The first morning on a holiday tour to the Thy district...

On a country road through Himmerland 

On our way to Thy via Himmerland and Aggersund we passed a fine little Romanesque church, Stenild church, by the country road, built in pretty carved granite ashlars. The broad tower was in red bricks and ashlars.The earliest artifact in the church is a very large Romanesque granite baptismal font, a socalled lion font with impressive reliefs of lions. Between the lions are reliefs of human faces. The church has two bells, one from John Taylor and Co, England in 1959,  and the other from Århus in 1651.

Aggersund Bridge, a connection between Himmerland and Thy.
 The bridge at Aggersund is from 1942. It  is a pretty arch bridge with a double link span in the middle, which is opened by the watchman, when ships pass Aggersund on their way to and fro the town of Aalborg. The bridge has a fine placement in the flat landscape in the western and narrowest part of the Limfjorden

A view to a Salt Marsh by Aggersund

A salt march is marked by the nearness of the sea. The air-contents of salt is high, and the marsh is often flooded by heavy winter storms. This causes a flora, dominated by species which can tolerate salt. The salt marshes are habitats for waders, ducks and seagulls. In the winter they are also a foraging area for some birds of prey.
The Danish salt marshes are protected nature types. They represent only 1% of the total area in Denmark. The increased interest for and the increased funding for landscaping has resulted in a positive development of the management of the Forest and Nature Agency's areas of the salt marshes. In several places are planned or carried through nature restoration of earlier salt marches.

After the Aggersund Bridge we have left the Himmerland district -  and we are now in Thy, which among many other things has a National Park -and not at least the North Sea!

Coffee break at Aggersborg, a very special place with one of the Danish Viking Trelleborgs, Aggersborg. There is no castle or buildings left, only a large circular grassy site.



Aggersborg is the largest Viking fortress in Denmark with an inner diameter of 240 meter. The whole plan along the outer edge of the moat is 299 meter broad. The site is difficult to date since underneath is a village with houses from German Iron Age, but it was probably built approximately the same time as the other trelleborgs in Denmark, most likely around year 980, when Harald Bluetooth and/ or Svend Forkbeard ruled the country. The fortress was built during 1-2 years and was only used for about 5-20 years.
 The situation of Aggersborg was a protected one and yet accessible by ship. This should be considered in the light of that the Limfjorden at this time was open for ships in three directions: west, east like today, but also to the north through the access Sløjen. Besides this the Aggersborg was placed by one of the three passages of the ancient Hærvej across the Limfjorden. It is not known if Aggersborg was a power center for control of trade and internal feuds, or if it was a barrack/ training camp in connection to Svend Forkbeard's raids to England.

Here you can see a piece of the circle. On the photo of the Aggersborggård you can see the whole circle of Aggersborg from air.

Archaeology

 Among many archaeological finds at Aggersborg was a fine and heavy gold bracelet. (now at the National Museum) A copy of the bracelet is at the Minimuseum at Aggersborg.

Aggersborggård is a Danish manor which history goes farthest back in time, to the year 1086. Aggersborg was a king's manor from 1086 till 1579. The present farm lies in the edge of the moat of the Viking fortress Aggersborg.

Aggersborg kirke
North of the mighty Aggersborg site lies Aggersborg kirke, probably built in the 1100s. On the walls of the church are some runic inscriptions. The church is open daily.






                                                                  

Minimuseum by the church. There are no traces of the Viking longhouses on the site but north of Aggersborg by the church lies a small museum where it is shown how the fortress looked and how the longhouses were built.
 

And now the tour goes to a rented summerhouse in the Thy district.

photo August 2016 : grethe bachmann
gold bracelet and Aggersborggård: wikipedia.

Medieval Easter Dinner at the Bishop's House

The Middle Ages.

The medieval bishops were powerful men. They had a place in the Danish king's council and acted more like princes and statesmen than church leaders.  A bishop's residence was often a castle - a typical bishop-residence was Spøttrup castle in North Jutland which today is a medieval museum. It is one of very few medieval castles left in Denmark. Spøttrup was one of the most modern fortifications in Denmark during the 1500s with high embankments with palisades and double moats - a powerful fortification and a magnifcient residence for a bishop.

