By Lisa Torvik

It is easy to forget that appointments, schedules and drop-dead deadlines did not begin with the modern industrial age, not with wall calendars, Daytimers and certainly not with Palm Pilots or Blackberries and other relics of the near past.

Textile enthusiasts of today, especially those exploring spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting, and other hand arts and the growing, cultivation and gathering of fiber and dye sources, realize what an enormous amount of work went into covering bodies and “civilizing” homes with various cloths in the not-so-distant past.  Both the Norwegian proverb “need teaches a naked woman to spin” and our English version “necessity is the mother of invention” acknowledge and imply a female bent to innovation for everyday requirements.  An appealing thought for those of us who try to carry on such traditional work.  

And things that must be done today to secure a need of tomorrow are the essence of the agricultural year, everywhere in the traditional world.  We will look today at accounts of how people, in this case in Scandinavia and particularly using some Norwegian artifacts, marked time and met their needs by heeding age-old traditions related to textile production within each passing year.

One related relic is called a primstav in Norway and Denmark, in some parts of Norway known as a ringstav and in Sweden as a runstav.  It is generally a flat stick, held in the hand, on which every day is marked with a notch and special days also marked with a related symbol.  The primstav as it exists dates only from about the 1200s and is directly tied to the spread of Christianity in Scandinavia, a development much later there than elsewhere in Europe.  No older instruments have survived but the stick calendar tradition likely carried over from pagan times.  Holy Days that had to be observed were many and even into the Protestant era Catholic saints’ days were noted on the stick and often associated with seasonal work long after their religious affiliation was forgotten.

This primstav, from 1566, is from the collection of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. See: https://collections.vesterheim.org/virtual_galleries/calendar-stick-lc0291/

A common interpretation of the name primstav is that it comes from the Latin prima meaning “first” and the Norwegian word stav meaning “stick.”  In old Norse, prim also meant “new moon.” The stick had a winter side and a summer side, each half year turning at the October 14 and April 14 notch.  These were traditionally the days on which rural business such the start or change dates for hired help on farms went in effect.  In pagan times, those dates were two of the three major dates of great sacrifices, the third being January 14, midwinter.  Local conditions would necessarily dictate slight variations in adherence to the traditions, but generally all surviving examples appear to record the same dates of observance.

A few dates on the stick stand out because they are associated with agricultural year and our main interest – textile production.  They are the dates to sow, till and harvest and the dates to shear.  In Scandinavia, that would mean sowing flax along with edible grains, and shearing sheep, the main source of wool fiber.  We can acknowledge the importance of cotton and silk elsewhere in the world in traditional cultures, but they were and are still imported fibers in Scandinavia, and were associated with wealth and status.  Those fibers, now commonly used in making festive national dress, i.e. bunad in Norway, folkdräkt in Sweden and stadsdragt in Danish, were not widely available there before the late 19^th century. 

Symbols marking the pre-Christian and Catholic feast days are the special feature of the primstav and here are ones of particular interest, along with their traditional associations. The accompanying sketches are taken from three sources, and show marvelous variation. In each box, the left-hand symbol is from Alfred Miller’s The Primstav Explanations, Norwegian Legend Lore & History; the center sketches are from F. E. Ekstrand’s The Ancient Norwegian Calendar Stick (primstav), and the right-hand images from Einar Haugen’s “A Norwegian Calendar Stick in Wisconsin.” (Full citations are at the end of the article.) 

April 14 – First Day of Summer.  Hired help could renew their obligations to the farmer.  Shepherds refrained from eating meat as it was thought that would harm their flocks.

April 16 – St. Magnus’ Day. Time to begin cultivating the fields.

May 3 – Mass of the Holy Cross. Time to shear the sheep.

May 15 – St. Hallvard’s Wake. If grain not planted by this date, could not expect it to ripen before the first frost.

May 22 – St. Bernard’s Wake.  Also known as “Bear Wake.” All seed must be in the ground.

June 24 – St. John’s Wake known as “Sankt Hans.” Time to gather herbs.  All plant dye stuffs would be picked throughout the summer at their peak for that purpose.

July 2 – St. Swithin’s Wake known as “Syftesok.” Weeding of the fields began.  St. Swithin was the patron saint of Stavanger.

July 8 – St. Sunniva’s Day. Haymaking begins.  St. Sunniva was the patron saint of Bergen.July 22 – St. Magdalene’s Day. Time to put up the (first) hay.  Depending on the weather, another round of haying usually followed in August.August 24 – St. Bartholomew’s Wake. Time to slaughter the rams.

September 8 – Nativity of the Virgin Mary. With the rams slaughtered, time to shear the rest of the sheep.  Harvest occurred as different crops matured.

October 14 – Winter Day , the first day of Winter. Hiring of new servants or change of service in rural areas.October 21 – St. Ursula’s Day. No work should be done on any implement that turns, such as a spinning wheel or mill.

November 25 – St. Catherine’s Day. The symbol for this day is thought to be a wool carder and St. Catherine was often depicted at a spinning wheel.  This day the spinning of wool for winter’s clothing production was begun.

No work could be done on part or all of feast days, or especially throughout the Christmas season.  With the late summer, fall and early winter used to prepare flax and wool, weaving would commence after Christmas and continue with other handwork until spring came again, with its many outdoor chores.

Source List

The Primstav Explanations, Norwegian Legend Lore & History © 2006 by Alfred Miller, Middlebury, CT 06762  [Note:  Though acknowledging assistance for research and proofreading, Mr. Miller does not cite any particular sources.  Some of his text is identical, however, to text found in The Ancient Norwegian Calendar Stick, see below.  Miller’s pamphlet is sold by Vesterheim in their Gift Shop.]

The Ancient Norwegian Calendar Stick (primstav) © [no date] by F. E. Ekstrand, Welcome Press, Seattle, WA 98109

“A Norwegian Calendar Stick in Wisconsin”, by Einar Haugen, Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 31, Nr. 2, December 1947, pp. 145-167.

Bondeliv, Samrødor og song etter Ragndi Moen, Gamal Valdres-Kultur II, by Knut Hermundstad, Norsk Folkeminnelag, Oslo, Norway, 1940.  

Ættararv, Gamal Valdres-Kultur IV, by Knut Hermundstad, Norsk Folkeminnelag, Oslo, Norway, 1950..

Addendum: A Modern Primstav at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum

A most vivid modern interpretation of the primstav exists today.  Norwegian artist Sigmund Aarseth’s modern rendition graces the Gathering Room of the Amdal-Odland Heritage Center at Vesterheim in Decorah, Iowa.  Working with fellow rosemaler Sallie Haugen DeReus, Aarseth turned the room’s walls into a continuous depiction of the seasons of the year, marking certain dates of the primstav and illustrating them with images and related proverbs from various parts of Norway.  Kathleen Stokker has written a wonderful description of this work and history of the primstav in her book, Marking Time: The Primstav Murals of Sigmund Aarseth. (See also this YouTube video: “Vesterheim’s Gathering Room: Primstav Murals.”)

Lisa Torvik credits early influences of her mother, grandmothers, aunts and friends in Norway for her knitting, sewing, embroidery and weaving interests.  She spent a year in her youth studying weaving at Valdres Husflidsskule in Fagernes, Norway and now focuses on projects in traditional Norwegian techniques and more contemporary applications.