Viking Age - Denmark, Connections abroad.

fortification, Trelleborg, Zealand

By people in the Frankish kingdom and on the British Isles the Danes were first of all considered Vikings. Danish attackers, conquerors and colonists played an important role in the remake of western Europe, but they also had a strong influence in their own country.

Some Viking chiefs, who had won riches, power and glory came home to Denmark and tried to usurp royal power. King Horik and most of his family were killed in such a power feud in 854. The old branch of the royal family gained footfold , but other homecoming Viking chiefs - some from the east -  were more lucky in their fight about the throne. The fortification moats in Aarhus might have been built during that period.
            
   

                 
       

The diplomatic connections between the Danish kings and the Frank and German rulers brought foreign influences to Denmark. King Harald was baptized in Mainz in 826, and he was not the only Dane, who experienced and was impressed by the court ceremoniel of the Franks. Maybe this infected the life in the Danish royal castle in the 800s, but as for the 900s the big Jelling stone and the cross-marked coins show that Harald Bluetooth fully understood the value of demonstrating his royal dignity. The Jelling church was probably bigger than many other Danish buildings, and its basic plan was inspired by the German churches.



The Franks and the Germans did not only affect their Danish neighbours - they also wanted to have power over them, but they did not succeed.  The Danes could retriet from Jutland to security on the Danish Isles and gather new strenght while the peninsula Jutland was attacked -  and the Saxon hertug Bruno and his army had to learn this in 880......the only Danish king who in the 800s had to acknowledge the supremacy of the Franks was Harald Klak,  and he was deposed and driven into exile .

The feud between the various throne pretenders weakened seriously the power of the Danish kings,  and in 934 the Danes could not resist an attack in southern Norway from the German army. The Danish supremacy broke down and Harald Fairhair was able to expand his Norwegian power while local rulers in the districts east of Storebælt (Danernes Mark) enjoyed a great independency.

Fyrkat , Jutland, photo:GB

Later the German king Henrik 1 forced the Danes to pay taxes, and two generations later the Germans ruled in Sønderjylland (South Jutland) for a short number of years (974-983). Nothing indicates that Harald Bluetooth ever acknowledged German rulers as his overlords - but after 983 and in the following century the Germans were too busy feuding their Slavic neighbours to care about Denmark. Undoubtly it was the German occupation of Sønderjylland which made  Harald build the complicated system of fortifications and roads which gave a clear expression of his power and talent of organisation. In order to build the fortifications Trelleborg , Nonnebakken; Fyrkat and Aggersborg and the great bridges - which were all built at the same time - the king had to exploit his right to recruit labor and demand other necessary services from the Danish population . Most probably these heavy burdens made him unpopular among the Danes and led to the rebellion  which drove him into exile and death. 

Runic inscriptions mention two earlier rulers at Funen, Roulv and Alle. The Glavendrupstone was raised in the memory of Alle by his widow Ragnhild and his sons. Ragnhild had the Danish rune-

master to carve the inscription upon the runestone in Tryggevælde at Zealand

Glavendrupstone

for the memory of her second husband, Gunulv, about whom it was said that "few are born better than he". It is not known which stone was raised first, but these men must have been contemporary to king Harald, and they might even have been local chiefs, who by acknowledging Harald as their king, took part in making it possible for him to announce that he had "won himself all Denmark. "

Harald's kingdom was exposed for disturbances from Viking fleets. As the leader of the expeditions to the west Sweyn Forkbeard saw to that his men were awarded like other men of the Viking chiefs. Torkel's fleet represented the biggest threat however. He was now in the service of the English king, but it was Sweyn who in 1013 seized the English throne and thereby got access to the rich sources in England.

The riches of Englands made Cnut the Great able to realise the Danish demand on the supremacy of a large part of Scandinavia, much more than his predecessors had ever been able to. Still before Cnut drove the Norse king Olav into exile he demanded to be king of the Norwegians -  and at the same time he declared he was king of a part of the Swedes. It is not known what he actually meant -  he might have thought of the West Goths, whose access to the sea went through Danish territory,  but it was more probable that he considered himself as the overlord of the Swedes who had been warriors in his army. As king of England Cnut advised one of the most advanced and effective Governments of Europe -  and it did not last long before this English influence was evident in Denmark. The attempts to establish a well-functioning coin was finally successfull and much was done to promote the development of cities which became metropols for the royal power. In some cities were established bishoprics -  and the bishops were fetched from England or at least educated there. Cnut's great kingdom sank into the gravel after his death but the changes he had started were continued by his successors and long after the separation of Denmark and England the English influence was noticed in the Danish church.

