Denmark Road Ways Two on the Loose TRAVEL HUMANITIES PHOTOS

Kalundborg. Womansaga. Birthplace, Sigrid Undset, Nobel Prize Novelist

2011-11-07T15:18:00.000-08:00

Kristin Lavransdatter.
Novel by Sigrid Undset
Nobel Prize for Literature 1928

Move aside, Moby Dick and the men's viewpoint of institutions, morality, tragedy, human flaw, and religious dogma words like redemption from the male perspective, sacrifice, all too monopolized in the watery setting of the whale.

Here is its rival, by Sigrid Undset 1882-1949, a womansaga that I think surpasses the mansaga of Moby Dick, even for modern professional women; and that is not limited to women's interests because the men are so deeply drawn, The issues of Kristin Lavransdatter, transcend culture, just as Moby Dick, and even Gone with the Wind. She was born here in Kalendborg, but moved as a little child to Oslo, Norway.

Sigrid Undset received the Nobel Prize for Literature for this novel in 1928. Set it medieval Norway, 13th Century, the work was originally in three volumes, now in one thick but compact (small margins) version translated into English in the 1950's. See http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/undset.htm.

As a small child, age two when she moved to Oslow, she would not remember the overkill of five steeples on the main church at Kalundborg, See the Church of Our Lady (count the steeples, and include the one barely showing at the left).

Still, what did this Catholic-convert experience, that brings her to offer in the novel a critical view: the harsh and self-serving looks at the institution that the militaristic and administration-oriented Rome brought, after its folk took over from the original earlier missionaries and monks of the contemplative sort. Miracles and saints there are also, of course, but the foil is the acquisitiveness of the enterprise.

Christianity in the northlands: after the Northern Crusades. Undset as a Catholic. Why? That is one of the conundrums. Is it a literal kind of Stockholm Syndrome, medieval style, where the forces at work on young girls set them to try in vain to please their captors. Are you interested in finding out? Not that everyone in a Reformation changes viewpoint, but which stay and which venture more on their own is a reasonable inquiry.
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Kalundborg, DK. Church of Our Lady, with the 5 steeples, one barely showing at left

Oprah, if you are looking for a project, get Kristin Lavransdatter and sponsor a film series for adults, and readings for book clubs, this is a thousand-pager. Your channel will be set for life.

There is a film of only the first of the three books of the novel, Liv Ullman directing, see the very limited storyline at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113576/. The book is far more than a trite-sounding storyline. It is epic, say we, and unusual for its delving into the female experience. This remains a book to be read, not a film to be voyeured. Pans of the film are probably justified. Norwegians, how did you receive it? See http://norwayroadways.blogspot.com/2011/11/kristin-lavransdatter-sigrid-undset.html

For us, the scope and depth of the topics do not fit a mere 1/3 of the work done in film, and how can any film enter into the mind the way a narrative can. It better fits, perhaps, 12 Sunday evenings, TV, of 1 1/2 hrs each until done.

Oprah, lend us your hands on this one.

How did I read it? The time was provided thanks to Connecticut's October snowstorm, wherein corporate power and cable and internet and phone sources left consumers out while they pursued other corporate takeovers with the money available, or just paid off shareholders while we are left in the dark. For our family, intrusion was minimal. Other parts of town, some 40% are still without power after 11 days. We were without power of any kind for 3-4days, then just lacked for internet, cable and phone for another week or so, and are just now getting it back.

Time for the Large Book of 13th Century Norway. No mere kindle or its ilk can contain this one.

Origin of the Danes - Danmark, Dan, Etymologies, Clues and Specs

2011-08-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

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Lost Tribe of Dan

A Melange of Legends, Name Roots, Symbols.

What happens with the Dan as Eagle is bitten by Dan the Serpent?

A favorite image with reference to the Tribe of Dan is this unhappy eagle being bitten by the snake held in its claws, from the Bremen, Germany Town Hall. Bremen is not far from Denmark's borders, at Jutland. There are probably other symbols and legends at work here as well. Interesting things are ambiguous.

Tribe of Dan. But which? Eagle or serpent? Or both?

1. Who and Where is Dan? The Search

Researching origins of population groups relies to a degree on tracing names, of people and places. Whether or not anyone agrees with the tracking and speculation involved, it is a way to learn history. Start with Denmark, its King Dan, and see where the hunt leads. What is the name, where was it from, can we draw any conclusions or not. See http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/earlydanishkings.wps.htm; and claims and denials, all requiring vetting. Names change in spelling: the Fridulfson in Swedish history-legend is probably the same as the Frode Frid Fridleif (or is it?) at the angelfire site. See Swedish origins, possibly

Start with a probably universal story to orient the beginnings of the Tribe of Dan: that there was once a great Flood, a near-global tsunami, or other earth-axis tilt event.

Some humans and some animals survived.

Many cultures recall that flood cataclysm in legend, myth, some even calcified the story into absolute belief in truth in each detail.
The Native American Choctaws have a flood-origins tale, with a raft made of sassafras, see http://sassafrasandhistory.blogspot.com/2009/07/choctaw-indian-legend-sassafras-and.html. Find more at Flood Stories From Around the World.
A flood story functions on many levels for a culture, including where the survivors were.

For the Western World, with the Flood localizing survivors in the Middle East according to the Biblical tradition, we ask where the missing Tribes of Israel went, those generations after the Flood.

Our interest is in that Tribe of Dan - Danmark - Dane - Danube, etc. Could it be so, that they migrated from Israel? Humans have migrated most everywhere, so the fact of migrating north would be consistent with the pattern of the spread.

Unfortunately, most sites about Dan present as evangelical-agenda (literalist Biblical) extreme garish attention-getters about damnation and idolatry rather than an academic look, with historic or archeological focus.

We start with the cultural focus in Palestine, Biblical tales, about the Hebrews descended from Noah, and a reasonable date for the Jewish Biblical flood at 2348 BC, his sons as Japheth, Shem and Ham. Our initial bare-bones chronology reference: Timechart History of the World, FN 1.

Looking at that chart, that makes all this so easy to follow (not so with words -- get the Timeline) start with Shem.

Our interest is in Noah's middle son Shem. Go down 8-10 generations, and find Abraham, sons Ishmael and Isaac, and Isaac's sons, Esau and Jacob.
Jacob wins the inheritance, deviously (no wonder we are the same),and has 12 sons: in that number is Dan, the fifth son of the twelve. The sons became the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Let the wandering begin.

Most familiar of the Tribal heads who are the 12 sons of Jacob (Israel) is probably son Joseph, of Egypt fame, and the multicolored coat.
Skip to Tribal head Judah, and his son Zarah - there are tales of him in the legends of the origins of the Scotti, via Hebrew-Eber-Iberia-Ibernia, speculate about Zahar's tribe's wanderings at http://irelandroadways.blogspot.com/2010/03/tralee-queen-scotia-and-slieve-mish.html.
Another son of Judah is Pharez, and go down the generations then to Jesse, David and Solomon and ultimately -- here's an oddity -- they list "Joseph", Victorian snerts as they are, when it is Mary who is the one descended, not old hubby Joseph at all. Old charts tell us about the charters.

2. Focus on Dan

Then move away from the Jacob-Judah line of Jesus, to another Tribal head, Jacob's son Dan, who appears to be lost, along with others of the lost tribes, but whose name is found along a discernible route through the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and ultimately to Scandinavia -- names along the way include the Danube, and King Dan, see http://germanicmythology.com/works/Lejretemple.html at a place and time recalling Beowulf, Lejre, near Roskilde, Denmark.

Or Leire. For our purposes, it is enough to point out where some people's speculations go, see Tribe of Dan, Present Day Identifications at http://britam.org/dan.html Tribe of Dan.

3. Cultures claiming Dan

a. Ireland.

The Tribe of Dan's standard is the eagle, see it in the Book of Kells, see http://jahtruth.net/bkofke.htm. That connects Dan's mystery tribe with the Irish mythical Tuatha de Danaan, of Ireland, and the site moves on with a connection to the ancient Phoenicians.

The eagle even today.

Dig deeper into the eagle symbolism, and find the eagle - still today for groups - grasping in its talons arrows, or olive branches.

b. United States

Look at the official emblem of the US - such an eagle. Go, Tribe of Dan.

