Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1999, Blaðsíða 133
BRÓÐIR ORMSINS OG FISKAR SUM KONGAR
137
Anthropomorphism in traditional folk
biology is very common. We name for in-
stance the bee, which is responsible for the
reproduction in a bee community, the
queen bee (bidrottning in Swedish, bidron-
ning in Danish). The same is also true for
other social insects, such as termites, ants,
bumblebees and wasps. European elk (Al-
ces alces) is sometimes labelled King of the
Forest (skogens konung) in Sweden. Ac-
cording to old Teutonic folk belief, the bear
(■Ursus arctos) was regarded as the King of
the Animals, a view that is still kept in Eu-
ropean children’s literature. The lion (Felis
leo) is also referred to as the King of the
Animals in westem tradition (Møller-
Christensen and Jørgensen, 1952: 54).
Moreover, the human being has sometimes
been called the King of Animals (Djurens
konung) (Hasselquist, 1752:126). A king
of rats (ráttkung in Swedish, rottekonge in
Danish and Norwegian), larger than the
others and leader of a rat pack, is men-
tioned in Swedish literature as early as
1621 (Forsius, 1621: 334). It is also found
in more recent folk tradition (Wigstrom,
1898: 169). A rare phenomenon, although
well known in Scandinavian and German
folk traditions, is the so-called rat-kings
(.ráttkungar), consisting of a pack of house
rats (Rattus rattus) whose tails have be-
come inextricably intertwined (Jarring,
1984; Linnell, 1983). Among the insects,
luskungen (‘king of lice’), sometimes
called harmask or silverskred (army worms
in English), must be mentioned. It consists
of a long row of a kind of sciarid larvae and
is believed to forecast war or famine
(Harbe, 1950: 161).
Folklorist Richard Riegler (1936-37)
has, in an overview, showed that the con-
ception of certain animal species as kings
over others is widespread, not only in North
European folk traditions, but all over the
world. There seems to be a general tenden-
cy to project human social patterns, with hi-
erarchies and kinship systems, on the folk
taxonomy of the fauna.
Acknowledgement
This article is a contribution to our research project on
‘Man, Plants and Animals: Ethnobiology in Sweden/the
Nordic countries’. I am grateful to fil. mag. Osva Olsen,
Føroya Fomminnissavn in Tórshavn; Dr. Borge Petters-
son, Swedish Biodiversity Centre in Uppsala; Dr Pehr
H. Enckel, Department of Ecology, University of Lund;
and Dr Roberta Micallef, Department of African and
Asian Languages, Uppsala University, for critical read-
ing of the manuscript.
References
Manuscript sources
Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, Helsinki.
folklife records (SLS)
The Swedish Institute of Language and Folklore
Research, Uppsala
folklife records (ULMA)
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