Birth of Rosemaling

   The emergence of Rosemaling has a lot to do, I believe, with pride of farm ownership. The rest of Europe was still under a feudal system where the land belonged to the King, Lords, and the Church. Norwegian farms were owned by the farmers themselves. In 1660 forty percent of the farms were farmer owned. In 1723 - 1730 even more land became farmer owned when the church owned lands were sold at auction.  If a farm stayed in the family for a sufficient length of time, special laws enacted during the Viking age came into effect. One of these laws allowed family members to redeem a family farm that has been sold.  These laws served to protect land ownership within the family. Consequently a farmer knew that improvements he made to the farm would benefit his descendants.  Perhaps he would even be remembered by his descendants for the improvements he had made.  Many farm owners made sure their names were remembered by having them rosemaled on the walls, ceilings, or built-in furniture of their farmhouse!