So, Irish are Israelites; according to that line; and that indeed follows Zarah and his group through Spain and up to Ireland; but how about the eastern group, heading through the Caucasus, the Scythians, etc. And the US also picks up the eagle and the arrows or olives.

c. Northern Germany -

Visit Bremen to see the legend of Dan the eagle, being bitten by a snake, see http://germanyroadways.blogspot.com/2010/11/bremen-babies-and-gryphons-crypt-celts.html.

Now, as for neutral non-agenda ideological sites, skip this one because the conclusion that a priest of Dan took with him some of his own possessions. Those possessions includied some gods of the people he had worked among, that he was therefore an "idolator" and cursed, etc, etc.

Nonsense. I was in Africa and brought back carvings of gods, too. Does that make me an idolator? Possibly, since I think Gaia deserves some press.

Read that site not for fabricated ideology , only for the bones of the story, not the person's agenda in scaring everybody to death with made up connections. When any of us move, do w take along familiar things also, and that does not mean belief in same. Big deal.

See, if you must, http://www.triumphpro.com/dan-missing-from-144000.pdf Tracts like that do prove how dangerous made-up dogma is -- some people will latch on. Poor priest. Just wanted something from home. http://www.triumphpro.com/dan-missing-from-144000.pdf

d. Sweden.

The Swedes also reflect Dan in word and place. Odan, Odin, see http://swedenroadways.blogspot.com/2010/12/swedish-history-its-own-entity.html

Elsewhere, if you enjoy the paranormal (check it out) see the Danns and serpents and serpents' tails and red hair, and http://www.burlingtonnews.net/dann3.html

4. Refer to the possibly concrete. Place names.

I prefer the concrete, so offer this compendium of names. This is an old site, Mapping Israel's Migrations, at http://www.ensignmessage.com/IsraelsMigrations.html.

Dardanelles
Danube or Donau
De Danaans (Hibernia, Eber, Hebrew)
Iberian Peninsula (look up Zahar and Zaragoza, Spain)
Danmark
Danzig
River Danapris
Dananris now Dnieper
River Don
River Donets
Danae
Dan

5. Sing a Song of the Tribe of Dan

Oh, Dan, Jake's Boy,

The fifth son's Tribe left wandering.

Have you left traces, names, symbols: The Judge.

The years have gone, and shadows leave us wondering

Did you go north, northwest, or none of the above.

Oh, Dan, Jake's Boy

The Irish Tenors sing your song.

Etc....

.......................................................................................................

FN 1

Timechart History of the World, Third Millenium Press, Chippenham, England, Stream of Time portion in the British Museum panels 2-14. See Google, Timechart History of the World

What is that? A backbone reference. It is listed as juvenile nonfiction, but do not believe it. Any adult needs a boost on history and chronology. This is from an 1890 effort, here as hardboard folding timeline, heavy posterboard with hardcovers, published as a wall chart and portions originally in the British Museum. That has been updated and extended so it folds out to Year 2003. As a Victorian work, the main focus is on Biblical chronology across the top and with the world's main cultures like ribbons laterally below, to show what others were doing at a given time.

Cenozoic Era, 2.5 million years ago, start. Some 6000 years of focus. End, with the updates, at 2003. This is a phenomenal piece of work, 12 1/2"W X 18"H X 1/2" deep. Unfolded, 15 foldings = 15.62 feet long or 5.21 yds. Both sides are printed, so double it for 30 feet of history, and 400 illustrations. Spread that out on the dining room table and add card tables to get 2.6 yards before you have to flip. Or, just fold and unfold, like a great book.*

* Dear Bill Gates,

With your interest in transmission of information, please see that one of these is placed in every home in the world in the language of each family. Literacy classes to precede and follow. With this as a reference, all data can be vetted as desired, with the joy in finding errors, and put into a basic chronology. Each adult and child, My culture was doing this in 2000 BC. What was yours up to? Imagine the conversations worldwide. It also creates jobs, promotes education and intercultural understanding.

Thank you.

Car-Dan Tour Company

Kastrup - Accommodating Airport for the Flexible. Copenhagen

2011-07-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

Copenhagen: Kastrup Airport

Kastrup to a frequent traveler may look at first like just another airport. It has its twitches however.

1. Accommodations are not nearby. If the several reasonable rooms at the Hilton are occupied, you will have to get on mass transit to another route a stop or two away, then walk to try to find a room. There is no central bank of phones or shuttles to take you. The railway is just below ground, as are taxis. The drill is: hop on a train and go 10 minutes back into Copenhagen somewhere, and start walking? Not handy. And how to get a taxi back at 4AM in time for a 6AM flight out?

Go back to the car rental, but the car is already processed through. Can't even get that back.

2. Boarding pass. If your boarding pass is printed on hotel paper with the logo on the reverse, it may not go through. At the airport, Dan's boarding pass went through, but mine, and we had printed out on the same printer at the hotel, but mine balked. Sorry, lady, just step aside here for another pat down, and another.

3. We ended up sleeping in Kastrup.

Our last good night's sleep:

Here's the hotel: wouldn't anyone trust it.

Hillerod, DK. Imaginative hotel, real trees and vines, like a greenhouse.

Trees in the hallways.

Hotel Hillerod, Denmark. Business center at the hotel for printing out your boarding pass

But the printer ran out of paper. Run out to the lobby, run back with a stack, stuff it, and print and run.

Sleeping in the airport isn't so bad. Food available.

Dan Widing in Kastrup Airport, DK. We slept in the airport.

Plan B. No big deal. We always told each other on the Car-Dan Tour Company that if we couldn't find a place to sleep, we would go to the local police station, introduce ourselves, and curl up in their parking lot.

Next best thing is the airport lobby. Doze until midnight when the doors open to get into the specific airway lounges (you can only go in on the day you are scheduled to leave). Plan: Get through the inspections at midnight and find a nicer lounge area until 5AM boarding, perhaps even a place without arm rests.

Clearance is challenging.

Kastrup Airport, sleeping under the armrests. Copenhagen.

There. It only takes three seats, and a bend at the top. ZZZZzzzz.

Sleeping at Kastrup Airport, Toe view. 1:30 AM, Copenhagen

You will not be alone. Many people sleep in the airport. Hotels are costly so why even bother with that? We seldom get a good sleep the night before anyway - too much rifling around in the backpacks and throwing out stuff so you can get on without checking anything through.

Car-Dan Tour Company sleeps in Kastrup Airport,

The thrill wore off.

If the boarding pass had gone through at midnight when we first went upstairs (noone is allowed into the boarding areas until the day of the flight), we at least could have slept on more comfortable lounge chairs up there.

Frederikssund - Vet the Viking Tradition. History's Agendas: Writing-Dependent

2011-07-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

Viking Culture.
He Who.

He who controls the writing controls what is written.

And how.

And what is said.

How to find "history" when the victors wrote their version;

or, the stories were written so long after,
and by those who were not there; and have agendas.

Frederikssund. Frederikssund is a town not far from Copenhagen, that boasts a Viking-camp type recreational area, with longhouses, pathways, a little village. It closes in the fall, but offers a pleasant respite walk before heading into Copenhagen. See http://www.visitfrederikssund.dk/international/en-gb/menu/turist/turist-maalgruppe-forside.htm

Frederikssund, Viking sculpture, modern
On the topic of Vikings, why are they so maligned by Western "Christian" cultures. Barbarians are there! Onward, Christian soldiers! Look more closely at the tradition of Viking maligning.

1. Definition of barbarian. Who is one?
2. Ancient. Reach of indigenous history: People have been settled in Denmark since 3000 BC Stone Age
3. Handicap: With no writing system beyond runes, a narrative could not be recorded and passed on easily.

Rune symbols, Frederikssund DK (modern)

4. 12th-13th C. foreigners - The victors - did the job of writing, and they did a job on it. It was foreign conquerors or those looking down their noses who wrote down Scandinavian Stories, with the writers' agendas. Or, the "historian" did his best with the material, but the times did not value vetting fact, but putting down whatever was heard.
5. History. History is not fact. History is what is sifted, written, persuaded, recorded, discovered.
6. Control of reading and writing enriches the religious and military exploiter, colonizer
7. Vikings: sources for appreciation of system of laws

Viking Reputation in History

1. Who is the barbarian.

Was that really religion talking, or turf and seeking wealth and power. Vet "barbarian". Rocks of other people's ages: what speaks. Frederikssund offers festivals to recreate what it can. Remember camp? Coming to a Viking reenactment festival site is like that. Role playing, demonstrations, crafts. We saw the reenactments at Horsens, DK, the rehearsals before the Big Day following (best time to go), but this one - by mid September - had just closed. No matter. Wander anyway.

