Råda Bot, Alstra Ro (To Salve, To Shield)

First edition of Råda Bot, Alstra Ro (To salve, To Shield) by Jessica Lindgren-Wu, First impression. Medium format hardback in new condition.

About

“I moved from London to Gotland, Sweden in 2019. My grandmother was 93 years old and she and I started going on regular car outings. She liked it best when I drove on old roads through the parishes.

On a cold winter’s day, when we passed the cross erected in the forest grove on the road between Endre and Dalhem, my grandmother told me about the last execution that took place there in 1863. ‘Many people had come to watch the spectacle.’ One of them was her grandmother. The man who was beheaded was a murderer, and ‘wise women’ collected his blood in vessels they had brought with them. Blood from a murderer was considered to have great powers and magical properties.

After several car journeys and many conversations, I also began to visit the National Archives regularly and read everything I could find about Gotland folklore and its healing and protective rituals. How might these cures, remedies, rituals and traditions have been like?

The COVID-19 pandemic came and went. It showed how little we actually know about disease and viruses. New and closer wars broke out and showed how unprotected we actually are. I looked further into folklore and found inspiration.”