Mullbänk – From medieval grass-seats to earth closets
In this article, I have tried to tell the history of a concept, from the Middle Ages until today. I have concentrated on the word itself and how its meaning have changed over time. When I first started to approach the history of the concept I could never imagine that it would lead me into so many different side-tracks. The significations of the word appeared to show close relationships and connections and I started to understand how the meaning of the word gradually had transformed over the years.
The primary meaning of the word mullbänk is a wall of earth; an isolating infill of earth in crofter’s holdings and in unprosperous farmhouses in Sweden (17th–20th century). The interior earth walls which existed along the walls inside the building where also used as seats. The exterior earth walls became the place for plants especially medical, aromatic and ornamental plants. These exterior earth walls where probably the link to mullbänk, meaning flowerbed (17th–20th century). Mullbänk as synonym for hot-bed exists also, but not very frequently.
I claim that even grass-seat is a synonym for mullbänk (14th–18th century). In medieval paintings you often see small gardens lying behind closed walls of monasteries and knights’ castles. Sometimes there are grass-seats as well as high flowerbeds, made of bricks or wood, often as a part of the wall.
Grave is another meaning of the concept, not so far from a heap or a wall of earth (19th century).
A pinch of snuff is also an image which resembles to a very small heap of earth, and therefore ”snuff-quid” is a common signification of mullbänk (19th–20th century).
The seventh and the most recent meaning of the concept which have been found is the earth-closet. The purpose of the construction is to take care of, and utilize the mouldering process of excrements. Here the excrements transform into soil which is also partly the purpose of a hot-bed. At the same time the earth closet is used as a seat – with a very special purpose, of course – a seat to sit on, just like the grass-seat and the seat of wood inside the cottage.
In other words it is earth in different kinds of heaps or walls, in their imaginative resemblances, which is the essential thing in the concept. The varying meanings reflect different epochs and exemplify how people used earth: To sit on, to prevent cold air getting into houses, to plant in and let waste products transform into nutrient soil. At the same time, the meanings reflect our relations to earth. Our mixed feelings for it; fine mould for cultivating the most delicious vegetables in, or an incinerate residue of nature.