Where else to find a positive reconstruction of Viking culture, that is not tainted by the doctrines of those who had the writing knowledge - monks, scribes -- of the conquering Western Religions. We know more than we think: see http://www.vikingship.org/ourfaqs/beliefs_1.html

"Barbarian" came into use in the mid 14th Century, and originally was not a pejorative. It was merely descriptive. See http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=barbarian.

Latin - barbaria - foreign country, the Romans applying the word to those who did not display Greek or Roman accomplishments
Medieval Latin barbarinus -
Greek - barbaros - foreign, strange, ignorant; and Greek barbaroi - those who were not Greek, referring to the Medes and Persians especially. The meaning "darkened" after the Persian Wars, says The Romans technically, for Greeks, would be barbaroi.
Old French barbarin - Berber, pagan, Saracen, barbarian,
Linguistic sound root "bar bar" - as an echo of how foreign speech sounded to those who could not understand it; or Sanskrit root (a "cognate") as barbaros or stammering, see http://en.allexperts.com/q/Etymology-Meaning-Words-1474/Barbarian.htm [and, same site, not connected to barbecue or barba for beard]

Who is the barbarian? See Western Ethnic Violence Timeline.

2. The reach of indigenous history

Frederikssund has been inhabited since early Stone Age - see that era illustrated in Denmark at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPoFCDxJlKQ. Years? Pre-1700 BC. Even as far back as 3500 BC. The Bronze Age, uses of metals, came in about 1700 BC. See http://www.kulturarv.dk/1001fortaellinger/en_GB/theme/stone-age-farmers

There was an extensive culture in Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia, religious and social organization evolved from then to the invasions of the Europeans to the South.

Enter Rome into Germanic tribe lands in Germany - Saxons, Wends, others -- and note that Rome could never subdue the Germanic tribes.

See http://www.new-wisdom.org/cultural_history1/11-norse/angles_saxons_jutes.htm

Then fast forward to the second wave of attempts to subjugate, and these worked: The medieval military-religious invasions as Christianity, inheriting the Roman militance and developed organizational skills used largely in its violent forms, spread the faith by requiring conversion or death among the northern peoples.

Watch the march of the Frankish Christians (Charlemagne) and the Popes and later Holy Roman Emperors; then to Eastern Crusades that morphed into Crusades against the multi-deist and even Orthodox-converted Christians in the North.

Those later cultures of south-influenced Europeans, The Romans, the Franks, had writing and records. The Danes, the Jutes, the Norse (term for all northern peoples here), the tribes in Sweden and Norway did not, at that time, in their own language. See the scope of contemporary college courses, example http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/O11P911AHW

3. The handicap of no writing system, beyond Runes.

Could not use writing to persuade, keep records

Recreational Viking village, Frederikssund DK

History: Records are a matter of agenda. Who made the record, why, when, where. Does it relate to demonstrable events; or is it to persuade of something. If a culture has no narrative writing record, are they inferior; or a product of their geography and environment. What extra time do cold people have, to develop writing.

Vikings. No records but oral history, and variations of runes.

Frederikssund, runestone (recreated) DK

Without original, indigenous records, how to recreate Viking culture to teach others based on fact.

Archeology goes only so far. How to derive an understanding of belief systems, values, when they themselves did not (could not, as a matter of northern climate rigors and priorities to stay alive) keep their own records. They did did not have the tools to do that until after they were conquered and were forced to learn new languages and ways; and most important, ways of heating enabled a Renaissance in the north. Is that so.

Writing is a luxury. The role of cold. Have to keep warm. No time from that to figure out how to record things, or store them. And nothing much to write it on. The easy writing materials like papyrus or clay for tablets, or pyramid walls inside, started that handy scribe-capability much farther south, where it thrived. Hot climates = early writing cultures. Cold climates = late writing cultures.

So, rather than Vikings spinning their representations of their culture to show how wonderful they were (as did southern Europe and Mediterranean cultures), they did not do much representing at all.

They just lived it, and told it. They did rune stones as memorials of people or events; or for directions in the woods; and told their stories, in a rich oral tradition. But even that oral tradition of origins, heroes, gods, like ours was finally written down by people living much, much later.

When their stories were finally written down, it was not edited even by Vikings from the culture (the earliest Adams and Eveses did not write their own story either).

4. 12th Century Foreigners Write Down Scandinavian Stories, Long After; With Agendas

So who wrote down the Viking oral histories?

Sometimes we have no idea other than a name, if even that. It was not written by the Vikings themselves, who did not know the European or Latin languages to write it. This was done by people after Christianity took hold, even as to advanced societies as that in Iceland.

The original peoples did not write their stories before the great conversion eras brought in the converting scribes. It was done by Christian advocates, or other Europeans or Latin-religious conquering people - like Romans, clerics, scribes, monks bound on conversion. Conversion: like it or not and call in the Pope's or the Holy Roman Emperor's armies to see that the rabble got fixed, or killed, whichever came first.

Examples: Saxo Grammaticus. 13th Century. Saxo the Learned. See The Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, at http://omacl.org/DanishHistory/. Almost nothing is known of Saxo. Just the name. And the books. It was translated into English in 1905. Find an early Hamlet-character here, see http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sources/hamletsources.html

Icelandic, written in the 13th and 14th Centuries, author not known, but based on earlier oral traditions. See Old Norse Sagas at http://www.oe.eclipse.co.uk/nom/sagas.htm. We like Njal's Saga, see http://omacl.org/Njal/3part.html, because it lists Otkell as son of Skarf (Otkell was not nice) and the Skarf is a form of my maiden name, with Norse forebears conjecture sprinkled about. See chapter 47 there. The Niebelungenlied found its way into opera, see http://omacl.org/Nibelungenlied/

Old Norse, 200-500 AD (before the Viking era), see http://www.windows2universe.org/mythology/norse_culture.html

Snorri Sturulson in 1200, Iceland -- a poet and politician, see the Prose Eddas at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/. He respected he earlier culture and religion, and created a framework for the stories of the gods. Still, his viewpoint was Christian: Christianity is valid, multi-deism is not. See all the dreadful things that happened under multi-deism. We are so much better off now.

5. History is what is sifted, written, persuaded

a. What we were taught.

Vikings suddenly and without cause began raiding Europe, say in 790 AD. Up and down the lengths of the rivers:

France,
Russia (the Volga, that route largely to develop trade down to and beyond the Black Sea),
attacking in Britain and Ireland the unguarded monasteries and conducting atrocities, slaving, conquering much of Britain and ruling it (King Canute) for a time,
back at the monasteries, taking riches, engaging in great commerce ventures throughout the Mediterranean, down the Volga past the Black Sea, returning the next year, and on and on from about 780-1150 AD.

Is that so? A sudden explosion, or was it a response to equal and even worse exploitation over centuries of cultural invasion.

b. Vikings - What we now know about motivation: was the culture really just callousness. What did Charlemagne do, culminating after 30 years in the slaughter of Saxon Wood, Sachsehain, at Verden. That was 782 or so. After 30 years of warfare, forced conversions, killing off of cultures. That would put the start of Charlemagne's campaigns to colonize the north at about 752. Enough is enough.

Ask what motivated them to raid? Charlemagne, stupid. The Pope, stupid. Is that it? Who dares say.

Put the records together. Were the Vikings triggered into aggression because the Charlemagne-type Holy Roman Emperor-Type Christian conquerors were invading their lands and forcing conversions?

At first the Vikings did hit the monasteries, LIndisfarne was the first; so a religious connection makes sense. Convert or die? And they refused to convert, for the longest time, until they had to, or die. Is that it? They had no formal "religion" or word for it, but their culture embraced law and morality. Was that system better?

See Charlemagne's slaughter of Saxons in 780-82. http://germanyroadways.blogspot.com/2011/02/sachsenhain-saxons-grove-charlemagnes.html

No wonder the Vikings hit the monasteries.

Barbarism was not in the killing - the Church had done that for centuries of invasions into the north and west; and then came Inquisitions and Crusades. See http://worldwar1worldwar2.blogspot.com/2010/11/westerm-ethnic-violence-timeline-put.html

Barbarism is in pretending that other people's killing is worse than your own. Historian's agenda. How is a people represented. Why. Here, look at the retaliation angle, not the barbaric ferocity. Lindisfarne - retaliation. Viking target not only for religious retaliation, but for loot.

c. . Retaliation as the Motivation; then when it paid so well, go back and do it again.

