortlund there once lived a man named Hans Gunder. He was a field inspector and his job was to oversee the fields and made sure that farmers complied with the rules. Hans Gunder was a special character and stories about him have been told up right up to modern times.

Hans Gunder and Maren

Well over 100 years ago there lived a man named Hans Gunder in Hjortlund. He had a small estate for a couple of cows. He married Maren and when they came home from the church on their wedding day, he said, as he pointed at her,”Maren, now you have to listen to me,” and then he pointed at himself.

For a number of years he was a field inspector in Kalvslund. One day a letter arrived for him, and so Maren had to go off to find him. When he got the letter, he broke the seal and handed the letter to Maren with these words:”Read, Maren!!” For reading was not Hans Gunders’s strong side.

Another day he came home and found Maren lying in bed. He then said:”Is something wrong with you? Do you want to die or what you do you want, because you have to tell me.”

He then went off to make some pancakes for her, and she ate a few of them. Hans Gunder now said:”You know what Maren, if you can eat so many pancakes, you’re not going to die this time.”

The fast field inspector

Later Hans Gunder came to Hillerup as a field inspector. Perhaps the wages were higher, perhaps it was a little livelier at haymaking time. Everyone wanted to be in good standing with the field inspector, so he was a welcome guest when it came to eating and drinking at the farm reapers’ table. The farm reapers were the men who cut the hay with a scythe at haymaking time.

Hans Gunder was a good runner. When the farm reapers went home in the morning, after they had been cutting down their acres of land at night, naturally they wanted to get home fairly fast. Everyone sat and sang on the wagon, partly to attract attention, partly for the latecomers to see that now the others were finished. Hans Gunder would by then be finished with his first round in the meadows, and he would be invited to sit up on the wagon. However he would say that he did not have time to do so. The driver would not let this lie and so it ended in a race between the wagon and Hans Gunder towards Hillerup. Hans Gunder always did this by taking a shortcut between the farms when the wagon came, but once he was almost in a spot of trouble. He had to turn so quickly around a house corner that he ran into the wall and knocked his shoulder out of joint. He solved this by going to the stables, where he leant his shoulder against a post, took his club and struck the shoulder back into place.

The stubborn ram

In his official capacity as a field inspector, he had to also move the sheep that stood tethered in a ram track.  One day a ram had to be caught, but it is very difficult, especially when it has to run until it is tired out, before it surrenders its freedom. Finally Hans Gunder succeeded in doing so, but some days later the ram had fallen into the ditch and fallen so awkwardly that it had hanged itself. Hans Gunder got it up and kicked it, saying:”Yesterday you wanted to run when you shouldn’t, today you should run and you can’t. You should have been married, you should, you ass.”

The lesser of two evils - a pitiful mill road or German soldiers

One day in 1864, Hans Gunder had been at Jedsted Mill to grain some corn. He only had his wheelbarrow as a wagon, and when he came home from his trip, he said to his wife:”Maren, it is too bad that the mill road is so pitiful.”

Maren said simply: "Do you know that enemies have come to our town?" The Germans had namely come to Hjortlund.

” I don’t give a damn about enemies,” said Hans,”because they eat us up.  But that the mill road is so pitiful, that’s just too much.”

Author: Truels Truelsen, Hjortlund Parish archives

Sources and literature:

Hjortlund Parish archives, see www.hjortlundsognearkiv.dk