Ravnkil­de

About Ravnkil­de

Ravnkil­de (‘The Raven Spring’) is a so-cal­led spring fen or marsh spring, cha­ra­cte­rized by water wel­ling up through the gro­und and cre­at­ing a wet and lush area with cus­hions of moss and a wealth of rare plant spe­cies, and water with a con­stant tem­pe­ra­tu­re of approxi­ma­te­ly 7 degre­es Cel­si­us, dis­ch­ar­ging about 85 litres of water per second.

The famous witch of Rold Forest, Dan­nie Dru­e­hyld, has said that she often col­lected her spring water here and used it for her wit­ch’s reme­di­es, and regar­ded the water, like the River Jor­dan and the Gan­ges, as sacred. Over time, Ravnkil­de has had many fun­ctions, inclu­ding as a hea­ling spring and a fer­ti­li­ty spring. If one bat­hed in the spring by moon­light, one would con­cei­ve a child (alt­hough, accor­ding to Dan­nie Dru­e­hyld, this also requi­red a litt­le par­ti­ci­pa­tion from a male spe­ci­men). Its water has been regar­ded as hea­ling, and one must say that the expe­ri­en­ce of the spring itself is pure spi­ri­tu­al wel­l­ness. It has been home to val­ra­vens (pos­sibly giving rise to the name), and to male water spi­rits (nøk­ker) and nymp­hs, which have inspi­red musi­ci­ans to com­po­se through the spring’s delight­ful babbling.

Get­ting the­re

From the car park on Rebild­vej, fol­low the path to the right. Along the way, you pass the poa­cher Lars Kjær’s hou­se and walk along the gra­vel road with the heath landsca­pe of the Rebild Hills on your right and the mag­ni­fi­cent Grav­lev River Val­ley with the resto­red Grav­lev Lake on your left. On warm days, you can often sen­se the pre­sen­ce of the spring through a cool­ness in the air, even from a con­si­de­rab­le distan­ce. When you reach the spring, a unique type of natu­re opens up, whe­re beech tre­es sur­ro­und the spring, who­se sour­ce rea­ches all the way up to the bank whe­re the forest begins. A seri­es of step­ping sto­nes provi­des access to the flowing water, and here you may safe­ly take your water bott­le and fill it, or drink direct­ly from the spring’s, accor­ding to tra­di­tion, hea­ling water. Howe­ver, you must not step on the vege­ta­tion of the spring itself.

If you con­ti­nue from Ravnkil­de along the road to the north, you can visit ano­t­her spring, Lil­le Blåkil­de (‘Litt­le Blue Spring’), which, despi­te its name, is more whi­te than blue becau­se of the lar­ge quan­ti­ties of lime it car­ri­es from the under­gro­und, and even lar­ger than both Ravnkil­de and Sto­re Blåkil­de (‘Gre­a­ter Blue Spring’), with its 150 litres of water per second. From here, the spring con­tri­bu­tes to the gre­at Lin­den­borg River, which has its out­let in the Lim­fjord.

Kil­der

• Hel­ge Qvi­stor­ff — Min ynd­lings­tur i Rold Skov (Jysk Lokal­hi­sto­risk For­lag, 1999)
• Rebild­por­ten