Vikings attack monasteries. Lindisfarne, Britain, in 793 AD, see http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/Lindisfarne.html

Of course the Vikings hit the monasteries.The monasteries were rich and undefended - look at what a monastery could hold.

d. Ask what the real purpose of all that converting was.

The institution and the Holy Soldiers got rich from it. Souls? A peripheral smoke-screen, judging from the methods used to convert.

How did the church get so rich? Were the Norse, includind the Danes, correct in the assesment that the invasion of the Christians was simply military; and responding in kind as long as they could.

Consider the process of and motivation for developing religious ritual, and building in opportunity.

An abbot or monk or priest attending a death and administering last rites had an easy sell: you are going to hell, mister, unless you donate this and that and that, and so they did. The Church controlled the process. Only the religious had access to writing materials, so just sign on the dotted line. X goes here. See the records of the Danish Cistercians, Abbey founded at 1153 at Esrum. By the 1500's they owned 300 farms plus churches plus highly lucrative mills. Thank you, death bed. Is that so? See http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/word/will.htm
Medieval Wills and Inventories:

Fair use quote: Emphasis added, Medieval Writing site:

"Wills were not used to dispose of the family real estate, as theoretically that was not the legal prerogative of the owner. The legal heir was designated by the crown, and the process could be full of political machinations. Wills were used to make donations to religious bodies such as monasteries, for the benefit of the owner's immortal soul, and to specify the nature of their funerary monument and funerary commemorations."

Further, in England wills had to be proven in Church courts. Medieval Writing site. Medieval Wills and Inventories: Guess who won. The "inspeximus" was a specially proven will, a certified copy by a person especially trusted. For substantial persons, the original will would be verified by the seal of a higher up clergy, even an archbishop, and five others. What was needed for mere farmers? See an example of a portion of such a will at http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/word/will.htm
Medieval Wills and Inventories:

Clever. See http://www.suite101.com/content/esrum-abbey-and-mill-in-north-zealand-denmark-a374421 The name "extreme unction" was generally used by the end of the 1100's, so this Abbey was right on time to benefit financially. Go to the site, Our Lady's Promise: It takes so long to justify the reasoning for this new sacrament that allowed, even required, the Church to be present at death. From the convoluted reasoning, it is reasonable to suppose that its use (particularly as it extracted property in practice at the same time, to save the soul), is and was not justified at all.

Just handy. Persuasion tactics. Who would resist donating property to the church, if eternal damnation were the alternative. My sins not forgiven? Where do I sign. See details of the ritual itself (that of course does not refer to the ancillary benefit of property donations in extremis) at http://www.ourladyspromise.org/blog/lesson-27-the-sacrament-of-extreme-unction

Vikings? Barbaric? In the sense of being foreign, yes. In pejorative behavior? No. So of course Vikings aimed for monasteries. Not only was Viking religion and culture being invaded and Germanics killed by the new Religion-Meisters, but how else could the North people fight back? They did not roll over easily. And monasteries were wide open. And they kept refilling their coffers.

6. Control of reading and writing enriches the religious and military invaders and colonizers

Examine Wills. Examine the role of property in culture and status. A Will, a form of writing that establishes in some areas who gets what, and easily includes donations to a religious sect when that sect demands presence at death (not just to save a soul, but see that papers are signed in time). For the individual, illiterate or not, a Will give a sense of conclusion, continuity, a sense of time and place.

Who controls the will? The one who controls writing. If the testator cannot read or write, who is to say what was really agreed. Enter, the religious authority with the clout of damnation if the poor sick soul does not donate.

Old wills served a different function from ours. Old wills could not dispose of anything at will. Pun. That made the role of the church all the more overpowering in dispositions.

One of ours, in name only (similar first and last name, to some old deceased) Johannes Widingh 1376 . The worldly goods of Johannes Widingh are recorded in perpetuity in the Hamburg records from yes, 1376.

Johannes Widingh 2011

Seeing an old will is its own satisfaction.

Keep a people ignorant and illiterate and on the run, and the colonizer-invader wins. Learn to read, and you can protect yourself, to a degree. So get your own records and see if you don't feel more rooted, less vulnerable -- all is kept -- and only a small processing fee and postage. Go and ask. See

Record, Will of Johannes Widingh, Hamburg (1376 AD)

The point is not just the fun of finding it, and a name (even if no relation at all) recognizable to an uncanny degree over 600 years later, but seeing a Truth: A culture with writing has records. And the person with writing skills has power over the one who has not, particularly in transmission of goods and donations. What is being signed for? Who knows.

Turn it around! Will top, Johannes Widingh 1376, upended. Hamburg

Will bottom, Johannes Widingh 1376, Hamburg Records, Germany

This will appears formal, but we see no seal, or signature of Johannes Widingh. See the example of a very formal one with special certification from England at http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/word/will.htm

7. Vikings - Resources

No writing. No respect. No look at invader causation (us). Just call them marauders, pirates. See http://history-world.org/vikings.htm No wills. Leaders arose and fell back as needed. Far less hierarchy than the Franks and Popes were imposing from the south. Although Vikings had no separate word for "religion", their customs and practices were based on long-standing tradition and belief. See arild-hauge site.

a. Viking laws. Even the word is Viking. See http://www.viking.no/e/life/elaws.htm
b. Viking society as self-regulating. Read the customs, emphasis on personal honor, use of vengeance at carefully chosen times, to uphold honor, daily life. To attack persons outside the law area was no crime. See http://www.arild-hauge.com/elife.htm
c. Danish runes. There were 16 until about 800 AD. Then more were added, and later, influenced by the Latin alphabet, see http://www.arild-hauge.com/edruner.htm.
d. Influence and place. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/conquest/after_viking/viking_colonists_01.shtml
and http://www.arild-hauge.com/edruner.htm

Viking, Influence and Place

Bjernede, Inside: Round Church, Rundkirke, Interior. Saint Mary of Egypt, Mary the Harlot, Mary Magdalene

2011-07-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

Round Church. Medieval.

Bjernede, Inside.
Symbols, Saints. Crusades?

Bjernede: Which saints, what bird, and a song? Significance?

Issues Overview

I. For the exterior of the medieval round church at Bjernede, and the churchyard, see http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2011/07/bjernede-round-church-bjernede-kirke.html.

II. For the interior, a basic question for us is whether this is a Templar-built or otherwise Crusader-purposed (including to accommodate pilgrims who could not get to the Holy Land) church, Templar-inspired (being round is not enough - the Roman Pantheon is round) or not Templar at all.

Start with this third party video. It shows the upper level that was accessible only by a narrow stone spiral staircase. That staircase was concealed behind a tightly shut big door with a distinctive cross on it (Crusade-related?) no sign or invitation to open. We did not do that, so the video: Martin Pavon, Photographer, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Our23yp8fJo.

III. We begin with the ground level, the worship level/ Do the symbols and art suggest that Bjernede is a Templar/Hospitaller/other Crusade-related church. That was common with other round churches, as is believed about the several round churches on the Danish island of Bornholm. Clues: Crusader crosses, a Golden Chalice detail in a painting, crescent, Eastern Orthodox in Saints' dedication, perhaps ritual areas above and below the worship level.

Round churches in themselves are not necesssarily Templar or Crusades. And ordinary traditional rectangular shape churches may be. See this Swedish example of a Cross Church, Forshem Kirke, at http://swedenroadways.blogspot.com/2011/05/forshem-kyrka-kinnekulle-area.html. Scandinavians may or may not have participated actively in crusades, but structures were set up as a kind of pilgrimage-equivalence (Cross Churches) for donations and penance while remaining in one's own country, see Forshem site.

What might persuade one way or another about Bjernede. Is it copied from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, also known as the Church of the Resurrection (is that an eagle in the photo above, itself a symbol of the resurrection?), round and the dates fit.

A. Topics Overview

1. Crusader Crosses, hidden defensible spiral staircase to ambulatory above; someone else to look up placement of windows against sun, moon shine

2. Structure - granite first, then brick on upper - does not look Templar issue

3. Seating. Hierarchical toward a priest station. Obviously not original. Is contrived to squeeze a round setting with all the pillars in the way, to an artificial priest-in front hierarchy setup. Better to have left it a round church.

