The Viking from Fregerslev

The Viking Period
The Viking period is dated to ab. 750-1060 AC. The word Viking means "sea warrior" or "warfare at sea". Many strong men went on Viking expeditions which were often lootings and assaults, but most Vikings lived a more quiet life with farming, fishing and hunting. The Realm formation and the formation of cities and a new religion had a great impact on the development in Denmark. The Society was sharply divided and the differences of rich and poor, free and unfree were significant. The Fregerslev find is - from the golden brackets - dated to the middle of the 900s. The royal power was well founded in that period , although dependent on the aristocracy which supported the king. The aristocracy had an important role in the king's maintenance of the power, and they enjoyed the privilegies from this. 

 

 You can see the first photos from Skanderborg Museum of objects from the Fregerslev grave at their website:

 http://www.vikingfregerslev.dk/

Bayeux tapestry

The Find at Fregerslev.
In 2012 a unic grave site emerged in an archaeologic excavation at Fregerslev near Skanderborg.(Jutland) It was a complex of chamber graves, several from a younger part of the Viking period, the time of the Jelling Kings. A small investigation in one of the graves showed a magnificent decorated horse bridle, lavishly decorated with gilt bronze brackets and a silver plated trense.Supposedly the Viking from Fregerslev had a funeral with all the equipment necessary for his travel to Valhalla. The find from Fregerslev is probably one of the richest graves from the Viking period ever found in Denmark, and the scientific potential is  invaluable.The excavation of the fascinating grave ended 11 May 2017 but the adventure is not yet over. Many years ahead is a massive work with excavation and interpretation of many earth blocks, which were taken in from the grave. Some X-rays reveal something hidden in the blocks, like metal pieces from the harnes of the Viking's horse.

Chamber Grave.
Some of the Viking Age's wealthiest people were buried in chamber-graves. A chamber-grave consists of a wooden chamber, which is either dug down into the earth or placed in a mound. From Denmark and the old Danish area we know of around 60 chamber-graves. Most of the burials have been found in the area south of the Danish-German border. But they can also be found in Jutland, as well as on Funen, Langeland and Lolland. Such chamber-graves are yet to be found on Zealand. The grave type comes into use at the end of the 800s – perhaps to counter the advancing Christianity?

A chamber grave (Kammergrav) was a grave form reserved for the elite. It was a wooden chamber with enough place for the deceased, grave gifts and personal equipment. Chamber graves with a horseman's equipment are rare, they are only known from 45 finds from the Viking period in the old Danish region: the present Denmark, Skaane, Halland , Blekinge and Schleswig-Holstein. Few of these graves are well documented, especially because of old unfinished excavations or just old clearings of  grave hills. The latest excavated grave with horseman's equipment appeared in 1983 in Grimstrup at Esbjerg.

Viking Ship Museum, Oslo,B

ridle, Viking horse,wiki

In few welldocumented graves are few fine parallels. In Schleswig upon the grave sites Thumby, Bienebeck and Lanballigau are horseman's graves with objects which- as for shape and decoration - are contemporary to the decoration brackets in the Fregerslev grave. A few objects are almost identical and must be considered made in the same workshop. Maybe the king has ordered several identical set of bridles which he could give as an alliance gift to his faithful subjects.

The grave site in Fregerslev consists of a large grave chamber complex and two lesser graves. The two small graves are excavated, one grave measured at surface 267x172 cm, length north-south. The grave was only 38 cm deep and had no preserved objects. The other grave measured 265x170 cm at surface and was oriented west southwest. This grave was 120 cm deep - and in the fill were two layers of giant stones. In the bottom of the grave were traces of an oak coffin which had been lightly burned before the laying.

Bayeux tapestry

The Viking from Fregerslev
 At the same time were traces of a skeleton of a person 165-170 cm tall. The person lay on his back with head west. The skeleton was much dissolved, but it was however possible to see a strange crack upon the shine leg. The leg had possibly been broken, but it is uncertain if this happened before or after death. In this grave were not found any preserved objects, except a single iron nail, which probably was a part of the construction of the coffin. Around the grave was built a hedge or a small building. It is unusual to find constructions around the graves from the Viking period. With a broken shine leg and two layers of giant granite boulders above and a possible fence the person must have been something special - someone who should not rise from his grave. 

The Top of the Hierarchy.  
Based upon the richly decorated bridle for theViking's horse there is no doubt that this is a man from the top of the hierarchy in the Viking period. The uppermost power was the king, and his role depended on personal alliances military strength and foreign contacts. The Viking from Fregerslev might have had the title of Jarl (earl). He might have been an army chief administering a large piece of land, and one of his duties was to be a host for the king on his travels in the country. If - after the excavation - it would be possible to identify him as a known historic person or legendary figure depends on whether there are unic finds, like objects with runic inscriptions or other special finds, which might tell us,who this Viking was.

Jelling stones, Jelling, photo:gb 



The research project is a cooperation between Skanderborg Kommune, Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen, Nationalmuseet, Aarhus Universitet and Museum Skanderborg with appropriations from Augustinus Fonden and Den A.P.Møllerske Støttefond as well as funds from Slots' og Kulturstyrelsen and Skanderborg Kommune. The first part is to secure the find by excavation and following conservation of the grave equipment and performance of scientific examinations. Later come part two and three with respectively research and publication and exhibition and communication.

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Source: Skanderborg Museum and National Museum.

