Karine Alvsdatter gives away Bugården in Sande
DN 1/1086 · 28 Decbr. 1536 · Grefsheim
What the letter says
Seven men, among them the squire Torstein Kusse and two canons, announce that they were at Grefsheim in Hedmarken on Christmas Day 1536. There they heard the maiden (jomfru) Karine Alvsdatter give her kinswoman fru Karine Olavsdatter and her husband Ivar Jensson of Hovin the farm Bugården in Sande in Vestfold in perpetual ownership. The farm yielded four løp of butter in annual land rent. The witnesses stress that Ivar and his wife had not asked for the farm, and that Karine gave it of her own free will.
The letter in modern English
We, Torstein Kusse, squire, of Samsal, Sir Håkon, canon at the cathedral in Hamar, Sir Peder Bartelsson, canon at St Mary's Church in Oslo, Peder Håkonsson, Jørgen the barber-surgeon, Otte Ragn [uncertain reading] and Orm, make known and declare to all that we, together with several other good people, were at Grefsheim [«lingimdis», probably "lying", uncertain reading] in Hedmarken on Christmas Day in the year of our Lord 1536. There we saw and heard that the honourable and well-born man Ivar Jensson of Hovin came to Grefsheim with his wife, fru Karine Olavsdatter, on the same day and at the same hour, after the two messages they had received from Grefsheim that same day. It is truly known to us all that we then heard the honourable and well-born maiden, the maiden Karine Alvsdatter, give her dear kinswoman fru Karine Olavsdatter in perpetual ownership, for fru Karine and her heirs, a farm she owned in Vestfold in Sande parish. It is called Bugården and yields in annual land rent four løp of butter [løp, a measure of butter], with everything that rightly belongs to it, woodland, field and fishing waters, with nothing excepted. We heard and saw then that the maiden Karine gave her dear kinswoman this farm because of the good love and kinship they had for each other. Nor did we hear in any way that Ivar or his wife asked for the farm.
Original text
Wii efftherscre(ff)næ Thosthen Kwssæ wæbner till Samsoll hærre Hoghen canicth tiil Hammers domkirckæ her Pædher Bartelsson canicth tiil Marie kirckæ y Osloff Pædher Hoghensson Iørghen basskære Otthæ Raghen och Orm gyøræ vittherlicth och kændes ffor allæ ath vy meth flære godhæ folck voræ paa Gryffsym *lingimdis paa Hæddmarckæn jullæ dagh anno domini m d xxx vio.
Background
Karine Alvsdatter was the daughter of Alv Knutsson and Magnhild Oddsdatter and lived unmarried at Grefsheim in Nes in Hedmarken. In 1533 the Council of the Realm meeting at Bud had awarded her Giske, and she was one of the last heirs of Alv Knutsson. The letter was written only weeks before she died, for in February 1537 she is referred to as dead (DN 22/359). That Ivar and Karine Olavsdatter were fetched by two messengers on the same day suggests urgency, probably because the maiden Karine was ill. The witnesses lay great weight on the gift being voluntary, and this mattered because Karine's heirs could have contested a gift made on her deathbed. Frenke means kinswoman, and the letter does not say how the two Karines were related. Ivar Jensson appears again the following year as Truid Ulfstand's man at Grefsheim when Karine's inheritance was to be secured (DN 2/1124).
People: Karine Alvsdatter