The plague in Evanger

In this area there wandered from farm to farm an ashen faced old lady by the name of Pesta. She was typically equipped with a broom and a rake. It was said that if she started sweeping in front of your door, no one at the farm would survive; however, if she used the rake some would escape death. That is how the figure of Pesta is described in a folk tale from the time when the Black Death was ravaging Norway. The Black Death arrived in Bergen on an English ship in 1349 and spread across neighbouring communities like wildfire. There were many outbreaks of plague and many villages and local communities were left deserted. The aggressive bubonic plague took the life of at least half the population over the course of a few years. The Black Death is a rodent sickness which is spread via fleas. The whole of Europe was affected, rats boarded ships moored in European harbours and then spread the plague to rats in the next harbour. It was not only the plague that caused death and destruction. Hygiene standards were far from what we are used to today and it was also normal to visit the sick and dying without any form of isolation. Through such customs it was easy to see how infections were spread.