4. People in paintings -- Dedication to St. Lawrence (note crescent on his hat); and St. Mary.

4.1 Woman at the Last Supper, painting Tryptych.To us, clearly a woman, with female headdress on, to Jesus' left.
4.2 Woman in large painting: St. Mary, as in dedication? If Mary Mother of, why the smudged face. Disguise, or to deemphasize her role in an emerging male church. Is the eagle for Resurrection; or to suggest John.

We believe the painting instead is Mary of Egypt, Saint Mary the Harlot (not Mary Magdalene), Mary of the Desert, Patron Saint of Penitents. Her story takes place in Jerusalem and eastern environs. What does she carry -- music? Scripture to be sung? For Mary Mother of Jesus, could be Magnificat; for Mary of Egypt, she sang the Nunc Dimittis. See notes. Also painting of a 1691 family: The skull and hourglass: Masonic?
4.3 Saint Lawrence - the Gridiron

5. Furnishings - Impregnable poor box; or donation box; or for safekeeping. Is that for donations or goods for safekeeping while the person was away? See also the doors where the crosses are found, the width of the planking, pulpit

6. Tryptych -- More on the painting of The Last Supper.
6.1 See the focus on the Gold Chalice - put that in context, if you like, of Templars, Holy Grail, or not.
6.2 See also what appears to be a woman at the Last Supper, part of the group, with head-covering, very close to Jesus. Is it Mary Magdalene at the Last Supper, at Jesus' left hand, at a round table. See notes below. Is this so?

B. Templar question.

After seeing the crosses and the grail-form chalice in the painting, and other elements,

Ask if this second floor balcony area, and lower area, was used for purposes other than regular mass. Is it for rituals, whatever, because it is so hard to see anything from there, up or down. Do go to Martin Pavon's video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Our23yp8fJo .
We are not differentiating between Templars and Hospitallers here, except that it is Templars who are associated with the Grail, secretsl and we find some details of both.

.................................................................

A. Topics

1. Crusader Crosses

Start inside with an interest in crosses, and what they might say about the mindset or faith of the commissioner of this find building, Sune Ebeson, or Ebesen, in 1170 or so. What elements of non-Roman Catholic doctrine, as that later developed, are missing; what elements of either Eastern Orthodox faith (the Great Schism was recent - in 1054, and the Crusades began immediately after, in 1065 by Rome's branch alone; and Knights Templar activity ongoing in that context until 1314, when the dismantling and securing of whatever they had went underground. Hospitallers? Did they also have to dismantle?

Holy Grail (is that a shape, a circular concept like roundtable for living on a higher plane, not a "thing"), mere regular riches, secrets, none of the above. See the Round Churches Roundtables site above.

For an overview of Templar elements in known Templar round churches, such as in England, go to http://www.scribd.com/doc/51780730/128/The-Templar-Sun-Dial-Church around page 308 ff and before. Find analyses of axes, many symbol and ritual discussions, including sun, moon. Beyond the discussion here.

1.1. This looks like a Cross Formee.

The Cross Formee is one of the crusader crosses, see http://www.orderstjohn.org/osj/cross.htm.
That site shows all the crusader crosses used by crusading states from the 12-15th Centuries. This is different from a Maltese.

Cross Formee, Crusader Cross, Bjernede Kirke, top portion, interior doorway, DK

The entire door shows that the vertical axis is not just continued down the length of the door, but is an equal-sided cross. Even the midline of the door just below the cross has a different linear design to separate it from the cross above. Some illustrations of the Maltese Cross show indentations, making a kind of 4 arrowhead pattern aiming in to the center from the axes. Is that necessary, or just one of the variations?

Cross Formee, Crusader Cross. Not Maltese because there are not indentations making a V at the end of each axis, full door view, and ritual knocker; Bjernede Kirke, round church, near Soro, Denmark.

The round knocker is for ritual use, as the door handle that actually opens the door is there at the left.

1.2 This looks like a Cross Ancree, or Cross Moline, a Forked Cross, other names.

Cross Ancree, or Cross Moline, Crusader Cross, interior doorway, Bjernede Kirke, DK

All doors were tightly shut in the church, no invitation to enter and explore.

Crusader crosses are intersecting equal arms, equal horizontal and vertical axes.

The Cross Ancree has a more pronounced curl at the end of the forked axis end, than the Cross Moline. A Maltese Cross, however, is like four arrowheads facing in to the center, each arrowhead itself in a pointed V shape at the end, wider there than at the center.

There are little anchor hooks that curve on the Moline and Ancree at the end of the axes, make both variations different from a Maltese Cross. Do see the History of the Maltese Cross site for the crosses used by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem prior to the 15th Century, see http://www.orderstjohn.org/osj/cross.htm.

This cross ancree door is strongly reinforced. There is the same patterned exposed stonework inside and out. I think this was interior. The knocker would signal the participant in the ante room that the time has come to come out, or some such. Outdoor ritual knockers can provide the same service.

.
2. Structure. Granite, many colors, interior.

Interior columns, Bjernede Kirke, multi-granite, DK

3. Seating reconformed to put priest in front. Awkward. Contrived. When was the round format altered?

First, there is a Roman Catholic cross on the inside over the door now, with a hanging Christ, long vertical axis, shorter horizontal axis. That would be later than the building of the church, is that so?

Pulpit, interior Bjernede Church, DK. Painted, carved, gilt.

Seating. It just doesn't work.

The entire arrangement of seating and ritual places is awkward and contrived, with seating requiring awkward angles of neck and poor eyeballs just to see. One's nose touches the pulpit. That is Matthew and Mark there, however. You can't miss that.

This shape of round was for in-the-round services, rituals. Matters would have been conducted in the round, and to turn it later into an axis dominated structure just doesn't work. See what looks like an original and untouched round church structure in Austria near Lienz at http://austriaroadways.blogspot.com/2009/12/lienz-castle-round-church-dolomites.html.

We see that most of the Danish round churches on the island of Bornholm also have added transepts. Have they also put altars in them, turning the orientation from the round to the hierarchical? We would like to see whether those were original, or came later when the Roman authoritarian doctrinal version of life became entrenched.

At least in Austria, where we saw a round church structure later turned into an axis-dominated one, they had the sense to remove the round walls and reconstruct the square inside. See Martinskirche, Martin's Church, Linz (not the same as Lienz), Austria, at http://austriaroadways.blogspot.com/2009/11/linz.html

4. People in the church

4.1 Identifying figures - St. Lawrence, Saint Laurentii, other?

This looks like someone of high clergy status with the incensor; but look at the hat. Our conclusion will be that this is indeed St. Lawrence, and that he is not carrying an incensor, but it takes a pursuit.

Saint Laurentii, Saint Lawrence, Bjernede Church, near Soro, Denmark

Saint Lawrence is one of the two saints honored by this church. There are a number of symbols that help in identifying him, or parts of his story.

Are there other St. Lawrences. It cannot be Archbishop Olaus Laurentii because he died in 1438.

The breastplate. Gridiron. Look again at the symbols. St. Laurentii of this church often bears a symbol of a gridiron, the method of his martyrdom. See http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/08/10.html This figure bears a gridiron on his chest.

Crescent on hat of St. Lawrence? Bjernede Church, DK

Get closer. Yes! We vote for this as the old martyred St. Lawrence. Look at the breastplate.

Gridiron breastplate, St. Laurentii, St. Lawrence, Bjernede Kirke, Denmark

He is said to have said at one point, "You may turn me over. I am done on this side." See site.

But there is also a crescent.

Crescent, on top of hat of St. Laurentii, Bjernede Church, DK

On his hat is a crescent moon, or perhaps a horn symbol. For Templars, the crescent moon is part of the iconography, and as a symbol predate the actual formation of that group. This is not to argue that this particular crescent is a harbinger of Crusader symbols, but it would tie in the Church figure to the later effort, is that so?

The crescent, or horns, are common symbols in many cultures. Mithraism, for example, was the old State religion of Rome, and it was long in dying out, and horns were part of that ritual. Paul of Tarsus -- Tarsus was a central part of Mithraism, and there are many carryovers from Mithraism to Christianity. See http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/mithraism.html

Still, a crescent, if seen as the moon and not pagan horns, is a problem. These are generally female symbols. How does that figure into a Christian theology unless this man so predated Rome that he continued to carry the older, non-Christian symbolism.

