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Across the Belts

Journal of Samuel Kiechel
25 January – 2 February 1586

From Kiel to Copenhagen

“When we were only a mile from the shore, the ice had become so thick that our boat could not pass through. Two of the boatmen got out and started hacking at the ice with iron picks.“

Die Reisen des Samuel Kiechel aus drei Handschriften, K. D. Haszler (ed.), Stuttgart 1866, p. 54; Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Through Schleswig

Samuel Kiechel left Kiel late on the afternoon of 25 January in a coach with four other passengers. Two of them he had arrived with from Lübeck, and the other two were merchants from Flensburg. The coach stopped in the village of Gottorf in Schleswig after nightfall and continued the following morning. Kiechel noted that the people in this region already spoke Danish. After a short break in the house of a reeve, the coach and its passengers drove to Flensburg, arriving there after sunset.

According to our traveller, Flensburg was the capital of the Duchy of Schleswig, and it was neither very large nor well fortified. It was situated on an inlet from the sea (Flensburger Förde).

A bird’s-eye view of Flensburg showing the Flensburger Förde at the front, with the city stretching along it in the background.

Flensburg, 1588

This view of Flensburg is in volume four of the Civitates Orbis Terrarum. It depicts the city in profile from the east, with the Flensburger Förde in the foreground. As Kiechel noted, the town appears relatively small and lacks fortifications. It stretches parallel to the Förde, with wooded hills and fields in the background. Overall, the image suggests that Flensburg was little more than a large village. However, its busy harbour indicates the economic significance of the place.

On the journey from Kiel, Samuel Kiechel learnt that the two merchants from Flensburg with him on the coach planned to travel to Copenhagen. As this was also Samuel’s next destination, he asked if he could join them, and the merchants agreed. However, they could not leave immediately, as the two men had warehouses in Flensburg and some business to attend to. Therefore, our traveller spent 27 January in the city, waiting for them to be ready. While he waited, he met two other travellers bound for Copenhagen who asked to join the group. Kiechel described them as a man from Hamburg and the servant of a nobleman.

Jutland

On the morning of 28th January, the group was ready to leave Flensburg. They tried to hire a single coach for the journey, but the local coachmen refused to harness more than two horses to a cart and would take only two or three passengers per cart. As a result, the travellers had to pay for two carriages to the village of Vejbæk.

The weather was cold, and the ground was frozen when they departed from the city. No tracks had been carved into the snow by other vehicles. Despite these road conditions, the coachmen drove very swiftly. The group arrived in Vejbæk in the evening and spent the night there.

The following morning, the travellers sought transport but learnt that the coachmen in the area were unwilling to travel too far from their homes. In the winter conditions, their horses tired quickly. Accordingly, and much to the travellers’ inconvenience, they had to change carriages every two to four miles. Eventually, the group stopped at a lakeside, where the journey continued by boat. Samuel Kiechel learnt that crossing the lake was very dangerous, but did not mention the reason. He also heard that it was possible to sail into the Baltic Sea from this lake.

The lake in question was, in fact, the Little Belt, a strait separating Jutland from the island of Funen. It is one of three straits connecting the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. The conditions were therefore not those of a sheltered inland lake, but of the open sea, made worse by the time of year.

From the Little Belt to the Great Belt

The Kingdom of Denmark included the Jutland peninsula, the Scandinavian regions of Scania and Blekinge, and an archipelago of many large and small islands situated between them. Zealand and Funen are two of the largest islands, separated from mainland Scandinavia to the east and from Jutland to the west by three major waterways — the Little Belt, the Great Belt and the Øresund. Copenhagen is located on the eastern side of Zealand. A traveller in the sixteenth century, travelling from Flensburg to the Danish capital, had two options to reach it: via the sea route or the land route. Taking a ship to Copenhagen was impossible during the winter. Therefore, Samuel Kiechel and his companions’ only choice was to travel into Jutland, cross the Little Belt to Funen, travel across Funen, and then take a boat across the Great Belt to Zealand.

This map in the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum shows Denmark and features the Little Belt and Great Belt, along with the towns Kiechel mentioned in his journal — Assens, Nyborg and Korsør.

Sixteenth-century map of Denmark showing the locations mentioned in Kiechel’s journal.

Denmark, 1587; on the left (west) is the Jutland Peninsula, followed by the islands of Funen and Zeeland, and on the right side of the image (east) is the coast of Scania.

Kiechel and his companions were fortunate. The wind remained calm during their crossing of the Little Belt, and they arrived safely on the other side. However, due to ice on the water, they had to disembark a short distance from the shore and walk across the ice to land.

On the opposite side of the Little Belt was the small town of Assens. The travellers spent the night there and left the following morning in a carriage. After travelling four miles and having lunch, they paid another coachman to take them another four miles to Nyborg. Kiechel noted in his journal that Nyborg was located on the Belt (Great Belt).