 

The Huldremose Woman

Huldremose Woman, or Huldre Fen Woman, is a bog body recovered in 1879 from a peat bog near the village Ramten in Jutland. Analysis by carbon 14 dating revealed the woman had lived during the Iron Age, around 160 BCE to 340 CE. The mummified remains are exhibited at the National Museum of Denmark (in Copenhagen). The elaborate clothing worn by Huldremose Woman has been reconstructed and displayed at several museums.

                                                                                                                                                            

Huldremose dress, front/wikipedia

Over 2000 years ago the body of a woman was put into an old peat bog in Huldremosen at Ramten village on Djursland, Jutland. The special oxygen poor conditions in the bog meant that the woman was preserved as a bog body with skin clothes and stomach contents. She was found in May 1879 by a worker, Niels Hansen, who was digging turf for a schoolteacher in Huldremose. In one meters depth he hit the body with his shovel and cut off its right hand. The schoolteacher was interested in archaeology and stopped the digging, and he kept guard by the body for the next couple of days until the district-medical from Grenaa arrived with a pharmacist and a police chief. The first theory was that the body had been the victim of a crime. At that time there was little knowledge about how to handle a situation like this, and the body of the woman was brought to the nearest farm where she was undressed and got a good bath! In connnection to this cleaning her hair fell off.  The criminal proceedings were given up and the body of the mysterious woman was buried in the church yard by the parish church Ørum nearby.

Huldremose woman, wikipedia

The doctor washed her clothes and dried them in his yard - and he wrote to the National Museum in Copenhagen from where they sent a telegram that they wanted both the body of the woman and her clothes - so the body was dug up and sent with her clothes on steamship to Copenhagen. In spite of the rough treatment of the 2000 year old clothes they hadn't suffered any damage - and they belong to the best preserved Danish textiles from antiquity.   Like most mummies found in Denmark the woman from Huldremose was fully dressed. Her dress is incredibly well preserved although it is 2000 years old.

She was more than 40 years old when she was  placed in the bog which was a high age at that time, in fact an old woman of Iron Age. The find has brought nutrition to various discussions and interpretations during times. A possible interpretation is that she was killed and following this sacrificed in the bog.The body was found with the legs bent behind the back, with a nearly severed right arm. Supposedly the arm was damaged by a shovel during excavation. Apart from this, the corpse was well intact.The dead lay with head west. The body was identified as a grown woman, probably rather slender built. The left thighbone had been broken and grown crookedly. She must have been limping.  

spergula arvensis/ wikipedia

According to science exist many informations about what had happened to people who later became bog bodies. The stomach contents can reveal the person's meal before death. It is known from the Huldremose woman's stomach contents that her last meal was rough grinded ray with a big content of seeds from the weed spergel (spergula arvensis). In her stomach were also animal hairs and rests of animal tissue. This indicated that she also had meat in her dish.

She wore a dress with a checkered skirt and a checkered scarf in sheep wool and two skin capes. The skirt was held around the waist with a narrow leather strap woven into a waistband. The scarf was tied around her head and fastened under the left arm with a needle from a bird's bone. On the upper body she wore outermost a cape made from several dark brown sheep skin with a collar of light sheep skin, the curly fur turning out. Under this she wore another cape with the fur side inwards. This was made from 11 small dark lamb skin. The cape was well used and had 22 sewn on patches. They did not cover a hole but contained a finely made bone comb, a narrow blue hair band and a lether strap, all wrapped in a bladder. This was obviously not a pocket, since the patches had to be cut up to get out the things. The insewen things possibly functioned as  amulets.

Huldremose woman, exhibition, National Museum/ wikipedia

Around the woman's long red hair was bound a woolen strip, winded several times around her neck. around the neck she wore another woolen strip with two amber pearls.  An imprint upon her left hand revealed that she had worn a finger ring, but there is no trace of a ring today - it was probably removed in connection to the finding of the body in 1879. Deep inside she wore a cloth made of plant fibres, maybe nettle or flax. There are only a few traces of this on her skin and the main part of the material was decomposed in the bog. The checker of the skirt and the scarf was alternately light and dark wool, and the long stay in the bog made the fabric brown. Colour analyses have shown that the skirt originally was dyed blue and the scarf dyed red.

Huldremose, Djursland, photo:gb

When the Huldremose Woman was killed more than 2000 years ago and was put into a bog/moor at Djursland, the moors were important ressources for people of Iron Age. In the moors were dug turf which was used as a building material and as fuel. Some moors contained bog iron ore, a raw material, which after processing could be made into iron.  The moors had a great importance for the daily life,  but the moors and wet areas were also a gate between two worlds -  the world of humans and the world of the gods. Humans sacrificed to the gods by putting gifts down into the water. The gifts were killed livestock, clothes, jewelry, tools and clay pots filled with food. The sacrifical gifts were meant to secure a good and abundant harvest. The greatest sacrifice was another human.

Tollund man, photo: stigbachmannnielsen, Naturplan foto

It is not known what happened in connection to the death of the Huldremose woman. She was fully dressed, had a ring on her finger, amulettes in one skin cape and two amber pearls around her neck, so she was not robbed of her possesions by her killers. Across her breast was a staff of willow wood. These features more reminds about care for the dead like in a funeral and not about a simple getting rid of a body after a crime. Maybe she died as the part of a ritual and was then placed in a sacred moor. Or she had abused the laws and had to fine for this with her life. But her burial was not a usual burial like a funeral pyre or a burial service of the Iron Age people. 

