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| King Harald's Jelling stone/photo:gb |
The Jelling stone, - one of our national treasures and Denmark's "birth certificate" is together with king Gorm's stone, the church and the two giant Jelling-grave hills a part of the Jelling-monuments which are at the Unesco World's Heritage list. The two rune stones reflect the transition from the heathen Viking period to the Christian Middle Ages.
The big Jelling stone, king Harald's stone was together with other things in the church area exposed to vandalism recently. It was painted over with graffiti , and it is not just an easy thing to remove the paint. First there was a fear if the paint had forced into the stone. Since the vandalism have Danish, Norwegian and Swedish experts worked together to find the most careful way to clean the stone. After some experiments at the National Museum have they found that the cleaning must be done as fast as possible, since the graffiti-paint is not yet fully hardened - it is actually a race against time. However - the stone-conservators are satisfied with the cold weather, since the frost has delayed the chemical processes in the paint.
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| The vandalism, photo: Politiken.DK |
In the beginning were many theories about who was responsible for this. It was a 15-year old local boy from Jelling who had painted the stones for fun. He has now found out that it was not funny at all.
Addition:
The boy in Jelling is autistic and suffers from Asperger's syndrom. His parents are very sad. The stones are considered sacred by the inhabitants of Jelling and are protected by the people in town. The boy's parents have told the authorities that the boy recently had changed his behaviours - he has actually painted the word Gelwane in other places of the town.
It's a sad story in every respect.
Source: Politiken, DK. 20. - 21. February 2011
5 comments:
Sad...simply sad. I don't understand things like this. I feel so sad...
Hello Lynn!
Yes, I felt so sad too when I heard it. I was also angry. This monument stood there for a thousand years without being disturbed. Maybe the museum people need to have guards on the place now, or pack the stones up inside walls or something. A great shame.
I'm not sure about the boy's intentions. This word Gelwane sounds like a Celtic word?
Grethe
Hej again Lynn!
I have now found out that the boy in Jelling is autistic and suffers from Asperger's syndrom. His parents are very sad. The stones are considered sacred and they are protected by the inhabitants of Jelling. His parents have told the authorities that the boy recently had changed his behaviours - and he has actually painted this word Gelwane in other places of the town. It's a sad story in every respect.
Grethe
Hi Grethe, it seems young people have no idea the damage they can cause with their thoughtless pranks. Hope it cleans well.
I just read your interesting posts on ghosts. My mother used to tell some chilling stories. I have been so far behind in blogging with the recent health issues of my husband.
Glad to be back.
Wanda, I'm glad to see you back. I have thought about you , and I hope that your husband is better.
I wonder if your mother had a tradition in her family telling ghost stories. Some families have. And some stories have travelled from generation to generation. Interesting.
Thank you for the starling-post. It's an interesting story. They are so sweet those starlings!
Best wishes
Grethe ´)
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