The Scots have an item called a "spurtle." It is used to stir porridge because the starchy grains loosely flow around it as you stir. Any other utensil (such as a spoon) would tend to compact them into sticky masses. Perhaps your item serves a similar purpose, Frank.
Dunno but the way the grain is running it looks like a tube so my guess is it’s a funnel or folks can blow through it to make sounds. Mora makes some good Swiss knives but …again, dunno. Edit: Yup, I decided to cheat and I was right on one of my guesses but I’ll leave it for someone else to uh….play with.
It’s the musical instrument called a näverlur. It’s a kind of horn made of wood covered with birch bark. The word näverlur means literally bark (näver) horn (lur). This one has the name of the Swedish town Mora on it. A näverlur is usually longer than 20 inches. You may know that Mora is where 90 kilometer long Vasaloppet - Vasa cross country ski race which attracts over 15000 yes fifteen thousand competitors finishes. It traditionally takes place the first Sunday in March - Covid permitting. It’s the oldest and one of the most prestigious long distance ski races to win By the way the name of the town Mora is pronounced Moora rolling the r like the Scots do
@Bobby Cole You said that Mora make good Swiss knives. You’re getting Sweden and Switzerland mixed up - two different countries. In Switzerland they make the Swiss army knife. In Sweden the Mora knife company also makes knives. Swiss army knife Swedish Mora knife
No, I didn’t get them mixed up but I really did think that the Mora knives are Swiss. Swiss steel is and was well known for their knife steel especially in the arena of scalpels so I didn’t even equate Mora with Sweden. Alas though, I did look it up and yup, you’re right.
I also recently read that Sweden was the last Western nation to free their surfs/slaves after the Russians. Who would have thought that?
I’m not sure what you mean there @Don Alaska. Sweden abolished slavery in 1847 long before the USA By ”serfs” I assume you mean what was called the ”statar” system which existed in Sweden until 1945. ”Statare” were agricultural workers - usually whole families - on large farms who received a substantial amount of their pay ”stat” in kind from the farmer with whom they had signed a contract. These contracts, which were regulated by law usually ran for a year. During the last week in October they could leave the farm to seek employment elsewhere. So they were in effect only tied to one place for a one year period. The system died out as agriculture became more and more mechanised.
The author referred to them being similar to the serfs in Russia. He must have been referring to the Statare that you mentioned. I know nothing more than that. I just was surprised when I read that, as the serfs in Russia were , while not technically slaves, were like the villeins in much of medieval Europe.