The bishop celebrated Easter dinner in the great hall together with his highly trusted employees and possible guests. The other staff had dinner in the associated rooms. On a daily basis all dishes were served at the bishop's high table only, while the staff in the other rooms had fewer dishes - but at a great feast like Easter each dish was served to everyone in the house. Easter was the greatest church feast of the year, and the account from the bishop's house reveals a little about the cuisine at that time. The commodities and the choice of menu was an expression of a wide and advanced range. The dinner had 10 dishes, and the ceremony took several hours.


The bishop sat in his high seat with his fine bishop's cap on his head and his majestic bishop-rod in his hand. He might wear a purple velvet cape, bordered with ermine, and all his guests and all his staff were dressed in their finest clothes. The table was covered in fine tablecloths in several layers. The utensils were mostly ceramics or wood and possibly pewter. In an inventory list from the bishop's household are mentioned 15 drinking horns, carved in animal horn, and 6 candelabres, a part of the table decoration.The Swedish historian Olaus Magnus (1490-1557) recounts that the Scandinavians rarely used glassware, since they had a habit of crushing the glass after drinking, and glass was extremely costy. The utensils were knives and spoons and the fingers - the fork was not yet known.

The Easter Dinner was initiated by the chancellor who said the grace, and the chaplain later read from the holy scripture. During dinner was entertainment with musicians with pipes and drums and a performance by the jester. The basic idea in these feasts was that the music and other cultural events accompanied a high gastronomic cuisine. The symbol of the Easter meal played a decisive role. The first dish was roast lamb or mutton with bread, the second was wine soup, possibly with saffron, and later boiled eggs. The festival bread, called vegge, was possibly also coloured yellow with saffron. Saffron was the most expensive spice together with pepper and reserved for the upper class. All dishes were accompanied by wine. Royal accounts shows that spices from the Middle East and India like saffron, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, nutmeg and cumin were bought in large amounts. It was probably only the upper class, who could afford these exotic spices on a daily basis, while the less fortunate as much as possible imitated the delicate food at festivals and celebrations.

The return of the meat was important in the Easter meal after 40 days' Lent, which had been dominated by bread, cabbage and salt fish. Most meat was salted, and it was a rare thing to have the popular fresh meat like beef, lamb or pork. Venison was a very desirable delicacy, which mostly was reserved at the princes' table. A substantial part of the menu was the beverage: mead, wine and beer.

Mead, wine, beer and herbal water are mentioned as medicine in the medical books. Honey was also considered a medicine; it had to be cleansed carefully before using it in the cuisine and in the preparation of various drinks. Mead was one of the earliest known drinks;  it was produced with water, honey and herbs like sweet gale or hops and with beer yeast. It was a common thing to put a linen bag into the mead barrel. A recipe from an old medical book reports contents like: pepper, ginger, cardamom, clove and cinnamon. This brought a better taste and durability to the mead. Wine was imported and a very rare drink in Denmark. Sweet wine was preferred, maybe sweetened with honey and spices. There is a myth about the Middle Ages: that everyone was drinking beer all the time. This might not be wrong, but the beer was very thin and with a low alcohol percentage; the quality of drinking water was bad, especially in the towns - this might be an explanation why beer was preferred. The water was boiled during the brewing process, and although people did not know about bacterias, they might have noticed that beer caused fewer health problems than tap water.
 
Magnificent display-dishes were carried past the bishop and his guests between each serving. Large decorated centerpieces with a peacock or other animals were crowning the dish. They were not meant to be eaten, but they were shown together with decorated patés, where the lid described the content, and the whole scenery was a festive sight to the dinner party. During and after meals servants appeared with jugs and dishes with fragrant water, mostly rose-water, and with towels, for the dinner guests to wash and dry their hands. A comprehensive serving staff was present at big parties like the Easter festival. They were young men of nobility - as a part of their education they had to serve the Easter dinner to the gentry in the most distinguished way.