Forensic analyses have shown that the Huldremose woman had got a violent cut in her right upper arm. The theory was earlier that the cut of the arm was the reason for her death, and that she died from blood loss. Later investigations could not verify this theory, and it is possible that the damage might have happened later, fx in the turf digging of the bog. While she was alive she broke her right leg, but this fracture healed before her death. Her hair was bound with a long woolen cord laid several times around her neck. There are no marks on the neck which might indicate strangulation. Maybe the cord had a symbolic meaning. Strangulated people are known from other Danish bog bodies, like the bodies from Elling and Borremose and the famous Tollund Man.

About one hundred Danish bog bodies are preserved up till today because of the special good preservation conditions in the peat bogs. The mummified bog bodies where skin, hair and stomach contents are preserved count about a fourth, while the rest of the bog bodies are only skeletal parts. The most well preserved bodies like the Huldremose woman,  the Grauballe man and the Tollund man are found in raised bogs, where the necessary sour and oxygen poor condition is present.


source: National Museum, museumsinspektør Flemming Kaul
source: wikipedia

photo: grethe bachmann/ stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan foto.
photo: wikipedia

The Skrydstrupgirl /Skrydstruppigen

The Skrydstrupgirl at exhibition, National Museum.

 

 

After being buried in her coffin completely undisturbed in her grave hill for more than 3000 years the grave with the Skrydstrupgirl was found and opened in 1935.

 

The expectations were not great, the hill had been digged earlier, but after some days work it was obvious that this was one of Denmark's most important grave finds from Bronze Age.

 

The Skrydstrupgirl, National Museum.

Skrydstruppigen is a famous Danish grave find from Bronze Age. The Skrydstrupgirl was excavated in 1935 at the village Skrydstrup in South Jutland. She lived in ab. 1300 before our time. She was found in a gravehill by the "Hærvejen" 1 km southwest of the town Vojens. Her oakcoffin was placed upon a bed of stones and covered by a turf hill, measuring 13 meter diameter and 1,75 meter high. Two male persons were in similar coffins at the edge of the gravehill. All was covered by a larger turf hill, measuring 24 meter diameter and 4 m high.

The Cap, National Museum

At her death the girl was only 17 years old. She was buried in an oakcoffin in the middle of the hill, covered by stones. The oakcoffin was almost dissolved. She lay upon a cowskin, and by her head was a cap made in sprangteknik. (a special made cap for women). She rested upon a layer of sorrel and other plants, which tell us that she was buried in summer. She was buried in her dress: a short-sleeved blouse, made by woven wool with embroideries upon the sleeves and around the neck, a long woolen skirt covered her from waist to feet , belt and shoes; fastened to the belt was a decorated horn comb. Her clothes were wool from dark, redbrown sheep. Her only jewelry was large spiral ear rings in 24 karat gold. She had 60 cm long, ashblonde hair, set in a special hairstyle, which she could not have done without assistance. Over the hair was a fine hairnet of horse's hair. The hairstyle was very difficult to wear and much indicates it might have been some kind of burial hair style. She was 170 cm tall which was rather tall in comparison to her contemporaries at that time.

Example of her hairstyle, wikipedia.

When her hair was arranged it was first combed flat back from the forehead, then a valk (a lump of soft material, evt. filled with human hair) was put over the forehead-hair, and the hair was combed forth above a thin layer. The tips of the hair were divided in some little tufts which were braided in front, forming a  braid across the forehead, and all of it was kept on place with  a woolen string. Over the hair was put a fine hairnet, braided by horse's hair in front and back. It was fastened upon an almost 5 m long woolen string.  The string was twined several times around the head, so it was like a headband, and it kept the hairstyle and the hairnet on its place.


The hairstyle and the goldrings, the oak coffin and the gravehill tell us that the Skrydstrupgirl belonged to a socially rich family. Her teeth witness that she from child had nutrient food. This could be a sign of high social status. The people who lived along "Hærvejen",  had the far away trade with the southern countries in Europe, with fur and amber and with bronze and gold.

The cause of her death is not known. The study of the skeleton did not reveal any kind of disease.

Skrydstrupgirl and Egtvedgirl

Her teeth were in good condition; they had a thick layer of enamel and not the slightest sign of caries. Obviously she had not missed anything in her diet during her upbringing. Her dress and her hair also witness about surplus and at the same time a great concern for the diseased. Her high position in society is underlined by the grave form itself , a gravehill of 13 meter diameter and 1,75 in height demanded lots of ressources to build, and the gathering of about 6000 peats was a common task for the local society.



New Knowledge.

Groundbreaking Danish research shows that the distinguished Skrydstrupgirl who was found in a gravehill in South Jutland in 1935 was not born or grew up in Denmark. The news were revealed in the TV- broadcast "Historien om Danmark" in April 2017. A unique recording in the TV-programme shows the moment in the laboratory when the discovery is obvious. The Skrydstrupgirl came from south of Denmark. This is a discovery which will change the understanding of much material from the Bronze Age, said professor Karin Margarita Frei from the National Museum of Copenhagen, who was the in the head of the examination.

It was also a sensation worldwide in 2015 when another grave find from antiquity revealed , that the iconic Egtvedgirl was not from Denmark, but was born and grew up in the southern Germany. This makes the discovery of the same result for the Skrydstrupgirl even more interesting. The result is important, because it shows that the Egtvedgirl was no special case; it seems to be a pattern, which tell us how humans, and in this case women, travelled and moved around in Bronze Age.

