Out in the back of beyond 09:49 Jan 25, 2011
Mols is in fact a peninsula, right out in the country and with few asphalted roads. This winter it has been more or less inaccessible under a thick layer of snow. If you envisage the map of Jutland as a man with a pointed cap, facing east, then the Skaw is the tip of his cap to the north, and Mols is the drip on the end of his nose, as I have heard it expressed!!! Mols is also the setting for a series of fables, in which the inhabitants, the Molbos, come up with brilliant solutions to their problems, which turn out, of course, to be... not so brilliant after all. Skagen, or the Skaw, is the northernost tip of Jutland, and was traditionally about as far away as one could get from city life. It was the home of fishers and struggling farmers, especially after drifting sand covered a lot of good agricultural land and even buried buildings - there is still a church and a lighthouse at Ruberg Knude, where it is possible to see the results. It became a holiday resort, and the Skaw artists were especially thrilled with the light over the sea, contrasting the beauty and wildness of nature and the joy and harshness of life there. |