Translation of the Introduction of Historical Descriptions of Upper Telemark by Engelbrett Michaelsen (Engelbret Mikkelsen Mandt), written by Olav Solberg, 1992. Translation by Anne Lisa Strom, Issaquah, Wa., 1995.
“A pretty strange person for the time in which he was living…
Introduction A footnote
It started with a footnote- a reference to Knut Liestøl. In the thesis “Norwegian Troll Songs and Norse Sagas” he writes about the old ballad “Holy Olav’s sailing regatta,” and he tells how this is a song that can be found in Danish Writings from around year 1500. Later from Norway, says Liestøl, I hear about the song from the 18th century. In Description of Upper Telemark, 1777 by Engelbrett Michaelsen, it is said that a rock outcropping in Lårdal is named St. Olav’s ship. There is a song about him and his brother Harald in a sailing regatta of such importance, that whoever would be the first one to reach the city of Trondheim would be King of Norway. When I later came across a couple of references pointing to the same work, I became curious. What more was hidden in this description- in this manuscript- with the scholarly, but not so original title! And who was this author, Engelbrett Michaelsen from around year 1700? Was he Norwegian or Danish? And what was his profession? What social standing had he? There are many descriptions of Norway from around 1700, written by highly educated people. Therefore, it would only make sense that E. M. belonged to this group of people, which is what Olav Bø believes. Rikard Berge also knows about the manuscript and has referred to it on many occasions. He believes that the author was an artistic mind from the Enlightenment era, a foreigner, possibly a Dane, and in Berge’s interpretation-an upstanding citizen. Berge is impressed. For a foreigner, E.M. had a very good sense for what was genuine about life on the farm. But I soon found out that he had never been a preacher (pastor) neither in Telemark nor anyplace else. According to the listing of clergy from that time period, none by that name had ever been a preacher in that area. He wasn’t employed in any other profession either, at least not in Telemark. And- a learned man from 1700 with ample knowledge of life in Telemark, that didn’t live there- was somewhat difficult to comprehend. However, it is the manuscript and not the author, which at first glance is intriguing. The manuscript- in addition to discussing life in Telemark would also give us a clue about the man behind this work.
The Manuscript
The manuscript, which had never been published earlier, can be found at the Royal Library in Copenhagen. It’s actually a hard-bound notebook. The book is in good condition- about 21 cm. long and 17 cm. wide. The jacket or outside of the book is greenish-yellow with some red. The paper it’s printed on is thick, unlined, but the margins have been marked with pencil. The test itself, which is 141 pages, is written in fine cursive writing in ink. The book is almost filled with writing. In addition to the manuscript about Telemark, in the beginning of the book there’s a letter written to the Danish/Norwegian prince descendant to the throne. This is dated April 22, 1777.
The prince was called Fredrik (1753-1805). He was son of Fredrik V, king from 1746 to 1766, and his second wife Juliane Marie. The reason E.M. wrote directly to the prince, who was next in line to the throne, rather than the King himself was that the King (Christian VII) who was King until 1808- was insane. In 1777, the prince was actually in power and ruled the country along with Queen Juliane Marie and a secretary of state Ove Høeg-Gvldberg. This situation would not last long. Already in 1784, Crown Prince Fredrik, son of Christian VII and Karoline Matilde, came to power after a revolution. This was not exactly an advantage for E.M. whose manuscript was written to his competitor- since the Prince was no longer in power. In the letter to the prince, E.M. says that he has plans to make some additions to his manuscript: one section is going to discuss the life of the people and their beliefs, and also a description of the fauna: birds, fish and animals. E.M. asks His Royal Highness to take his work seriously as well as E.M. himself, the author. However, this didn’t happen the way he wanted it.
The Historical-Topographic Literature, the title of E.M.’s manuscript- Historical Descriptions of Upper Telemark– as well as the topics he discusses- tells us that the author writes in a learned fashion. He used the official Danish language written everywhere in Denmark and Norway at that time. Key words for this type of literature are story or descriptions which were the words they used at that time. Most works had the word Beskrivelse (description) in their titles. One particular work that was highly regarded from this time period, and was used as a model, was written by Pastor Hans Strøm. The title was: Physical and Economic Descriptions of Søndmør I-II, (1762). This is a large work with more than 1000 pages, one section covering the whole district, and another section covering each individual church community. In the first part of the work, Strøm writes about plants and animals; birds and fish; farming, cattle, fishing and a little about people and culture. In the second part of the book he writes a whole chapter on each church community. In this part he goes into detail about the importance of geography; farms are named and there are tables listing how much is owed for each farm and also who many inhabitants in each community.
Another cleric, the Bishop of Bergen, Erik Pontoppidan, set out to cover the whole country in his all-encompassing 2-volume work (1752-1753). The long title shows the emphasis that he and other authors living during this time period placed on organization: The First Attempt in Describing Norway’s Natural History, describing This Kingdom’s Air, Earth, Mountains, Lakes, Plants, Metals, Minerals, Types of Rock, Animals, Birds, Fish, and at last the Inhabitants and Their Customs and Lifestyles. As we can see, these historical-topographic works not only describe history and topography (in other words-mapmaking or survey of the matter);. other important topics include geography and zoology, and the economic foundation in each district is based on a presentation of natural resources. A small section discusses such things as culture, beliefs, education, skills, language, as well as a number of other topics. Within this framework, there is great variation- from large systematic and learned works to smaller more loosely composed works. But they all have much in common. Two other works from this time period cover about the same topics as E.M.’s manuscript and were printed after his work was sent to the prince. One work is titled A Try to Describe Upper Telemark in Norway, by Johann Michael Lund, an attorney in Upper Telemark from 1776 to 1783, published in Copenhagen in 1783. He follows Strøm’s model in that the first part of the book covers a larger area, while the second part concentrates on seven church communities and cluster of homesteads, and he writes a small section about each community (more detailed). Lund’s story is not as comprehensive as Strøm’s, and he claims that he hasn’t lived in, but only traveled through, these districts a few times, and that he has based his work on information gathered from other people. But at least Lund received the gold medal for his work from the Royal Danish Farming Department. The next year, in 1786, Hans Jacob Wille’s work Descriptions of Sillejord’s Church Community in Upper Telemark was published. Wille also used Strøm’s work as a model and thanks him in the foreword for help and support and for his friendship. Even so, Wille’s work has a different style than that of Strøm, and he had divided his work into four main parts instead of two. The first part deals with geography, topography, and history; the second part deals with geology, metals, animals, birds and fish: the third part deals with natural resources; and the fourth part about people and culture. Wille’s and Lund’s stories are both about 300 pages long, and not as detailed and complete as Strøm’s or Pontoppidan’s, but more complete than E.M.’s work.
What was the background for this special type (style) of literature: that is the historical-topographical literature from the second half of the 1700’s? Steinar Supphellen asks this question in an article, and he concludes that the reason for using this style was neither to find out about regionalism or nationalism but rather to express rational Norwegian patriotism. It was rational in that sense that the authors used good judgement in the way that they gathered information by observations and they also placed a great deal of emphasis on knowledge based on sound research. It was Norwegian in the sense that the topic was Norway in all its multiplicity. It was patriotic in the sense that it more and more consciously wanted to call attention to the Norwegian patria-a fatherland, a rich nation in it self. Stories about Norway and the different regions of Norway also deal with romance of culture- and especially towards the end of the 1700’s- they deal with a wild and unspoiled nature, waterfalls, fjords and mountains, oceans and prairies. As seen from Copenhagen, Norway was a land where the nature was uncultivated and therefore fascinating and picturesque. The people that lived in this wild, unspoiled country were also very fascinating, namely the farmers. An expression of just this is found in the park next to Fredensborg Castle in Copenhagen. 69 statues were placed in this park (from the 1760’s and on) of Norwegian farmers. They were placed there by royal orders.
The many travel books that foreign tourists and other traveling people published, also showed the clear interest in the unusual or strange, in other words anything that was different from the norm, or from what people were used to. The tourists thought it was quite an accomplishment to have visited the Norwegian mountains and to have come back in one piece with their health still intact, especially when they had also been brave enough to travel off the beaten path, not following well established roads- and stopping in villages and parsonages along the way.
One of these adventurous travelers was the Dane Otto Friedrich Møller who owned a property by Drøbak. He was interested in botany, and therefore in 1775 he made a botanical trip from Drøbak, across the Oslofjord, inland to Skien, then up to Telemarkvassdraget to Sauherad and Bø, and from there to Seljord, Hjartdal and Kviteseid. Three years later Møller published A Trip Through Upper Telemark to Kristiansand and Back–1775. He wrote about flowers and other topics in botany, mountain, types of rock, and about many other things including a trip from Bø to Liefjell. Here he emphasized the wild and uncultivated land, and the things considered dangerous for the traveler: “The road is the most difficult I’ve ever encountered, steep, and you always walk among loose falling rock and you must watch out for crevices in the rocks. With each step you fear that the horse will fall, and then it’s hard to avoid breaking a bone or your neck. You really need God watching over you on these roads.”