Karin M. Frei was also behind the examination of the Egtvedgirl, but contrary to the Egtvedgirl the examination of the Skrydstrupgirl shows all her life from childhood till death. This is the first time this has happened. Contrary to the Egtvedgirl who did travel several times during her life the Skrydstrupgirl was only out on one travel,  the travel from her birthplace to the region at Skrydstrup. The young woman came to the region at Skrydstrup when she was 13-14 years old, until then she had lived in a place many hundred kilometers away from this neigbourhood. She might have lived in the northern part of the Czech Republic, in France or in Mid Germany. After her arrival to Denmark she lived in South Jutland for almost 4 years before she died, ab.17 years old, around 1300 BC. She moved from south to north, possibly to create an alliance between two powerful families by marriage.

The Skrydstrupgirl's hairstyle /wikipedia

In order to map the ways of the Skrydstrupgirl professor Karin Frei has examined a 6-year tooth, a wisdom tooth, an about 50 centimeter long lock of hair  and some bones. Those things tell about food, upbringing  and geographical location through her life. Her grave has told us that she belonged to the elite of the society both before and when she came to Denmark. Her teeth tell us that she from child had nutritious diet,  which can be a sign of high status.

According to professor of archaeology at Gøteborg University , Kristian Kristiansen, the result has a significant importance for our understanding of Bronze Age. The Skrydstrupgirl emphasizes that Bronze Age was a time of globalization. People went from south to north in connection to marriage, and they went on long trade travels. Now there are scientific proofs that this is the case.

It is strange the Egtvedgirl died young too, there are no sign of disease in the bones and no sign of violence. It seems special that she died that young. Examinations shows that the Skrydstrupgirl was healthy, and the scientists have wondered what might have killed her. It was not possible to see from the bones if she had had any children, and if her death might be because of a childbirth. Much indicates that the Skrydstrupgirl migrated to Denmark when she was 13-14 years of age , an age where women were considered ready to marry in Bronze Age. 

 

National Museum exhibition:" Danmarks Oldtid." 

Karin Frei and the National Museum continue mapping other grave finds from Bronze Age. The investigation of the Skrydstrupgirl was only the first in a series. By mapping the origin of several Bronze Age women they hope to achieve a deeper insight in Bronze Age. 

The research project named: Bronzealderkvindens fortællinger. (The tales of the Bronze Age women) has its own web site.

The Skrydstrupgirl from ab. 1300 bc , the Egtvedgirl, who was buried in the summer 1370 BC and the other oakcoffin graves with dresses and jewelry are on the exhibition: "Danmarks Oldtid".

The Skrydstrupgirl's  oakcoffin was almost dissolved, only a small part was preserved around her head. At the exhibition she lies in a coffin from another hill, Mølhøj. At Haderslev Museum is a copy of her dress, and a bronze statue of the Skrydstrupgirl is set up in the town Vojens.

Bronze Age House in Thy, North Jutland (wikipedia) 

The Skrydstrupgirl's House.
During  Bronze Age arose in the region of Vojens a wealth center  ab. 1800-1000 bc. This is seen by the building of a number of grave hills and impressive houses. The Skrydstrupgirl's family was one of the strong parts in the building of this center. This period is often named Denmarks first Golden Age.

Much gold ended as grave equipment in the gravehills.  An important explanation  why a wealth center arose just at this place is the geography of the region. Here lies Hærvejen and it was via this road the precious metal came to the north.

In 1993 gravel was extracted in South Jutland. Museum Sønderjylland  examined the area and found several houses from Bronze Age; especially two houses were interesting.

One house was a more than 50 meter long and 10m broad hall, more than 500 square meter was under roof. It is the largest house from Bronze Age from this period in Scandinavia. The region was an important area with a great activity. The house was divided in three rooms, the living room, the barn, the stable. The dating of the house was 1500-1330 BC. Charred corn (mostly wheat) and mold residues show that the lord of the house both mastered the hard bronze casting and was able to get hold of the coveted metal. 

Another huse was under a small gravehill, the house was 30 m long and a little more than 7 m broad. Rooms were divided like in the big house. The dating of this house was between 1320 and 1220 BC. The house lay here upon the hillside at the same time as the Skrydstrupgirl lived (she was buried in one of the great Bronze Age hills only 600 m southwest of this house). Maybe she lived in this house, if so it might have been her grandfather or great grandfather who built the great hall.



Source: National Museum, Copenhagen; professor Karin M. Fre;  professor Kristian Kristiansen, Gøteborgs Universitet, and wikipedia. 
photo: National Museum and wikipedia. 

The Trundholm Sun Chariot/ Solvognen - Bronze Age

front side with gilding

The sun chariot (the Trundholm Sun Chariot)  is a Danish national treasure and a uniqe find from Bronze Age made in bronze and gold. The sun chariot is a horse drawing a sun disk. The horse and the disk stand upon the rests of six wheels  - and both horse and disk have eyelets in order to fasten the strings. The sun disk is coated with gold in fine patterns and circular motifs.

landmark/Odsherred municipality

The sculpture was found on 7th September 1902 in Trundholm Mose (a peat bog) in the northwestern part of Zealand in the region Odsherred in connection to the first ploughing of the moor. The finder Frederik Willumsen brought his discovery back home and let his son play with the horse, he thought  it was just an old piece of toy. The sun chariot had however already been damaged once in Bronze Age when it was placed in the moor as a sacrifice to the gods. A metal detector revealed in 1998 new fragments of the six wheels in the same spot. The sculpture is dated by the Nationalmuseet to about 1800 to 1600 BCE though other dates have been suggested. Unfortunately the chariot was found before pollen-dating was developed, which would have enabled a more confident dating. The sun chariot is now in the collection of the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. 

