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.

.
Source: Skanderborg Museum and National Museum.

 

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.

Mariager By, Mariagerfjord Kommune, Region Nordjylland

Today Mariager is a small town with 2527 inhabitants (2015). It lies on the southern side of Mariager fjord. Mariager lies in Mariagerfjord kommune and belongs to Region Nordjylland.
 
Mariager was a small village until the middle of the 1400, when a Bridgettine abbey was built. This

made the village grow into a market town with trade and handicrafts. There was later no effect on the town from the industrialization which means that it still has a medieval touch with many pretty old houses in the paved streets.

Mariager lies close to the beautiful Mariager fjord by the forested coast of the fjord. High slopes with forest rise behind the houses. Except for the abbey and its high tower all the houses are low. It was the Bridgettines who gave the town its name when they chose to place their Jutland abbey here and named it Mariager abbey. Mariager means Maria's ager = Maria's field (after Virgin Mary). 

There was already a small fishing village in the 1400s and a ferry for the traffic between the towns Randers and Aalborg, but the abbey meant economic progress for the village, and gradually flocked merchants, innkeepers and craftsmen to the town, and rich nobility began buying burial chapels by the church. Mariager abbey became a church of pilgrimage and one of few places in Denmark where people could buy indulgence for their sins. This made the church immensely rich.The pilgrims lead to a substantial revenue for the city's trade, and several guesthouses were built. The town's good times went on until the reformation in 1536, where the administration of the abbey was transferred to the Crown


 The decline for Mariager meant that when it finally got municipal rights in 1592 it had under 500 inhabitants. After this it was the raw materials together with fishing, farming and foresting, which made the basis for the income of the town. An important income was malt and spirits which were shipped to Copenhagen. 

Town Hall

Mariager got a pharmacy in 1816, and the town house was built in 1822  In 1829 a physician came to town and two years later a post office was established -  in 1853 a savings bank and street lights in 1859.  Mariager became service center for the hinterland and grew faster than in the abbey-period, but after the start of the Hadsund-bridge some of the trade moved to the town of Hadsund. 

Hotel Postgaarden

The old city section has kept its original street net, which forms an architectonic whole with old pavements and timbered, thatched houses, almost each house has a garden, which also gives a medieval mark. The town hall at the town square is classistic, the Hotel Postgården is from the 1700s and was earlier a vicarage, but since the 1800s it has functioned as a guest house. 

City Museum

Mariager city-museum is furnished in a pretty, old merchant house from the 1700s with an external gallery on the yard-side. Besides being a city-museum it has alternative art exhibitions and a kloster garden with medicine herbs. The town square is the most significant place in town. Here is also carved in the street a plan of the earliest parish church from the 1100s. 

by tourist and Saltcenter

The town has a small marina and a tourist boat

veteran railway site

Svanen which in summer sails from Hobro via Mariager, Hadsund and to the mouth of Mariager fjord. At the harbour is also Danmarks Saltcenter with café, a museum for salt mining, where people can visit a salt mine and a bathing salt lake with the byname Det døde Hav. A veteran railsway goes from the harbour to a small town Handest 17 km west. Mariager's landmark is Mariager klosterkirke from the 1400s, the tall building and tower stands on a hillside and rise above all the roofs of the town. 

by Mariager fjord

tourist boat Svanen

Mariager has a long tradition for preserving the town and its houses, and  it has a rich selection of special shops and grocery stores. Shipping and tourism also play a big role in the employments. 
Tourism is today considered the central income of Mariager.. In 2013 Mariagerfjord Kommune with Mariager by was certificated as a Cittaslow city. Cittaslow is a movement for cities which want to set focus on a more simple lifestyle. In Denmark are two cities certifacted: Mariager in Jutland and Svendborg at the island of Funen.






Assens between Mariager and Hadsund was earlier the home of a big part of Denmarks  cement industry. In the chalcerous soil in the chalk pits is one of the largest orchid presences in Denmark. The old smitty at Dania is a working museum and along the road by the fjord lie Assens Nyboder, the earlier houses of the workers from the factory.



Mariager klosterkirke was built in connection to the abbey in the 1400s. See my blog Church and Manor for article about Mariager abbey.




Source Danmarks Købstæder, Søren Olsen, 2000

photo: grethe bachmann

photo town hall: Google earth. 

Rudolph Tegner Museum , Zealand

- in a park called Rusland. 

The Rudolph Tegner Museum is set in the middle of a protected area just south of Dronningmølle on Zealand's  north coast, some 50 km north of Copenhagen. .The museum building was built to Tegner's own design with the assistance of the architect Mogens Lassen. Construction began in 1937 and it was inaugurated in 1938. A renovation was completed in 2003.

