Horsens - Medieval Jousts. Some ponytails.

Medieval competition reenactments: these are common in other places in Europe, and the United States; but there is special fun in seeing Viking country get all jousted up.

Did Vikings really do that? Somehow the concepts of chivalry, and the gradations from page to squire to knight and all that are too orderly for these folk. Instead, were they in their longboats, and with battleaxes, fighting back at the encroaching and violent Christians and their forced religion, including Charlemagne beating at the Saxon doors not far south. See Western Ethnic Violence Timeline/

Not sure. So enjoy the joust.

length of the lance, joust, Horsens, Denmark

Ladies judge the skills, Horsens Medieval Festival, Denmark

Distances must be measured for safety, Medieval Festival Horsens, Denmark

Horse charge too close. Run. Medieval Festival, rehearsal day, Horsens, DK

And a lady jouster with pony tail. 

Knight with blonde pony-tail, a lady in armor.  Why are you surprised? Horsens Medieval Festival, Horsens, DK

Women in armor.  Not unusual then.  See Switzerland Road Ways, Thun Castle; and also at Chillon,  Switzerland.  And Italian accounts of female Military Orders .  We looked that up once, will find.  Try Spain Road Ways, or perhaps Italy Road Ways of ours.

The next charge starts, buppity bupp, Horsens Medieval Festiva, DK

Horses charging down the divided track, competitor coming at you, one after another, Horsens DK, medieval re-enactment

Longest lance, Medieval Joust Festival, Horsens, DK

Favorite tree:  Ginkgo, Horsens, DK.

Horsens - European Medieval Festival - Prep Day

Horsens

Medieval Action Town Once a Year

The town of Horsens hosts a European Medieval Festival annually, known for its crowds of enthusiastic would-be's and their retainers.  Come to Jutland. At Middelalder.

Horsens Medieval Fair, poster, Horsens, Denmark

See it at ://www.worldtravelguide.net/denmark/horsens-european-medieval-festival/  The advantage to this festival is that it comes at the end of the summer, a time to suit the nonconformist visitor. Midsummer has enough. This event relies largely on the benevolences begun by philanthropists like Christian Daniel Danjelsen.

Daniel Widing with benefactorof similar name,  memorial for Christian Daniel Danjelsen, Horsens cultural community,  Denmark

Christian Daniel Danjelsen, 1842-1921. He was a Barrister who, with his wife, set up a large charitable trust for the "embellishment' of the town of Horsens.  See Christian Daniel Danjelsen, benefactor, ebook. Here is Mr. Danjelsen, the one on the left. Admire the mustache. The gentleman on the right is another Daniel, pleased at the name. 

Horsens European Medieval Festival, family life

We tried to schedule our time to be there on The Day, but arrived early when all was being set up. The festival is in the city, on a large open space, but parking still is difficult.  And pricey.  Early arrivals:  strolling, chances to talk.

Horsens Medieval Fair, Horsens, DK.  Picnic grounds, fast food or BYO.

Horsens Medieval Fair, Horsens, DK. Down time.

Daniel Widing spies a chink, as in Shakespeare Pyramus and Thisbe? Horsens, Denmark

There was 20 minutes to go before the official jousting rehearsal in the arena -- saunter around.

Dan Widing meets a troubadour, Horsens Medieval Festival, Denmark

Scandinavia has a sense of design in places we usually ignore. How very tasteful is the wicker.

The necessary.  Detail at the fair. Horsens DK with appropriate aesthetic privacy screening for the row, Horsens Fair, Denmark

So:  The Grounds are Ready.  Now:  to the Games. For a preview, see

Silkeborg: Ask for a Conference Center. Surprise.

Arriving late to most places, as we do, is risky. And with dark, comes fatigue. There be boars out there. So, take what you can get.

Boar, Silkeborg Museum, DK

Here, we lucked out.  Note the ingenious parking arrangement. Up-end granite bricks, leave spaces in between let the grass grow green.  Virtually invisible from a distance, easy upkeep. No mud. 