A cupbearer, the Kredens, had to cut the meat and the bread - and furthermore taste the food and drink before it was served to the party. At that time people were not afraid of salmonella and other food poisoning, like we are today - they were simply afraid of being poisoned by their enemies. If things went quite wrong they used an antidote called theriaca. It was an Arabic invention from the late 1100s. The content of this medicine was: *slangerod, (snake root), gentian, laurel , the best and noblest myrrh and honey. The original Arabian theriaca contained snake, which in the new recipes was replaced by a crushed powder from the root of the strong and poisonous root of the snake root- herb. It was a common advice to use the powder of this root against snake bites and as an emetic.

* Danish name : Slangerod , Latin:  Aristolochia clematitis ; English name: European Birthwort. 

A  reconstruction of an Easter Dinner anno 1520:
spit-roasted leg of lamb
wine soup
cooked beef
poached eggs
roast game tenderloin
boiled pike
venison paté
roast pigeons
fresh cheese
fig dessert.

Wine Soup in a translated version from a  medieval recipe :
4 egg yolks
50 gram sugar,
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg,
saffron,
6 dl white wine,
1 cinnamon stick,
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger.


1. Whip egg yolk with sugar and nutmeg, crush saffron in a mortar and dissolve it in a little wine.
2. Mix wine, saffron, cinnamon and ginger in a pot. Boil the mix in moderate heat. Just before it boils remove from heat. Remove the cinnamon stick.
3. Whip a little wine mix slowly into the egg mass. The egg mix back into the pot while stirring. Heat the wine soup slowly while stirring, until it is smooth and hot, min. 75 degree Celsius. Serve the hot soup - accompanied by butter-toasted wheat bread.

GB

Source: Bente Leed, Danskernes mad i middelalderen, Forlaget åløkke a/s, 1999

photo Spøttrup: grethe bachmann
images: bishop chess piece in ivory 1200s; medieval castle kitchen; Bayeux tapestry;  
Feast-Canterbury Tales; Theriaca pharmacies jar.
 

Viking Church at Moesgård Museum, Århus

The Vikings
A Viking Church
reconstruction

photo 1

Historians built in 1997 at Moesgård in Århus a 9,5 m long and 4,5 m broad stave church in oak with dragon heads on the gables and Viking-windings under the roof. The starting point for the building of this church were traces of postholes and floor layers from the original wooden church in Hørning close to Randers, but it was also inspired based on experiences from archaeological excavations in various places of the country, where were found floor layers and postholes from Nordic stave churches. From the church in Hørning comes the famous Hørning plank with the traditional Viking-windings. These windings are copied under the roof of the Viking church. The plank is dated to ab. 1066, in the transition time between the Viking period and the Middle Ages.

Viking-windings from Hørning-plank

 

decoration of portal

  

the bronze bell

  
At the excavation in Hørning were also found traces from a bell tower, and a reconstruction was built beside the church  in 2003-2004.  Moesgård Museum and Århus University carried through an experimental-archaeological project in 2005 to cast a bronze bell for the bell tower after a method, which was described in the 1100s by a medieval monk Theophilus. The bell is now in the bell tower.

History in short:
In 822 the pope had ordered the archbishop of Reims, Ebbo, to preach for the heathen Danes -  and around 826 arrived the missonary Ansgar. But both Ebbo and Ansgar were driven out of the country in 827. Ansgar did not give up. In 845 -  now as bishop of Hamburg - he was by king Horik allowed to build a wooden church in Hedeby, but it was destroyed in 854 when king Horik was killed in a battle. The church reopened in the 860s, and Ansgar established another wooden church in the important trade town Ribe.