Merchants, wandering craftsmen, Christian missionaires, diplomats and the Vikings themselves were all  the cause  of influences from abroad in Denmark. The Danes connected more and more to the outside world during the Viking period than ever before and the consequences began to show in the beginning of the 1000s - cities were founded, bishoprics and a royal coinage were established. It is clear via archaeology that all parts of society were affected by the contact to the outside world.  In each archaeologically examined village from the Viking period are rests of mill stones from the Rhine district and soapstone-vessels and  grindstones from the northern Scandinavia. In Jutland are found western European ceramics - and Slavic clay ware or Danish copies are found in the eastern part of Denmark . More perishable goods like clothes and wine were probably also widespread. The imported goods were spread all over Denmark - but they were not for free. Wealthy Danes who lived in the 1000s were capable of paying their shopping  with coins and other silver -  but the import was through the whole period generally paid with Danish export products or with services and catering to the foreign merchants who visited the Danish harbours on their tour between the Baltics and Western Europe. Cattle was one of the most important export products

Highland cattle, foto:GB

. An early phase of this traffic is proved by the archaeological find of a large heap of cow dung which had accumulated in the town of Ribe. This indicates that cattle was gathered here,  probably in order to transport them by sea.

Ansgar

village and church, Hjerl hede, foto:GB

Except from Willibrord's visit in the beginning of the 700s the Christian mission began in 823 among the Danes when archbishop Ebbo baptized a great number of Danes. Ebbo's, Ansgar's and the preaching of their successors might have convinced many that the Christian God was a mighty God, but it was not until king Harald's conversion 150 years later that Christianity became the only legal religion. The Christian message was being preached by missionary bishops. In the beginning of the 1000s were established bishpoprics, and in the middle of the same century were churches built all over Denmark. In most regions of Denmark church services and new rituals were provided in a foreign  language by men who rarely had any education. Gradually the church seized several areas of daily life, also the marriage  - and eventually the top officials of the Danish church were incorporated in the elite of the Holy Church. Several rituals, like cremation and eating horsemeat were quickly submitted, while other rituals like some fertility rituals lived on in a Christian disguise.

During the reign of Sven Estridsen the church began receiving estates as gift or inheritance, which had great consequences gradually, when large areas were added to the church. The Christian doctrine brought a still more perceptible change, namely the abolition of the old custom to expose infants. The restriction in this form of child restraint reulted in an increase of population -  and new settlements occurred.

Hedeby trading center

Archaeological finds show that the Danes in the Viking period were relatively wealthy. The farmers in the wellknown settlement Vorbasse did generally not own their land, but they had much cattle, and their descendants in the 1000s had even more. The houses in Vorbasse were large and spacious. Houses of the Trelleborg-type which were built in the 1000s were larger and free inside .Another change was that the stables were now in separate buildings in an appropriate distance from the houses.

Trelleborg, house, foto:GB

Excavations in other places also indicate that the Danish farmers were really well in the Viking period - also the landlords who received various benefits from the farmers. The king was the greatest landlord - and when Harald Bluetooth won all Denmark he must have expanded the royal estate enormously. His son and grandson increased also the royal riches when they conquered England. The Crown Land also grew when farms were given to the king as a fine for manslaughter. Several farms which Cnut the Holy in 1085 gave to the cathedral in Lund were acquired by him or his predecessors in this way.

Detail, Ravning bridge, foto:GB

The realm of gravity up till Harald's rule was in Jutland - usually the king was able to keep the peace which gave the Danes and the visiting merchants a reasonable security both in Jutland and on the Isles. In the 800s and maybe before some Danish kings extended their power to the island east of Storebælt and up into the southern part of Norway. In these districts the king was probably the overlord of the local potentates while they in Jutland were directly regents. A supremacy like this had to be maintained by force or with the threat of the use of force and the power of a king depended on the fidelity and skill of his warriors (his lid).