So the reason for writing these descriptions in the latter part of the 1700’s was to give a sense of what was practical and useful at this time. It was to give information and share knowledge, and it was also to describe the wild, unspoiled nature of Norway which was so unlike that of Denmark and most other European countries. In addition, stories about Norway were useful for the rulers in Denmark who would like to have maps made of Norway and would also like to find out about Norway’s economy. These people encouraged authors to write stories about topography and geography in general. But even though these works documented much abut Norway’s potential in regards to natural resources, culture, etc., they also gave a good knowledge and self-respect to Norwegians.
Engelbret Michaelsen’s Telemark Descriptions (or Tales about Telemark)
This is a work which is divided into 16 chapters, which again is divided into sections or paragraphs. The author opens with the following: the name, the borders of the district he’s writing about, and the size. Upper Telemark is divided into 7 church districts: Fyresdal, Vinje, Lårdal, Seljord, Hjartdal, Tinn and Kviteseid.
Next comes a chapter about the mountains, what grows on and between them, about the soil, about lakes and rivers, about bridges and dams, and mills, about mountains and avalanches, about grasses and plants and herbs, about different types of grains, about trees and berries, about how fertile the land is, about swamps and springs, about the air-and last of all an evaluation about Upper Telemark as far as how livable it is.
Since the manuscript is only the first part of a planned larger work, it is not so easy to evaluate and compare it to Strøm’s work and other well-written works. But it is obvious that Michaelsen writes, and will write about many of the same topics: geography and topography, plants, animals and natural resources. At the same time, he isn’t a slave to a particular pattern- for examples there are sections on folklore in part I. According to the plan, this should have been part of section II. A general impression is that M’s Telemark stories don’t follow a strict composition, in spite of the fact that the descriptions are divided into chapter and paragraphs in a very set pattern. Another important difference between these stories and larger works such as those of Strøm and Pontoppidan is that the latter are based on research to a larger degree. There would be several reasons for this. One important point to note is that Strøm, Pontoppidan, and most of the other authors of historical/topographical works were civil servants, especially pastors. They had a higher education and a more educated circle of friends. The way E.M. wrote just strengthens the belief that he was not an official and did not belong to the upper classes. For example, he does not use Latin names for flowers and trees. He does not try to come across as a learned man, in the way that educated men do, even if they don’t know that much. But he admits in the epilogue that he doesn’t have much of an education and he even hints that his work probably will not appeal to the learned man. But he is not without insight and he shows he is well-read in the way that refers to the works of Pontoppidan and Holberg which he is quite familiar with. But this was truly not good insight and this is why the manuscript was never published; it just wasn’t as well researched as larger works. Besides, no matter how good or bad E. M.’s work was, he had the disadvantage of not being a civil servant, and therefore an outsider in the role of author of the kind of works that are normally written by well-educated men. But what was a disadvantage in 1777 can be an advantage today. E.M.’s stories are reader friendly. It has its strength in the journalistic, in the gift of making his material come alive for the reader. He follows a plan when he writes, but he is not afraid to alter the plan when needed. Therefore, he writes about Ulefos because he is fascinated by the falls and the dam-even if it is not part of (but outside) Upper Telemark. He ties it in to Upper Telemark because the rivers and lakes are all connected and he also spices it up with stories about geography, topography, and folklore- he talks about trolls and sea monsters, and he refers to rock formations and strange sights in nature. And he is very well-informed about what people believed and thought about things. Another thing one notices is that he has a sense for the concrete. He often builds upon his own experiences. Among other things, he tells that he has spent a night on a mountain meadow on the hard ground underneath rocks. It was not a pleasant experience he writes, but at the same time he compares the rocks to comforters and sheets. Using a very picturesque language, he describes the experience of sleeping in nature as something wonderful at the same time as he admits that his body suffered with backaches and side aches and he was half-frozen and almost stiff when he woke up.
He is also very interested in learning about farming and how to get rid of pests so as to get the best harvest possible. He knows a lot about how to grow and use potatoes. He discourages Danes, who had planned to grow potatoes in the Norwegian mountains from going ahead with the plan. He tells them it’s too cold and rocky. But he also knows that potato farming in Telemark has been successful depending on the kind of soil in different areas. So the author knows a lot about the places he writes about. He is not afraid to admit when he doesn’t know something or have forgotten, and he doesn’t go along with what others say if he is not sure. And when he reads something that Pontoppidan wrote about that was untrue, then he gives his opinion about why this is unheard of.
There is something lively, concrete and down to earth about Engelbret Michelson’s Description of Upper Telemark. He believes in knowledge and common sense just as his learned colleagues did, but he is more people-oriented (shows more wisdom about the common man), and he has more sense for the practical side of life than his colleagues. And he is less pedantic than most. He reminds you of some of Holberg’s practical laborers and farmers such as Henrik in “Den policiske kandestøber.” But in spite of giving us much detailed knowledge about many things is Upper Telemark: E.M. is not a farmer. Very few farmers knew how to write around year 1700, and it would almost be unheard of that they would have as much knowledge as E.M. about the historical/topographical literature of that era. Besides he makes a clear distinction between himself and the farmers. He looks at the farms and farm districts in Upper Telemark from the outside. At one point in his writing he says that he likes the Danish air much better than the harsh Norwegian air, although he is a native. Here it looks like he’s saying that he is born in Norway. According to the way he writes, it sounds like he’s saying that he has lived in Norway 20-30 years earlier, that is in the 1740’s and 1750’s. His manuscript couldn’t have been written before 1769, because in the first chapter the author says that Fyresdal church district was recently divided in two, and this division didn’t happen until May 1769. “Historical Descriptions of Upper Telemark” is written by a knowledgeable and insightful author. His work is easy to read, he has a sense of irony, and a sense of humor; he is controversial and he unveils that he is an avid reader. We can come to the conclusion that he was neither an official nor a farmer; in other words, he must have belonged to another professional or social group. He could possibly be a craftsman, salesman, or a private or civil servant. He must have had some form of education, although not academic. He seems to be born in Norway, but seems to have moved away from his native country at one point in time and settled in Denmark. He has experienced a great deal, and we can deduce from his writings that he is a mature man, perhaps somewhere in his fifties. It would have been difficult to find out much about his life if he hadn’t been so kind as to include his address in his postscript. The descendant to the throne to whom he sent the manuscript needed an address, so that he could send him the payment for the work “Naade-straaten”, and his address was in Copenhagen, Lare Strædet number 24. Lære Strædet or Læderstrædet which is how it is written today, is a busy business street in the center of Copenhagen. It runs parallel to Amagertorv and runs right into Højbroplads. Læderstrædet is an old street. It’s first name was Lad brostræde, in other words the street by the cargo bridge. Glass and concrete, tall buildings and advertising billboards tell us that everything in this part of town is new. There are seemingly no remnants from E.M.’s time.
Læderstrædet was a business street back in the 1700’s also. Here you could find leather goods stores, shoemakers, tailor shops, carpenter workshops, bakeries, and perhaps a jewelry store or two. Salespeople in the open markets would call out the prices of their goods to the people making their way through the narrow streets whether it was sausages or meat they were selling or songbooks filled with popular tunes “hot off the presses” that contained songs on every subject from murder to love and jealousy, and about the execution of Stuense (1737-1772). It had just been discovered that he was the queen’s lover, and was therefore a threat to the political order in the dual monarchy. His “fall” from his occupation as a cabinet secretary, counselor and statesman, was sudden and hard, and it was a great topic (theme) for moralistic ballads.
In the city you could find food for the soul as well as something to quench your thirst. For the latter you could go to one of the merchants who sold hard liquor. They were easy to find, and advertisements existed even in those days. There were signs advertising liquor on every street corner, and towards the end of the century there were more than 3000 people handling hard liquor living in the city, as well as 300 bootleggers. Every other house was inhabited by someone in the liquor business. This was just what E.M. did for a living. He was registered as a bootlegger (distiller) in Copenhagen on Sept. 29, 1773. He was also a member of the Copenhagen’s bootlegger guild.
We find some additional information from Norway that says he has spent some time in Norway. He could easily have been born in another country-Denmark, Sweden, or Germany–and then have traveled to Norway and stayed there awhile before moving to Copenhagen. At the same time (date and year) that E.M. was licensed as a bootlegger, Karen Christensdatter Wolling sold Læterstrædet to Emgelbret. She was the widow of Søren Madsen who had also been a bootlegger. It was common practice that E.M. followed; to take over the concession/business and house of a craftsman who had died or moved. Just as common, was the practice of inheriting the widow of the deceased craftsman. Both forms of takeovers were practical and economically favorable. But E.M. didn’t marry. He had good reasons-she was already remarried, to a hosiery merchant. He sold hosiery, socks, and cloth (fabrics).
