Den gömda kyrkklockan : en studie om en kyrkklockas sägen

Sammanfattning: There is a legend about a church on the island of Orust in the small village of Tegneby. The legend tells a story about a hidden church bell in the mysterious hole in the creek. “During a war long time ago, people were afraid that the King Gustav Vasa would take their church bell to use as material for cannons. So the people in Tegneby hid their beloved church bell in a hole in the creek below the church and there it remained for seven years”  (main legend) The aim of this paper was to find out if this legend still is alive in the area of Tegneby. Another aim was to understand what had caused the folk legend to appear and also if there were other places in the south west of Sweden that had corresponding legends.  There was a big difference in the knowledge of the legend between the informants that I intervjued according to age. The older informants knew about the story and also had heard more versions of the legend. The younger informants were not as enlightened about the legend of the sunken/hidden church bell. Were there similar legends in the south west of Sweden? Yes, there was as many as 397 of them, they were very much alike the main legend about Tegnebys sunken church bell. What could have caused this legend? The answer is this that there is no perfect right answer. What probably caused the legend to appear was confiscation of church bells that took place during the15-1600 hundreds in Sweden and in Denmark. People got afraid that their church bell was going to be taken from them.