Samuel Kiechel and his companions had to wait in Nyborg for a day because the weather was too rough to cross over to Zealand. Despite the bad weather, our traveller saw a boat departing that day, and he was relieved he was not on board.

On 1 February, the wind had calmed, and the travellers decided to attempt the crossing. They embarked on a boat with four oarsmen ready to row them across. While waiting for the boat to depart, Kiechel saw that the boatmen asked passengers for their papers. To his shock, he learnt that, as per custom, boatmen were not allowed to take people across the Belt unless they knew them or had a permit from the mayor of Nyborg. Kiechel was unaware of this restriction, and his companions had failed to mention it. He saw two other foreigners already on the boat being asked to disembark again and feared he might share their fate. Fortunately, no one asked him for his papers.

The boat left the shore, and the boatmen began to row. The wind was against them, but it was not too strong, and they made some progress. Halfway across the Belt, the boat stopped at the small island of Sprogø. Kiechel wrote that two Dutch peasants and their livestock inhabited the island. They produced good butter and cheese, similar to those made in Holland.

After a brief rest, the travellers returned to the boat. Kiechel learnt from his companions that the sea was treacherous in this area and that the wind could change quickly. When they were one mile from Zealand’s coast, they encountered large ice floes covering the sea. The boat could not proceed. The ice was so thick that two of the boatmen stepped out and stood on it, then began hacking the floes into smaller pieces with iron picks so the boat could pass through. It took over an hour to get past the ice, with the constant danger that the wind might suddenly rise and drive the boat into it.

While waiting in the boat for the ice to be cleared, Kiechel noticed that the water near the shore was open because the wind had driven the ice out to sea. He also observed a vast number of ducks covering the area and commented that he had never seen so many together in one place; they covered the water like a blanket. The boat finally managed to pass through the ice and reached the other side of the Belt at Korsør in the afternoon.

Scandinavian Mead

In Korsør, the travellers paused for a meal. Afterwards, they hired two carriages and two coachmen to drive them two miles. They reached a village after nightfall, where they found another coachman to take them to a small, unfortified town. Kiechel did not specify the names of either place.

Print of a winter landscape with a frozen lake and some houses in the foreground, and a town on the horizon.

In the town, the group visited the mayor’s house. Samuel Kiechel learnt that there were no inns in this region; travellers had to stay with friends or acquaintances. With this in mind, the mayor was presumably an acquaintance of one of his companions.

The group spent some time at the mayor’s house because the mead they were served was excellent. Our traveller wrote that the Danish mead was sweet and strong, and that it was exported to many other countries. The older the mead, the better and stronger it became.

Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey. Olaus Magnus described its production in his Historia. According to him, one part good-quality honey and four parts water are mixed in a cauldron until the honey has dissolved. Then, the liquid is brought to a boil. Foam forms at the top and is carefully removed with a ladle or a linen cloth tied to a stick. This process continues until the liquid is clear.1

Meanwhile, hop flowers are placed in a linen bag and boiled in water until the water has reduced by half and has taken on a bitter taste. It is added to the honey-water mixture according to taste. The liquid is then set aside to cool. Next, brewer’s yeast is added, and the cauldron is covered with a lid until white foam forms on top. The mead is then strained through a linen cloth and stored. After eight days, it is ready to be consumed, but the older the mead, the better and healthier it becomes.2

To Copenhagen

It was still night and very cold when the group finally left the mayor’s house. They continued their journey but soon had to stop because their carriage had lost a wheel. Initially, the coachman did not even notice it, and then he had to walk back to retrieve it.

Kiechel and his companions arrived in the town of Rüneschburg (possibly Ringsted) after midnight. They rested for a few hours in the house of a peasant, but left before dawn. The travellers found another carriage and driver.

This stop-and-go travelling overnight would have been impossible in Germany, where towns and cities locked their gates at night, and villagers would be hard-pressed to open their doors. But it was different in Denmark. According to the journal, in Danish villages, there were always some people who made their living as carters and were willing to transport travellers at any time of day. The only difficulty for foreigners was the language barrier.

As a side note, at this point, without additional context, Kiechel mentioned that it was customary in this region to cut off part of the right foot of all dogs so they could no longer run and damage game animals.

On 2 February, Kiechel and his companions arrived in another small town at lunchtime. Our traveller mentioned that this place had a beautiful church where the kings of Denmark are buried.

The town was Roskilde. During the Middle Ages, it was one of the most important political and religious centres in Denmark. Due to plagues and fires, it fell into decline in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while Copenhagen gained political prominence. The Protestant Reformation then put an end to Roskilde as a religious centre. But the Cathedral remains the burial site of all Danish monarchs to this day.

After a short break, the travellers left Roskilde. They hired another carriage and arrived in Copenhagen in the evening.

Illustrations & References

All images are in order of appearance with links to sources on external websites:

  1. Olai Magni historien, Der Mittnachtigen Länder …, Basel 1567, p. 340; Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.  ↩︎
  2. Ibid. ↩︎