The Bullroarer Atlas

LUND2020-004 - ethnographic attestation

Norwegian fishermen

Norway - Norwegian fjords - Northern Europe

Weather / fertility magic

A Norwegian folk hurre, a pine slat with cord wound in bands along the shaft and tied through the single hole at one end; Norwegian fjord...
Representative image. A Norwegian folk hurre, a pine slat with cord wound in bands along the shaft and tied through the single hole at one end; Norwegian fjord fishermen swung instruments like this both to ward off dangerous winds and to signal a fishing crew together, though this is not the specific piece Lund describes. Norsk Folkemuseum, Oslo (NF.1948-1203) — via DigitaltMuseum CC BY-SA Image source

Source term: traditional bullroarers

Norwegian fishermen swung traditional bullroarers as a magical guard against the dangerous winds of the fjords, and used the same instrument's carrying sound to call the local fishing team together. The detail comes from the music archaeologist Cajsa S. Lund, who sets it beside other living Scandinavian uses: in Scania, Sweden, as late as the 1940s, young men attracted bats with bullroarers, then killed, dried, and pulverized the animals to brew an aphrodisiac potion. Lund names no particular fjord community and cites no underlying ethnographic record, so the Norwegian fishermen stand here as a regional report rather than a single documented rite.

In Norway fishermen used traditional bullroarers as a magical protection against dangerous winds in the fjords but also as a signal instrument for gathering the local team of fishermen.

Cajsa S. Lund, "The Bullroarer: A Global and Timeless Sound Instrument," in Music and Sounds in Ancient Europe (EMAP), p. 31.
Object
Lund reports Norwegian fishermen using traditional bullroarers both as magical protection against dangerous fjord winds and as signal instruments for gathering a local fishing team.
Function
Mixed magical weather-protection and signal use; tie goes to weather/subsistence magic in the public color coding.
Map confidence
low - Western Norway fjord regional anchor; Lund does not name a precise locality.
Source location
EMAP p. 31

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