Talk:Lund Cathedral
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[edit] Legend of Lund Cathedral, Finn the Giant and St Lawrence
I came across this legend about the building of Lund Cathedral:
A Finnegans Wake Gazetteer: "LUND. City, SW Swed[en]. The mythological builder of L[und] Cath[edral] was the giant, Finn MacCool, at the request of St Lawrence. If the saint did not guess the builder's name by the time the ch[urch] was built, Finn would get his eyes. Lawrence guessed it as the last stone was put in place."
Third Census of Finnegans Wake: "Lund — the cathedral in Lund was built by Finn MacCool (q.v.) at the request of St Laurence. If the saint did not guess Finn's name by the time the church was built, Finn would get the saint's eyes. As the last brick was put in place, St Laurence guessed right. Finn tried to pull the church down, but was changed into a stone (q.v.) and stands there to this day."
I am guessing that the Finn in this legend is a Norse Finn and is not actually the Irish mythical figure Finn MacCool.
The legend is real. As a resident of Lund I can confirm this. I have never in my life heard of him having a last name, however. 83.254.36.208 07:50, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
Yes, this is a locally well-known legend that's been around for hundreds of years - in 1818 Esaias Tegnér, a classic of Swedish romantic poetry (and a resident of Lund, like me) wrote a cute ballad that tells the story and finishes on the ironic twist that as Finn turned to stone, he uttered a spell that the church would never be 100% finished: this is why the cathedral will always be under repair or rebuilding in some corner! Tegnér couldn't know how right he would be; in his day the big restorations of the late 19th century had not yet got under way. But it's true that the building and its environments are still the subject of steady minor repairs or discussions on future repair or adaptation.Strausszek 13.52 CET 06 April 2008
