By Ingrid Berger

You probably know what a coverlet, a rya or a blanket is [an åkle, napparye, or kvetel], but did you know that in earlier times these were bedding? Beds used to be in the room where guests were greeted and where people ate and worked.  The bed, at least the visible part of the bed, was there for all to see.

Many layers

The Princess and the Pea lay on a bed with 20 down duvets and 20 mattresses.  Without stretching the comparison further, the beds of Nordfjorders also had many layers at one time. The layers were not down duvets and mattresses, but various types of woven coverings.  Topmost in a prepared bed in Nordfjord was a coverlet or a rya [a blanket with pile]. If it was a rya, then the pile side was facing downward.  Beneath this layer was a wool blanket called “nearest blanket” [nemmaste kvetelen, or kvitelen]. The nearest blanket was soft and fine.  Under this blanket lay the “under blanket” [ondekvetel], and it was between these two layers that people slept. The under blanket was a thin wool blanket.  Beneath this layer lay a “straw blanket” [halmkvetel] over the straw, because it was upon straw that one ultimately laid. The straw blanket was heavy and stiff, perhaps a blanket that had become felted in the wash or an old and worn rya.  It was with these layers of wool that the beds in Nordfjord were most often prepared, in any case on the farms in the countryside, and from long ago until the 1900s.

A “kvetel” [blanket] is the word that is most often used in Nordfjord in describing a wool blanket for the bed.  In the Nynorsk dictionary the word “kvitel” is used. Such a blanket is less decorative than a rya or coverlet, with stripes or checks as part of the fabric. The blanket is often called “sheep-white” with stripes in “sheep-brown” or “sheep-black,” an indication that people used the natural wool colors they had. NFM.0000-03769 Owner: Nordfjord Folk Museum – 2007 – Photograph by Nordfjord Nordfjord Folk Museum

Bed covers, including coverlets, ryas and blankets, were commonly woven in the home during wintertime.  In this photo one sees the beginning of a blanket that is being woven on a loom. A blanket is often sewn together in the middle from two lengths because most looms were not wide enough. This loom is standing just beside a bed made up with a similar blanket. The bed and loom are part of the interior in “Moritsstova” from farm nr. 012 Rygg in Gloppen municipality, now at Nordfjord Folk Museum. Owner: Nordfjord Folk Museum – 2007 – Photograph by Nordfjord Folk Museum

Coverlet – the top layer

In times past, the bed, and the uppermost layer of the bed, were much more visible than is common today. It is not surprising that a good deal of effort was devoted to making the bed look nice.  The coverlet, whose most important role was as a bed cover, was most often topmost on the bed.  But through changing times and changing needs, the coverlet has been used as a wall hanging, a table cloth, a rug, a sled or carriage blanket, a christening blanket and a drape for a coffin. As a coverlet became more and more worn, it could see such uses as a horse blanket or a covering for potatoes. A coverlet was made only if one was finished with all the weaving that was necessary for a year, and as such, a coverlet was an extra flourish, an indication of abundance and prosperity.  A beautiful coverlet was also an indication of skill.  But it wasn’t everyone who had the opportunity to weave, and thus weaving could become a trade for those who wove on commission or for sale. A coverlet was quite valuable, being equal to two to four cows.

A bed made up as it could have looked in the 1800s and earlier. We have turned some of the blankets to one side to show the “layers” in the bed. When the bed was made up, the topmost layer covered the layers underneath. In this bed, a rya is topmost. The photograph is from a bed in “Moritsstova” from farm nr. 012 Rygg in the Gloppen municipality, now at Nordfjord Museum. Owner: Nordfjord Folk Museum – 2007 – Photograph by Nordfjord Nordfjord Folk Museum

Types of coverlets

There are many names for the various types of coverlets, depending on whether you consider the technique, how it looks, its use or its pattern.  We can simplify things by distinguishing between striped coverlets and square [geometric-patterned] coverlets when thinking of pattern. A striped coverlet has stripes or patterns in stripes crosswise over the entire surface.  A square coverlet has patterns built from geometric arrangements of squares.  Coverlets have “wandered” in the sense that they have been purchased or brought in from other regions.  But there are also, especially in the inner areas, typical coverlets for the different regions.  In outer areas there are many different coverlets, because coastal people had more contact up and down the coast.  In Nordfjord there are both striped and square coverlets.  Striped patterns could be in krokbragd, rosepath or pick and pick techniques, with single-colored fields between. It seems that a striped coverlet with black fields separating rosepath pattern stripes was typical for Nordfjord.

