Past family information: Landbohusene

See the day’s program here

last updated on April 17, 2024

Dear Past Family!

You have booked a stay as a past family in Landbohusene, Krikkebjerghuse, in Lejre Land of Legends. We are delighted, and we look forward to welcoming you.

On these pages you can read more about what you will experience on the different days, the food you will prepare and some practical information.

We hope and wish you a great vacation in Krikkebjerghuse.

We look forward to seeing you in the 1850s.

/The staff at Landbohusene

Information about your stay

Good time travel to the 1800s

A stay as a family from the past in Lejre Land of Legends is a very special experience that can be felt with all the senses. It’s an unforgettable stay where you as participants get close to each other and learn a lot about the past, old chores and interaction with nature.

You don’t have to be a traditional nuclear family to become a family of the past. Friends, neighbors, grandparents and extra children can easily be part of your past family.

During your stay

“What are we going to do?”

The first time you are a former family in Krikkebjerghuse, most people will find that most of the day is spent chopping firewood, cooking, heating water, washing dishes and looking after animals. There will also be a lot of time spent talking to Lejre Land of Legends’ guests. We’ve put together a list of possible tasks for the day so you can try out different aspects of homesteading. But don’t feel pressed for time – enjoy that things take as long as they take and that you achieve what you achieve.

There’s also the house to keep neat and tidy, gardens to tend to, clothes to wash or mend and tools to maintain.

In spare time, there is always handicraft work such as carving (carving rake teeth, shepherd’s crooks, butter knives, etc.), knitting, winding ribbons on vines, etc.

Evenings in Krikkebjerghuse

The evenings during your stay in Krikkebjerghuse are all your own. And they are truly wonderful. As the clock strikes 17, you’ll feel the silence and calm settle around you. You decide whether you want to go for an evening walk in Lejre Land of Legends, take a trip in the log boats of the campfire valley (remember to make an appointment with the staff in the campfire valley beforehand), carve a shepherd’s staff or huddle around the candlelight and tell a good story…

Visitors are allowed to visit after closing time and do not have to pay an entrance fee. It’s just important to remember that you’re also part of a community with the family next door, so you find the right balance – and don’t end up having visitors every night.

For ordinary families

Families of the past in Lejre Land of Legends are ordinary families who want to spend a weekend or part of their vacation in one of our reconstructed environments.

The families of the past are an important part of the interpretation in Lejre Land of Legends. They help bring the areas to life as part of Lejre Land of Legends’ cultural history experiments and share their own experiences with the public.

Before you arrive at Lejre Land of Legends

Here is some important information for your stay:

Food, allergies and food

Food throughout your stay is part of any vacation as a family from the past – but remember to pack a lunch for the first day. Upon arrival, you’ll receive a recipe booklet with the dishes and diet plan for your stay.

Historical knowledge

You don’t have to be an expert to be a family of the past.

We don’t expect you to be able to answer all your guests’ questions about the houses, the times and life in the 1800s. That’s part of what the staff are there for. So if you get questions that you can’t answer, simply refer them to the staff member.

However, guests mostly ask what it’s like to live in the houses and be a farming family.

The questions you’ll be asked most often are

• whether you live here and for how long
• what it’s like to sleep in the beds
• what you eat and how you spend your day
• whether you like the food
• how you came to spend your vacation/weekend this way

The important to-do list

• packed lunch for the first day.
• sleeping bags, sheets, possibly a pillow and a sleeping mat
  toiletries and personal necessities
• white and warm underwear, possibly knitted wool socks in natural colors, long underpants. warm knitted sweater in neutral colors
• your own clogs or reed shoes or dark neutral leather shoes
• possibly your own carving knife
• bedtime reading etc.

Animals in a farmhouse

The livestock of a homestead in the mid-1800s typically consisted of a cow, 1-2 pigs, sheep, goats, chickens and geese. In Lejre Land of Legends we have goats, sheep, pigs, ducks and geese. The pigs are expected to arrive in mid-May, geese and ducks are expected to arrive at the end of June.

Information about clothing, sleeping & showering

The country suit that each of you will receive on the day of arrival and wear throughout your stay consists of:

• For women/girls: a white linen skirt, wool skirt (skirt), wool/hair bodice, woolen shawl, apron and scarves.
• For men/boys: a white linen shirt, wool, linen or velvet trousers (long or knee-length), a wool/hair vest, knitted hat/soft felt hat. Also a pair of knitted socks.

You are welcome to bring your own white underwear to wear under the suit. You can’t wear brightly colored underwear as it will show through the suit and look completely wrong. Of course, you can also choose to wear the sleeves and shirts directly on your torso, which is actually very comfortable if the temperature is just right.