The property of #24 in Læderstrædet was more than just a place to sleep. It was a genuine bootlegger business in Copenhagen which was called “Syv Stiernen” (“Seven Stars” –perhaps! named after a constellation?) and had been in the same family for 3 generations. “Forhuset… 5 Fag, 2 Etager høy, med Qvist over, et Siide-Huus udi Gaarden paa 21 Fag, 3 Loft høyt… et Huus paa 7 Fag 2 Loft høyt, alt sammen Muur of Bindingsværk” ( There were several houses-forhuset (main house); [“fag” meaning wall section in a “bindingswerk” which is a combination of timber and masonry. Very few remain today in Norway, but they are seen more often in Denmark. The number of “fags” gives no measurement but hints at the dimensions of Engelbret’s house.] Two stories with an attic; another house in the yard was as high as 3 lofts and one house was as high as two lofts. Everything was in Danish style masonry. The property was sold with all the necessary equipment needed to make liquor. E.M. made sure that Karen Wolling received proper payment for the property in Læderstrædet. But he couldn’t make it without a loan. Less than a month later, he signed two mortgage obligations in connection with the purchase of the property. One of them, which received second priority, was from a woman just widowed, and it stated that E.M. owed 600 riksdaler for the purchase of property, described in the contract written on July 9, 1773. The loan was to be paid up in 6 years. E.M. had to pay 4% interest on the capital. The largest loan was in the amount of 1900 riksdaler. This had first priority and was from the hosiery shopkeeper himself, Lars Wolling and his young daughter, Anna Johanna. The money was actually hers. It was an inheritance from her mother’s side, after the death of her mother. Lars Wolling lent the money to E.M. with the same obligation as he had to Karen Christensdatter- 4% interest on the capital. But on this loan there was no mention of how soon it was to be repaid.
After the large city fire in Copenhagen in 1728, the city leaders thought it would be simpler and less expensive for the people to rebuild their houses if they had some kind of insurance. Therefore, Copenhagen’s Fire Insurance was founded in 1731. The housed in Læderstrædet were also insured in “Brand Cassen” with a policy from 1735. The insurance policy gives a detailed description of what the houses in Læderstrædet #24 looked like inside. One of the wine rooms was paneled and painted and an oven was made of Dutch stone. There were beds and closets, stairs and a loft, benches and shelves, stoves, fireplaces and a pantry. It was so well described that you could almost picture it. The insurance policy was for 3100 riksdalar. The two mortgages were valued at 2500 riksdalar which was approximately 80% of the full value of the property. Would the new owner be able to pay the interest, fulfill his obligations and pay the taxes? Besides the income from his business, E.M. could also earn money by renting out rooms in the house. He had a couple of people living there at one time. The city leaders controlled who and how many people lived in each dwelling in the city and they would also know the occupations of the people living in the city and how much taxes they should pay.
In 1775, Anders Hansen and Peder Svensen lived in Læderstrædet #24 with their families along with E.M., the owner. The house tax was set at 190 riksdaler, an average tax in Læderstrædet, and in the section of the city named the “Strand Quarter”. It was also known that E.M. was only working part-time. Maybe he had been sick or more likely he has other things to keep him busy. In any case, according to bookkeeping records from 1778, E.M. is no longer listed as fully employed. However, E.M. has taken in two boarders. One of them is Christen Jensen who is also a bootlegger. According to bookkeeping records from 1780, E.M. is listed as house and property owner, but he is letting Jensen run his own business from E.M.’s property. As a property owner he was obligated to pay taxes for street and sidewalk improvements. E.M. did not run his bootlegger business for more than a couple of years if he even did it for that long. It seems that the most important thing for him was to get his bootlegger’s license for that he could buy a house and property. Actually, working as a bootlegger was less important. Many of those registered as bootleggers worked at it only part-time and usually had other jobs on the side. The demand for bootleggers was great, as a matter of fact there were six times as many bootleggers in town than there were bakers. So, it was easy to get your foot in the door in this profession. It was much more difficult to get established in many of the other trades where there were less of a demand for workers (and the product). In the 1770’s only skippers and tailors were more in demand than bootleggers in the city of Copenhagen. It was very likely therefore that E.M. was a bootlegger in name only. He earned a living by taking in boarders and also by doing other odd jobs. Possibly he also had some money set aside to live on, but this is unproven. It is more that likely that he probably wrote “Descriptions of Telemark” while living in the house in Læderstrædet. This was probably a good investment since the prince who was next in line to the throne wrote to him in Læderstrædet.
Nikolaj Church and Beenhuus-Kirkegaarden
There were many churches in Copenhagen around the 1700’s. One of them was the downtown church called the Nilolaj Church. The church is not there anymore. It burned down in the city fire in 1795. It was named for “Holy Nikolaus” who was bishop in the middle east around 350 A.D. Nikolaus was the patron saint of sailors (seamen), so it was only fitting that the people who lived in “Strandens kvarter” (the beach quarter) which Læderstrædet was part of, would worship at this church. Nikolaj Church was built around 1400, and it was next to the largest church in Copenhagen. It was a church for shopkeepers and seamen (these were the people who mostly frequented this church).
The church was only a couple of stone’s throws from Læderstrædet, right next to the Amager open market and Høgbroquarter. On the north side of the church was the Beenhuus (bone-house) Kirkegaarden (Cemetery). As the name implies, Beenhuus was a very unique house where bones were kept. that had been dug up from the graves. There was also an additional cemetery next to this church, since the cemeteries downtown were almost filled to capacity, especially during outbursts of epidemics. There were bodies placed on top of each otter in graves that were not covered on a day to day basis, and there were boards put over the top of the graves, so people could walk up to the church door. Today Beenhuus Cemetery is closed down.
The financial records from the church (specifically records of burial costs) shows that this is where E.M. was buried on June 11, 1781, as the 185th body buried that year. According to these records he was brought from Læderstrædet to be buried, he was a bootlegger, and his age was given to be 66 years. The church records list the cause of death as “high fever.” The diagnosis was made by Dr. Bang.
On June 7 his property was listed for sale, so this is one instance where one can’t criticize the bureaucracy for wasting time. It’s an interesting change of hands (referring to E.M.’s property) in many ways. It seems that E.M. was no longer the owner. It belonged to Maria Margretha Jørgens Datter Boldt, to whom he was engaged. Her mother was the widow Anthonette Uldrichsdatter. Neither of these women knew any thing about E.M.’s immediate family or other relatives or any heirs. He didn’t leave much behind. It seems that E.M. had not done so well in life, at least not from an economic standpoint. He had difficulties paying his debts and had ended up as a tenant in the house that he had bought eight years earlier. Besides, instead of owing money to Wolling, he now owed money to the Boldt family. There had been a change in ownership. It appears that during the final estate settlement in Feb. 1785, E.M. had tried to leave the mortgaged house to Maria Margeretha Boldt (before his death), who now (in 1785) married Jens Simonsen Schmidt. In spite of economic difficulties, E.M. was still not out of the picture. At the ripe old age of 60, he became engaged to the new owner. He wanted to be sure the engagement was legal before he had his fiancé take over the ownership of the house. But this operation was still not without risk as we will find out later. Otherwise, it is a little strange that neither the woman he was engaged to nor his future mother-in-law knows anything about his family. He hasn’t told much about his background or where he came from. What was it he didn’t want to tell?
It wasn’t much that E.M. left behind. The one item that sold for the highest sum was a violet suit. This was priced at 6 riksdalar. He also had a few books and clothes, and the total sum came to 26 riksdalar and 5 skillings. He had about the same amount in cash. This was his entire estate. This tells us that E.M. was a man in financial trouble, but it also tells us that he was interested in books. Among his books were: Egede’s Greenland Descriptions; Holberg’s Church History and Epistles in three volumes; Essendrop’s Physical Economical Descriptions of Lier Church District; Berthelsøn’s Dictionary on English Danish; Pint’s Wunderliche Reysen; many volumes of Common Descriptions of the Land; and three volumes of The American Gazetteer. Besides, many of the books were banded together and priced. One could say that E.M. had an extensive collection of books. There were many books written on the same topics that E.M. himself was interested in and wrote about. It seems he knew how to read both in English and German. He was definitely not your run-of-the-mill bootlegger.
Where was he from?
