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DONATORER 2012
by Kulturen
and in 2010 the Danish government suggested that the state forests of Northern Sj~lland should be inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. men belonging to any social group. What all women had in common was that they were always under some man's authority. They had to try in various ways to pursue their interests and satisfy their needs within the socially accepted framework.
GUNILLA GARDELIN
Female Hunting Motifs
In the upper classes hunting could be regarded as a leisure pursuit that also provided food for the household. Among royals and aristocrats hunting was a way to entertain guests, and sometimes the hunts could develop into lavish spectacles. In Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe the role of peasant women in hunting seems to have been limited to helping to bring home the prey and cook the meat. The women of the aristocracy had a more varied role in hunting. The sources hint indirectly that fishing and hunting for small game was more accepted for women than hunting for big game. The norms in society can sometimes conceal women's participation because they are omitted from the sources. It is difficult to speak of any real equality in hunting for wo-
KARIN SCHÖNBERG
Traces of Falconry in Scandinavia
Two small sculpted knife shafts from the Middle Ages, found in Lund, are evidence of participation in the European hawking culture. Both figures show falconers. One of them is probably a woman. In the mid fourteenth century, when the knife was made, it was not unusual to find pictures of women hunting with falcons. In Lund Cathedral there is a choir stall with a relief of a woman with a falcon. In the Middle Ages falconry developed into a pastime for the upper class in Europe. The Danish king Canute the Holy is depicted in his seal from 1086 on horseback, holding a gerfalcon. At this time a picture of a man with a falcon in his hand was synonymous with a high-ranking person. Among the most important evidence for the existence of falconry in Sweden is a find of skeletons of birds of prey from the Late I ron Age. In two of the
