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Published: October 24th 2023
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The Øresund bridge which connects Sweden with Denmark ducks suddenly under the sea. The end of the bridge has become a tunnel. When we emerge from the depth of the Øresund strait we are in a completely different world. Ofcourse we are still on the E20, but the landscape has changed. The Swedish trees in autumn colors and the boulders with lichens make place for a dull, flat landscape. Was the E20 in Sweden a spacious highway, here in Denmark it is a cramped road full of cars.
Tailgating seems to be the national sport of the Danish drivers. With a speed of over 100 kilometers an hour they try to make the gap in between their cars as little as possible. As if the cars attract eachother with a magnetic force. Miss Polo, our loyal fourwheeler, doesn’t like it at all. ‘You are driving too fast’, she says time after time. But the cars around her don’t listen to her and try to hit her as if they are bumper cars at a fair.
We drive over another bridge and arrive at the island, called Fyn (Funen). Now the road is quieter and there are forests. In the
afternoon we arrive in Odense, called after Odin, the Germanic god of the Norse mythology.
Odense Odense is one of Denmark’s oldest cities. Our hotel is called Kragsbjeggaard. It is part of an old manor house and has the atmosphere of a youth hostel. Actually it is a youth hostel. There are stict rules. It is not allowed to drink a cup of tea in the lounge room! If you want to drink a cup of tea, go down to the basement!! There you have enough room to drink your cup of tea!!!
In the basement is the kitchen with tens of cooking plates, hundreds of pans and thousand rules. ‘Clean your dishes!!!!!!!!’ And ofcourse : ‘Be happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’
We choosed for this hotel, because we can cook our meals, we can park our car, it is not far from the center and it is cheap for Danish concepts. (Actually it is too expensive for a room with shared bathroom.)
We visit Odins Odense. It is an open air museum. It shows life in the Iron Age and the Viking Age, which lasted from approxemately 500 BC to about 1100 AD. There are reconstructions of houses of that
period.
Ladby The attraction of Ladby are the remnants of a Viking ship: Ladbyskibet. The village is twenty minutes driving from Odense. There is an interesting museum with information about the Vikings and their gods: Thor, Odin, Freya… A tapestry, inspired on the Bayeux tapestry, shows the story of the death of an important Viking leader and how he was buried with his ship, his tools and his horses in a mound.
An old lady is sitting next to the tapestry and she tells how she was involved with the making of it. I ask her if she is also on the tapestry. She begins to smile and points to a little figure on the cloth. ‘That is me’, she says. I look in her old Viking eyes and think: ah, now you are friendly, but in the past you Vikings were cruel and brutal.
Outside is the mound where the Viking was once buried whith his ship. We can enter the mound. It is dark. Behind glass the imprint of the ship pops up as if history comes to life suddenly. It is magic.
Skamby We drive 30 minutes further to Skamby over
The little stone of Jelling
The rune text is vertical in the original pagan way. The stone was raised by king Gorm. It is the first time the word ":Denmark"is mentioned. little landroads. We pass farmlands and villages with little half-timbered houses. It looks a bit as if we are in a Hobbit world. Near Skamby lies the Glavendrup stone in a forest. It must have been a holy spot once. Around are megaliths and they have found several tombs here.
Suddenly we stand for an open spot in the forest. Stones are placed in a way that together they mark the form of a ship. At the bow stands the Glavendrup stone with rune inscriptions. The stone dates from the early 10th century. It is Denmark’s longest rune inscription.
According to the tekst the stone is in honour of a priest of the sanctuary and of a warchief. Thor is asked to hallow the inscription. In the end of the tekst there is a warning: “Warlock be who damages this stone or drags it in memory of another”. It reminds me of the warnings of our hotel: Clean your dishes!
Jelling We left our Spartan youth hostel this morning. Now we are driving to Jelling, a village in Jutland. It is one hour and a half driving from Odense. Jelling is famous for the two rune stones
The big stone of Jelling.
The rune is horizontal in the new Christian way. The stone was raised by King Harald Bluetooth, who christianized Denmark from the tenth century. A glass cage protects them against erosion and vandalism. The stones mark the cradle of Denmark. The little stone has vertical rune inscriptions, like it always had been in pagan times. The stone was raised by Gorm, ruler of Denmark, in honour of his wife. On the backside the word “Denmark” is written. The first time that the word Denmark is mentioned.
The second stone is bigger. It is raised by king Harald Bluetooth, the son of Gorm. He opposed the Vikings and introduced Christianity in Denmark. That is why the rune signs are written horizontally like in the Bible and not vertically. The backside of the stone shows a crucified Christus.
The church nearby is about the same age. The frescoes date from 1125. One of frescoes shows a group of three men, the biblical kings from the East, who came to worship Jezus, when he was just born. One of them has the horn of a cow in his hand. The Vikings used those horns as a cup, maybe for beer or wine. Maybe an example of how paganism and christianity were intertwined. On the floor is a metal strip. It marks
the spot where king Gorm was retombed in 2000.
For the Danes this spot in Jelling is holy ground. There is however an other spot which is even more important. For us at least. It is in Egtved, a little village half an hour driving from Jelling.
Egtved Linda is already since four years busy with the story of the Egtved girl. There are several versions of the story. The one we like most is he following.
About 3400 years ago in the Bronze age a 17 years old girl left her home in the Black Forest in Germany together with a boy of six years. On their horse they traveled all the way to Denmark. Apparently she was a priest. It was in a time the eruption of the Santorini volcano took place. All Europe was devoid of sunshine. Farmers failed to harvest their grains and crops. The Egtved girl was the only hope of the people. Around her waiste she had a bronze belt. When she made a bridge standing backwards on hands and feet, she could collect some rays of the sun with her belt. And that way she could let return the
sun.
Unfortunately she died when she was in Denmark. She was tombed in a mould with all honours the people could give her. Her body is gone now, but you can still see her hair and her clothes and some gems she was buried with. We saw them in the Nationaalmuseet, when we were in Copenhagen in 2020.
And here in Egtved she was buried under a mound. A farmer found her on his land. There is nobody here in the middle of nowhere. There is a little building with an exhibition on her. Even copies of her clothes are here. We walk a bit further. There are trees. And then there is that mound, just a little hill in the landscape. But however small, for us it is the summit of our expedition here in Denmark.
Linda cannot leave the spot. She takes pictures all the time. Is wondering if the vegetation is still the same as it once was. But we have to go. No sooner we are in our car, then a torrential rain comes down.
While the showers keep on coming down, we find at last the E20 again. Slowly we are driving
to the south. To Germany.
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