According to the death certificate, E.M. was 66 when he died in 1781, which means he was 58 when he got his license in 1773. Where did he live for the first 58 years of his life? And where was he born? Did he live in Copenhagen before 1773, in which case he was not a citizen? His name could not be found in the records of the census of 1762 or anywhere else for that matter. Checking all the Danish church books didn’t help either. Besides in Denmark the name Engelbret is very uncommon. Nothing could be found in any of the government archives either. Were there perhaps other sources to check? What about when he became a citizen in 1773, maybe these records were more detailed? It seems that Copenhagen’s city archives had several documents about bootlegging in Copenhagen in the 1700’s-but E.M.’s name didn’t show up here. But maybe by checking tax records one could find something, since no citizen escapes paying taxes. This was a good lead. According to tax records from 1773, it shows that E.M. paid 12 R. and 60 shillings in tax for his citizenship. And fortunately, the dedicated secretary who wrote this up, had asked about E.M.’s birthplace. He had noted: E.M., Bootlegger, born in Norway close to Brevig (Brevik). Thus, the bootlegger in Læderstrædet had finally gotten a birthplace and a past. This meant: E.M. was Norwegian, and was born-if not in upper Telemark- then at least in the lower part of Bratsberg amt (name of Telemark county at the time).
The expression “close to Brevig” could mean that he was baptized in either Eidanger, Bamble or Brevik churches. According to the death certificates, he died at age 66 in 1781. This would mean that he was born around 1715. Checking the church records in Eidanger and Bamble gave little results, and there was on one by the name of Engelbret listed it the church books from Brevik in 1715. But several years later in 1722, dated Feb. 22, in the church book in Brevik, it was noted: Michel Laurssøn Mandt and Else Larsdatter Resens legitimate children, Engelbreth. Delivered by Madame Bodel Jacob Nilssøns, assistants Else Vincentz Heins and Agatha Blom. Godfathers- Monsr. Lars Nielsen, Monsr. Fæstman and Monsr Fioren. A little later that year, the day after Easter, Else Resen is introduced in the congregation. As other new mothers she was considered unclean after giving birth. The church records refer to her as Else Resen, Michel Mandt Guldsmids (goldsmith). These must have been the parents of E.M. who was later a bootlegger in Copenhagen and who wrote the first historical/topographical descriptions of upper Telemark. It still raises a few questions about the information in the church books. Why did he call himself Engelbret Michaelsen or Michelssen instead of using one or both last names of his parents? Both Resen and Mandt should be good enough-better than the anonymous Michaelsen. Why doesn’t the year of birth agree with the information given in the death certificate? Had Maria Margretha Boldt, who he was engaged to, along with other people who knew him, not heard right when he told them his age? They must for sure have discussed his age. Or did he give them the wrong age on purpose and if so why? Or is it just an error in the books made by the person who wrote down the records for the church? We will come back to this later.
According to the church records from Brevik, E.M. came from a good family. It is written that his father was a jeweler. His mother, Else Resen, must have come from a very good family. When the maiden name of a woman was used after she married-in that time in history- it meant that she came from an “upper class” family, often better off than her new husband’s family. The Resen name is written on the same line as Mandt. We also see the use of titles such as “madame” and “monsieur” during the 1700’s when much was inspired by the French. These titles were very high class. In order to be absolutely sure that E.M. was the son of Else Resen and Michel Mandt, it was necessary to find out more about these two families.
Resen and Mandt
The name Resen (also written Reisen, Reysener, Resner, and Reisner) is Danish and comes from the name of a village by the same name (Resen) in Skodborg district, earlier called Ribe, today known as Viborg on Jylland (Jutland), the peninsula. According to the Danish Biographic Encyclopedia, the name goes back to Poul Hansen who was pastor in town in the year 1600. Many well-known men and women belong to this family-pastors and bishops, lawyers, artists. One of the best known was Peder Hansen Resen (1625-1688). He was president in Copenhagen and was well-known as a city planner. His plans for the city of Copenhagen were partially carried out.
The family moved to Norway around 1600 and settled in cities like Kristiansand and Flekkerø. Else Resen who was born around 1695, was a member of this Norwegian branch of the family tree. The Resen family also came to Brevik. The year before Else Resen and Michel Mandt’s children were baptized there, a man by the name of Hans Resen had his children baptized at the same church. This Hans Resen could very well be Else Resen’s brother. Unfortunately, the name of Hans Resen’s father is not given in the church book in Brevik.
The “Mandt” name also came from Denmark, more precisely from Thisted in Jylland (Jutland). In any case the name came to Norway from Denmark. Michel Mandt was born in Denmark, in 1692. The church books in Thisted show: April 15, Baptized Lauritz Rasmussøn Guldsmied, and Engel Mickeldatter’s child- Mickel. The name of Lauritz could also be found in the census from 1700 in the city of Kristiansand (tax for people, horses and fireplaces). The name was listed as Lauridtz Manth, Guldsmed. As Eva and Kristoffer Mandt write in Lårdalsoga, it is tempting to believe that this is father to Michel who moved from Thisted to Kristiansand. Then Michel could have come to Norway as a small boy. It has been said that Michel Mandt played a role in the big Nordic War and among other things helped fight against Karl XII. He is said to have met Else Resen in Halden. She was the daughter of merchant Lars Resen in Fredrikshald. But all of this doesn’t seem reasonable. Both the Mandt family and the Norwegian branch of the Resen family lived mostly in the southern coastal towns in Norway. It is also difficult to believe that Else Resen and Michel Mandt would have had time to spend any amount of time at the Swedish border considering what we know about all the other things they did. It is true that Michel Mandt held the title of military officer, but he could have received this title without having taken part in the war against the Swedes. It makes more sense that Michel Mandt and Else Resen got to know each other in Kristiansand and possibly got married at about the same time as Michel became a citizen of that town, ca. 1717. At that time Michel Larsen Mandt was listed as a citizen and jeweler in Kristiansand according to the city records. From the same records, Michel Mandt moved out of Kristiansand before 1722. This agrees with what we already know: he had a child baptized in Brevik on the 22nd of Feb. At that time he had been a citizen of Skien and had been in the jewelry and watch repair business for about 3 weeks, from Feb. 5. He and his family most likely lived in Brevik. Around 1700 and up until 1844 those people that had businesses along the Skienfjord had to be citizens of Skien. The Mandt name therefore started out as a craft person’s (skilled worker’s) name. The first Mandts worked in the jewelry and watchmaker (repair) business. They came to Norway from Denmark between 1600 and 1700 like so many other skilled craftsmen did. The reason would be that it was difficult to find work where they came from and maybe they hoped for a fresh start and place. Maybe they were swayed by the propaganda started by the government that skilled workers were badly needed in the new cities in the dual (double) monarchy. Kristiansand was such a city. But as we have seen, Michel Mandt and Else Resen did not remain in Kristiansand. They moved east along the coast of the Skienfjord. The reason for this move was most likely that they had financial difficulties, because there wasn’t a big demand for jewelers in the small Norwegian coastal towns. Their children were born as they were on the move. Lars Laurentius was baptized in 1718, Gjertrud Maria most likely in 1719, Engelbret in Brevik in 1722, Peter Christian in Gjerpen in 1724, Johanne Elisabeth in Solum in 1726. The three last ones of the eight children, Ole (1728), Rasmus (1731), and Lars (1733) were born in the same place, after Else Resen and Michel Mandt had settled down. They had left the coast and settled in Vinje in Upper Telemark.
The Mandts in Upper Telemark
Rikard Berge says that M.M. and the whole Mandt family that followed helped shape the different districts in Telemark and made them quite lively, like a breath of fresh air or maybe more like a tidal wave! The Mandts helped shape Telemark from the moment they arrived. Michel or Mikkel, as he was called in Telemark, was both lensmann and sexton. Rikard Berge refers to the church book in Mo and says: “He’s done a little of everything, jeweler in Kristiansand, a military officer for the western regiment, lensmann in the Vinje district and also sexton clerk in the same place. In the end he died quietly, unemployed now in his son Petter’s home in north Ombli.” (Åmli)
The Mandts first settled down at Skjelvik, a place by Vinjevatnet, north of Særensgrend. Later they moved other places. The Mandts that came after M.M. and Else Resen were both lensmenn and politicians. Many, among then Engelbret, were jewelers (gold and silver smiths), or they were good farmers who received master medals and prizes for their excellent farming.
Many in this family were also very artistic and were trendsetters in jewelry design. They had a hand in helping to develop the filigree design used in silver jewelry. People in Upper Telemark were quite taken by the first Mandts, especially M.M. and Else Resen. Rikard Berge has collected several stories (legends) about M.M. and Else that has been written up in Norske Folkelultur, which he published. These stories (myths and legends) about M.M. and Else show that this pair had quite an impact on the people in Upper Telemark and it seems like the imagination of these people ran a little wild. One such legend tells how M.M. came from Germany to Sweden. and have a family. What is told in these legends must be pure fantasy.