Perhaps the crescent means that, as the elvis.rowan site indicates, history is not clear that St. Laurentii was a citizen of Rome. If he were a citizen, he would have been beheaded, not roasted alive. But was he beheaded after all? Nothing is corroborated. And the "incensor" may just be instead just Laurentii carrying his own coals.

4.2 Saint Mary - Other saint? Even if it is Saint Mary, that is not enough. Which Saint Mary?

St. Mary is the second saint to which the church is dedicated.

There is a large painting of a woman in the church. Is that Saint Mary. And, if so, which Saint Mary?

Saint Mary? Mary of Egypt? Mary Mother of? Or John? Bjernede Round church DK, interior

a. Mary Mother of Jesus? We think not.

This painting of a woman is prominent in Bjernede Church. But the usual corroborative symbols are not there for this to be Mary Mother of Jesus.

Garment colors, often blue for Mary; here green gown and a red cloak (those colors sometimes indicated leprosy, see http://www.hebrewoldtestament.com/B03C013.htm#V49); or blood of sacrifice, remission of sin, etc. Also, later, prostitution
It appears that someone tried to smudge the face. Is that so that it would look male, and not be Mary at all?
Even the gown does not show a female top particularly (not determinative, many sizes);
The bottom of the gown also is odd. Is that just bad restoration, or did someone try to make that look more masculine as well, and end up making it look even more female -- leg lines clearly shown.
The figure is carrying what looks like music - and to mind comes the Magnificat, but that is speculation.
What is that eagle at her feet?
- Does that eagle persuade us that this woman is really St. John? The eagle is not a gryphon, because there is no body of a lion. St. John is represented by an eagle. If this is John the "beloved disciple" -- this looks cross-dressing. And not male where it counts.
There is no halo, as would appear for a saint. Or has it been also smudged out?
The pose carries no clue as to her role. As to Mary and Motherhood, this is not a madonna, not a grieving mother. Is there another Mary? Bottom line: There would have been a large representation of a saint to whom the church was dedicated, and this is the only candidate we see for a Mary. The issue becomes, which Saint Mary. Mary Mother of.

Close up:

Look closer. Smudge, smudge. The smudges may try, but do not succeed in turning this woman into a man, even with a mustache. If the smudges mean that someone made an effort to purge women from church prominence, as doctrine later required, that might explain it. That concept of the diminution of women's roles would apply from dogma as it evolved in an institution increasingly male-worshiping.

If it is Mary Mother of, then the and the eagle can symbolize the resurrection idea, but that is a stretch. See http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/symbols/eagle.htm. This one does not even look like an eagle. It looks all white. Then again, a double headed eagle, facing in opposite directions, is a Templar symbol, so is this one of what would otherwise be a pair.
Why the defacing if this is intended to make a woman look more like a man. Is it because Rome;s evolving doctrine excluded women in such a prominent position. Check Rome's purchase receipts for smudgepots.

Mary with face smudges. Which Mary? Why the smudging? a man? another Mary? or just bad restoration, Bjernede Kirke, DK

b. We think this is Saint Mary the Harlot. Saint Mary of Egypt. Saint Mary of the Desert.

There is indeed another Saint Mary - not Mary Magdalene, not Mary the mother of James etc; but Mary the Harlot, known in the Coptic Church particularly, 4th-5th Century, who was also known as Saint Mary of Egypt. She is a patron saint of penitents, one who became a hermit and lived her life events mostly in Palestine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Egypt. See http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/synexarion/maryofegypt.htm. See FN 1

1275 Roman version. See the Roman Catholic The Golden Legend, Lives of the Saints, Story of St. Mary of Egypt at http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden181.htm She went to Alexandria at age 12 says versions that follow this line, and prostituted herself, then to Jerusalem and the salacious life commenced. [If we ask why this church is dedicated to her, the crusader connection may help explain how the idea of this particular saint got to Denmark.]

635 Orthodox version. Her life story was written hundreds of years earlier, however, by St. Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem in 635 or so. Find it at the Orthodox Christian site, Russian Orthodox, at http://www.stmaryofegypt.org/life.aspx. That early version also contains the salaciousness but puts it in a context of a total story including about the priest Zosima, who had his flaws as well. Both come across as sinners. When a version was put into Latin as part of the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, Archibishop of Genoa in 1275, the emphasis is more on her sinner side, not the sinnership also of the men around her.

In this version, http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/synexarion/maryofegypt.htm. Mary is a woman from the desert, see Images of her with a robe worn toga-style, a sinful woman now penitent. But she becomes the vehicle for the salvation of the priest who was directed in a vision to go seeking grace in the desert. He did, and found Mary, and learned.asked Zosimas the priest (that would be St. Zosimas of Palestine, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Egypt) to lend her his cloak to better cover herself, and he did.

Is that the red cloak in the painting: Zosimas' cloak for modesty.

In this version, She had powers, levitated, "knew" things, and Zosimas the priest became her disciple. She also could walk on water. And she spoke the Nunc Dimittis while taking the sacrament. Is that a book of scripture she is carrying. In those days, couldn't the language of the people be used, and not just Latin? So the script that looks like music could be something else. She had died by the next time he visited, a year later, and a lion helped Zosimas bury her, not an eagle. As to her carrying music here, if the painting is late in time, there are operatic allusions to her, including in Goethe's Faust. She is in Ben Jonson's Volpone. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Egypt

In this next version, Mary is a pure girl who studied the scriptures under the tutelage of an uncle, named Abraham the Hermit, a holy man relative, each in adjoining cells (she was an orphan), then she was seduced by a monk. See http://www.vitae-patrum.org.uk/page44.html. She became so distraught at the evil she had done with him that she lacerated her face with her nails. There explains the mess that looked like smudges, or bad restoration. She did that to herself. How could she have let herself be so despoiled, etc. So she left, went to another land, changed clothes, and entered a brothel [word "stabulum" also can mean a fixed abode, or hostelry, says site note; translators pick and choose what fits the agenda?]. Meanwhile, the uncle missed her, had visions, sent someone for information, got it, went in disguise to her himself, and ate and drank with her and "rescued her soul from the deeps."
She is not Mary Magdalene. Mary the Harlot, Mary of Egypt lived about 370 CE.

So, Mary the Harlot it is. She raked her own face with her nails, was seduced by the monk (it took a year for him to succeed, pure girl as she was), regretted, self-blamed, either went into the desert or into an inn to live, or a brothel, was found by those who had visions where she was, and why they needed to go to her, and she ended up saving them. Or at least, one of them. Applause, Mary the Harlot. Applause.

Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Egypt offers more salacious details of Mary's early life -- hardly living in a cell with a holy man uncle on the other side of the wall -

4.3 Family from 1691 (date known from enlarging this to death)

Family portrait, memorial, 1691, Bjernede Kirke, DK

What are they holding? The rectangle above the skull and bone looks like an hour glass. What happened to these people? We do not see a record of the Plague here at that time. It looks like they are blessing the little one; one adult holds a rose.

Family closeup, Bjernede Kirke DK, 1691

A clue is the center bottom skull, bone, and hourglass. Those are Masonic symbols, that even found their way into Dan Brown's book, The Lost Symbol, see The Lost Symbol, google book, author Dan Brown, page 155
There are also other sites for the symbolism but without the ability to vet authority, suggest you search independently. Skulls and bones and hourglasses also, of course, appear in non-Masonic contexts, Gaargh. How to discern?

5. Furnishings, accoutrements

5.1 Poor box or safe for donations, valuables

Not just a poor box.

This appears too iron-clad, literally, to be a mere poor-box that the priest would check weekly and use for whatever. Yet it would be portable as a safe, for taking to a common collection point. Ordinary clergy, or perhaps Holy Orders holding goods and papers for pilgrims, for literal safe-keeping, and then return' or reversion to the institution if no-one comes back.

Poor-box, for charitable donations or to help the church or crusaders? Bjernede Kirke, Bjernede Round Church, DK

The poor-box? Bjernede Church, DK. Or collection for the crusaders? Well locked.

5.2 Pulpit

Matthew and Mark are on the pulpit, photo at top in the seating section.They are identified by name.

6. Tryptych, with Golden Chalice featured; and Woman at the Last Supper by J's side.

Tryptych, Bjernede Church, Kirke, Round Church DK

This Tryptych, a three part and still possibly folding presentation of a Biblical event, with Patrons on either side: routine.