The park called Rusland, the Danish name for Russia.

The museum is built in concrete to an unusual bunker - like Modernist design. The building needed large dimensions to embrace Tegner's works many of which are of very large proportions. The museum has been built without picture windows to avoid distracting the visitor with views of the scenic surroundings. Except for a small window in the gable, all natural light comes from skylights. Concrete as a material was chosen for reasons of fire safety The facade bears reference to Antique architecture. The difference in scale between the entrance section and the main gallery is designed to create an overwhelming experience for those entering the museum and to enhance its character of a treasury.



Rudolph Tegner's art is very significant and conspicious with violent monumental  measures. Many were being provoced in his time by the size and the fierceness of the sculptures, maybe because they were a contrast to the classicism of the sculptor Berthel Thorvaldsen. In the heather hills surrounding the museum are 14 Tegner sculptures set up. In the building is a permanent collection of about 250 sculptures and sketches in plaster, clay, bronze and marble.

Rudolph Tegner started his combination of art and nature after he in 1916 bought the central section of the area. He later handed over the land with all the sculptures to the public. The area is protected. There is free access all year. The area is known as Rusland, the Danish name for Russia. It consists of undulating heath with scattered trees and juniper vegetation

Entrance

 

A dog was guarding the museum!

 photo Rudolp Tegner sculpture park, Zealand: grethe bachmann

 LINK:
http://www.rudolphtegner.dk/

A Dark Variety of Silver-washed Fritillary in Bjerge skov south of Horsens.

Argynnis paphia: Silver-washed Fritillary/ Kejserkåbe; 
dark variety :  Argynnis paphia f. valesina

an orange male meets the valesina

In the month of  July the Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia)  is easy to observe in Bjerge/Bjerre skov, a forest south of Horsens. On this day in mid July there were numbers of the pretty orange male flying around among the brambles. The Danish name is Emperor's Robe, and the beautiful deep orange colour with the spots and stripes would fit an emperor very well.

But suddenly came a dark variety, which we had never seen before.There was even a date between an orange male and a dark silver-washed female upon the road. 

This dark variety was named by a famous English lepidopterist Frederick William Frohawk, who named it after his daughter Valezina and called it Argynnis paphia f. valesina.  This spectacular form occurs in a small percentage of females. It is quite distinctive in flight looking like an overgrown ringlet and has the common name of the Greenish Silver-washed Fritillary.

Argynnis paphia f. valesina

Frohawk was the author of Natural History of British Butterflies (1914), The Complete Book of British Butterflies (1934) and Varieties of British Butterflies (1938).  At seven he spotted and caught a rare Pale Clouded Yellow butterfly.  In ab. 1880 Frohawk concentrated on illustration and obtained his first commission for illustrating The Field. Frohawk was encouraged in his work by Lord Walter Rotschild, who later bought his water-colours of butterflies His butterfly collections are now part of the Rothschild collection in the Natural History Museum at London.

Argynnis paphia f. valesina

Silver-washed Fritillary/Kejserkåbe

The Silver-washed fritillary /Kejserkåbe in Denmark:
The spread of the Silver-washed fritillary is somewhat dispersed in Denmark. It has disappeared from large parts of Jutland and Funen. It was earlier widespread in hardwoods in all parts of Denmark.


Problems: The silver-washed fritillary is found in forest glades - and such glades should not be either drained, fertilized or sprayed with pesticides - but hay harvesting and extensive grazing during period would be beneficial. Livestock in the forest is also beneficial,since it brings light and warmth and improved conditions for the violet, which is the host plant of the Silver-washed fritillary.

In the last time of their flight period the Silver-washed fritillary flies often to other habitats, sometimes to residential areas.

The Silver-washed fritillary (Argynnis paphia)  is on the Danish red list, but it is neither protected or listed in Denmark.

Source: Fugle og Natur, Michael Stoltze; British wikipedia, 
photo: Bjerge/Bjerre skov July 2014: grethe bachmann     

The Vikingship Museum, Roskilde after the Storm.

gb: Vikingship Museum, boatyard 2001

Video:

Vikingship Museum Roskilde storm december 2013


 The Vikingship Museum in Roskilde was in danger of being flooded during the storm in December 2013. The violent storm pressed the waters of Roskilde Fjord up to a dangerous level and the water was 2.06 meter above normal when it was at its highest. The police in Mid- and West Zealand, the Emergency Agency, the Home Guard and the Fire department were all fighting a battle against the clock to save this national treasure from a devastating flood.