backside with no gilding

The disk has a diameter of approximately 25 cm (9.8 inches). It is gilded on one side only, the right-hand side (when looking in the direction of the horse). It consists of two bronze disks that are joined by an outer bronze ring, with a thin sheet of gold applied to one face. The disks were then decorated with punches and gravers with zones of motifs of concentric circles, with bands of zig-zag decoration between borders. The gold side has an extra outer zone which may represent rays, and also a zone with concentric circles linked by looping bands that "instead of flowing in one direction, progress like the steps of the dance, twice forward and once back". The main features of the horse are also highly decorated

The gilded sun disk is placed upon the sun chariot and the chariot noves from left to right towards the sun during the day The opposite side of the chariot lacks the gilding on the sun disk -  this is the darkened sun at night on its way back from right to left to its starting point at sun rise, so the sun chariot illustrates with the two different sides the movement of the sun during day and night.

A Sun Horse in Mindeparken in Aarhus /photo gb.

People in Bronze Age did not believe in human gods as is known from the Viking period. They worshipped powers which preserved nature, powers which arranged for the rebirth of the day each morning and the rebirth of the planets each spring. They worshipped the sun as a divine power. The sun gave life and light at day, made the plants grow and the corn ripen in the summertime. It was necessary that the sun's travel across the sky continued day after day and year after year. The sun chariot was an image of this travel -  and it is possible that the priests of Bronze Age used it in religious feasts to show how the horse was drawing the sun across the sky.

The sun chariot is a witness of the religion of Bronze Age. The sun was center of the religion. People  in Bronze Age imagined that the sun was being drawn across the sky in the daytime. In the morning a fish brought the sun to a ship which carried the sun until noon. The sun horse took over and brought the sun to the afternoon ship. At evening a snake brought the sun back to the underworld which lay below the flat earth. Down here the sun was dark and it was by night ships brought back to the starting point in the morning where the fish once again took over. Thus the cycle of the day was kept for all eternity by the helpers of the sun - the fish, the horse the snake and the ships.

petroglyphs/ Grevinge

The conceptual world of the sun chariot is supported by several petroglyphs and decorations upon razors, upon jewelry, weapon and tools.Both in the petroglyphs and on the razors the horse is drawing the sun in a string, the wheels on the Danish sun chariot do actually not belong to the story. The wheels were added so the sun disk and the horse in ritual ceremonies could be drawn forth and back to make an image of the solar motion. By examining over 400 bronze artifacts the Danish archaeologist Flemming Kaul found out that the figures show the Bronze Age man's experience of the eternal travel of the sun.  All these figures and creatures were not only found in the Danish Bronze Age but were also a part of the religion of Egypt and large parts of Europe at that time. In Denmark the Bronze Age people had contacts to people far away -  they exchanged wares and got the popular bronze in return for amber and fur.

Sól and Mani, drawing by Lorenz Frølich 1895

Norse mythology. 

Despite the enormous gap in time, between varying sources, particularly Norse mythology, known from 13th AD century sources, the distinct reference of the sun being drawn by chariot is found in Norse mythology. Many attest that the Norse myths were preserved orally for an unverifiable time period before being written down, similar to the Vedic texts. In Norse mythology, Sól is the personified goddess of the Sun, the corresponding Old English name is Siȝel, continuing reconstructed Proto-Germanic Sôwilô or Saewelô. The Old High German Sun goddess is Sunna.. Every day, Sól rode through the sky on her chariot, pulled by the two horses Arvak and Alsvid. The sun chariot has been interpreted as representing a Bronze Age predecessor to the goddess. The chariot has also been interpreted as a possible Bronze Age predecessor to Skinfaxi,   the horse that pulled Dagr, the personification of day, across the sky.






Source,   Gyldendals og Politikens Danmarkshistorie, bd. 1, "I Begyndelsen";
samt Wikipedia dansk og engelsk og Nationalmuseet, København.     


photo fra Wikipedia, Wikimedia,
photo Solhesten, Mindeparken, Aarhus: grethe bachmann          

The Vikings - The Ring Castles in Denmark

1) Trelleborg

Trelleborg house, photo: grethe bachmann 2004

A special class of monuments from the Viking Age are four ring castles or military camps in Denmark  The earliest found is Trelleborg at Sjælland (Zealand). It lies in the western part of Sjælland ab. 4 km west of the town Slagelse, between this and Storebælt, where two rivers meet - and from here they are running as one river out into the sea north of the town Korsør. The Viking ring castles are colloquially known as "Trelleborge". The ring castle Trelleborg at Sjælland was placed upon the land between two rivers in the late Viking period, the excavations showed that it probably was built upon an ancient blót-place, which was seen from several sacrifice pits and from some house-rests. After comprehensive fill- and levelling work the castle was built, according to a thoroughly worked-out  project, which by skilled engineers were laid out in the field with extraordinary mathematical precision. The ring castle consisted of two components: a main castle and a front castle.

map from wikipedia

The main castle is a circular place, surrounded by a strong and still existing ring bank, which towards the land side (south and east) is further strengthened by a curved broad and deep moat. This ring bank had four gates, one to each corner of the world, and these gates were interconnected  two and two (crosslike) with wooden streets crossing in the center of the place and dividing it in four equal sized sections. In each section were 4 equal size houses, arranged in blocks, a total of 16 houses. With their curved long walls and their straight cut ends these houses looked like ships with cut bows. Each house was divided in 3 rooms, one smaller in each end and a large mid-room, 18 meter long. The planks of the houses have disappeared, but have left marks in the earth in several places, which show the plan and the contour of the buildings.