Parking design, granite and grass, Silkeborg, DK

Our cottage, conference center for the night, Silkeborg DK

Whimsy in Scandinavia. Watch for the statues, Silkeborg, DK

And the one-tap necessary.  Here is an economical arrangement:  one set of taps, at the sink.  Just flip the toggle over there and the shower starts over here. And no rims, just a measly curtain, no partition,  just everything tilting down to the center drain.

The one-tap necessary.

That's just a hand-hold over there, where the shower hose is, so you don't slip and fall on your necessary.

Silkeborg. Best Oriental in Denmark: Mongolian Barbecue Restaurant, Silkeborg

News flash:  December 2010.  Holiday ad with coupon for a Mongolian Barbecue Grill and Buffet restaurant in Bristol, CT. Looks like a similar setup --  Excellent! Now to get there....

Danish Mongolian Barbecue

First, the best. The chef behind the glass, who takes your piled-up plate of raw ingredients and all the sauces you want, and sizzles them up over high heat, tosses and flips, and puts it all back on your plate just for you, as you stand there.

Chef, Mongolian Barbeque, Silkeborg, Denmark

One of Denmark's finest meals.  Move over, all ye tired and trite food places.  This idea is a winner.  Unassuming from the outside, but this said "Mongolian" --  in Denmark?  We had to try it.  Inside was traditional oriental.

Mongolian Barbecue Restaurant, Silkeborg, DK

Outside:  plain.

Silkeborg, DK. Mongolian Barbecue Restaurant

Be seated, and enjoy the house soup brought right away, to settle you in.

Ingredients bar, Mongolian Barbecue Restaurant, Silkeborg

Then, go to the cold raw ingredients bar, including half frozen beef and other meat and fish strips; pile up your plate; choose noodles, rice, as you like, veggies, things unknown....

Sauce, veggie, meat and fish bar, and spices, Oriental restaurant, Denmark

Then peruse the sauces bar at the end, and put on your own spices, any proportion you like --- you can come back for as much more as you like ....

Now, scroll up again to see the chef, complete with toque, in action.

Would somebody please bring that idea back over here.  Chinese food our way?  Nothing compared to this.  All you can eat.

Silkeborg - Tollund Man: Bog Man

This is Silkeborg, on Jutland, where a small museum houses, in a glass case, a man whose body was found in 1950.  It was remarkably preserved, in a peat bog.  Murder! The people cried. See ://www.silkeborgmuseum.dk/en/tollund.html But this turns out to have occurred long ago (350 BC), in the context probably of a sacrifice by early people.  That there are conflicting theories about what happened. He is not alone.  There are other corpses in other places, including a church (a woman there, found in 1938, the Elling Woman), and at the university town of Aarhus.

First, the man:  Exposures are easy for close-ups; but become darker stepping away.  The later pictures here show our need to brighten up a too-dark exposure, too yellow as it turns out, but such is life. And death. Maybe the spirits only allow tourists three accurately-tinted pictures.

Tollund Man, Silkeborg DK, rear head view. Early Iron Age.

Tollund Man, Silkeborg Museum, preserved in acidity of bog, showing curled position

Tollund Man (Bog Man), Silkeborg, Denmark, facial close-up

Recreated setting, location of Tolland Man in peat bog 1950, Silkeborg DK Museum

Bog man, Tollund Man, full body rear view, Silkeborg DK

Silkeborg, Denmark Museum. Tollund Man, frontal side  view

The acidity of the peat in the peat bog caused the remarkable preservation, like an extreme tanning process. See descriptions of what was found, theories, and archeological considerations at ://www.greatarchaeology.com/tollund_man.htm

Tollund man, 350 BC death, Silkeborg DK


Second, this was a community.  Here is one of the pots found in the area.  We have no idea of the celestial reflection shown, nothing supernatural here -- must just be from the glass case.

Cauldron, Iron Age, Silkeborg Museum, DK

Or is it.

Mwahhahahahha ... No! Not the pot! No! Aargh.

