In the woodlands by Björkmossa there is a wooden cross with the inscription "I lie and sleep and I do not die, Lord forgive those sins that put me in the ground in 1669". A cross that tells of murder or manslaughter.
According to legend, a wandering mop came to Björkmossa village. There, a farmer promised to row the lake across Lake Hjorten to Ånhults village. On the way down to the lake, the farmer killed the man and buried him in a ditch. He repented of his deed and raised a cross with the text “I lie down and sleep is not dead. Lord then forgive the sins that laid me down. Anno 1669. ”
A copy of the original cross was erected here in 1981 and the old one, which is badly damaged, is found in Virserum's home park.
Liss-Erik Björkman wrote about the so-called Knallakorset or Knallekors in the book edition Kalmar län 1962.
Björkman has found the stories in newspaper articles during different parts of the 1900th century.
The legend of the Moped Cross is about a moped (farm trader), in some cases with the name Grip who comes to the village of Björkmossa. He sells and buys and has a small fortune which he keeps in a leather bag around his neck. When the guy is about to cross to the other side of the lake, he is murdered by his guide who takes the money.
After returning home, the perpetrator receives such a bad conscience that he returns to the crime scene and arranges a grave for the mop, and sets up the cross.
Björkman also found information about a murder in Virserum's parish in 1667.
The court record describes how the girl Lucia Hemmingsdotter had become a child with Jon Israelssson.
However, he had already found a new girl and released to this one.
Lucia is said to have confronted Jon on the church hill and after it disappeared.
After a couple of weeks the suspicions went to Jon Israelsson and a little later Lucia's dead body was found in the forest.
She was shot in the left side. When the trial started, Jon was gone.
Was the cross erected after Lucia Hemmingsdotter?
The cross stands on property where Jon belonged and the year 1669 may as well be the year when the cross was set up. The story has probably changed after almost 200 years of oral tradition. The first time the history of the cross was found written down is 1848 ie. about 180 years after the incident.
Björkman states that the bang may have come into the story as something exotic, someone different from the people of the countryside. In retrospect, he has become an increasingly prominent role and Lucia has fallen into oblivion.
We don't know if the Moped Cross is about Lucia, or the Moped Grip, or anyone else, but the place is there and it will continue to tell its stories. The cross with its inscription will continue to attract our imagination to what really happened in 1669.