The impious Vikings were not easy to persuade to give up their old gods. Christianity came gradually and slowly. Missionaries swarmed into the country from both Germany and England. King Harald was baptized in 960 -  and  Denmark was officially christianized ab. 965. The first churches in Denmark looked quite different from what we know today. Almost all churches from before 1050 were built in wood,  decorated with fine patterns, the wellknown traditional style of the Vikings. The construction was the simple stave church with a free-standing bell tower. The first wooden churches appeared in towns and villages where Christianity was gaining ground. The landlords built churches inside the walls surrounding their farms to show their proud ownership. Together with the church emerged a new holy place, the church yard. Christians had to be buried in consecrated soil if they wanted to go to heaven - while people who had broken the law were buried outside the church yard.

photo 2

Some stave churches were built upon ancient holy places like a church in Hørning (Randers district), which was built upon a grave hill, containing a rich grave of a prominent Viking woman who had died just before the church was built. The above mentioned Hørning-plank is a piece of the hammerbånd (edge decoration) from the ancient wooden church. The wooden churches did not live for long in the humid Danish climate. Archaeological examinations have proved that they were often renewed once or twice, but during the 1100s and 1200s they were replaced by stone churches in the parishes. The original stave churches still exist in a few places in Norway. None of the earliest Danish wooden churches are left, but the stave church at Moesgård gives a qualified bid on the look of a Viking church.

News:
A new Viking church at Bork Viking Havn in southwest Jutland is the second reconstruction of a Viking church in Denmark. In this church is a woodcut of a one eyed god, who might be the Nordic god, Odin. The woodcut is a copy from an original stave church from that period.

section of Moesgaard

sources:
Moesgård Museum,Danmarks Kirker, Politikens Danmarkshistorie






photo 26 December 2011:
church nr. 1 and 2:  stig bachman nielsen, naturplan.dk; other photos: grethe bachmann

Randers District and Lysnet Bakke, a hill more than 45 million years old.

A Taste of Denmark

During the winter season we usually drive a short tour closer to where we live. It's too cold to stay out for a long time like we do in summer. I'll often combine the tour with some church or manor photos, and this time we took the road north of Århus, first stop Spørring church. We were  lucky that day. The sun was shining after a dark week and the air was fresh. Good for the brain to get some sunlight they say -  and my brain felt better!

In the horizon were some low dark blue clouds looking like peninsulas in a sea. I don't know if you can see it?  And here were the silhouettes of trees upon a blue sky. Such lovely trees. There was no parking place by the church, so we had to park opposite by a little supermarket. Outside stood the most miserable Santa Claus I ever saw. He was so thin - his clothes were like put on a hanger, and his curly - and extremely shining - Santa-beard was placed upon his own beard, which was brown. He looked like the manager of the bank who had taken the role of Santa Claus. He was easily recognized, and I'm not sure the children were very impressed!

 

 

A nice church in Spørring with some good details. There was a strange stone in the church yard. Not like a usual hollow stone. I don't know if it was one of the ancient ones, those rock carvings from late Stone Age or from Bronze Age with carved or polished hollows. Since there are no written sources from that time, the experts have not agreed the meaning of these stones. They might be symbols of fertility, or used in sacrifice, or cult-tables in rituals etc. There are many ways to interprete these skålsten.
The sun was behaving well - look at sunshine on the church tower!  The church door was locked, like they usually are on a Saturday, but I can tell you who like unicorns that there is a frescoe with two unicorns at the tree of life inside the church! Outside are two chessboards on the wall - and those carved patterns are a mystery like the hollowed stones. No one knows how to make a certain interpretation of them. I believe they are the Devil's game board. When he played on this gameboard outside the church, he would not go into the church and disturb the service. But I might be wrong! No one knows. That's why it is so exciting to examine such things. Like a detective story.

chessboard, Spørring.