Chalice. A gold Chalice is at the center of this Last supper view, pre-Leonardo

There is a prominent, and held-high, chalice of gold. There is a general buzz going on in the group, and somebody is pointing at the Chalice so we are sure not to miss it. Reading a narrative into the prominence of this golden Chalice, it does fit in the context of crusades and a mysterious holy grail that was handily thought of as a Thing. The Templars found and took that Thing, or that idea, or the riches spiritual or material that it represented, somewhere. A Grail allusion right here.

Gold Chalice, Last Supper Tryptych, Bjernede Kirke, DK

Look even closer.

What is that figure to the right of J?The figure is wearing a head covering, and is very very close to J.

Mary? Mary Magdalene? Is that you? The figure to the right side of J, from our viewpoint.

Look at the detail around J even closer. Is that a woman, with a head covering? Is that Mary Magdalene to the right of J's head, so close as to be touching.

It is not John. We see John is there somewhere else, fast asleep and paying no attention to all this at all, his head down on the table in front of J. So this cannot be argued, as in the case of a possible Mary in Leonardo's Last Supper, that the figure some see as Mary really is just John, the Beloved. Here we have both in the same picture.

It is not Judas. We think we see Judas, in front, with his coins held carefully behind his back.

Mary Magdalene. Who else? The figure in the Tryptych looks like a woman to the right, next to J. Last Supper. Mary Magdalene; and long before DaVinci interpreters looked at his ambiguous presentation.

There is the woman's head, with a head covering, next to Jesus, to the right from our view.

Mary Magdalene? Woman in head covering next to J at Last Supper, Bjernede Kirke, Tryptych, Denmark

Does the painting now need protection?

Do we hear the church saying: We can't have Mary at the Last Supper there, nosirree. And certainly not so close, can we, even if she was. We don't care what really happened. We have our dogma to protect. Get rid of her. Now.

This woman, we think of as Mary, is indeed wearing a head covering, None of the other figures wear a head covering like that. That is a lot of fabric, not just a cap. So is that Mary on the right side of J's head, with the head covering?

Counting: Do we have 12 disciples?

Count. Still not 12 disciples, 13 if we were to add Mary. Jesus 1, 11 others. So look to the lower right corner. Is that another person?

Another disciple there by the wine? Whose feet to the left?

Maybe we are getting too close. Look at the figure above and to the left of the wine. Bottomed out? Have to get to the bottom of that. And whose feet are whose. Feet and bottoms, for heaven's sake. That is really weird.

B. Templar Questions

Templars or not, what explanation is thee for the crosses and the focus on eastern saints like Mary of Egypt (born in Egypt, even with all the variations on her story). Gnostic interest in dualism, . Even as Hospitallers, that also became a military order, combining role of Knight and Monk. Order of St. John of Jerusalem is one of those. See discussion at http://kngdv.blogspot.com/2011/02/round-churches-roundtables-labyrinths.htmlThis set of ideas will take a return trip. A better camera, time to explore, now that we know what we are looking for. Go to the upper levels. Open the doors, poke around like any obnoxious tourist. Why did we hesitate to open closed doors? Mother's manners. In the Martin Pavon video of the other level, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Our23yp8fJo, watch for the part with a cross etched in the wood scaffolding framework. Nothing is ever clear. It does show which door to open, however, we think. Unless Blackbeard is back there.

Need to go to the island of Bornholm where several Templar Churches are located.

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FN 1

Consider. The Golden Legend was written in about 1275. That puts the Roman Catholic version a hundred years after the church at Bjernede was dedicated to here. So this church and the crusaders would have relied for their knowledge of Mary upon St. Sophronius.

Ask whether the idea of penitence, emphasized in the Orthodox, is overwhelmed by the idea of what she did -- sins of the flesh -- emphasized in the Roman. Did she prostitute herself? And how much was that an element, if she did. Example of issue: Another version of her story says that "stabulum" or "brothel" also means simply fixed place of abode, see below. See the Golden Legend side translated into -- is it Arabic? at http://marymagdalene.blogdrive.com/archive/5.html. Why not translate the Sophronius?

The role of the focus on her salacious life, rather than the total context and relationship also with Zosima. The 1275 version operates to discredits her as an inspired human being and turns her into a victim of her carnal lusts. Earlier versions did not have her a slave to lust. Somebody needs to do a comparison of the Patriarch of Jerusalem version in 635 against the Archbishop of Genoa version in 1275. Is it just a matter of leaving parts out, or are there other changes. It looks more like parts just left out.

She is in the Orthodox calendar for observances, but not the Roman Catholic. She is honored by special events in Crete (Wikipedia site below) so would have had connections with Crusaders going East. How could they miss her.

Her story is a touching one, but details vary with the teller and translation.

Bjernede Outside: Round Church. Bjernede Kirke. Bjernede Rundkirke

2011-07-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

The Round Church at Bjernede, Zealand, Denmark: The Outside

Bjernede Rundkirke, Round Church, exterior, near Soro, Zealand, Denmark

Bjernede is near the town of Soro on Zealand. The round church was built in 1160, thanks to one Sune Ebbeson who was a governor to Valdemar the Great, Valdemar I. See family history at http://medievaldanishfamilies.blogspot.com/2008/10/sune-ebbesen-bef.html.

The "bishop's hat" on top came later to the cone roof. This was the time of the Crusades, and some may argue that this was a church inspired by, or fostering, or actually used by Templars - Hospitallers, based on symbols, architectural points, see a Norwegian site laying those out, at http://frimurertempelridder.blogspot.com/

Find a picture there of interest, of an old church (as a search for it, we looked up a Swedish "Cross Church", Forshem, there, for its Templar elements), then cut and pasted to a translator. Clicking on English does not translate the whole site at once. I cannot vouch for the site, but offer it for others' vetting. It is a site of interest either for past or ongoing Templar interests, neither or both..

Sune Ebbeson, patron builder tribute, Bjernede Kirke, DK

1. Inscription, dedication

The inscription at the exterior door indicates the dedication: To Saint Mary and Saint Lawrence.

Lawrence? Lawrence was a martyr of 257 AD who was told to give over the riches of the church, according to a popular story; so he gave the riches to good stewards; then presented a collection of the poor and downtrodden as the real riches. Beheaded, most likely; but there is a more gory popular tale, not corroborated, see http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/08/10.html. Why would Sune Ebbeson dedicate this building to Lawrence? So far, we see no particular connection to Scandinavian conversion. Where did Lawrence live? I believe Italy.

2. Structure

The church is a round tower, two-stories inside, open; with side transepts on two adjoining sides. The view from the front shows a clearly round church -- stroll around back and see a totally different configuration - two transepts. One looks original, and one looks tacked on. Note the upper windows, and check this site for a possible significance for the double arch. In some Templar-type churches, those line up with the sun or moon at certain times of the year, for ritual purposes. Is that so? Scroll down at http://frimurertempelridder.blogspot.com/

2.1 Round church - not enough in itself to be Templar, but interesting possibility.

Round churches traditionally are said to be defensive structures, including Bjernede, see Castles of God, Fortified Religious Buildings of the World, by Peter Harrison 2004, Defensive purpose, round church structure.

In Harrison's book, defense against the Wends is cited. But the Wends were not just another tribe on the rampage against Christian incursions. Wends were a prime target of the Pope's Northern Crusades - Crusader interests again -- see Wends and the Pope's Northern Crusades. What other purposes, if any, underlie it? Perhaps none. Still, see the history of the Wends -- the Templars or their religious army equivalents were themselves on the rampage there, see http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2011/07/korsor-and-wends-highways-bypass.html. Merely citing a defensive purpose and generally saying "Wends" does not detract from a now more likely than ever Templar, or at least Teutonic Knights function or interest.

moving from Germany north to Scandinavia where the Wends were being pushed.

The round architectural style is old (Rome's Pantheon, Charlemagne's octagonal-round chapel), and came more into style for churches after the crusades. Connected to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in style, even if just as copycat possibly.

Some round churches are truly round: no transepts jutting out. What is the significance of the shape. See http://kngdv.blogspot.com/2011/02/round-churches-roundtables-labyrinths.html.

There is a cluster of round churches on Bornholm, an island of Denmark accessible by ferry; and those suggest a Templar tradition.