But the next question is this-why do these legends exist? What was it about M.M. and Else Resen that made them so interesting that they became main characters in legends that were told from generation to generation for 200 years? One reason could be that they were foreigners and not Norwegian. Therefore, they stood out from the crowd and were noticed. It could be that they had personal habits that were different and that stuck out like a sore thumb, and it could be they had different customs or a different language and another lifestyle than that of the farmers in Telemark. Since many of the legends talk about murder and about having to escape from somewhere, we must remember that M.M. and Else came to Vinje and Upper Telemark in the 1720’s. That is just a few years after the big Nordic War. Everyone knows that during wartime people were murdered and are often on the run. The people in Telemark who had fought in the war know this f Din Stockholm he was playing cards with a couple of fellows, and since he ended up winning, they took it out on him. He killed one man in self-defense and escaped to Norway, first to Halden, later to Kragerø. Another legend says that he came from Germany, killed a man in the streets of Gøteberg, fled to Norway, got married in Gjøvik, and later came to Agder and then to Vinje. A third legend says that M.M. was a prisoner who was exiled from Denmark and had to flee to Norway. He was a silversmith and built a cabin in Vinje.
In many of these legends, Else Resen also plays a role. One legend says that in her old age she became senile and kept repeating the following sentence- “that Christmas Eve I’ll never forget!” Whether it was because M.M. had killed someone, or that she was thinking about the war and that the house had been burglarized, our source doesn’t know.
According to another legend, M.M. and Else came from Sweden. In one town a few men attacked him and wanted to kill him and kidnap Else. Then M.M. killed one of them and had to run. Another legend was even more dramatic: both M.M. and Else were arrested in Germany where he had murdered someone. The cell was on the second floor, so they cut up a beautiful red cloth into long strips and made a rope out of it, so they could climb out of the window and escape. After they reached the ground, they cut off the rope as high up as they could and brought it along with them. It remained in the family for a long time, and the family almost considered it something holy. When they escaped from the prison, they put their shoes on backwards, so that when the police sent out dogs to search for them, the dogs ended up back at the prison because the footprints led them there.
Another legend says that M.M. killed his apprentice (in the jewelry business) with a hammer and he was given the death sentence for this deed. The next thing he did was to melt down all his silver to make silver horse shoes for his horses. Then he put them on the horses backwards and fooled the people who were trying to catch him. Every time he was angry after this episode, Else would say: “Do you remember that Christmas night?” As soon as she said it, it would calm him down. Two short legends tell that the first Mandts escaped from the 30-year war and came to Kristiansand and then to Telemark, and that the Mandt family originally came from Båhuslen and escaped to Norway after it was found that they made counterfeit coins.
Another legend puts more emphasis on the so-called wealth of Mikkel Mandt. It is said that when he tore down the old barn at Tonna, the place he owned under Vinje parsonage, he found a bunch of money in a hollow log. This is said to be the source of the wealth of the Mandt family. Another legend says that M.M. and his neighbor dug a hole on the boundary line between Tonna and Svalastoga. When M.M. understood that they weren’t far from digging up a fortune, he snuck out in the middle of the night and dug up all of it himself. So now he was super wealthy. Tradition tells that before M.M. died, he asked to be buried in a double coffin, and his wish was granted. Later on, a grave was dug up from Skafså cemetery, and they found the remains of two coffins.
It is possible that legends can be true, and one may also ask the question whether there is actually something to these legends.
Rikard Berge says that M.M. actually did kill a man and therefore had to escape, and that he most likely came from Sweden to Norway. It is hard to say if anything else is true. But after what we already know about M.M.’s working papers in Kristiansand in 1717, and that he possibly came to Norway as a small child, he could not have come to Norway as an escapee. It is also difficult to believe that a murderer would have been able to work as a jeweler in peace and quiet for many years, then become a master jeweler, marry or a fact. So, a new family moved into the area, a family that no one know anything about, right after the end of the war. The husband was a military officer, perhaps with a bit of a temper. More than that wasn’t needed before the ball (snowball in Norwegian) started rolling. He is said to have killed a fellow, – who was more likely to kill someone than a Swede? The Swedes who they had been feuding with for years!
So, it came to be that Mikkel and four of his sons, Engelbret, Petter, Olaf, and Rasmus were jewelers. They worked with precious metals, transforming it into art, a new form of art. They were like wizards; men who managed to create what other men were unable to create. A lot of folk tradition is tied to gold and silver. In one of the fairy tales, gold and silver is what “Askeladden” gets as a reward for his bravery; the princesses in fairy tales usually wear gold crowns and gold jewelry; at the king’s castle they serve food on gold and silver plates-so why shouldn’t M.M. put silver shoes on his horse?
In folk fantasy it was considered witchcraft to create beautiful jewelry. It was those living underground who owned and created the most beautiful silver, called huldresølvet. Legends about this silver have been written all over the country. It has also been written up how this silver sometimes ended up in human hands. In Telemark the legend about the Klevar-sølet (silver) in Sauheral is the best known. This legend tells how those living underground try to “steal” a young boy’s girlfriend. The boy sees that they start dressing her in wedding attire, and then he shoots at them using gun powder. The gun powder makes the ones underground lose all their powers and the boy and girl escapes taking all of “huldresøolvet” home with them. This silver is then passed down from generation to generation at the Klevar farm.
Since people believed that “the ones underground” made the most beautiful silver, they probably wondered about why the jewelers also knew how to do this (including the making of filigree silver). The artistic gift of the Mandt men showed that they knew a little more than the Lord’s Prayer. People also wondered where they got all the silver from-maybe they had found a buried treasure, perhaps maybe they knew of a secret silver lode in a rock outcropping, or maybe they took part in illegal trading practices? There is enough material here to understand why M.M. and Else Resen could be legendary figures.
(see K.M. postscript)
The tradition connected to Engelbret
Now it’s time to return to the main character of this story-Engelbret Michaelsen-who we will show is identical to Engelbret Resen Mandt. Rikard Berge has also written about him, without knowing that the man he wrote about was from the Enlightenment period, the author of Historical Description of Upper Telemark. Engelbret is said to have got his name from Sweden, and it should be the same name as that of the hero of the upraising, Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson. The same Engelbret, son of Else Resen and M.M., it is said to have traveled quite a lot in foreign countries and somehow have disappeared in the end. Rikard Berge refers to an ad for a missing person in the Berlingske Tidende that was sent in by Engelbret’s brothers Ole and Rasmus Mandt. This ad should have been written on the 13th of October, 1786, but this could also be a mistake since this information has been rewritten several times. The following is what the letter written by Ole and Rasmus Mandt contained: (written as they are searching for their brother) “We had a brother by the name of Ingebræt Michelsen Reesen Mandt, who was citizen and jeweler in Kragerø here in Norway. He traveled often to Holland and England, and then he spent four years in Copenhagen, and during the whole time he was gone, he wrote us about two or three times a year, but in the last letter he wrote us from Denmark about 19 years ago, he writes that he is just on his way to France via Germany, and since then we haven’t had a letter from him. There was a rumor that he was murdered and his horse was killed while on his travels. Our circumstances kept us from taking any legal actions to find him, and it was also difficult for us (living so far away) to find any proof of why he had disappeared. Our missing brother was a jeweler and watch maker by profession, citizen of Kragerø in Norway, where his widow Anne Catarine died about 5-6 years ago without leaving any heirs. He always carried with him 2000 rd. of gold, to buy silver and gold for his profession. It seems to us that he must have been murdered. The aforementioned person Ingebret Reesen Mandt is born in 1721, was of average height and average weight. He had dark features, black eyes and eyebrows, black hair, but was usually wearing a brown wig. He didn’t have any other distinguishing features. He used regular gray clothing when he was in Norway. He usually carried his money in a purse. He spoke a little English and German, but Norwegian was his native language. He left Norway in the spring of 1764 by ship.” According to Berge there’s a legend about him that says that there was a letter from another country that he said he had left a big inheritance. His brothers gave the authorities his name but left out one letter (in his name), so they didn’t get the money. Another legend says he had buried a bunch of money on the farm in Skafså right before he left and no one has found it since.
In a series of articles in “Varden”, Olav Mandt (Olav L Mandt, 1914) discusses the traditions about Engelbret. Olav thinks that he must have died in another country, but not in Germany. “He died in England as a result of falling off his horse. Ole’s sons Mikkel Mandt of Eikland and Tarje Mandt of Gåskjøn (these are Engelbret’s nephews) went to England after their father’s death to claim their uncle’s inheritance from their uncle. It seems that he had left much more than the before mentioned 2000 riksdalar (that Engelbret’s brothers mentioned in their letters). But the English authorities refused to give them the money, and the reason was that the name was written Engelbright or Ingebrigt Resen Mandt. As was expected, the brothers were both disappointed and upset about this. ‘At least I got to see where he is buried’- Tarje consoled himself and his relatives with this statement when he got back home.” Later no one has made any attempts to get the inheritance which is said to still be locked up in a bank in England.
