No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2015
In line with other endeavours expressive of the spirit of self-assertion aroused in the Danish people at the occupation of Denmark by foreign troops during World War II, the Danish National Museum, subsidized by the State Employment Department and the Carlsberg Foundation, undertook a series of thorough and methodical excavations of the two famous Royal Barrows at Jelling in East Jutland (FIG. I), dating from the middle of the 10th century A.D.
Earlier excavations here, in 1821 and 1861 (1), had been inconclusive. Ample room still remained for hypotheses and suggestions, and divergent views gradually produced quite a literature on the subject (2). Through the recent examination, the most extensive excavations of their kind in Scandinavia, of the southern barrow, the so-called King Gorm Mound, excavated in 1941, and the northern barrow, the so-called Queen Tyre Mound, in 1942 (3), it became possible to eliminate several doubtful points which had confronted people interested in history for more than a hundred years. At the same time, a solid foundation was laid for the future understanding of the Jelling monuments—the barrows and the runestones—the most significant in Danish history, because they bear witness to the kings who united the smaller Danish Kingdoms into one realm (4).
1 F. Magnussen, C. J. Thomsen, Ant. Annal, IV, 1827. J. Kornerup, Kongehejene ijellinge, 1875.
2 A résumé of the various opinions, see : J. Brøndsted, Danmark 1, 1941, p. 838 ff.
3 A minor excavation took place in 1947 below the apse floor of the apse in Jelling church (see last two paragraphs of this article). An examination of the floor of the nave was futile as, at an earlier date, in order to instal steam heating in the church, the old layers of soil had been removed. The present style of the church is early Romanesque influenced by English architecture, Francis Beckett, Danmarks Kunst 1, p. 60.
4 Ref. Ejnar Dyggve : La fouille par le Musée national danois du tertre royal sud à Jelling en 1941. Rapport préliminaire succinct. Acta Archeol. sili, 1942, p. 65 ff. Dyggve: Jelling Kongehqje. Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark, 1943, p. 19 ff.
5 Some idea may be had of the magnitude of the work done at the construction of the barrow, from the fact that at the excavation work in 1941, 135,000 wheelbarrows of soil were carted out of the southern tumulus, and this work alone required a gang of 45 men working daily during four months, although in this case only a minor part of the mound was involved. It is obvious, therefore, that considering the facilities of those days and the fact that each single turf for the packing of the mound had to be handled manually, the original construction must have taken years to complete.
6 All the wood-work in the mound looked as if it had been stored out-of-doors for only one winter. Much of the wood was hard, the bark and fibre fresh. Vegetable substances of the packing were surprisingly well preserved, and there were instances of some of the workers taking home heather from the turves for planting in flower pots in the hope that they, would begin to grow again—a vain hope after a rest of a thousand years.
7 See J. Brøndsted, Danmarks Oldtid II, p. 199 f, III, p. 312.
8 After the excavation in 1861, the burial chamber of the northern mound was restored and made accessible to the public through a long passage from the south side of the mound ; but the old woodwork could not stand the action of the atmosphere and soon deteriorated. In 1942 it was discovered that the chamber had collapsed completely.
9 Abt. year 1185, Sven Aggeson, Brevis historia, eic, ed. Gertz. Script, min. 1, 1917, pp. 116 and 118.
10 See fig. 7, which shows a comparison between the sanctuary at Jelling and a cromlech near Kerlescan in Brittany, A : tumulus ; B, 1: menhir ; B, 2 : runestone ; c : area surrounded by upright stones. Despite the wide span of years separating them, the dispositions are in close agreement, a phenomenon which I suggest may be explained by the partiality to the archaisation so much in evidence in the Viking Age.
11 An analogy of a similar authentic translation : Skjalm Hvide, ancestor of the most powerful aristocratic family in Denmark, buried in the family church at Fjenneslev village and later translated to the large Conventual church at Sorø town, built for his own interment by Skjalm Hvide's grandson, Absalon, the most famous bishop in Danish history. The historical tradition of King Canute the Great, grandson of King Harald, who translated the earthly remains of the Archbishop Aelfheah from his tomb in St. Paul's, London, to greater honour at the altar of Canterbury Cathedral, proves that the idea of translation was in no way foreign to the Jelling Dynasty.
12 A translation would also explain why the actual circumstances of the burial mound were so early lost sight of.
13 Dyggve. Om nordisk Arkitekturopfattelse i Vikingetiden med Udgangspunkt Jelling. Vejle Amts Aarbog, 1943, p. 3 ff. Ref. the military establishment from the Viking period excavated at Trelleborg, Sealand, by Poul Nørlund : Fra Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark, 1936 and 1938.
14 A last minute fact, before going into print, is of a find I made, in the spring of 1948, of a church on King Harald's ' Vi ', under the apse of the present Jelling church. These are the remains of a stave-church dating from the time of the establishment of Christianity as the state religion of Denmark, thus showing that it is the oldest excavated church in all Scandinavia.