For the cooler days, it’s a good idea to bring wool underwear. A pair of long underpants or gaiters to wear under your skirt and pants if it gets cold and for evening wear is also a good idea. A pair of wool socks in natural colors are also nice to have on hand if the high summer temperatures fail. We have some on loan, but not always enough for everyone and not in all sizes. A wool sweater for the evenings is also recommended.

Footwear can be a challenge during your vacation. For footwear, bare toes or clogs with straw are the most appropriate. We have clogs in virtually every size. For some of us modern people, it can be difficult to walk in clogs or bare feet for a whole day. We hope you’ll take it as an experience from 10am to 5pm, where modern footwear is prohibited.

If you have a pair of rush shoes, old-fashioned clogs or dark modern clogs, feel free to bring them along. And if you have problems with your feet, we will of course find a solution. It’s good if you can bring a pair of dark neutral leather shoes.

Here is a brief description of the beds in the two houses, so you can prepare yourself for the conditions at home.

We have a couple of dream beds in the attic if you have more residents than beds. It’s also an atmospheric option to sleep in the straw in the stable at Tystrup House. Here you can sleep 8-10 people.

The beds are made of straw and large, old and heavy oilcloth duvets, pillows and linen sheets. Some farming families like to sleep directly in the beds, but the vast majority prefer to sleep in their own sleeping bags.

Daily chores

Here’s a list of the chores that take up most of your time:

• Cooking (hot food in the middle of the day, churning butter, making toast, etc.)
• Fetching water, heating water and washing dishes
• Collecting firewood in the “forest” and sawing and chopping firewood for cooking/heating
• Looking after the animals: they need to be fed and given clean water every day, the ducks and barn need to be mucked out, the goats need fresh grass and branches and maybe a walk, etc.
• Talking to guests

Literature about everyday life in the 1800s

Here you’ll find some literature about everyday life in the countryside in the 1800s:

• Landbokvinden. Ole Højrup. Kbh. 1966
  A basic book when it comes to knowledge about the work of rural women all year round. Topics on everything from sheep shearing and wool processing to laundry, cooking, candle making, gardening and much much more. Also good as a reference book.
• The farmer’s kitchen, the farmer’s garden, nesting…, wool and flax, water for people and animals, the farmer builds. Mette Skougaard et al. published by the National Museum of Denmark
  Titles of 6 small easy-to-read books on different topics. They are really good and informative despite their slightly “children’s bookish” feel.
• By Halleby Aa. Karoline Graves. Kbh. 1921
  Memoirs of a householder’s wife from Zealand (born 1858). Exciting reading about life in a smallholding in the 1800s – as Karoline Graves remembers it.
• Danish regional dishes. Erik Koed Westergaard. Lindhart and Ringhof. 1974
  Exciting book for anyone interested in old Danish dishes. With recipes and background stories.
• Vegetables – a kitchen history. Else-Marie Boyhus. Gyldendal publishing house. 1996
  A good and easy to read book about when which vegetables became known in Denmark. The first 20 pages give a good (and very rough) overview of the “development of cuisine and dishes” from the beginning of time up to around 1980.

For the kids:

• Jacobine is hungry by Bettina Buhl
• From heath to capital by Erik Dehn
• The egg that grew by Cecil Bødker

What you MUST know

Rules and practical information for safety

Lejre Land of Legends wants your stay to be as historically accurate as possible – both for your own sake and that of our guests. We therefore have some rules that everyone staying in the farmhouses should be aware of.

The houses are reconstructions from the 1800s. They are therefore more vulnerable to fire than modern houses we know from home.

Tobacco smoking is only allowed outside the area of the farmhouses (i.e. down in the “forest” or up on the pasture). Never near the thatched houses.

Fire and safety rules: Read them below or download them as A4 and print them out from home.

• During opening hours, the members of the farming families mainly stay in the farmhouses.
• Staying and traveling in the other reconstructed environments: the Stone Age field, the Iron Age village and the Viking marketplace is not permitted during the opening hours of Lejre Land of Legends.
• Modern items such as cameras, sleeping bags, towels and inauthentic food for both children and adults must be stored away during opening hours.
• Make-up, jewelry and watches are not allowed during opening hours when wearing farmhouse clothing (although glasses and wedding rings are allowed)
• Smoking is not allowed in the farmhouses.

Information about Krikkebjerghuse

Tystrup House

Tystrup House in Lejre Land of Legends was built in 1978 as a very close copy of a farmhouse from the village of Tystrup between Sorø and Næstved. However, the house is built about 20 cm higher than the original house, which was moved and rebuilt at Frilandsmuseet in Lyngby.