We went on and outside Spørring the landscape was covered in a light haze and the clouds began to gather. What now? You'll never know on a December afternoon. We came to Hadsten, just passing through. I have never been interested in the church in Hadsten which you can see on the photo I took from the car. I don't like the architecture, in my opinion it is boring. It's built in 1871-72. And the dull grey colour. No, I love the old Romanesque churches. Hadsten is a large village - almost a town - what we call a stationsby = railway town, between Århus and Randers. It has the shortest pedestrian zone in Denmark, 35 meter, with no name. In return Hadsten has got one of the largest model railways in Europe - called Model Railway Europe. But we must continue, for we did not stay in Hadsten. A few minutes later we heard screams and crying and I didn't know what it was. It was a tree with black flowers. Lots of rooks. What a racket. And close to a house! I'm glad I don't live there.
The next little stop was by the church in Lerbjerg, and here I couldn't find what was supposedly upon the wall, until I came home and looked in my book! Why didn't I look properly before we went out!

outside Lerbjerg church

But it was lovely outside the church dike and later we took a little stop by a small water stream, Lilleåen ( the Little river). There is much water in the streams now. That's good. Fresh, cool water for the fish and the water plants.  Lilleåen is the most important inlet of the big river, Gudenåen, more than half of the sea trouts go up the Lilleå. It's a good fishing place.

There was some cattle grazing close to a farm. Maybe they had to go inside soon. It was cold. Well, I think they can go out all day and night if it's Hereford. There was a little fat calf. It looked so funny. It was almost shaped like a square.

Near the Lilleå was a fishing lake, but I don't think the lake has any inlet of the river. They put out trouts in the fishing lake for people to catch, so you're always certain to bring fish with you home for suppper. You don't have to go buy fish from the fishmonger. It's a nice place and people bring their lunch and the children are fishing together with their dad.





Then we came to Bidstrup where we have been  several times. There is a fantastic beautiful landscape around Bidstrup. The present building is from the 1600s. 

Although I've got a better photo of the building itself I thought you should see the newly cut trees. The red building is a corner of a farm building. The estate might have roots in a fortification from the Viking period. The name Bidstrup is from the 1300s and means the place of the bishop. 

A few minutes after Bidstrup we saw two dilapidated houses. I don't know if they belong to the Bidstrup estate, but if they do then it's not worthwhile to restore them! They are probably private - and I guess they 'll soon be broken down, leaving place for something new.  







                                                     
                                  





















And then uphill to a special place called Lysnet Bakke. Lysnet Bakke (hill) lies in a landscape which rises markedly from a plateau-landscape. The transition is especially marked by a long 30-50 m high  slope. The inside of the hill is clay, which in one word can be described as plastic clay. The Lysnet Bakke is now a clay pit, from where was earlier extracted the plastic clay. The clay pit gives opportunities to watch the many various clay types, which are from a period 45-55 million years ago. The red clay, which you can see in some places,  is what 's called the Røsnæs clay. It's found in a few places in Denmark. The clay was deposited in an ocean, which covered large parts of the present North Sea-area, like Holland, Beligum, North Germany and all Denmark. South of the highest point is a clay pit, where was earlier extracted clay for a production of clinkers. The pit is marked by slippage today. The calcareous underground with slippage in the plastic clay gives possibilities for a rich flora, and some listed orchids grow here.From the hill is a fine view down to the landscape with the river in the middle. Stone Age people lived down there after the ocean had disappeared and the hills were their hunting place.This hill we stand on has been here forever and ever.

 


 

view from the hill down to the plateau-landscape, which lies in a haze

Then we continued our day-tour from the hill, first along the gravel road, and then it went downhill  through a lovely landscape. A pretty red house lies in shelter in the middle of the hilly area.  



 



 
























                                                                                                      

Next little stop was Vissing church,  placed  halfway downhill. Some churches in this area are very marked by frost and weather. The granite ashlars have got cracks on the northern and western side of the building. I guess it's the weather, for it's rare to see such cracked stones in the old ashlar churches, although they have been here for a thousand years. I suddenly saw a glimpse of a white cat on the church yard, but then it was just a little sculpture on a grave. There must be a sweet story about the cat's connection to this grave.
 

But the afternoon was icy cold. The wind had changed and I'm a sissy - sometimes. I wanted to go home to a warm house and have some good hot soup!

See you soon.


 

Source: Danmarks Naturfredningsforening.

photo 17. December 2011: grethe bachmann