A few lesser houses were noticed, partly guard houses at two gates, partly chief houses in the middle of two blocks, and finally a ship-shaped house in smaller dimensions north of the northeastern block. It seems furthermore that inside, along the ring bank, was a ring street. The ring bank had palisades on both sides and was in several places strengthened with an inside timber reinforcement. The 4 gates, which behind the palisades had strong stone packings, were covered by a timber loft and worked as tunnels. Outside they could be closed by a couple of gate wings (iron rings and big keys were found by the entrances). Outside, towards the landside, the ring bank was dressed with a mantle of stiff clay, held together by wooden sticks and branches. Towards the meadows, to the northwest and southwest, the bank rested upon a foot of stone and post work and was higher up covered by vertical palisades.

Trelleborg, the castle site, wikipedia

The second component of the castle was a reinforcement belt towards the landside = a front castle. This belt, which was curved to the south like the curve of the main castle, but square to the north, was fortificated with a low bank and a flat moat. Upon the curved section was built in a radial construction: total 13 elliptic longhouses in the same shape as the 16 block houses of the main castle, but of a little smaller size. Upon the square section of the belt were near the castle (outside its eastern gate)  two similar houses placed parallelly; and further to the east was the castle's burial site with ab. 150 graves, probably  following the ancient sacrifice place, which before Trelleborg's building belonged to the sacrifice place out on the isthmus. The  entrance to main castle and front castle were both from the south.

Trelleborg, photo H. Stiesdal 1948/ Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne, Gyldendal 1960  

An impressive  plan like Trelleborg was made by engineers. The used unit of measure is an approximated Roman foot (Roman normal foot: 29,57 cm - the calculated medium size of the Trelleborg foot is 29.33 cm ), which is shown in all the main measures of the castle. The block houses are 100 feet long, the front castle houses 90 feet, the ring bank is 60 feet broad, the small houses in the middle of the two blocks are 30 x 15 feet. Radius from the center to the inner edge of the ring bank is 234 feet, the distance between the two moats is also 234 feet, while the distance from the center to the nearest gables of the front castle houses has the double measure = 468 feet. In the construction the center was chosen first, from where the circular curves were marked which limit the banks and moats; the same center is also the cutting point of the two mutually perpendicular main axis, which divide the main castle area in four equal large sections, which continue through the four gates. All over the constructors have used extremely care and precision.The whole building plan inside the ring is constructed in squares.

 Example of house at Fyrkat/ photo grethe bachmann

Example of house at Fyrkat: photo: grethe bachmann 2010


Trelleborg has a splendid location in the large meadows with its back to the higher mainland. The holes in the underground from the houses are marked in the grass by cement -  the ring banks and the moats are partly rebuilt, and the visitors will get a stunning impression of how a Viking garrison looked in the Viking period. The National Museum has constructed a modelhouse in full size, it's like one of the front castle houses. It was  placed upon the site in a short distance from the castle. The modelhouse is built in wand construction with walls of broad vertical planks. The roof is constructed above cross beams where stand vertical short posts, it has a length-curved ridge and is thatched with wood chippings. Outside along the longwalls run a low gallery with its own roof; its purpose might have been to guard the longwall against rain and snow. A house had usually door in both gables and in both cross walls, and there were two side-doors in the long mid-room, one placed in each longside and always counterposed diagonally. The gable rooms had sometimes digged cellars ( maybe storerooms for food or waste pits or even dungeons). In the large mid-room was a plank or clay floor and a fireplace in the middle, and at the sides were probably broad sitting- and lying benches. In the roof probably an air hole (a lyre). The Trelleborg house is like this description. It is not certain and can never be if this house is exactly like it  really was. The construction has been critizised and there have been suggestions about other Trelleborg houses. The Fyrkat houses can tell us more ( see the coming article about Fyrkat). The Trelleborg house was renovated in the 1980s.

Trelleborg, common burial, photo 1948 NN/ Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne, Gyldendal 1960.  


The burial site of Trelleborg tells us as expected that the main part of the buried were young or younger men (20-40 years); but there were also several women, a few children and some old people. The gifts in the graves were relatively few. Nothing indicates Christianity, unburnt burials with the body placed east-west were known in Denmark before Christianity arrived and marked the burial customs. Three graves were common graves, the largest with ten burials. The grave gifts included only few weapons ( most remarkable was an unusually  broad-edged, but also narrow-bladed silverplated war axe ) - there were several tools, like blacksmith tools and agricultural tools (scythe blades and a ploughshare). And furthermore jewelry, claypots and things for spinning and weaving. These things give Trelleborg a safe dating: namely to the last part of the 10th century and the first half of the 11th  (ab. 975-1050). The life of the castle was not long, but obviously it did exist, when Sven Tveskæg conquered England and when Cnut the Great fought the Three King Battle at Helgeaa.

 Trelleborg, silverchain with Thor-hammer, Danish/ Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne, Gyldendal 1960.


It is also obvious that Trelleborg was a military camp and a naval base. The location is classic with an easy access to the sea and however with protection and shelter from assault and floods. Ship could supposedly be trailed up the river stream to the castle, and each ship-shaped blockhouse housed a ship's crew. The contents of the graves (as for agricultural tools) indicate that the people of the castle had to provide supplies so they did not have to rob the farmers from the neighbourhood.

Trelleborg gives witness about a strong organizing power. This can only be a king, who was able to build such great plans. There are no supporting points, which indicate that a hostile power was stuck in Denmark. The archeaological finds do not tell about this -  and not history either. But history tells another story: that this period was marked by a Danish display of power. Trelleborg had room for 1200 men. It is not known when the Trelleborg camp went out of use. There are no traces after a finishing fire.

