Trolle Ljungby Slott, Manor House and the Trolls

Kristianstad Municipality, after visiting Ystad.

Castles and manor houses:  Pick and choose. No way to see them all. See this site for a fine showing like a gallery, of the great castles, at ://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1061341/

1. Trolle Ljungby or Trolle Ljunghy Slott. This is a gem -- a Renaissance manor house.  Its oldest parts date from 1525,

Trolle Ljungby Slott, Sweden (Manor House)

The name: There was an influential family named Trolle, see their burial chapel in Roskilde, Denmark.  Is the same family?

This castle comes with tales of the horn and pipe kept here.  Visit here and learn wonders.

Down the road is a troll stone, a huge boulder right next to a building by the road that suddenly is just there, but in a traffic area -- hard to stop.  This fits with the old tale of the horn and pipe kept at the castle-manor house here.

The horn and pipe were supposedly stolen from the trolls who lived at the stone, but the trolls was not to be found and the horn and pipe were not on display when we were there.  See ://www.travelgatesweden.se/2006/05/26/hunting-the-troll-stone/

See the horn and pipe illustrated at ://nordicculturespot.blogspot.com/2009/09/ljungby-horn-and-pipe.html/ --  a gilded cornucopia-type drinking horn, with little foot to set it down.

Here is the tale:  a paltry summation but the story must live on.  The image of the golden horn also recurs in museums and castles in Sweden, so get acquainted here.

• Bring me news of the revelry down the road, said the lovely Lady Cissela of the castle. So off one young swain went, and found trolls, by and under the stone, and gold, and revelry. Go ahead, said a troll lady to one young man in the tale, drink first from the horn and blow three times on the pipe, and whispered something. But the young man tossed the horn's contents over his shoulder and took off with the horn and the pipe, both. The trolls pursued, and asked the lovely Cissela lady in the castle to see that the articles were returned and then all would prosper; or bad things would happen, and sure enough the young man and his horse were dead in three days. But where the horn? Fast forward to 1645 and the horn was causing such disturbance that its owner decided to return it as had been asked, but return it to the castle, not the trolls.Time passed, a priest came into possession of it, and then others; trolls requested return, there were sightings and descriptions of the troll folk, and finally this story was written down in 1692. Hear and believe.

2.  Navigating issues.  The DK travel series has usually been helpful, but less so in Sweden. The tour guide includes tantalizing read-bitess to lure us off the road, but not enough direction for that country where to go. At least include a GPS street number or other address.

Sweden does not help.  It is as though they do not expect tourists, so skip the signs.  Motorways gloss right by. Get off the motorway, and have no idea where to go. Other countries have little signs. Not here.

3.  The lost castle.  For example, Backaskog Slott, or Backaskog Castle. There is an area of that name, but the castle itself is substantially north of that, and on an isthmus, and no way to get there because it is not on the maps we had.  Go into a supermarket and get an idea, but they, too, sent us to the township.