kværne

Kværne are traditional stone mills used to grind cereals into flour or meal. The term kværne is the Danish plural form of kværn, referring to the grinding device as well as to the act of milling. In architectural and archaeological contexts, kværne can denote either hand-operated querns or larger mill setups that use two circular stones.

There are two principal designs. Saddle querns use a flat, concave lower stone with a similarly shaped upper stone that is rocked back and forth by hand to crush the grain. Rotary or turning querns feature an upper stone mounted on a shaft and rotated by a handle, allowing continuous grinding as grain moves between the stones. Both designs rely on abrasion and friction to reduce grain to flour, usually producing coarse flour or meal suitable for breadmaking and porridge.

Historical use of kværne appears across much of Europe and the Nordic region from ancient times onward. They were common in households and farmyards before the widespread adoption of powered mills, with rotary querns becoming especially prevalent in the medieval period. The devices gradually declined with the rise of watermills, windmills, and industrial milling, but they survive as archaeological finds and are preserved in museums as artifacts of pre-industrial food production. In Danish contexts, kværne are often studied within broader discussions of domestic technology and rural economy, illustrating how communities processed grain before modern milling systems.