Text/translated: grethe bachmann 
Source Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne,Gyldendal 1960. 
 Next:  Aggersborg, Fyrkat, Nonnebakken. 

Information from Slagelse Municipality 2013:
Trelleborg is a fantastic piece of cultural heritage from the Viking period and the best and best preserved of the three circular castles Fyrkat, Trelleborg and Aggersborg. Together with among fx the Jelling monuments and Dannevirke the ring castles tell us about a very exiting and crucial time in Danish an European history.
The location Trelleborg was never forgotten, the main part of the earth banks were directly visible right up to the beginning of the excavation - and the circular inner bank is seen clearly upon maps from the 1600s and onward, but the character of the installations was first known as a Viking fortification when the National Museum started the excavations in 1934 under the leadership of archaeolog Poul Nørlund.  The excavation was provoked by a local motorcycle club who had rented the area in 1933 for the purpose of converting it into a motocross track.   
(Source:  Slagelse Kommunes hjemmeside. )




Other Informations (Source: wikipedia):

Trelleborg was the first discovery of a circular castle in Denmark.
 
The Trelleborg area is about 6 ha = 12 football fields. F

The excavation, the registration of findings and the reconstruction of building works were published in 1948 in a scientific paper written by Poul Nørlund. 

In 1979 it was succeeded to do a dendrochronological dating of wooden pieces from Trelleborg, and it was detected that the trees were felled in June or July 980.

For the building of Trelleborg was felled half of the oak woods which existed at Sjælland.


Already in Poul Nørlund's paper the building master was identified as either Harald Blåtand or Sven Tveskæg, mostly all scholars,who have commented this question, agree that it must be the same person, who was the building master of these castles. One of the essential arguments is the precise geometry in the main line of the plan and the common characteristics in the craftmanship. Another argument is the great  similarities in the design of the plans. The dendrochronological datings from Trelleborg points at Harald Blåtand as the building master and because of the dating the historians now mostly agree to point at Harald.

There are no written sources which mention the ring castles in a direct way. The known Scriptures close to the events are the chronicle by bishop Thietmar of Merseburg, written 1013-18, and an unnamed monk of St. Omer's tribute to Cnut the Great's widow, written about 1040. Here is a possible reference to the Trelleborgs, since it is told that Sven Tveskæg fortified his kingdom with castles, which had to be a protection against the enemies who had invaded and occupied the country.

Adam of Bremen's work from ab. 1070, descriptio insularum Aquilonis, illustrated a number of factors related to the Danish Viking period , but there has not been identified any mention of the ring castles. The Danish chronicles from the Middle Ages (Aggesen and Saxo) have no direct references either. It is remarkable that the ring castles are not mentioned, and it seems that the writers did not know the existence of the castles - and this is an indirect evidence of the short lifetime of these castles.


Latest info: 

Wooden shield from Trelleborg, exhibition Moesgård Museum Århus

In September 2008 archaeologists from Sydvestsjællands Museum and from Moesgård Museum (Århus) found a wooden shield during an excavation at Trelleborg. It is the first time a wooden shield was found in Denmark. The shield is about 80 cm diameter with a characteristic hole in the middle for the shield boss. The shield is dated to the Viking period and to the castle's usage period in the end of the 900s.

Anders Dorset, one of the leading archaeologist at the excavations, also considers that the examination shows evidence of that Trelleborg had a clear maritime significance.

The Mask in the Stone

Viking Age
The Sjellebro Stone/
Sjellebrostenen. 

North of Allingå river stands a special stone. It is easy to recognize from the country road, and when you go up to it in the meadow you can see a carved troll-like image with plaited beard on the flat side of the granite stone. Opposite to the runestones from that time - which were removed from their original place -  this stone still stands in its original place, where it has marked an old crossing point by the river. It was probably coloured in the Viking period, and it was possibly meant as a protection for the wayfarers against evil powers.

The Sjellebro-stone

The stone was found in 1951. It rested with the mask image downwards upon the same place where it had been for time immemorial, until the owner of the meadow sent for the National Museum; he had observed strange lines on the stone. The secret of the stone was revealed, showing a carved male head, a grotesque mask with a pointed chin, large round eyes and a clumpsy nose and a plaited beard. A bogeyman? A troll? Or was it the merman?

Four Prehistoric Roads
The find lead to an archaeological excavation in the meadow, and 4 well-preserved road-layouts from prehistoric time were found. The excavation revealed timber and heavy oak planks, a  road which was placed close to the Sjellebro Inn, plank by plank. It is wellknown that there were skilled engineers in the late prehistorics, and the four uncovered roads  increased the respect. From Iron Age was a paved ford, a solid road of timber from the middle of the 700s and an even better bridge from ab. 1000. The roads have replaced each other through centuries. The meadow was probably under water in winter and sludge has covered the soil. When one road was buried in sludge they built a new one. Other and later roads are seen in the shape of raised and grassgrown  road dams between the mask stone and the present high road dam.

Upon the wooden roads rested the planks of the driving road upon longtimber, which again rested upon cross-timber. For more support were poles driven in or downburied - each was securely strengthened. The poles stood three and three with regular intervals, but they did not support the timber foundation of the road, they supported instead the planks of the roadway. The stone roads,which rested upon layers of timber and branches, were edged with heavy field stones.