Jelling - Harald Bluetooth, Rune Stones, Burial Mounds, Church

The history of Jelling encapsulates the history of conversion of the Danes to Christianity, and it was a rocky road. Worth it? Minds vary.  What drove the work:  How many parts force, repeated?  A hundredfold. How many parts gospel by example, love etc., zip. Maybe one.

Find Harald Bluetooth I, in a far broader historical context, at Bogomilia: Harald Bluetooth I.  Find a timeline to put Vikings into perspective as to violences. This is a World Heritage Site, see ://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/jellingmounds.html

Here is the cast of characters at Jelling, Denmark:  Denmark coming under siege again against the new perceived successor to the earlier aggressor, Charlemagne:  Here, Otto, who picked up the banner against the Norse after Charlemagne's empire fell apart:  first, Gorm the Old, Viking King, pagan tradition. His wife, Thyra. When Thyra died, Gorm erected a rune stone in her honor. Their son is the one who impacts back and forth with Otto -- Bluetooth.

Rune stone, King Gorm for Queen Thyra, Jelling DK

This side says "Denmark".  The reverse says "Gorm King made these memories after Thyra his wife Denmark's ornament", according to the translation at ://www.fortidensjelling.dk/jellinge4.htm/  Read there of her strengths in enlarging the ramparts known as the Dannevirke, and persistence in defending Denmark, against Otto and the Germanic tribes. And against Otto's own advances.  In 1627, the stone sat next to the church entrance, and was used as a seat. Then moved.

Gorm died in about 958 ACE, and was buried in the Viking tradition, in a burial mound. Here is the north mound where he was buried:

North Mound, empty:  King Gorm's remains reinterred beneath later church)Jelling, Denmark

South Mound, no body, Jelling, D K

Do we have the mounds straight? There are conflicting accounts: is Thyra in the center of the old stone ship construct, or was she in the mound, now emptied (grave robbers). See ://vikingheritage.eu/vikingheritage/23.jelling.html/; and then that one body was recovered, was that Gorm? ://www.adenmarkattraction.com/denmark-attractions/viking-burial-mounds.htmw  Have to keep checking. Some say the South Mound never did contain a body and that it was intended by Harald Bluetooth for himself. That would put the Queen Mother in the stone ship between, now where the church is located. Is that so?

 Harald Bluetooth finally is converted to Christianity, and built a church on the same site as the Gorm the Old burial mound; and also the site of a large stone ship -- the outline of a Viking ship in spaced standing stones, usually signifying a burial place at the center.  It is believed by some that Queen Thyra was buried in that place.  Building the church over it blends the pagan with the Christian,  and also puts Thyra in "hallowed" ground.

North Mound, original burial King Gorm, with stones reset (from stone ship of standing stones) at Jelling, DK 

 Harald also reburied his father in the church.  That church burned, as did its succcessor, and another was built.  There are three clear sections to the church, but go in and only find access to two.  Go inside and get disoriented. Which room are you in? An added entryway is clear enough, but the inner space is nothing like the outside suggests.

Jelling Church

The oldest part is reinforced. But inaccessible.  Little window 'way up top. What is in there?

Little window on the other side, at human level. Is that the altar end?  False ceiling?  There was a vestry meeting going on inside, so we fiddled around outside most. Find details of the church at http://www.fortidensjelling.dk/jellinge7.htm/

Jelling Church

Interior:  here is the menorah form for the candelabra. This frequently shown in Danish churches.

 In 2000, after confirming identity, Gorm was reburied beneath the new church, in front of the choir, with just a little symbol there that has no other marking and we missed it, found it here:  See ://www.fortidensjelling.dk/jellinge4.htm/

Interior, Jelling Church, DK

Harald Bluetooth, son of Gorm and Thyra, set up a 10-ton pyramidal rune stone in honor of his father and mother both.

It looks different from each angle.