The occupants of the house

From the source material about the house from Tystrup, we know that from around 1800 – and perhaps earlier – the house has been inhabited by farmers from the same family. This fits in very well with the fact that hereditary tenure became common in Tystrup town from 1790. In the 1801 census, a total of 6 adults and 2 children lived in the house (which had not yet been extended). However, in a later census (in 1834) there were only 3 adults, so the number of residents has varied greatly over time.

As the house stands today, it represents the period around 1850 and a few decades later in terms of interior design. In those years, a young village weaver lived there with his family, wife and about 4 children living at home at a time. The man – Hans Frederik Christiansen – was born and raised in the house and his wife – Karen Sofie – had come to the house shortly before 1860.

In the parish church records of the time, Hans Frederik and Karen Sofie married and had their first child Christian Peder in 1862. Hans’s mother Kirsten died shortly afterwards, and after that the small family had the house to themselves.

The family made their living mainly from the husband’s weaving work and the income from their small plot of land outside the town. In total, about ½ acre of land belonged to the house. The house also had a small livestock of 1-2 cows, a pig, geese and chickens, and perhaps some sheep and goats. The weaver and his wife had a total of 9 children, but none of them lived at home longer than their 10th year. Back then, it was common for children from smallholdings to go out to work from the age of 6-7 years old.

The ownership of the house

The house belonged to the Gyldenholm estate – Castrup farm – until it was purchased in 1924 by one of Hans Frederik and Karen Sofie’s sons: Niels Martin Christiansen. He was their 8th and second youngest child. Until 1924, the occupants of the house were thus tenants – or fæstehusmænd as they were more accurately called. This meant that they were subject to “tenancy obligations” which could consist of both work and an annual fee to the estate.

Hørhavehuset

Hørhavehuset is a reconstruction of a crofter’s house that represents the time around the mid-1800s in terms of interior design. The farmhouse part was built by a local farmer in 1694 to house a cavalry soldier, while the stable and barn are not particularly modeled on the original buildings.

This part, however, is built in the traditional Zealand style. A later version of Kalvehavehuset is today at the Open Air Museum in Lyngby.

From 1733, the house was inhabited by “gadehusmænd”, i.e. householders without land. They had to live on daily rent, housework, cooper work or other income in addition to the few animals that could be raised on the small property. The house was continually being built on.

In 1835, Rasmus Rasmussen and his wife Kirsten Rasmusdatter took over the property. Rasmus Rasmussen was a typical local ribbon maker and craftsman. He made barrel bands from wicker, wooden tools and wooden household utensils and woven baskets.

In 1866, their eldest son married Dorthea Johannesdatter. Niels was a wheelwright and already in the 1850s the larger wheelwright’s workshop was set up in the house.

The house had long had two apartments, and Niels lived with his family in the large apartment with the wheelwright’s workshop, while Rasmus lived in the small apartment with the smaller wheelwright’s workshop. The two families shared the house’s stable and chicken coop.

The ownership of the house

Many of the residents of Hørhavehuset and Tystrup House have been copyholders. When you were a tenant farmer, you didn’t own the house, the land or the livestock, but paid – either in the form of work or in cash – for the right to use it all. As long as you could pay and were on good terms with the “landlord”, you were guaranteed a roof over your head and a chance to put food on the table if you worked for it.

As a result of the agrarian reforms in the late 1700s, it became possible for farmers and crofters to buy their farms and houses – and thereby become “self-owning”. Kalvehavehuset was purchased for freehold ownership in 1808. However, it took over 100 years before all houses and farms in Denmark were “free” from the copyhold contracts. The original Tystruphus, for example, wasn’t purchased for freehold ownership until as late as 1924, when the residents’ leasehold obligation to the estate was lifted.

Overview of the stay

Arrival day and time travel

Welcome to Lejre Land of Legends!

If you arrive at Lejre Land of Legends by car, you must park it in the parking lot.

After 17:30, it is possible to pick up your car and drive all the way to the farmhouses to unload your luggage (sleeping bags etc.).

The car must then be driven back to the parking lot outside Sagnlandet Lejre.

Arrival and security

Keys and responsibility:

There is a set of keys in each house that can be used if you need to get in and out of Lejre Land of Legends after closing time.

NB! It’s important that you don’t arrive too late on the first day, so we have time to get everyone into costumes and do other chores. If you can’t make it due to vacation plans or traffic, please let us know well in advance.

The rest of the week

On the day of arrival, you’ll be given an overview of what your week in the farmhouses will look like. If you want an idea of what it might look like, check out the section “Taste of the 1800s – an example weekly program” on this page.

Farewell day

You’ve packed all your things and left Krikkebjerghuse. At Multihuset, you’ll meet the rural facilitator, who will round off the program together with you and the laundry manager, who will receive your suits.