Northern Empire, 1000s, wikipedia

The procedures of the government were also in the 1000s primitive and severe - as Cnut the Great did show, when he commanded his regent in England , Thorkel, to defure evildoers who else could not be prosecuted. Harald Bluetooth's rulership in the eastern part of Denmark probably had the same reprisals like Godfred had 150 years before, but Harald showed that he was able to mobilize many good forces at Zealand and Funen and in Jutland so he could build his big fortifications and roads and bridges. It might be Harald who initiated the conversion of the townships into administration units which made it easier to collect taxes and other benefits. .

Sweyn, wikipedia

Twice in the 900s it was clear how vulnerable Jutland was to German attacks, and Harald Bluetooth might have seen that the countries east of Storebælt provided the highest security against the threat from these mighty neighbours. It was not until the rule of Sweyn Forkbeard that the gravity of the kingdom moved east to the districts around Øresund. King Sweyn founded the towns Roskilde and Lund. The Danish king now wanted to be overlord of the whole country -   and "landefreden" ( the peace of the country) spread along the coasts of Øresund. Piracy was still a nuisance, but inspite of Adam of Bremen's assertion that both Storebælt and Øreasund were harrassed by pirates, the traffic through Øresund was probably not suffering from great hindrances, when the travelling merchants were on their way to the Baltic Sea.  They had been proned to follow the coast of Jutland in order to get the protection which the Danish king provided. Now they were guaranteed the same security if they chose the direct way through Øresund, which now became the gateway to the Baltic Sea  and the key to the power of the North.


The Danish royal power originated in its time in Jutland, and in the first centuries of the kingdom Jutland was kernelandet (the core country). When the scalds still celebrated Cnut the Great as Jótlands jøfurr (Jyllands høvding) it was a memory about that time. But by supplying their Jutland power with a firm grip of the regime of the Danish Isles and Scania - the large area, which until then were considered the outer districts of the kingdom ( danernes mark), the last great Viking kings, Harald, Sweyn and Cnut had created a strong and viable unit in Denmark with a future.

The big Jelling stone , photo:GB

Source: "Da Danmark blev Danmark" (700-1050) by Peter Sawyer, Gyldendal og Politikens Danmarkshistorie bd 3.  

photo: Grethe Bachmann
and photocopies:: wikipedia.

The Wolf is here ..............

photo from wikipedia.

I'm always looking for the wolf when we're out in the woods of Mid Jutland. It would be such a speciel experience to see it out in the Danish nature -  and if I could get a photo that would really be great.

But if we go out looking for the wolf it has probably heard us long before we might come close.. The wolf's hearing is so eminent that it can hear a branch break for miles in still air. The wolf can also hear  high frequency sounds which makes it able to hunt squeaking mice in the dark of night. .

The wolf's paw and a human hand, photo wikipedia

The wolves in Denmark come from the German stock - and the socalled "Danish" wolves in Jutland don't know about  borders. They are nomades and can be everywhere in Jutland and Germany. They are extremely perservering and mobile and they can easily back down 200 kilometers during one day and night and thereby in a short time alternate between Germany and Denmark.

Harrild hede, photo:gb

The wolf's favorite food is the huntable animals in the Danish nature. The hunters and the wolves are  competitors about the meat and it is seen from some places on the internet that there is a fierce hatred against the wolf  from hunter-circles in Denmark. There are rumours that wolves have been shot in Denmark, which can lead to two years in prison.

It is obviously difficult to remove the hatred against the large predators and the birds of prey. The goshawk is highly pursued  in some Danish districts because it hunts pheasants. The wolf,  the goshawk and the golden eagle are competitors of the hunters and they are in the risk of being pursued.

I don't think the hunters need to be so jealous. A calculation has been made according the yearly hunting-statistics: The Danish hunters dismantle each year deer, red deer and sika (sika is imported ) which is  representing about 1.700 tons meat. For comparison : a stock of 40 wolves eat about 30 tons meat a year , assuming that the wolf  feed on deer.

forest, Mid Jutland, photo:gb

In Germany they know that deer, red deer and wild boar is the main food of the wolf, hares rabbits and small rodents are a lesser part of the food -  and under 1 % of the wolf's prey is domestic animals.

