The old post road at Skara in Sverige is winding past "Lumbers hög" [a hill] that was traditionally the burial place of the first known chieftain in the area. The grave dates back to the end of the Iron Age, 400-1050 A.D.
Photo: Ulf Erik Hagberg 

Gallows and Dead Kings

Touring Scandinavia on Ancient Post Rods describes among other things the Danish main route from Copenhagen to Hamburg which it took the post riders 51 hours to cover whereas travellers by mail-coach had to use 6-7 days.                                           

According to the almanac of 1655 the mail departed from Copenhagen on Wednesdays and Sundays. The mail-coach left the town through the western gate in the evening at 7 p.m. in the 1660's. So most of the year it was dark when between Hvessinge and Glostrup he would pass Trippendal's Gallows where half decomposed bodies often were hanging as the corpses were left to rot until they were blown down. It may have been Trippendal's Gallows that the learned Frenchman P. D. Huet saw on his journey across Zealand in 1652, and where he was surprised to see that "thieves and wolves hang side by side".

In the 17^th century the cathedral in Roskilde was, as now, an attraction for all who passed through the town. The large church is very beautiful with two towers on the left hand side and a smaller one behind on the cruciform, and continues von Werdum the account of his journey in 1673, "the roof is covered in copper; Denmarks's kings are buried here. Frederick the 2^nd and Christian the 4^th have chantry chapels containing their tombs on the south side of the church that are exceedingly magnificent. Frederick the 3^rd lies on the north side and Castrum Dolores still stood on his grave. There is also a very fine organ in this church and the king's throne is most decorative. One can also see many ancient royal tombstones all over the building".

 

Finnish postman from the 17th century, His equipment consisted of a bag of cloth or leather for the mail and a special badge on his chest to indicate his official status, a post horn for signalling, and a weapon, in the beginning a spear, against wild animals and other attackers
Photo: Jaakko Savolainen, Postmuseum, Helsinki.


 

Around the Gulf of Bothnia and across the Dovre Mountains

The longest post road in Europe stretched from Stockholm in the north, around the Gulf of Bothnia, to Åbo. The mail was delivered by post farmers in a 3,000 km long relay chain with 112 shifts along the way incessantly, day and night, summer and winter.  During the first many years the post road was only a bridle or footpath, but eventually it was widened to a carriage road. Besides, the post farmers were supposed to "take shortcuts everywhere as far as possible and not walk winding highways". As long as the post farmers were on foot, they had to climb ladders to cross fences. The mounted postmen followed the highway most easily, but could take shortcuts across frozen fields or streams in the winter.

Where it is possible, the guide calls upon the 17^th century travellers to speak. From Christian the 5ths travels in Norway in 1685 the following description of the passage through Dovre is rendered: "Today's journey was surely the most difficult and dangerous of the whole expedition because of the many treacherous cliffs that had to be passed". Vårstigen [spring path] in the narrow Drivdal lies several hundred metres up the side of the valley. Partly hewn out of the tock and without any railing it was so narrow at some spots that in the 1660s two horsemen could hardly pass each other. In 1860, long after the Vårstig path had been made into a carraiage road, the poet Åsmund O. Vinje described the toad as "... the worst and nastiest piece of main road I have ever travelled on. It is incredible that folk could come from there driving and that every man was not slain by rocks and slides or fallen into the chasm in snow and sleet in autumn and spring and wet periods.


Colourful Acquaintances

In Touring Scandinavia on Ancient Post Roads the reader can even get acquainted with some of the people whom a 17^th century traveller might meet along the way, e.g. the descendants of Martin Luther who were postmasters in Horsens or Christian Hansen Ernst who was appointed postmaster in Kragerø in 1681.

The last-mentioned was black as his African ancestors. It is said that when Gyldenløve was ambassador in London at Charles the 2^nd's frivolous court in the mid 1660s, he wanted to have a Negro servant like other fine gentlemen in the fashionable city. Gyldenløve took therefore Ernst home with him to Norway as his personal servant. One of the servant's tasks was to arrange romantic meetings between Gyldenløve and the ladies who caught his eye.  

 

Painting of Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve with his black servant Christian Hansen Ernst who later became postmaster in Kragerø. Unknown artist. The painting belongs to the Eidsvoll-minnet.
Photo: (c) O. Væring Eftf. A/S.  

However, as time went on, Gyldenløve tired of his servant and got rid of him by giving him an official position, the job as postmaster in Kragerø. Here Christian Hansen Ernst seems to have continued the practice of arranging romantic meetings with beautiful women, but now on his own account. On 17^th August 1694 he was killed by a rival suitor according to tradition in Knivstikkersmauet [a narrow alley called "knife sticker alley"] in Kragerø.

(Almost) Safe Mail in an Unsafe Time

In the 17^th century Scandinavia was an unsafe area with numerous wars and ensuing violence and plundering. But the roads were safe for the post. All irregularities had to be reported and on the basis of reports from all over Scandinavia we can conclude that only few attacks on the post took place at the time. One was, however, fatal. It happened on Hallandsåsen [a ridge], which was one of the most difficult passable and dangerous roads in Sweden. It was sandy, hilly, and hard to drive on. Moreover, the dense forests were the whereabouts of all sorts of robber bands. In 1664 the post farmer and lieutenant Stake, who travelled with him, were killed here.

When the two men were found, the lieutenant had a finger in his mouth which he had bitten off the robber during the struggle. The day after the killing the bailiff of Öster Karup was seen wearing a bandage around his hand. He claimed to have fallen on a staircase and hurt his fingers. Shortly afterwards he disappeared from Öster Karup and was never again found. Through his office he had full insight into what the post brought along.

A Journey full of Adventures - Even TodayTouring Scandinavia on Ancient Post Roads contains 264 richly illustrated pages. It is available from Post & Tele Museum in five different languages, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, and English at the price of DKK 295 (+ postage).