Side 1, Christ figure, Rune Stone, Harald Bluetooth for King Gorm and Queen Thyra

There are Christ symbols, and Christian symbols. The figure of Christ on Side 2 is the oldest representation of Christ in Denmark.  See it more clearly in the paint that would have been used at the time, at  ://www.fortidensjelling.dk/jellinge5.htm/

Side 2, Lettering, Harald Bluetooth rune stone erected for his father and mother, King Gorm, Queen Thyra

Side 3, animals and snake, Rune stone, Harald Bluetooth for King Gorm and Queen Thyra

Harald ultimately was deposed by his son, Sven, and fled to Poland we think.  There he dumped Christianity (is never canonized by the Church; but is given a prominent place and may be buried at Roskilde Cathedral).

Suspended clipper ship, Jelling Church, Denmark

Why a clipper ship hanging from the ceiling? The motif is common in Danish churches. Need research. Is this a clipper?

A third great stone honors a wife of Harald Bluetooth, apparently.

Rune stone honoring a wife of Harald Bluetooth (brought here from nearby), Jelling, DK

Jelling Church, exterior, Jelling, Denmark

Was it the theology of Christianity that moved the Scandinavians, or force and organization backed by assets and means of communication:  Charlemagne and successors pressing on.

Think back:  Christians had the advantage of literacy; and traditions of keeping records and illustrating and writing stories.  And the power and the military of the Pope.  The Vikings had little of that, in their largely oral tradition, and mustering armies as needed. Literacy and communications:  Even Gorm's rune stone for Thyra is the first known recorded words of a Danish king.

 Like corporations against individuals:  guess who wins.  Guess who can muster more resources, and more varied resources.

Still, after decades, even hundreds of years of people saying they converted to get the Christians off their backs, and then returning to their own views; some stuck. Then more, and it all then stuck and the Viking culture was diminished in the historical view to a brief, regrettable few centuries of unexplained violence.

For more of the Builder's work, see Harald Bluetooth's Bridge over Ravning Enge, at Velje, see ://jelling.natmus.dk/om_projektet/delprojekter/broen_over_ravning_enge/language/uk/   Half a mile long, 18 feet wide.

Fredericia -Tomb of Unknown Soldiers

Fredericia was the first to establish a grave for unknowns, plural, and their idea began with the First Battle of Schleswig 1848-1850, memorial 1858 we think.  The Sleswig wars related to the secessionist movement of the German ethnic groups in Schleswig-Holstein, and occurred in two spaced phases -- 1848; and then 1864.

Mass grave, soldiers, Trinity Church, Fredericia (Trinitatis Kirke)

Schleswig-Holstein is the area at the base of the Jutland peninsula, where the border with Germans, Prussians, others, has been intense.  See ://www.destination360.com/europe/denmark/ and ://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/pennsylvania/philadelphia/tomb-of-the-unknown-soldier/; and ://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Tomb_of_the_Unknown_Soldier/.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Fredericia, Denmark c.1848-50 Schleswig-Holstein War

The wall and redoubts, built by the Prussians so they could better besiege the city, is behind the soldier.

The Danes retained Schleswig in the first Battle of Schleswig Holstein 1848 or so, where the sides were roughly evenly matched;  but lost it in the Second Battle of Schleswig about 1850 when the German Federation joined forces with Schlewig-Holstein. The Danes call these their civil wars; the Germans may call them wars of secession.

The Danes were vastly outnumbered in 1864, more matched in 1848. See Danish military history at ://www.milhist.dk/start/uk_slesvigwars.htm/. The Fredericia battle is at ://www.milhist.dk/trearskrigen/fredericia/fredericia_uk.htm/. These wars recur, so it helps to learn the basics early on. Search also for the spelling Slesvig".

The Battle of 1864, Denmark against Prussia and Austria: focus there is at the Sonderborg post, a headland fortification, town and castle. There the Danes lost, but celebrate the courage of the outnumbered Danish soldiers, see Sonderborg post.

The "Great Barrow" found in searches refers to the mass grave with a mound on top. Some 500 soldiers' remains are at the great barrow at Trinity?  It looked too small for that, still checking.