Rural DK: Windmill, Burial Mound, the Flats

Me and My Son In Our Automobile

1. Windmills.

The wisdom of the windmill. How a windmill works. One kept in good repair lasts centuries. Whoompa. Whoompa. In the old days, the whole family could live inside. To adjust the whoompa, jam in the log brake to stop it. without bisecting yourself, and adjust the fabric covering, or take it off completely.  See more at http://www.edinformatics.com/inventions_inventors/windmill.htm

Windmill, rural Denmark, Fyn

2.  Burial Mounds.  

Northern Fyn is flat, and these occasional mounds stand out.  This one is Marhoj, or Marhofte. Translating sounds from one language to another leads to a variety of letters and little consistency. Research all variations.

Its inner chamber has long been emptied; these mounds never held great riches, but someone was always hopeful. See http://www.visitdenmark.com/island/is-is/menu/turist/oplevelser/attraktioner/produktside.htm?CallerUrl=1&Id=002412&print=true

Martoj Burial Mound, Fyn, Denmark

The marker, we now think, means you can go on the private property and up the gully to inspect closer. We had the page of Danish road signs, see http://www.trafikken.dk/wimpdoc.asp?page=document&objno=20853#Special but that one was not on it. You go. We found somebody's website on it later, and the inside looks routine.  Denmark and Sweden: neither go out of their way to direct tourists. People are friendly and helpful, but little budgeting is done to see that the places are noted and visited.

How old?  We vote for 500-1000 CE. Broad range and it gets broader.

We found sites describing these kinds of graves, burial mounds, as Neolithic, Stone Age. Learn some archeology and timelines, and find that Neolithic means 3900-1700 BC in Denmark, and Stone Age is part of that. See http://oldtiden.natmus.dk/udstillingen/bondestenalderen/language/uk  

Those on the oldtiden  site, however, look too old to be like this: they are more like dolmens, upright stones with a capstone, or barrow graves with entryways.  Nut not as big as these mounds. 

• The mounds at Jelling, on Jutland DK,are more like this one. Harald Bluetooth set his runestones and reburied his father from a mound there.  Even if the Jelling sites substantially predate the era of Harald Bluetooth, 10th Century; would the date be pressed back as far as 1700 BC. See http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/697,  See also http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2010/10/jelling-harald-bluetooth-rune-stones.html.  Perhaps, if the structure had been simply reused over time.
• Even Ladyskibet DK is Viking era, 950 AD.  http://www.vikingdenmark.com/ladbyskibet-ladby-denmark.html
• Gamla Uppsala, in Sweden, is 500-800 CE. http://swedenroadways.blogspot.com/2011/02/old-uppsala-gamla-uppsala-royal-burial.html

 Keep looking: This one also says that Marton is Stone Age, however. See http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarahindenmark/denmark/1189981800/tpod.html. 

Our amateur vote goes with Viking era for these, 800-1050 CE or so; or at least not before 500CE. Still looking.

3.  Wind blows free

The Flats, Northern Fyn, Denmark

Rural areas enjoy good roads, one lane or two. Slow up, pull over, room for both.

Marguerite Route.  

You can always take the prefab Marguerite Route in Denmark, to see all the foreordained sites, see http://www.visitdenmark.com/international/en-gb/menu/turist/oplevelser/attraktioner/sightseeing/the-marguerite-route.htm.  Or use it as a sequencing device, if you do not have the time to see every inch of Denmark.   The full map is at http://www.visitdenmark.com/international/en-gb/menu/turist/kort/kort/map-of-denmark.htm.  We rambled instead.