Through many centuries there was a road here at Sjellebro, and when one road decayed they built another. The tecnique changed and they built a bridge in 1860. The road was still placed between the mask stone and the present country road, the bridge was oak timber, but in 1928 the last rests of this road disappeared, which at least came from Chr. IV's time. Today the country road is asphalt, the bridge is granite and concrete.

The mask stone belonged presumably to the upper plank road. It was placed in the roadside bringint its message  - whatever it was  - to the wayfarers. 

The Århus-Stone, (Mammen style)

Similar Mask Stones

There were no runes on the Sjellebro stone. Similar mask images are known from other stones, both in Denmark and Sweden, and they all have runes. The most wellknown and the prettiest of all mask stones is the Århus stone with an inscription saying:  "Gunulv og Øgot og Aslak og Rolf rejste denne sten efter deres fælle Ful. Han fandt døden ... da konger kæmpede".

English: Gunnulfr and Eygautr/Auðgautr and Áslakr and Hrólfr raised this stone in memory of Fúl, their partner, who died when kings fought.


Market
It is not that long ago the passage was difficult and dangerous. Sjellebro was then a place where people stopped and met, and the Sjellebro Inn still lies  here, but it is now a boarding school. Far back in time there was a market at Sjellebro which was celebrated up till the 1920s. People traded horses, cattle, pigs and especially sheep. There was entertainment too, like a medival market. The trade was mostly in open air, but there were tents and sheds for the incomers.The Sjellebro Inn and the trading life at Sjellebro might go as far back as to the Viking period.

The Merman, Elsinore

The Merman
At Sjellebro it was in the old days important to beware that there was a merman in the river - and he claimed an annual human sacrifice. Sometimes it took years before accidents happened; once it took 6 years, but in the 7th year a waggon with 7 people crashed and they all perished in the river. The merman had got what belonged to him on back payment.

Various legends and sinister stories went from mouth to mouth through generations. An old woman told in the 1950s what her parents and grandparents had told her, about a married couple, who drowned in the crossing point on their way home from market in Randers. She knew their graves on the church yard in the village Lime.

 Today the country croad at Sjellebro is broad and safe, and the merman has died - or at least disappeared, but both the legends and the finds from the excavations remind about the traffic of the past in the meadow downside Sjellebro Inn, west of the present Randers- Ebeltoft road. The place is quiet. Cars are quickly passing upon the road without noticing the ancient stone in the meadow or the pretty river valley, but the Merman is still waiting down there, speaking his old words: "Time has come - but the man has not yet come....."




Source: 
Danske Fortidsminder, Danmarks Kulturarv Forening; Skalk, nr. 4, 1957, Sjellebrostenen, Georg Kunwald ; Danske Runeindskrifter, Natiolnalmuseet.

BOATS OF GOLD

From a burial mound in Thy in North Jutland is an unusual find: a clay vessel with 100 little gold boats. Every boat is built by leaves of gold foil around cross ribs of bronze bands. The boats are between 10 -17 cm long, and they have by form and construction a strong resemblance to the stretched dugouts , which are known from Slusegård. Their age is uncertain - they are dated to as well late Bronze Age as to Iron Age. From the form and from the simple decoration - and regarding the riches of gold i late Roman period and early Germanic Iron Age - then the fourth or fifth century A.D seems to be the most probable dating, and then they are a fine illustration of the Iron Age's little dugouts. 95 boats are at the National Museum, and five have been returned to Thisted Museum in Thy.




The story behind the find:
A little more than 100 years ago the small village Nors in Thy became wellknown throughtout the country, caused by the find of 100 gold boats. It started on Tuesday 12. May 1885, when the farmers Hans Jensen from Thisted Mark and Jens Lukassen from Brund were digging grovel at Thorshøj. (burial mound). Close east of the hill they had opened a new hole in the slope, when the mattock hit the bottom of a large clay vessel just below the surface, and the contents of the vessel came rattling down over the surprised finders. Lots of small boats in gold sheet sailed down the slope. Both men knew at once that this was really something special. Each piece was carefully gathered and put into their lunch box (old-fashioned wooden box, named a tejne) - and with this they went to the nearby city Thisted and presented their find to the local authorities, which sent the unusual find to Oldnordisk Museum in Copenhagen (which later became the National Museum) with a description of the happening and a request that the finders would be paid the value of the find - and if they kept the lunch box in Copenhagen the farmers also wanted to have the value of this, ( 80 øre = 4/5 of a krone). The finders got the gold value 480 Danish kroner and a reward of 20 kroner plus the 80 øre for the lunch box.
Only 14 days later the same two men found in the same place a large heavy gold ring with a weight of 400 gram. This was also sent to Oldnordisk Museum, and the finders got over 900 kroner. At that time an average hourly wage was 20 øre (1/5 krone). So first 480 kroner and then over 900 kroner. A lot of money - and although they had to share, the money meant a turning point in their life.
To deliver the gold boats as Danefæ belongs to an old practice. The rules about Danefæ are some of the earliest legal provisions in Europe, which are still used - they go back to Jyske Lov of 1241. (Valdemar II Sejr). Back then as today it is the basis that find of gold and silver (with no owner) belonged to the king (today to the State) - should be handed over for a remuneration , which is the metal value of the find and a reward , dependent on the rarity of the find and the finder's taken care of the things. Today the Danefæ-rules are extended - i.e. rare ancient things in other material than gold and silver might be declared Danefæ.

Source: Gyldendals Danmarkshistorie, Danernes Land, 200 F.KR til 700 ; Bredal Geocaching.



photo Thisted Museum 2006: grethe bachmann