Engelbret is the one person besides M.M. and Else Resen who has a tradition connected to him. The reason is that he was known to be wealthy and that he disappeared all of a sudden. This was a mystery-what had happened to him? It is easy to believe that he met with a quick and horrible death, especially because he was a jeweler and traveled with a lot of cash. Both in real life and in fiction, there are stories about traveling salesmen and other travelers who were killed and robbed because they were often alone in unfamiliar places. It seems highly unlikely that he brought with him as much as 2000 R. as his brothers wrote. It is most likely an exaggeration. That would make murder and robbery more likely. The story about the big fortune (inheritance) in England is based on similar traditions. For example, it is told that when searching for a buried treasure you must dig 3 Thursday evenings in a row. The ones digging must do so in a certain fashion and must not talk with anyone. Usually everything goes well up until the last evening. Then one of the people digging sees something that makes him say a few words and then the hope of finding the treasure is gone. According to legend the inheritance after Engelbret is something that is always almost within grasp, but then it gets away from you just as you’re about to grab onto it-often just because of some small detail. But the tradition has a moral: “I got to see his grave- Ingebret’s burial site” Tarje consoled himself and his relatives with- – – -In other words, it would have been nice to bring back a treasure from England, but it was more important for the people back home in Upper Telemark to feel safe about the fact that Engelbret had gotten a Christian burial. Besides the treasure is still there and maybe someone will find it in the future. It’s even in the bank and gets a little larger every day!
It could have been true that he died in Germany or England. He traveled a great deal, at least in Denmark and Northern Germany, according to other sources. He always came back in one piece and with his health intact, as we will see when we leave tradition behind and follow the clues and the background to Engelbret’s history.
The jeweler in Kragerø
We have seen that Engelbret was baptized in Brevik in 1722. He went of course with his family as they traveled up through Telemark, and he must have been about 6 years old when they came to Vinje. As most other children at that time, he first learned what his parents were able to teach him-that is how to read and write and also how to make jewelry. He has surely lived like most farmers and learned a little bit about what farmers do and how to farm the land. Both Engelbret and his siblings most likely had to help on the farm. We don’t know a lot about how children played around 1700, but in the Telemark Stories it tells a little bit about what the children amused themselves with in Upper Telemark in the 1730’s when Engelbret was a child. The young girls that were herding the animals would sing and play on the long horns, and they would also thread berries onto straws or regular thread to make necklaces out of them. There is also mention of a small plant called Slørke that was used for nothing other than to make some sort of a squirt gun out of, so that the young boys could spray water on each other. We remember that M.M. had been citizen and jeweler in Skien. From his time in Skien, he had good contacts within the jewelry business and at some time in the late 1730’s he has most likely put Engelbret to work as an apprentice in the jewelry business. Since M.M. was a jeweler himself and could teach his son a lot at home, he didn’t have to spend a long time as an apprentice, probably just a year or two. It is believed that Engelbret studied under the Kragerø jeweler Ole Olsen. This jeweler was the most dominating jeweler in Kragerø for a whole generation.
In 1732 Ole married Anna Catharina Bendixdatter Frankenland. We see from the church books from Kragerø from 1730 that he had been married before, that’s when Ole Olsen’s former wife was buried. There was a daughter from her first marriage. Ole Olsen and Anna Catharina had one child, a daughter. She was baptized in Kragerø in 1734 and got the name of Maren. Anna Catharina had also been married before and had a son from the first marriage. This son’s name was Bendix Jahn (found in other sources). We can be pretty sure that Engelbret studied under Ole Olsen because he ended up marrying his widow Anna Catharina. The settlement of the estate of Ole Olsen was completed 28th of March 1743, and already on the 3rd of April Engelbret Reisner and Catrine Frankenland were married without prior announcement or engagement, but with special permission by the King. There was an age difference of 19 years between them, and she had been married twice, so this was most likely a marriage of convenience, such as the custom was. She got someone to take care of her, he could take over the business. From Ole Olsen’s estate settlement we find that he wasn’t doing so well in the end, as a matter of fact he was bankrupt. There wasn’t much he left behind. Of stoneware, there were only 6 plates, 3 serving trays, 3 bowls; of bedding there were 2 sheets, 3 pillowcases and one throw. Besides, Ole Olsen owed a lot of money to people around Kragerø. Therefore, Anna Catharina Frankeland gave up all rights to any inheritance because there wasn’t much there. The 22-year-old apprentice Engelbret was left with all the debts and the other business obligations. He bought Ole Olsen’s home for 106 R., 3 ort, and 12 skillings. Besides he made sure that everyone Ole Olsen owed money to got some of it back. He made good on over 30 R. worth of loans. Ole Olsen’s debt to Kragerø church was very old. He had sweat over this since 1713 – a debt that dated all the way back to when he first established himself as a jeweler in town. He had paid 5 R interest on this loan every year since then, but not a single shilling was subtracted from the interest. Maybe this was an agreement that was acceptable both to him and to the church.
The same year that Engelbret married Anna Catharina, he became a citizen of Kragerø. In the years that followed, Engelbret ran the business in Lang gaden in Kragerø. Most of the people in town earned a living by working in either the shipping or the lumber industry, but there were also a few skilled workers in the city, among them 5 tailors, and 2 jewelers. In 1743 Engelbret paid tax for his business in the amount of 2 R and 48 skillings. In addition to this tax, the person making the payment had to write a few lines about himself and his economic status. The following is what Engelbret wrote about himself: “I am a jeweler by profession and live in an old house, and I owe just as much as the house is worth, and I own nothing else. Kragerøen, 26 Oct. 1743. E. Reiisner.” According to this, it seems like Engelbret had to borrow money to buy the house. It doesn’t seem that he was doing so well financially, but on the other hand he probably did not want to come across as a wealthy man to the tax people. After the circumstances, as a jeweler in a small town with a limited sales market, Engelbret did quite well. The other jeweler in town did no fare so well. This was Engelbret’s brother-in-law Frantz Cudrio. He writes a note along with his tax return: “I’m a jeweler by profession, but because of lean times, I can’t afford to hire anyone to help me. I have nothing but my two bare hands. I have small children and I can’t even afford to have a journeyman or apprentice.”
In 1749 an additional tax was added because a princess was getting married. The city had to pay 250 riksdalar for this, and this amount was divided by the 127 tax payers. Engebret Reisner was one of those, and he paid 2 R. and 1 ort. In addition, in 1757 there was another tax and Kragerø ‘s part had now risen to 300 R. Now Engelbret Resen is paying 3 R. and only 17 tax payers in town have to pay more than that. As we have already seen, Engelbret had an older sister, Gjertrud Maria. She was born around 1719, and in 1753 she married Engelbret’s colleague Frantz Johannesen Cudrio. Gjertrud Maria died only a few years later and was buried on March 31, 1757. She most likely died during childbirth, because their daughter Anne Catrine Sparre was baptized on April 1 that same year. The records from Kragerø show that Engelbret brought the little girl with him to Skien where her family lived. Two years later, in 1761, Engelbret actually received an inheritance after this girl died. The inheritance first went to old Mikkel Mandt, then to Engelbret who was her legal guardian. Engelbret used the French title of Monsieur (as his father did) in these documents. He also used the name Resen and not Mandt, because he wanted to use the name with the most social prestige. According to records from Kragerø, we find that Engelbret had several official duties and important jobs in the 1740’s and 1750’s. In 1748 he was an appraiser along with 3 others, and in 1749 he and his brother-in-law Frantz Cudrio were elected to the city jury. Engelbret could be regularly seen in city court during this particular year. In 1753 he also worked on the jury, but did not participate in many meetings, and in 1757 he had an official title.
Otherwise Engelbret was used as a witness in different church affairs. In 1747 he was godfather to Petter Skradders’ daughter Edel; in 1748 he was best man to Peder Knudson and Maren Christensdatter; in 1751 he again was a witness at a baptism. He also served as a witness/godfather in 1757 when Frantz Cudrio and Gjertrud Maria’s daughter was baptized; and in 1761 he was named as an official best man and baptism witness.