According to the scientists there would be enough food to feed a Danish stock of ab. 40 wolves. The wolves don't take the healthiest deer in a deer stock, they take the easiest prey, the weak and sick individuals. For the same reason the predators could take part in trimming the stock of red deer. The wolf could also be a scavenger in the Danish nature. Approximately ab. 25.000 deer are killed each year on the Danish Highways. The wolf could take part in cleaning up after the drivers.

The howling of the wolf has been heard in the night in Jutland and an audio recording indicates that there were some puppies among the adults. DNA- analyzes show that there were 11 various male wolves in Denmark in 2014.

We will hardly get a large wolf pack in Denmark like in North America. Denmark will be the terrain of small family-flocks.and a  land of the lonely wolves.




Source: Ulven er kommet - by Jan Skriver,  Danish magazine Natur og Miljø, nr. 4, November 2014.

Easter Customs in 16th Century's Scandinavia.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Netherlandish proverbs.

 
A Time of Change. 
Easter was not only a Christian celebration in the 16th century. Many customs were influenced by the early Middle Ages and before that, both by ancient Norse mythology and ancient pagant belief. It was not easy for the Catholic church fathers to handle or "rule" the Scandinavian people during Easter, considering all those various opinions and old customs. In some desolate districts of Norway the customs were still of an ancient origin and still very much alive, and in all of Scandinavia people still believed in witches and witchcraft. But when the reformation arrived in the middle of the century everything changed. This was the end of the Middle Ages. A time of change.

The Quiet Week. 

Ghirlandio: St. Jerome

Although the fasting-time was abandoned since the reformation, there were still old-fashioned people, who maintained the ancient customs around Lent - even people in the next generations who knew nothing or little about the Catholic period. But although people in general did not take it so seriously, it was very characteristic that nobody held a party, wedding or alike between Shrovetide and Easter. The last week before Easter was called "the quiet week",  and on Palm Sunday were some religious customs with inauguration of palm leaves or of flowering willow twigs. It was not easy to get hold of palm leaves in Scandinavia. But these customs disappeared quickly as soon as the Catholic church fathers  said good-bye after the reformation. The quietness and the gravity from before were more obviously seen in tne names of the Easter days: Palm Sunday, Blue Monday, White Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday.


Cabbage and Loke's Sleigh.

Loke

Contradictions met at Maunday Thursday. Folklore fought between light and darkness on this day. The bright sides of the day were first of all the power transferred to the only green plant which had survived winter, the cabbage. Nine cabbages cooked together protected against disease and other evils in the year to come, nine various cabbages or herbs, plucked and gathered in the morning and cooked together. The air had a healing power on that day. If the clothes were hang out in the air they would be freed from the moths, and the bedlinen would be freed from the fleas.  In Telemarken in Norway they had to do a little more work to free the bedlinen from the fleas, they had to plait three strings to help the god Loke's broken sleigh. Every Maundy Thursday Loke came with a load of fleas and since the load was heavy his sleigh broke, and if they did not assist him, they would not get rid of the intruders in their bedlinen the whole next year.


Malicious Witchcraft on Maundy Thursday. 

Medieval drawing.

Maundy Thursday was influenced by some sinister witchcraft. This day was similar to other wellknown witch-days - Valborg's Day and Midsummer's Day - and everyone who did not safeguard himself against the evil was higly exposed to danger. In a socalled "clerical law" from Christian II's time the magistrate ordered to closely watch all, who were suspected of witchcraft. But it was not easy to watch the elusive witches, when they in the dead of night on Maundy Thursday rode on a broomstick to their meeting-place. The safest precaution and protection against the witches was to fasten steel above the doors, put steel into the bed and with the cattle, and to spread axes and iron wedges upon the newly sown fields. Furthermore they had to remove the fourth wheel from the plough, so the witches, who planned to ride the plough, would fail. But it was impossible to keep oneself completely safe from the powerful and malicious witchcraft. A witch, Ingeborg Bogesdatter in Högalöff in Sweden, confessed in 1618  ( most probably under torture) that she had stolen a calf, put a bridle on it and rode above the forests, fields, mountains and waters to Blåkulla, where she took part in the witch-feast. Before her airborne journey she had been so sneaky to blow wind into her nightgown and made a skin in her own looks, whom she laid down beside her husband. Young witches did not need any mount or traffic tool. They had power enough by themselves to rise in the air and fly away.

