Mosque dreams
The Moskenstraumen , also Maelstrom or Malstrom (Norw. Moskenesstraumen or Moskstraumen ), is a tidal current between the Lofoten islands Moskenesøy and Værøy in Norway .
Strong water eddies are characteristic of the current. He became the namesake for fictional dangerous water eddies in legends, literature, painting and film, which are often depicted in exaggerated size.
In the myth
A mythical background to the maelstrom can be found in the Gróttasöngr of the Edda . Afterwards, the Danish King Fróði receives a hand mill with which everything can be ground. In order to be able to move the heavy millstones, he uses two giantesses that he buys from the Swedish king. Day and night he compels them to draw gold, wealth, success and happiness. To escape, the maids grind up a force that kills King Fróði and takes the mill and giantesses with them on a ship. The leader of the force turns out to be just as insatiable. Still on the ship the giant maids tons have brought grind of salt that finally the ship to capsize brings. And even today the huge millstones on the seabed grind the sea salty. This place is called the Maelstrom.
In literature and fine arts
In 1539 the Bishop Olaus Magnus published the Carta Marina , on which the vortex devouring a ship near the Lofoten is shown in front of the Norwegian sexton and is described with the word hec est horrenda caribdis (This is the terrible Charybdis ). In his explanation of the map Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus ("A Description of the Northern Peoples"), first published in Rome in 1555 , a Charybdis, a sea monster, between the islands of "Loffoeth" and "Röst" in Northern Norway is described, which is described in Chapter 8, De fluxu et refluxu Oceani is called “Mostastroom”.
In Friedrich Schiller's ballad Der Taucher (1797) the hero drowns in a maelstrom.
In 1834, the author Archibald Duncan published an article in The Mariner's Chronicle in New Haven, which was printed in Alexander's Weekly Messenger on October 10, 1838 under the title "A Report on the Eddy Current of Drontheim". In it, Duncan describes the vortex of the maelstrom near the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway for the first time in American literature - 300 years after the last European mention in Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus .
Duncan's article was in 1841 for Edgar Allan Poe (partially verbatim) submission to the story A Descent into the Maelstrom ( " A Descent into the Maelström ") which are then translated into French came to Europe and impact on Jules Verne ( Vingt mille lieues sous les mers - " 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ") u. a. would have. Even Liu Cixin takes in his science fiction -novel Beyond the time regarding Poe's story.
Duncan wrote a. a. in his article the sentence: "In the year 1645, early in the morning of Sexagesima Sunday, it raged with such noise and impetuosity that on the island of Moskoe the very stones of the houses fell to the ground." EAPoe adapted this sentence in his story: "In the year 1645, early in the morning of Sexagesima Sunday, it raged with such noise and impetuosity that the very stones of the houses on the coast fell to the ground."
The Mahlstrom Moskenstraumen exerted a great fascination on the painter K. RH Sonderborg (1923–2008) . In many of his pictures he quoted the circular movements of the vortices. He traveled repeatedly to the Maelstrom between the Lofoten Islands for study purposes. More recently, Walter Moers alluded to the maelstrom in his novel Die 13½ Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär , to which he gave fantastic traits under the name “Malmstrom”. A maelstrom also plays a decisive role in the second volume of the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini . It has also found its way into the worlds of the computer games Warcraft and LEGO Universe . In the trilogy of the wave runner ( Kai Mayer ), a gigantic maelstrom with dimensions of over 50 miles wide and 6 miles deep plays an important role. This maelstrom is described as so strong that it cannot be flown over due to the suction.
Fishing grounds
Due to the exposed location of the Lofoten in a south-westerly direction, the Moskenstraumen attracts schools of fish. Above all, the spawning migration of the Barents Sea cod into the southern spawning grounds at the beginning of the year has always been a lucrative seasonal business. The Vestfjord , between the mainland and Lofoten, is the main spawning area. Due to its wedge shape it binds part of the warm Gulf Stream ; in this way new nutrients are continuously supplied.
The triumphal march of the stockfish as a best seller in the region probably began in the early Middle Ages . The Icelandic Egils saga reports that the Lofot Viking Þórólfr Kveldúlfsson exported stockfish to England around 875 .
During the Hanseatic League , Lübeck took over Europe-wide sales through its Norwegian branch in Bergen ( Tyskebryggen ).
The rorbuer (dt. Rowers huts) on Å and places in the area still bear witness to the fishing of the past two centuries. Several thousand seasonal fishermen from all over Northern Norway packed their "Lofoten boxes" for Christmas and were housed in these huts on the barren islets. Until Easter the fish was hung on the rod. Every day in the cold season you rowed out to the tidal current. The product stockfish was ready by Whitsun and is still sold all over the world today.
Web links
- Moskenesstraumen Store Norske Leksikon
Individual evidence
- ↑ Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (edition of 1562 (MDLXII))
- ^ Archibald Duncan: The Mariners Chronicle , chapter The Maelstrom , p. 441.
- ^ Edgar Allan Poe: A Descent into the Maelstrom , Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, 236.
- ↑ Alexander Klar: KRH Sonderborg, painter without a studio . Art gallery in Emden, Emden 2003
Coordinates: 67 ° 48 ' N , 12 ° 50' E