Jens Lauerson was one of the wealthiest and most respected businessmen in Kragerø. In 1763 he set up a testament in which he wrote that everything that was left after him would be a gift to the city, and this testament should be called “Jens Lauerson’s gift”. This document was signed by Messieurs Marcus Barnholt and Engelbret Resen-which shows that Engelbret was a respected citizen. Engelbret’s house was located in Lang gaden or Store Rådstuegate, right by the public market. In 1765 it was taxed: Engelbret Resen’s house contains a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and also a jeweler’s workshop. There is also a laundry and storage room in the basement; there are two ovens in the house worth 150 R. Of the 207 homes in the city that were taxed that year, 50 of them were worth more than Engelbret’s. In the 1740’s and 1750’s Engelbret seems to have done a great deal of traveling both in Norway and outside of Norway. We know this from the Telemark Description, and also from the letters that his brothers published in the Berlingste Tidende. The travels had a lot to do with a problem that many of the jewelers in the 1700’s had — to obtain raw materials for their craft. They often used melted down silverware and coins, but they also used silver from Kongsberg, since silver was mined there. This silver was supposed to be used only for making coins and nothing else, but illegal trading was going on. Silver had a way of disappearing (maybe it was stolen). This was a well-known fact. It is said that the thieves were mostly miners who cooperated with the farmers. It is not unbelievable that Engelbret has used silver that was stolen, and that he has sold the articles he made, while on his travels, and that he bought new raw materials with this money. Some of Engelbret’s silver pieces are quite well-known, especially a silver cup with a double monogram on the lid, also many spoons. It has also been said about Engelbret that he learned about potatoes on one of his travels, and that he brought them back to his relatives in Upper Telemark. He was the “first person to bring potatoes” to Norway. However, according to Sigvald Hasund, potatoes were grown near Kragerø and in Arendal in the 1750’s. In 1758 20 potatoes were sent from Kragerø to jeweler Ingebrigt Resen in Mo. He divided these potatoes into several pieces each and planted them. He ended up with 35 liters of potatoes that year. In this way the potatoes were brought to one of Telemark’s most isolated settlements. It is still a misunderstanding by Hasund that Engelbret lived at Håtveit in Mo. His brother Rasmus Mandt lived there. What probably happened was that he sent or brought with him potatoes from Kragerø to his relatives in Upper Telemark. Whether he learned about potatoes in Kragerø or in a foreign country, we really don’t know.
Engelbret’s signature on Jens Lauerson’s testament in the spring of 1763 was the last sign of him in Kragerø. During the census of 1765 in Kragerø, the census taker first noted Engelbret Resen and wife, and then changed it to Engelbret Resen’s wife. He was not in Kragerø in 1765, but it wasn’t very long since he had been there. We can also pretty much figure out what happened to his wife who was left behind. In the connection with a supplemental tax for 1768 it was mentioned that E.R.’s wife lived in the house in Lang garden #64. She had a maid, and also had rented out part of the house to a married couple, and she pays 2 R. tax. But the next year Søren Jensen and wife live in the house. Anna Catharina is now a tenant in another house in town. She is not mentioned in the connection with any other taxes for the rest of that year, but it’s clear that she wasn’t doing so well financially. She wasn’t able to keep the house, and it was sold in 1771 to Ole Torgiusen and eventually ended up with Niels Mathiesen.
Engelbret was in good company when he signed Jens Lauerson’s testament in 1763 along with Marcus Barnholt. This Marcus Barnholt was a controller of weights and measures in Kragerø, but most importantly he was a very learned man who was very interested it literature and history. Around 1750 he wrote a history of Kragerø, (but not printed). He also collected art work and books. Besides, he and his wife, Cathrine Mortensdatter, were humanitarians. In 1739 they set up a foundation to help the poor people in town: the blind, the bedridden, and the unemployed, who were physically and mentally handicapped.
Ironically, during the last four years of her life, Anna Catharina received help from Marcus Barnholt’s foundation. She received 30 R. per year from the foundation. This went into effect in 1776 when Reisner’s widow was 74 years old. She was not only old, but in ill health, and she didn’t have friends to help her. Anna Catharina Reisner was buried March 16, 1780. She was then 77 years old. From her estate settlement, one can see that the people “at home” wondered what had happened to Engelbret. He is said to have left her years earlier without giving her any information about his whereabouts or what was going on. According to rumors he is said to be living in Denmark where he was married. He would therefore have no claim to any property left behind by Anna Catharina. This leads to the third theory: he wasn’t murdered in Germany, and he hadn’t fallen off his horse in England and left a large inheritance there- he had fled to Denmark and gotten remarried. This theory was mentioned by the mayor Kragerø, Neils Wamberg, as he took out an ad in the Berlingske Tidende to try to locate heirs to Anna Catharina’s inheritance (even though she didn’t leave much behind). No one showed up to claim anything, neither her husband nor her two children. Therefore, Wamberg took out an ad in the paper. In the Berlingske Tinende on the 13th of October 1781, we can read: “Here in town (Kragerø) some time ago an old woman namely Anna Catharina Reisner died. An attempt was made to distribute her belongings, but her last husband Engelbret Resen, who was a jeweler by profession, left her many years ago, and according to rumors, he should have spent some time in Jylland, Holsteen and Copenhagen. At this last place, he is said to have gotten married; therefore, he is unworthy of any inheritance. But there should be a son, namely Bendix Jahn Frankeland, who lived in England, and a daughter Maren Frankeland, who is said to have been married in Arendal.”
These rumors weren’t as far fetched after all. As a matter of fact, much of the information is true, at least as far as we are able to find out. Therefore, we can now try to fill in the missing pieces in Engelbret’s history. In the first half of the 1760’s he left Kragerø and Norway, most likely 1764 as his brothers write, or at least after April 1763 when he signed Jens Lauerson’s testament. We’re not sure that he planned to be gone for good at that time. If the years and dates in his brothers’ letters are correct, then we know that he wrote to them up until the mid 1760’s when the correspondence stopped. Maybe something happened all of a sudden that made him not want to keep in contact with those at home, maybe it was something that had been developing for a long time.
In the years from the mid 1760’s to 1773 when he got his citizenship and working papers in Copenhagen, he has most likely traveled a great deal in Denmark and Northern Germany, and maybe other places as well. He could have continued his jewelry business, but without settling down anywhere. At least we don’t know anything about him settling down anywhere and doing that. He is not registered as a citizen in any of the towns in Jylland where he according to Wamberg should have stayed for a while. Neither has anyone found trace of him in either Slesvig or Holsten. And when he decided to cut all ties with his family in Norway, it was probably wisest not to stay in any one place for long. Around 1700, there was some sort of passport control. But people who didn’t have enough money to pay for one did not have to show a passport. In principal people were registered as they passed the borders of countries and cities. However, no passport records were listed for Engelbret, so he can’t be traced this way.
After many years on the run, Engelbret must have felt safe. After all Copenhagen was a big city with approximately 100,000 inhabitants. He could finally settle down and become a citizen as he had been before. He wanted to be a citizen, since citizenship also made a man into much more than a worker. But he couldn’t use the Resen name, it was too well-known, and the same was true for the characteristic Mandt name. Michaelsen or Michelsen was a name he had a right to, and it was anonymous enough. He couldn’t very well be a jeweler in Copenhagen. One reason was that it was difficult to get into the guild, and what was worse was that he was well known as a jeweler in his earlier life. If anyone were to look for him in the capital, they would probably check the jewelry shops first. The safest thing for him to do was to belong to a large guild such as the bootlegger guild. Here he could be safe from people searching for him. A couple of other tricks such as making himself 6 years older than he actually was couldn’t hurt either. An of course, he kept quiet about his background and where he came from. Engelbret’s cover-up wasn’t something he did just for the fun of it. Leaving you wife and children was punishable by law. According to the law he could have been gone up to 7 years. “If one goes to war or on a business trip, and because of this must be gone for a long time, he should not be held in Pro Desertore, but he must be back with his wife within 7 years.” But Engelbret had been gone for more than 7 years. And what was worse- he had become engaged, and had gotten married, according to rumor. Therefore, he had broken the law and would be heavily punished. If it was a first offense, he would pay a heavy fine. If it happened again, he would lose everything he owned and be asked to leave the country. If it happened a third time, he would lose his head and his wife would be drowned.
In addition to the fact that what he had done was wrong according to the law, there was also a moral side. It would be too easy just to run off when you got tired of your wife. Truly there wasn’t much love, in the modern sense, in a marriage of convenience, such as was the case between Engelbret and Anna Catharina. But it was still a contract which couldn’t be broken just like that. In Kragerø it was easy for Engelbret to establish himself as a jeweler, because he could take over the workshop and customers of his teacher, as well as the wife. In turn he had a legal and moral duty to take care of the widow-as long as she needed it. Mayor Wamberg calls Engelbret’s disappearance unworthy, and he asks rhetorically if Engelbret would only dare to show his face in town when Anna Catharina’s will is being read. One can read between the lines that he is moralizing. Besides, it was a sin to break the holy bonds of matrimony. It was something that was clearly stated in the Bible, and something that every man living in the 1700’s knew and usually lived by even if they were somewhat free-spirited.
If we now total all we know, there is no doubt the same Engelbret Michaelsen who wrote Historical Descriptions of Upper Telemark is the same man as the jeweler and watchmaker Engelbret Resen or Reisner. The “Telemark Descriptions” alone are evidence of that. This work shows that the author has so much detailed knowledge of Upper Telemark it is difficult to believe that someone else could have written it, with such an unusual name as Engelbret, and that another person had such good instincts for the place. It even tells us about the little-known rock formation “Iyvre-Naase” by the small and remote place Skjelvik by Vinjevatnet. This is where the Mandt family settled when they moved to Upper Telemark. Who else would have written about the place other than someone who had lived there?
