The Con­ra­di­ne­s­lyst Cross

About the cross

The Con­ra­di­ne­s­lyst Cross, also known as the Skel­leb­jerg Cross, is an approxi­ma­te­ly 1.5 x 1.3 metre lar­ge oak cross that stands on the roadsi­de of Sor­ø­vej, betwe­en Skel­leb­jerg and Ruds Ved­by. It is known with certain­ty that the­re has been a cross in the area sin­ce the mid­dle of the 18th cen­tury, most like­ly also befo­re, and alt­hough it has been renewed seve­ral times over the years, it has retai­ned the same sha­pe and dimen­sions at least sin­ce 1842. In more recent times, the cross has beco­me asso­ci­a­ted with the near­by Con­ra­di­ne­s­lyst esta­te, alt­hough it is actu­al­ly ano­t­her local esta­te, Ved­by­gård, who main­tains and makes sure to repla­ce it when it is nee­ded. Eve­ry time it is repla­ced, a spl­in­ter from the old cross is inser­ted into it, assuring that a certain con­stant remains over time.

At first glan­ce, the cross might well fall into the old tra­di­tion of Cat­ho­lic road cros­ses. Howe­ver, the­re are a num­ber of legends atta­ched to it which point to a dif­fe­rent, and more myste­rious, ori­gin.

Legends sur­ro­un­ding the cross

The most com­mon legend asso­ci­a­ted with the Con­ra­di­ne­s­lyst Cross says it was erected in memory of a young girl who once died at the spot. The­re are seve­ral vari­a­tions of the legend, but most men­tion a maid — eit­her from Ved­by­gård or Con­ra­di­ne­s­lyst — who on her way home from a cele­bra­tion in the area was assaul­ted and kil­led by one or more men, who sub­sequent­ly buri­ed or in other ways dis­po­sed of her cor­p­se. The girl was accom­pa­nied by her litt­le dog who esca­ped and later hel­ped uncover the mur­der and expo­se the kil­lers. The­re is also a somewhat less com­mon “addi­tio­nal legend” that the young girl haun­ted the area after her death, there­fo­re having to be dealt with by a local pri­est. In this legend the cross was rai­sed to make sure she stay­ed in the gro­und.

In addi­tion to the afore­men­tio­ned legends, the­re are also a num­ber of more iso­la­ted sto­ri­es about the cross, seve­ral of which men­tion stran­ge dogs. A local wor­k­man is said to have once pas­sed by the cross, when a dog jum­ped up on the shoul­ders of him and atta­ched itself. He tri­ed des­pe­ra­te­ly to get it off, but to no avail. The ani­mal beca­me heavi­er and heavi­er and even­tu­al­ly the man fain­ted, only to wake up much later. An even more inte­r­e­sting and well-docu­men­ted acco­unt in the same vein, invol­ves two bro­t­hers, both in their 30’s, who one sum­mer eve­ning in 1905 were out bicycling in the area. As they appro­a­ched the Con­ra­di­ne­s­lyst Cross, they saw what loo­k­ed like a lar­ge dog stan­ding out in the mid­dle of the road, its eyes glowing from the reflection of the bicyc­le lights. They both figu­red the ani­mal would get sca­red and run away when they got clo­ser, but inste­ad somet­hing very stran­ge hap­pe­ned. Sud­den­ly the “dog” let out a moan and almost see­med to melt into some kind of a mass, cove­ring the who­le road. As the bro­t­hers tri­ed to ride over it, their bikes got so stuck that it was almost impos­sib­le to advan­ce furt­her. They descri­bed it as if a heavy weight was sud­den­ly pla­ced over them. Only after gre­at effort could they final­ly bre­ak away and cyc­le at a nor­mal pace again. When they got home, the bikes were thor­oug­hly exa­mi­ned for rem­nants of the sti­cky mate­ri­al, but never found so much as a tra­ce of it.

Com­men­tary

Legends about young girls — espe­ci­al­ly vir­gins — who are mur­de­red by rob­bers, can be found in most parts of Den­mark. This type of legend is also reflected in popu­lar fairy tales such as Litt­le Red Riding Hood. This does not rule out a real cri­me as being the basis of the legends, of cour­se. At the same time, one sen­ses that somet­hing dee­per must be behind it. The oldest ver­sion of the legend of the mur­de­red girl we know can be found in the second volu­me of Erich Pon­top­pi­dan’s Danish Atlas, from 1764. Histo­ri­ans have not yet suc­ce­e­ded in tra­cing thin­gs furt­her back.

That a dog pops up in so many of the legends and sto­ri­es may also have a core of truth to it. May­be they are the result of enco­un­ters with wild dogs in the area. Den­mark also has a certain folk tra­di­tion about super­na­tu­ral bla­ck dogs, albeit to a les­ser extent than f.x. Eng­land. Even the story of the “mel­ting” dog may well be lin­ked to this tra­di­tion, though it unde­ni­ably takes thin­gs a step furt­her into the realm of the bizar­re. Here, howe­ver, it must be added that the­re are seve­ral well-docu­men­ted, Danish cases about, for examp­le, hor­se-drawn car­ri­a­ges, and later cars that have come to a stands­till under stran­ge circum­stan­ces. So it also can some­how be seen to fit into this cate­gory.

Regar­ding the legend that the cross was ori­gi­nal­ly erected by a pri­est to pre­vent a haun­ting, this is also not enti­re­ly unli­ke­ly. The­re is a strong tra­di­tion of bin­ding rest­less spi­rits in this par­ti­cu­lar area of West Zealand, that has sur­vi­ved lon­ger than on the rest of the island. Ved­by­gård even have their own “bin­ding pole”, that still stands on the pre­mi­ses to this day, ori­gi­nal­ly rai­sed to keep an evil revenant in the gro­und. It must not be rem­o­ved or else the haun­ting will start over again and mis­fortu­ne will stri­ke the resi­dents.

As is also the case with Ved­by­gård’s bin­ding pole: It is certain that up until rela­ti­ve­ly recent­ly, the­re have been fears among locals about what would hap­pen if the cross was har­med or rem­o­ved. As we see in cases with the Slud­strup /Skørpinge Cros­ses, for examp­le, serious acci­dents such as fires and even out­bre­aks of ani­mal disea­se — acci­den­tal­ly timed or not — may have hel­ped to strengt­hen this belief. This would also explain why the tra­di­tion of the cross has been main­tai­ned so thor­oug­hly right up to the pre­sent day.

Select sour­ces

• Gorm Ben­zon — Spø­gel­ser og Sagn fra Dan­ske Slot­te og Her­re­går­de, Bind 2
• Jør­gen Mogen­sen — Langs Lan­de­vej 255, Bind 11
• J. S. Møl­ler — Fester og høj­ti­der i gam­le Dage
• Svend C. Dahl — Sagn og Gode For­tæl­lin­ger fra Syds­sjæl­land