Also the Museum staff had a long and dramatic night. The water stood up to the edge of the large window facades of the ship building, and they were also worried if something, floating in the water outside, would crush the windows and make the water enter the buildings with the irreplaceable 1000 years old Viking ships. They said afterwards that the sound of the waves against  the building was frightening. The Emergency and the Fire Department had helped securing the window facades against the water pressure and the Museum staff was especially fighting to keep water away from the Viking ships. Fortunately the ships were not damaged, they were being packed in plastic, and the water was pumped out of the buildings.

But the Museum Island with the café, the education center and the boatyard was massive damaged by the flood.

The Vikingship hall was damaged by the waves, seven windows were crushed and the concrete structure was pressed in several places, causing cracks. On the Museum Island the water stood high and floors,walls and installations were badly damaged. In spite of the massive damage the Vikingship Museum did not close to the public, and it is expected that the buildings of the Museum Island are ready for the summer season from 16 May.
Source: DR.dk, Vikingeskibsmuseet Roskilde.

Ebeltoft Glasmuseum - OCEAN exhibition, 2013

Outside the museum stands this funny jellyfish, but I don't know which artist created this. Most of them have made some fine glass sculptures of animals and things connected to the ocean. But it might be a work by Janine C Schimkat. (see her works later) 

entrance

The frigate Jylland (which holds a museum) lies close to Ebeltoft Glasmuseum.

 Mark Elliott and Jack McGrath

 The first sculpture is by Mark Elliot from New Zealand and the Australian film maker Jack McGrath, who have developed a method called "Flame action" or "Glass-mation" . 

See link  Ocean Exhibition

 Maria Garcia Rosin

 Maria Garcia Rosin (Whirling Hole on the floor)

 Maria Garcia Rosin

 

Three photos of the installation of Maria Garcia Rosin from Italy. She combines traditional Italian artwork with a contemporary artwork and creates objects which remind of both Venetian chandeliers and jellyfish with light. Her work was shown in another version at Venice Biennale 2009.

 Anja Isphording from Germany creates sculptures in small finely shaped elements put together in a larger form. The works are cast in glass in a lost-wax technique like the cast of bronze "cire-perdue". 

Raven Skyriver from USA is inspired by the colourful animal life in the sea - and at the same time referring discreetly to the fragile ecological balance.

 

Christina Bothwell from USA works with cast glass which she combines with raku-clay and oil- paint. Her figures are both melancholic, fragile and secret, hiding inner rooms and carrying new life. 

Hiroshi Yamano from Japan combines glass with silver leaf and copper. The fish symbolizes his life's philosophy: to swim against the stream to keep alive.

  NB : I forgot to say that Hiroshi's bowl is shaped like an apple, an extra refined touch, since the OCEAN exhibition is in Ebeltoft ( =Appletoft)

Palo Macho from Slovachia uses the glass as a kind of  canvas for his simple compositions in grey-blue. His work Horizon is a beautiful contrast between the horizont of the water and the circular frame of the glass.

 Katherine Gray from USA works with both  minimalistic sculptures and works focusing on the debate about art, crafts and the industrial made works.

Janine C. Schimkat from the Netherlands is fascinated by the weightless world beneath the surface of the sea. She uses both pate de verre, blown glass, slumping and fusing, glass pearls, glass paints, found glass objects, silicone and air pumps in her underwater tableaus,  telling short, subtle stories about the life in the bottom of the sea.  

A view down to the museum's workshop.

Below: Some pictures from the permanent exhibition at Ebeltoft glasmuseum 

Below: Trondur Patursson's glass installation at Ebeltoft Glasmuseum 

If you look closely you can see the square floor in the bottom of the photo. I could not walk in upon that floor. I have tried once and I would not do it again. I get terribly dizzy!!.

  The Faroe glass artist Trondur Patursson made a great mirror- and glass-installation "Kosmisk Rum" which was made in connection to Kulturby 96 in Copenhagen. With this Kosmisk Rum-installation Trondur Patursonn has tried to express the experience he had, when he sailed with a bamboo-fleet from China to America together with others in 1993. The journey lasted 106 days. He saw no other ships and was at the bamboo-fleet very close to the water, which made him be a part of the rhytm of the sea. And this gave him a kind of cosmic feeling of the sea.

He says that he has expressed it in the glass container by installing a mirror to walk on, but there is also a mirror above you, which gives a reflection with a depth of about 700 meters and a height of ab. 700 meters. This has the effect that you'll be in some kind of cosmic state. When you walk into the room there are no horizontal or vertical lines, it is like a feeling of walking upon the water, Trondur Patursson explains.

Apple-sculpture outside the museum in Ebeltoft (= Appletoft)

text and photo September 2013: grethe bachmann