A few other examples from Historic Descriptions of Upper Telemark could be used; the knowledge of the potato, interest in mining and metals, the whole story concentrating on Vinje and Tokke where the Mandt family first settled, information explaining that jewelers used lingenberries instead of argol (tartar, cream of tartar) to boil silver in, the period that he referred to as “his time up there” that is 1730-1740’s. What Engelbret Michaelsen writes also fits Engelbret Resen like a glove. A comparison of the handwriting between Engelbret Reisner from 1743 and Engelbret Michaelsen from 1777 shows a difference, but then a period of 30 years had passed. The first sample is that of a young jeweler apprentice, the second is of a grown man who has lived a long life, who has read and learned a great deal. For 20 years he had been in the company of such men as Marcus Barnhold and Jens Lauerson. Besides, the signatures have a lot of similarities when you look at how the capital E and lower-case r are formed. When it comes to official papers, the receipt for citizenship is important. It shows that the author Engelbret Michaelsen was born close to Brevik in Norway-when Engelbret Ressen was the only possible candidate to be found in the church books. The estate settlement after Anna Catharina and the missing person’s ad taken out by Niels Wamberg in Berlinske Tidende solves the mystery of the disappearing jeweler and watchmaker Engelbret Resen who went underground in Copenhagen. The rumor was right. We get an explanation of why no one in Læderstrædet knows anything about Engelbret Michaelsen’s relatives, and also why Nicolaj Kirke didn’t show the right age on the death certificate. This was part of the cover-up that the runaway jeweler had planned. These documents along with other details in the puzzle, that is the German and English books left behind¸ and the information from Engelbret’s brothers that he knew English and German, show that we can safely say: the author and bootlegger from Læderstrædet in Copenhagen is identical with the jeweler and watchmaker from Brevik, Vinje, and Kragerø, Engelbret Michaelsen Resen Mandt.
A fairy tale from the 1700’s
When Ole and Rasmus Mandt wrote to the Berlingske Tidende in the 1780’s, they gave as we have seen, a portrait of their brother. He had among other things a brown hair piece, and he usually wore gray clothing. The gray farmer clothes he most likely left behind when he was in Copenhagen and other worldly places-there blue city clothing was more in vogue. As we remember, when he died, he left behind a violet dressy suit, a gray coat, a black vest and trousers–two pairs of black pants–one sealskin “cavay” and pants. He wore both gray and blue, so he could be dressed both for the city and the country. We can tell by the colors he wore how he adjusted to the different surroundings: to small towns on the coast, the settlements in Upper Telemark and the capital of Copenhagen- and surely other places in Denmark and Norway. He must have been a restless soul-a wanderer-an adventurer. Maybe it was the wish for gold and riches that drove him, or maybe the changes, the travels in themselves. The travel bug was definitely in the family. His father, Mikkel Mandt was on the go for many years we remember, and Engelbret’s stepson, Bendix Jahn Frankeland, went to England. Still one asks oneself why he left and didn’t return. There was seemingly nothing wrong with his business in Kragerø. He did well financially, and he was a respected citizen with many friends in town. He was trusted and had many official duties to perform. He also had many relatives in Upper Telemark, with whom he had pretty good contact. Why would he leave all this and go underground? The reason must be-except for what has already been discussed-personal. It must be the marriage with the 19-year older Anna Catharina that had gone sour, that made Engelbret cut all ties, both written and unwritten contacts?
Maybe a reminder of what Engelbret wrote in Historic Descriptions of Upper Telemark may shed some light on this. He tells about a man who saved his life by walking “Dårelaupet”, a small trail in the steep mountains-seven times. After he had walked this dangerous path all these times, he wanted to do it once more in honor of ‘all the beautiful girls.” But this time he fell to his death. If this is true,”then he must have been a great admirer of beautiful girls, or he wouldn’t have risked his life for them.”
It is true that he was probably not the only one ever to have done crazy things to please beautiful girls. Truly a lot of what he writes is quite personal. He didn’t only write these stories to make up for the fact that too many stories are written about foreign countries and not enough of one’s native country (this is what he wrote to the prince next in line to the throne), and he didn’t just write to inform. Mostly Historic Descriptions of Upper Telemark is a book about the longing for the country that was lost to him, of his childhood’s kingdom. It is written by a man who has broken all ties with his family, a man who is homesick-but who couldn’t return home. But he did know how to write, and this way he could relive his past and sort out his memories. As the feather pen drew neat curlicues on the paper, his thought drifted to Telemark and his childhood’s mountains and valleys. In many places in his writing we see that the story goes deeper than just offering factual information. It is more personal than that-for example in the last chapter when he tells about spring and summer in Upper Telemark “There is enough here of what pleases the soul and hides all that is uncomfortable. The leaves that play on the trees, this is pleasing to the eyes, and the cook wind is so comfortable.”
The Mandt family was far from the only people who did a lot of traveling back in the 1700’s. It seems to be an impression among people that Norway and especially smaller settlements such as those in Upper Telemark were isolated from the rest of the world until almost 1800. This is not so. People traveled, and not only officials and students who wanted to study at the university in the capital. Farmers left to become soldiers and seamen-many left just to get new impressions of life, but always with the knowledge that they would return. There were quite a few men by such names as Halvor or Torkjell living in Copenhagen during Engelbret’s time. We find this information in the church books. One group of people always on the go was just the kind of group that Engelbret belonged to, the skilled workers. Many of these people came from Germany to the countries up north, usually stopping off in Denmark first. Even if people didn’t travel far, they could still have good contact with other countries. People returned home and talked about their experiences. Those who were away, wrote letters-and the contents of the letters were known by, many. People also read the papers. In Upper Telemark, Engelbret’s brothers subscribed to Berlingske Tidende. In it they could read about politics, about laws decided upon by the King, reports on accidents and bad weather in Denmark and Norway, about goods and property for sale and about people who were gone or reported missing. The world was perhaps smaller around 1700, and Engelbret could hide in Copenhagen and Denmark–that wouldn’t be possible today. But he wasn’t able to completely hide even there. He had been seen-possibly by seamen, possibly by other skilled workers, and from what he wrote we can see that he has talked to people from home. Ole and Rasmus Mandt had probably read Niels Wamberg’s ad, but they did not believe the rumors that he should have settled down in Copenhagen under another name. On the contrary, they family has passed on the tradition that Engelbret probably lost his life in Germany or England-not because it was more believable, but because it was not such a heavy burden to bear as it would have been connected to the rumor that he had fled. In Kragerø, there was yet another tradition-one that Wamberg builds on in his missing person’s ad. But there was no family that could keep the tradition alive.
Engelbret deceived his wife when he left her. What must he have thought and felt when he read that she had died, and he was a wanted man? Did he feel shame or regret? Did he want undone that which he had done? Did he fantasize about returning to Kragerø, to Upper Telemark? Or did he just shrug his shoulders? In any case, the fate caught up with him-he died just a year after Anna Catharina.
He was a talented man. He was, according to what the experts in the field of silver jewelry design say, a gifted silversmith. He was aware of and interested in farming. We can reach this conclusion just from the fact that he introduced potatoes to Upper Telemark. “The Telemark Story” is a witness to the same: “a quick mind and practical thinking-an understanding that knowledge leads to progress.” Besides, he could write, better than most people. Therefore there is good reason to agree with an appeal that Olav L Mandt quoted from a letter he received from the parish priest and local historian Olaf Olafsen in Ullensvang, and that accompanies this edition of Historical Descriptions of Upper Telemark: “It would be interesting to examine more closely the life of this man, who no doubt was quite an extraordinary person for his time.”
K.M. postscript:
I now feel I am forced to try to tell you a little about Norway’s population. I have the impression that many of you Americans think that there are only ordinary people and trolls in this country. That is not the case. There are several other beings, more or less intelligent and more or less visible. I’ll try to tell you a little about some of them.
Trolls are usually evil, but luckily not very intelligent. They are huge, and sometimes, when angry, they are in the habit of throwing big rocks at each other or at people. They live in (inside) the mountains. They are great collectors and love everything glittering, especially silver. They are usually very clumsy and I have never met anyone of them who was able to make something beautiful, for example silver. So, I am afraid all silver in their treasuries must have been stolen or robbed.
Huldrefolkdt or tussefokdet or underjordiske (the netherworld people) or haugfolket (the hill folk) -pet child gets many names. They look like other people, and they are very attractive. The female hulder unfortunately have a cow tail and that is of course a handicap when competing with an ordinary girl. But it she succeeds in hiding her tail until she has been married in the church, it disappears and she will be a first-class wife. And in this or other ways the huldresølv came in the hands of men. Huldresølvet was finer than normal silver work, and “it could not be copies or repaired by men.” (As a matter of fact, it was very old silver, mostly from the Middle Ages and the technique was forgotten or unknown in the rural district.)