By Robbie LaFleur

Last spring I purchased a book by chance, Folkekunst: Kvinnearbeid (Norwegian Folk Art: Woman’s Work, by a noted Norwegian artist and cultural historian, Halvdan Arneberg (Fabricius & Sønner, 1949). I was struck by a beautiful square-weave pattern depicting swimming swans.

I learned an interesting fact about the zig-zag border at the top, which is found on many Norwegian coverlets. Arneberg wrote that the lynildborden (lightning border) we see at the top has nothing to do with lightning; it is stylized running water–-an ancient motif.

I posted a photo of the intriguing pattern with other images from the Norsk Folkekunst book on my blog, which led to a bit of a swan motif obsession.

Annemor Sundbø wrote right away and told me she included photos of the swan weaving pattern in her book, Spelsau og samspill: Glansfull ull og lodne skjebnetråder: Myter og refleksjoner (Old Norse Sheep: Perpectives, Reflections and Myths).  Sundbø wrote about swans as symbols. They could represent birds of love. Swans could be helpful spirits, guardian spirits who were called varadyr or dyresjon. In dyresjon, dyre means animal, and sjon refers to caring for or looking after. So the goose pattern symbolizes birds of protection. Sundbø suggests that geese flying above brought messages of wind and weather, and could symbolize intermediaries between heaven and earth. She suggested that the outline of the swans resemble an S on its side, a spiritual symbol for the Holy Ghost. The swan or goose-head pattern name has many dialectical spelling variants, including sjovnarfugler and sjonarfugler. 

Through an email introduction from Annemor, I corresponded with Sunniva Brekke and learned a wonderful swan weaving story about her great-grandmother.

Inger Stølsbotn Kjønås (1861-1933) and her six dyresjon weavings

Sunniva Brekke’s great-grandmother owned an old swan-patterned coverlet, inherited from her childhood home, and between 1907-1926 she wove six dyresjon coverlets inspired by it, gifts to her grandchildren that were named after her or her husband. All of those family treasures are still in private hands, passed down to second and third generations. 

Inger Stølsbotn was trained as a midwife in Bergen (1881-1882) and one year later she married a teacher, Olai Kjønås. The couple settled at Hest (Kjønas) in the community of Bjordal on the south side of the Sognefjord, by Fuglesetfjord.

The inspiration swan coverlet is a composition built with repetition of borders: two water lines divide the swan borders. Sitting on the lower water line is one pair of swans and under the upper water line is a mirror image of another pair of swans. The dividing lines are woven in kjærringtenner, or “hag’s teeth” (pick-and-pick weaving technique). 

The antique coverlet  owned by Inger Stølsbotn Kjønås that inspired six new ones. (The red color appears more pink in this photo than in real life, reported Sunniva Brekke, who supplied the photo.)

The swan coverlets that Inger Stølsbotn Kjønås wove were inspired by the antique piece, but with some changes. She continued to use plant dyes, but used thinner thread. She did not weave a hags teeth water line between the swan borders. Both around the pair of swans and around the mirror image, the black contours of the swans are framed by one color. Below are two of the weavings; they are nearly identical, except for the slight vgifts to ariations in the border stripes.

Kjønås wove the sixth dyresjon coverlet for a couple in Oslo, Magda and Kristian Førde. Kristian Førde,  born in 1886, was originally from Bjordal. It is now owned by a third generation, and even remains at the same address. 

This weaving, which is a kråteppe (a corner hanging), is narrower and longer that the ones that Kjønås wove for her grandchildren, but the swan pattern is the same.

 

 

 

Sunniva Brekke’s mother, Gjertrud Oppedal Grøsvik, wrote about Inger Stølsbotn Kjønås’s wintertime weaving process. 

The time from ten days after Christmas until Easter was used for the time-intensive weaving of geometric coverlets. There was little light in the first weeks, but Grandfather hung a  lamp near the loom, which stood by a southern window, and there was also another lamp in the room. 

The coverlet she wove the most was the dyresjon in red, white, gold and black. Those were good contrasting colors. Geometric weaving was peaceful work, without the slapping and thumping of a beater, or the buzz of bobbin-winding…

I could read aloud on these evenings when everyone was gathered, each with their own handwork. Those who weren’t working with their hands were reading.

If the weather was clear on the 27th of January, the first rays of sunlight in the new year shone on the southern windows. Grandmother was happy for light on her weaving! The days lengthened and the evenings for reading aloud shortened. Around Vårfru (Annunciation Day), March 25, the dark time was over. Grandmother completed her weaving and the loom was taken down in time for Easter.

Sunniva Kjønås Oppedal, Inger Stølsbotn Kjønås’s daughter. Clearly the antique dyresjon coverlet, which she inherited from her mother, was important to her, as she included it in her portrait.

A dyresjon coverlet owned outside of Sunniva Brekke’s family

Sunniva Brekke learned of another dyresjon coverlet from Aslaug Brensdal from Lavik in Sogn. Aslaug wrote, “My grandmother, Gjertine Norevik (1898-1994), born Avedal, and two of her sisters wove smettetepper (square-weave).” Aslaug’s mother owns the coverlet now. 

This demonstrates the dyresjon was a popular regional pattern. The weaver of this coverlet grew up on a farm near Sunniva’s great-grandmother, in the Lavik Valley, Høyanger county in Sogn. 

Sunniva Brekke noted that this dyresjon pattern is both wider and taller than the patterns that were used in the coverlets owned in her family. The swan elements are the same as those used in Inger Stølsbotn Kjønås’s coverlets woven from 1907-1926, but this coverlet has the running-water lightning borders at the top and bottom like the antique coverlet. 

Not just a weaving pattern, the swan motif is also found on clothing elements

In the coastal and fjord areas of Vestland, women have used the swan pattern in their bunads (regional costumes). Sunniva Brekke’s family received this textile from a family in Sogn–a belt? An apron band? A strap? Do you see the swans?

These two belts from Nordhordaland feature swans. 

Up to 2016 Sunniva Brekke discovered five museum-owned and one privately-owned bodice piece (known variously in Norwegian as brystduk, brystklut, bringeduk or bringklut) embroidered with the dyresjon pattern. Three of the bodice pieces were owned by people north of Bergen, in Sogn, and three were owned by women south of Bergen in southern Hordaland. 

Most of the bodice plates have red swans in the whole pattern, as in this brystklut from Sogn and Fjordane, owned by the Norsk Folkemuseum. 

Less common is a pattern with  green swans alternating with red swans, as in bodice plate and belt of the bunad on the right below.

 

 

A lasting legacy, with unanswered questions

Inger Stølsbotn Kjønås’s relatives are not sure why she chose to weave the dyresjon pattern so often. Did she want to honor a pattern from her region? Did she want to start a family tradition? Did she think the swan motif, with birds of protection and love, was particularly appropriate for grandchildren? Certainly she would be pleased to know that generations of her family have handed down and treasured her weavings. 

Great-granddaughter Sunniva Brekke posed even more questions about the origin of the pattern. How did it come to their remote area? Was it brought by women who traveled to Bergen? Was it found in a pattern book? 

This brief article is primarily about a weaver with a passion for a pattern, who expressed her love for family at her loom. It is also a brief introduction to the dyresjon pattern for many who haven’t seen it. Now that know the shape, perhaps you’ll spot swimming swans in Norwegian textiles in the future. 

Sunniva Brekke and her family are continuing their quest to discover more about the dyresjon pattern and the original coverlet. They are waiting for more access to libraries and archives, post-pandemic. This article might have a sequel…