Anne Rud writes about fru Inger and her daughters
DN 23/303 · 16 august 1532 · Månstorp (i Skåne)
What the letter says
Anne Rud writes from Månstorp in Scania on 16 August 1532 to her daughter Sofie Krummedike at Bergenhus and thanks her for fish and flock [wool] she has received. She answers the news that fru Inger and the good maidens with her have come back, and that fru Eline, the wife of Nils Lykke, is dead. She asks Sofie to get Eske Bille to come home and defend their estate, which has suffered damage of at least 1000 marks since Sofie's father died. She sends 2½ barrels of butter and will send yarn, and tells about Peder Bille, who is ill and lives with her, and about the other children.
The letter in modern English
Motherly, loving greeting first sent with our Lord. Dear daughter, I thank you lovingly and gladly for all the good you have always shown me, and especially for the fish and flock [wool] you have now sent me, which I will always gladly repay you as far as it is in my power. Dear daughter, you write that Eske, you and the children are well. God be praised for that. Likewise you should know that the children here are also well and nothing ails them. You write that fru Inger and the good maidens with her have come back, may God comfort them well in their adversity, and that fru Eline, Nils Lykke's wife, is now dead, God have mercy on her soul, and that he did not write to her. Nils will surely always get a wife again, but her children will never get a mother again. Dear daughter, you write that I have not written to you as often as you have written to me. You should know that I have had no letter from you since you wrote to me from Brunla, except two letters, one with Albrecht the ensign and the other which came from Lübeck, and now the last one I received with Anders the clerk. And you should know that I wrote to you and Eske about all matters with Baltzer and Per the clerk. I believe they have now reached you. I have heard that the good fellows lay a long time off Oslo and would gladly have been with Eske, but could not come. Why they could not come, I do not know.
Original text
Moderligh kierligh hilsen tilforn sendt met vor herre. Kiere datter tacker jeg tig kierligen och gierne for alt godt som du haffuer meg alltid beuist och serdelis for then fisk oc flock som du nu sende megh hues jeg vil altid gierne forskille met tig huilket som j myn mact er. Kiere datter szom du scriffuer at Eske du och børnen ere helbredhe. Gud des loffuit være. Tessligest maa thu vide at børnene ere och saa helbredhe her och skader inthet.
Background
Sofie Krummedike was married to Eske Bille, commander at Bergenhus, and was the daughter of Henrik Krummedike, who died in 1530. Fru Inger of Austrått belonged to the same circle of nobles on King Frederik's side, and her daughters were married to Vincens Lunge and Nils Lykke. Fru Eline was Inger's daughter, and the letter suggests that she died in 1532. That fru Inger and the maidens had «come back after their adversity» is probably linked to the war, when Christian II was in the country and the archbishop took men and goods from Inger. Anne Rud does not mention Giske or Inger's estate, and the damage she writes about concerns her own and Eske's farms in Denmark. The fish Sofie sent from Bergen was probably stockfish, the usual gift from Norway.
People: Ingerd Ottesdatter (fru Inger)