Ringing the Bells, Finding the Witches.

woodcut 1700th century

The best way to avoid all this witchcraft was to ring the church bells. Still in the 19th century people rang the bells in Smaaland in Sweden each "Dimmelonsdag" ( "Ringing Wednesday") in the evening after sundown and the next morning, on Maundy Thursday, before sunrise. People knew that the witches wanted to whip the church, a very  dangerous witchcraft to the church and to everyone. So they wanted to ring down the Easter witches. There are many stories about this.  A Dean's servants rang the church bells, while three witches flew above the spire. They fell down, but changed skin and transformed into goats. The three goats run up into an old birch, but a man next to them cut one goat in the foot, and since then an old woman in the neighbourhood was limping, and no one doubted that she had been on her flight to the feast of the witches. In another case the downfallen witch transformed into a white sow. Three Easter witches, who had been rung down just before they had to whip the church, were found downside the church, quite naked. People were able to examine the witchcraft in their neighbourhood, if they used an egg, which had been laid by a hen on Maundy Thursday. It was best if this was the very first egg the hen had ever laid.  If they brought the egg with them to church in their pocket, this might be good enough, but the best way to discover the witchcraft was to look through the egg in the sunshine when they came to church. Then they would be able to see among the churchgoers exactly who was a witch and who had been out flying the night before.

Queen Elizabeth I and the Foot-Washing.

Hilliard: Elizabeth I

In England was celebrated a special act in the 1600s, which is still used in some Catholic countries. A number of poor people were gathered at the palace, and queen Elizabeth had to wash their feet. The cleaning was rather thorough, since everyone, before meeting the queen, was being washed by a washer woman, then by the subordinate of the charity-man and at last by the charity-man himself. When the gospel of the foot-washing had been read, the queen washed everyone's feet the fourth time, assisted by a noble lady. The humbleness of the queen increased with the years, this was indicated by the numbers of the poor which corresponded to the queens' age. 39 poor  people had their feet washed in 1572.  After having finished the washing, the queen kissed them, gave each one both money, clothes, food and drink and a towel and let them go at sunset.

Whipping, Weighing and Salt-cookies.  
After the sinister Maundy Thursday the Dark Good Friday came. (Danish: Langfredag). No one was allowed to be happy on that day, and the fasting and the self-torture reached a peak. In some places in Norway everyone had to be whipped with rods in the morning, no one had anything to eat until the evening, and they had to use all their strenght and torture themselves with overwhelming work. The conditions were just as strict in Denmark, the priest at court let his children summon into his study each Langfredag , where he flogged those poor little kids, so they could feel how awful the Saviour had suffered on Good Friday.  A reason for a punishment was, if someone did not pass the fasting-test. In many districts people had to be weighed, and if they had not lost weight after the Lent this indicated clearly that they had not respected the fasting - and they had to be punished. In some districts people knew how to prepare themselves for this test. On the first weighing before the Lent-period  they put sand in their stockings and pebbles in their pockets to get a better result and to avoid punishment on the second weighing. The fasting was also extended to the livestock. On Good Friday the cattle did not get their usual fodder, but only what was found in the forest and in the field, and humans had the humblest meal in the evening time, usually flour-porridge or eggs in a mustard sauce. In some districts they remembered how thirsty Christ were on that Friday, and before bed-time they had to eat three salt-cookies, which of course evoked an unbearable urge to drink water during the night.

Food-Blessing and Mass

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Wheat Harvest.