Square, or geometric patterned coverlet. Different cross forms were common in a coverlet.  This coverlet has been in use on farm nr. 078, Hunskår in Gloppen municipality. NFM.1979-04085. Owner: Nordfjord Folk Museum – 2007 – Photograph by Nordfjord Folk Museum

Striped coverlet.  The coverlet is sewn together from two lengths. It is woven in the krokbragd technique.  Pattern stripes in various colors with dark single-colored stripes between is typical for Nordfjord. NFM.000-03779. Owner: Nordfjord Folk Museum – 2007 – Photograph by Nordfjord Folk Museum

Rya

Lying beneath a coverlet, or sometimes instead of a coverlet, would often be a rya.  A rya is a woven blanket, mostly of wool.  The pile is composed of wool yarn or rags that are knotted around the warp threads such that there is a pile layer on one side of the rya.  The other side is smooth, most commonly with stripes.  Ryas were used instead of, or as the successor to, a sheepskin covering.  A rya was easier to clean and handle than a sheepskin, but just as nice and warm.  Marie Ryssdal remembers from her childhood in Davik that the rya was a heavy textile. A rya easily lived its own life atop the bed, she remembers, and youngsters had a great time getting the rya to end up on the floor. Typical for Nordfjord were ryas with a pile made of rags.  A rya made with a pile of rags is, as one might say, “recycling your grandmother.” The rags show how every single piece of fabric was put to use.  Nothing that could be used for something else was thrown away.  But the rags in a rya didn’t only come from the household. It is likely that rags for the pile of a rya were also bought in Bergen; on returning from an excursion to the city, men could return home with sacks filled with rags purchased from a tailor.

A rya seen from the “pile side.”  Various pieces of fabric are knotted in during weaving to give a pile effect.  Ryas with a pile made of a rags, or fabric scraps, are typical for Nordfjord.  For finer use, the pile was made from plied wool yarn; for everyday use it was a rag rya, writes Maria Ryssdal in “Soga om Gloppen og Breim.” NFM.0000-02184. Owner: Nordfjord Folk Museum – 2007 – Photograph by Nordfjord Folk Museum

A rya seen from the side without pile.  This side lay facing upward on the bed for everyone to see. The pile side was facing down. NFM.1987-00266. Owner: Nordfjord Folk Museum – 2007 – Photograph by Nordfjord Folk Museum

From bedcovers “on display” to duvets in private bedrooms

We don’t know how old this manner of preparing a bed is, but it remained for a long time in the countryside, at any rate on the farms. Around 1900 things began to change.  First the rya was enclosed inside a cover, later the bed cover was made of quilted cotton-batting, and finally the bed cover became a duvet filled with down.  Changes also occurred in the way people planned and used their homes.  As the 1900s progressed, houses were built with more rooms, and especially bedrooms became typical over time. The bedroom was a private area and not a place for visitors.  Bed covers went from being “on display” to being more secluded and private.

This is how a bed cover could be hung for storage if it was not in use.  People tried to have such a “reserve,” an indication of prosperity. It was also good to have extra bedding, for example for a large gathering when one made up beds for many people. The photograph is from a new building from the farm Ravnestad, farm nr. 013 in Gloppen municipality, now at Nordfjord Folk Museum. Owner: Nordfjord Folk Museum – 2007 – Photograph by Nordfjord Folk Museum

This article originally appeared in the Kulturhistorisk Leksikon published by the Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane, and is reprinted in translation by permission.

Translation by Katherine Larson.