Weekend on Mors island. The legends of Feggeklit

Sunday morning was sunny again; Flemming played with the dogs. The dogs on the Agerdal farm were well-trained. They never barked, were kind to guests, followed all commands, and were alert.

We began our sightseeing day on the island from driving to the tractor museum.

Hans Larsen, the owner and founder of the museum, began collecting rare tractors for 43 years ago. The exhibition opened on the 23rd October 1980, exactly 40 years ago on the time of publishing this blogpost! Happy anniversary! It is the oldest tractor museum in Denmark.

Besides Norway, Sweden, and Finland, museum has also imported tractors from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Canada and USA, the GDR, Poland, Czech Republic, whereby the collection has become quite unique.

More than 120 different tractors of approx. 76 brands are on display, manufactured from 1917 till 1960.

The exhibition was very informative. One could read about every single tractor’s story, often complemented by pictures or old newspapers articles. Many fun facts, anecdotes, and interesting things. The story of Marshall Plan in Denmark was not only told in pictures, but also in real tractors. Hans was also kind to answer all our questions. If you like tractors, it is a must-visit place.

Another sight we wanted to see on Mors was Feggeklit. It was very impressive from air, when we flew over it on our sunset tour last Friday. And we saw some interesting information about a Hamlet-legend connected to Feggeklit when we waited for a ferry in Feggesund harbour last Saturday. So now we wanted to experience this spot.

According to another legend, Feggeklit was created when a witch from Dybhav was going to visit a family in Thy. She filled her kitchen apron with soil, and wanted to throw it into the water in order to walk over without getting wet shoes. But the apron broke, and therefore a cliff now rises abruptly over the Limfjord – the Feggeklit.

Feggeklit is a 25 metres high molar clay hill. On its eastern side, it is a steep cliff. 146 layers of clay and volcanic ash can be counted there. In 1916, a first Danish molar clay brickworks factory was built on that side. During the WWII, a formation of Canadian planes flew over the fjord. The aircraft were on their way home from an unsuccessful mission towards the airport in Aalborg. They threw four light bombs over the factory. Fortunately, no one was injured. The crews were sure it was the slaughterhouse in Thisted on the other side of the fjord that was the real target. The bombing was supposed to prevent the slaughterhouse from supplying meat to the Nazi troops.

The pilots often bombed blindly. The task was difficult because the country was darkened, and the crews were equipped with inaccurate maps and lacked information about buildings and facilities.

The western side of Feggeklit is grassy, and one can clearly see the many different layers of landslides. The whole area is protected by law; it is a cultural heritage of Denmark.

We climbed up the steep stairway, and in the middle of it another legend emerged. The story goes, this area was ruled by a King named Fegge who had his castle on top of Feggeklit. He shared the kingdom with his brother, Hovendil. Hovendil was married to the beautiful Geruth, and together they had the son, Hamlet. The Kingdom was too small for the two Kings, and they ruled alternately for three years at a time. The one who did not rule on land, went to sea as a pirate and stayed away for 3 years. Whilst Hovendil was away on his three-year pirating expedition, King Fegge fell in love with Geruth. Upon return of Hovendil, Fegge killed him and persuaded Geruth to marry him instead. After the killing of his father, Hamlet feared for his own life, and pretended to be insane. King Fegge didn’t believe him, and sent Hamlet away to stay with an uncle in England. Hamlet, however, returned to Mors short time after and claimed his revenge. He raised his sword and killed Fegge.

This legend dates back to the 5th century, and was written down by a historian called Saxo in the 12th century. About 400 years later Shakespeare read the story and adopted it for his play by the name “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”, but with a significant change: his play takes place in Kronborg Castle on Zealand, and not in Feggeklit.

The tomb of King Fegge is still there. On top of it there is big rock with an inscription:

After Feggeklit, Flemming and I wanted to go for lunch. Our original plan was to drive to the Oyster Bar in Glyngøre, but unfortunately it was closed on Sundays. There was another good option, and nearby – Feggesund Inn. We had a stroll by the water, before going there.

The Feggesund Inn has existed around 350 years, since 1677 and also has a rich historical background. A merchant from the area Peder Christian Pedersen, also called “Pæ Kresten”, bought the Feggesund Inn in 1910. Two of his children – Inger and Jakob – took over the Inn after their father passed away in 1952. They run the Inn till their own end. Both Inger and Jakob were born in the Inn, and they died there. Jakob was a kind of an icon in the area, known for his special sense of humour. Many anecdotes are still circulating about him. One of them is that once he was scratching his bottom in front of a very fine company in the Inn, waiting for them to go through the menu. One of the ladies asked “Do you have haemorrhoids?” “If they are on the menu, yes” – answered Jakob.

Today, a 3rd generations of Pæ Kresten is running the business. The specialty of the Inn is fried eel. Flemming loves this dish, and we ordered for 2 persons, with a salad on the side:

To give you an idea of how popular this dish is: around 6 tons of eel is served in the Feggesund Inn every year. The eels are delivered from the local farm daily.

After lunch we went to the beach, and Flemming collected some oyster shells for me:

Back to the airfield, and a photo tour over the Agerdal B&B where we stayed – we promised Kirsten and Jan to take some aerial photos of their 18th century property: