Lille Vildmose

Facts

Impassable bog where elf maidens frolic

By Lise Andersen, Museumsinspektør, mag.art. (17 stories)

When the heavy mass of ice on northern Denmark melted and the land tilted upwards, in about 500 B.C., a narrow strip of land was formed along the east coast of Himmerland. A lagoon was formed between this strip (or isthmus) and the mainland. Iron Age farmers settled on its bank. The weather became colder and wetter in the Iron Age. Spagnum mosses began forming a raised bog. By the beginning of the Middle Ages, the bog had completely driven out the inhabitants. The raised bog grew at an average speed of 50 millimetres a year for 1,200 years. During the Age of Enlightenment, the idea of using the bog was broached. The four lakes in the bog were drained and Vildmose Farm was built in 1767-68. In 1936, 3,100 hectares of land were parcelled out to smallholders. But the bog has always been used mainly for peat digging.

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Bog for sale

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Story written by Lise Andersen

Time / Periode 1752

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Bogs, with their oozing quagmire and mysterious heath mist, are closely linked to superstition. Here elf maidens dance in the swirling ground mist brewed in the Bog Witch's couldron. The lack of roads in Vildmose meant that no one had bothered to find out who owned it. So in 1752 King Frederik V set up a commission to investigate the matter. The commission had to give up measuring and mapping the bog because it was impossible to cross. The commission concluded that this place where Vildmosen lies, due to the flood or other significant earthly change, has become an opening to the sea that has had its outlet in Mariager Fiord". The commission also concluded "that which no one owns belongs to the King". King Frederik V tried to sell the bog, but no one wanted to buy it. "