Next day, Easter Saturday, the preparations for the happy time finally started. In days of the Catholicism the priest blessed the food and sowing seeds of the farmers, and this continued for a period after the reformation. The blessing still took place in 1566. People came with all kinds of food, rye, barly, oats; the priest blessed it and read a special prayer, a mass was held in the evening and the farmers were now sure that their food and corn were secure for the whole following year. But both the food-blessing and the mass were later prohibited by the bishop of Sjælland. (Zealand). People were now forced to be content by celebrating the Easter Saturday inside the walls of their own home with the old feast-dishes, sweet porridge and soft-boiled eggs.

Dancing Sun and Evil Smoke. 

di Paolo: Angels dancing in the Sun.

The Easter Sunday was entirely a happy festive. People were up and about from early morning to watch the sunrise, to see the sun play and dance with joy upon the sky.  Only in a few places some sad superstitions were connected to this Easter morning. In a Norwegian district the farm-people were afraid of lighting the fireplace, they believed that the smoke from the house meant they would be plagued by predators. They were later persuaded to forget their fear, but they were still cautious; instead they used nine kinds of wood and a wooden spoon, the ear of a pot, a broom and gunpowder and sulphur to light the fire. In this powerful way they intended to cleanse the chimney from the infection, which had been there since the night of Maundy Thursday, where the witches flew through the chimney. Even the smoke was infected. Everyone went out to see where the smoke went. If the smoke went towards the church, it was an omen that someone in the house was a coward and was soon to die.

Agnus Dei silver jewelry.

Easter Lamb and Agnus Dei.

Lam with cross, church North Jutland/gb

A Christian custom was the distribution of the socalled Easter lamb. In the beginning of the 16th century when the Catholic church was still the ruler, this distribution took place in the old-fashioned manner, the priest gave or sold after the mass on Saturday Evening the churchgoers some inaugurated Easter lambs made of  wax; they were considered to be some secret means against all evil. But their miraculous power made people wish to own them in a better material than wax and to carry them always. A custom evolved, where rich people wore an Easter lamb in silver or gold in a chain around the neck.  The jewelry in the chain was like a medal or a coin with the image of an Easter lamb. Jewelry like this was given the name Agnus Dei, and it was very popular both in Scandinavia and in Europe in general. But after the reformation the custom with the lambs were  just as unpopular as the other custom-rests from the Catholic period. The wax lambs disappeared together with the mass on Easter Saturday, or they were inaugurated secretly, until the custom went into oblivion. In Denmark most of the Agnus Dei-jewelry was probably lost during the next century. The silver and gold lambs were still worn openly, but the meaning was soon forgotten. The thirty-year war and the wars between Denmark and Sweden swept away all the old gold and silverware, and towards year 1700 there were only few Agnus Dei left. In the 19th century the old Easter lambs entered the market again, not in wax or as a jewelry, but as some kind of playtoy in sugar or cotton with an attached crossbanner.

Easter, Oster and Ostara

When people came home after the church service in the Easter-period,

Two devils with eggs, National Museum by Kornerup.

they spent their time with all kinds of fun. A special Easter pleasure was the  Easter eggs. They were like today, coloured eggs, usually red, blue, yellow, sometimes with inscriptions. They were used as gifts or in various plays.  The most common play was to let them roll down a hill. The players had to touch or crush the shell of the other down-rolling eggs. In Germany and England was also another play, where the eggs were hidden in "hare-nests". The use of Easter eggs is one of  the oldest known and most spread feast-customs. The blessing of food on Easter Saturday, which in Scandinavia was about both eggs, food in general and seeds, was in the southern countries only about eggs. In the Roman and Greek-Catholic church the Easter began with the enjoyment of eating the inaugurated Easter eggs. And Easter eggs were known from Scandinavia to Egypt,  from England to Persia and Siberia. The eggs were since time immemorial a symbol of the introvert and yet vigilant, fertile, emerging life, and it could as well be used as a sign of spring or resurrection. The English "Easter" and the German "Oster" both origin from the old Saxon word oster = to resurrect. But if it is referred to the resurrection only, then this is weakened by that the ancient Germans worshipped a goddess of spring named Ostara. Her name is connected to the East, to the dawn.

GB






Source: Dagligt liv i Norden det 16. århundrede, Årlige fester, Projekt Runeberg, 1914-1915.