Who is a scholar here, and who is repeating wishful, adventure-thinking? See http://www.nature-spot.com/2009/03/bornholm-island-templar-churches.html. Assuming a grain of truth between the series of round churches here and in Europe, see this round church in that context: of the same era, in this early orthodox era.
If there is a connection between those going to and returning from Crusades, from the time soon after the Great Schism in 1054, where the Roman Christians split from the Eastern Orthodox Christians; to the first Crusade in about 1065; through Rome's western Christians slaughtering even Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 (about 35 years after this Church was built); and through the murder of the Templars allegedly completed with the burning of Jacques deMolay in 1314, and subsequent and earlier flights of Templars and alleged riches and the Grail with them, supposedly; that puts this church in an active crusading and east-west conflict period and open to those influences.
As to Templars and crusaders going and coming, there would be a strong influence of eastern Christianity brought with them. The exposure at least was there. If Templars favored Rome's rival, Orthodox and other eastern ideas, in any way, would Rome long tolerate it? What happened to the round churches. Were they ever Templar, part of a network to safety, concealment. Enter, Hollywood.
A Templar or other secret society connection would explain the anomaly noted at http://medievaldanishfamilies.blogspot.com/2008/10/sune-ebbesen-bef.html, that rites at the lower level cannot be seen from the upper, easily; and the upper level is also only accessible up a spiral clockwise stair, very narrow, so that noone in armor could ascend. If they did, their right arm, presumably the sword arm, would be pinned to the center of the spiral, leaving only the left arm free to wield. That was a customary defensive construct in castles and churches, and appears here. See video by Martin Pavone at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Our23yp8fJo

Look at the shape in that context, East and West in collision, lines not firmly drawn.

So, can we explore the shape as more than mere architecture choice. Explore the shape as an expression of a mindset of the builder, a belief system that reflect pre-Roman Church Latin or an alternative to Roman Church Latin-dominance ideas (brick Gothic expressed the Roman emerging idea, these are earlier Romanesque from an era of no division: no hierarchy imposition yet? vet the idea. See that and other historical considerations, unanswered, a theorist merely recording theory points, at FN 1. Or not.

For now, stay what is seen.

2.2 The shape of the cross

Equal-sided crosses can be the Prussian Iron Cross, that later became a symbol of Fascism; the Maltese Cross, with its inward aimed arrowheads; a sun-wheel or ring cross, see Celtic crosses; see http://www.crossroad.to/Books/symbols1.htmlI

This church shows a theme of the Greek cross with its equal sides. See it at http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/symbols/cross.htm It is the most ancient cross -- ans suggests by that that the crucifixion was not central to Christianity at the outset at all. That emerged as doctrinally important later, and then the cross itself became the kind of cross that a crucifixion would probably take place upon: a long vertixal axis for the body, a shorter horizontal axis for the aris.

The equal sided cross, however, is more easily accommodated in a circular shape, so that reinforces the idea that the circular was earlier as an idea for Christianity before east and west so split, than the later Latin Roman big church with the long aisle etc. Is that so?

Door symbols here do not look Roman Catholic. This is an interior door, included here because of the cross, but also to show that closed doors, that an ordinary tourist would not touch, can hold back on so much of interest.

This equal sided cross is not inscribed in a circle, and has two scrolly forked ends. See it and variations, called the Forked Cross, at All Crosses, http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/index-all.php?Spacing=20
To be a Greek cross, would the ends have to be plain?
The crux of this church, pun intended, is behind the closed doors like this one.
Behind, we now learn, is a staircase, a narrow defensive stone spiral stair, to the upper level. See the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Our23yp8fJo
See if you find there some more corroboration for the idea that this, like other round churches in Denmark and elsewhere, have crusader and even Templar connections.

Fork cross doorway design, interior Bjernede Kirke, DK. Behind door, a stone defensive spiral stair to upper regions.

The doors like this were all closed when we went inside, so we did not know that behind at least one was a staircase leading to an upper level where all is laid out for non-usual mass reasons.

And we had no idea we could open the doors (we hesitate to barge around) and go up.

Other people have, however,

There are also multiple circles. Those may just be decorative; or represent, according to this site (giving both traditional Christian and other non-Christian origins) the female principle and power, sun disk, sacred hoop, unity, infinity, and gnostic elements. Scroll down to the circle at Symbols and Their Meaning at http://www.crossroad.to/Books/symbols1.html

3. Construction.

Here: What was the timing of adding the second transept? One does look out of place. Need to look up the evolution of church architecture. Sune Ebbesen began the church in granite, then switched to brick, then a new building material coming into fashion in Denmark at that time, as the techniques improved.

Bjernede Round Church, transept looks later. Soro, DK. Bjernede Kirke

There are two transepts. This one, all brick with a stair-step facade, does not look "of a piece" to the main building. There is no flow to the joins. Tacked on? Did a later vestry suddenly want an entryway for the pamphlets and sign-up sheets? And a coat rack?

4. The churchyard

View from Bjerjede Runekirke churchyard to thatch-roof cottage, near Soro, DK

4.1 Burials

Grave, Bjernede Rundkirke, DK Flat, elevated stone with illegible inscriptions

Who is buried where is addressed at http://medievaldanishfamilies.blogspot.com/2008/10/sune-ebbesen-bef.html The inscriptions are not preserved, out under lichen, and hard to read. We saw no information tracts inside the building.

Our interest is in the pre-Roman hierarchy influences that are suggested by a round church, equal-sided cross. Is there ground for that interest. This one, for example, looks not like a Christian cross, but like the Sun Wheel, or Odin's Wheel. See it at this site illustrating cross shapes: All Crosses at http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/index-all.php?Spacing=20

Churchyard memorial, Bjernede Kirke, Round Church, DK

This cross is inside a circle. The quartered circle, or sacred circle with equal lines pointing to north, south, east, west, is not Christian in origin, and has strong pagan roots, although it was later adopted -- particularly by Celtic Christians, think Irish. See it as the sun cross, at http://www.crossroad.to/Books/symbols1.html. The wording on the stone is illegible, enlarge and tinker as we try with contrasts.

Sun cross or Odin's Wheel? Bjernede Churchyard, DK

Found in the burial yard were some very old graves, see the medievaldanishfamilies site above. Two men, perhaps not Ebbe? That would be a Greek Cross, except for its placement within the circle. Is that so?

Inscription stone, placed on wall,churchyard, Bjernede Round Church, DK. Bjernede Kirke

The lettering shows deaths in the 17th Century. The little rectangle encloses ,

Grave marker enlarged, Bjernede Churchyard, 17th -18th C deaths, DK

4.2 A Place for Bells

Bell shelter, Bjernede Round Church burial ground

Is this a belfry? Probably not. Belfries originated as watch towers, a place to go for safety. Bells were often located there, to give warning. This garden level church bellhouse would not, then, be a belfry, but used similarly: mark the services, and even danger. See http://www.thefreedictionary.com/belfries

Bells in bellhouse, Bjernede Rundkirke, DK

Why would having bells be a "horror to the heathens?" That is said not in connection with this church, but another. See http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc4.i.ii.xxiv.html See overall discussion of modern vs. old worship at http://users.bestweb.net/~kali93/oct98/leitch.htm

Churchyard, brick gothic Gate in wall, Bjernede Rundkirke, Zealand, DK. Bjernede Kirke

5. Materials, timing, symbols.

Ebbe began in granite, ended in brick. This stair-step facade on the churchyard gate house, as to style, in that area looks new. The little bishop's hat on top of the roof, the little tower part, is very new: it was added in 1892. Adding a bishop's hat is a further way of distancing from any whiff of the Orthodox. Another equal-sided cross is suggested by the window at the top near the roofline.

Transition from granite to brick, transept looks original, Bjernede Rundkirke DK. Is it? Bjernede Kirke. Near side, rear view

5.1. Is transept the right word for those appendages?

Granite transept, near side view, Round Church at Bjernede DK. Bjernede Kirke

The window also echoes the style on the main round tower. This is an amateur talking. Move closer to get the trees out of the way. The join looks all of a piece.

Far window on transept also looks original, Bjernede Rundkirke, DK. Bjernede Kirke. Near side view.

5.2 Practicality

A window at the end would also be needed to light up that section.

"Bishop's hat" on round tower, near side view, Bjernede DK. Bjernede Kirke, Bjernede Rundkirke

6. Eastern influences.

We assume that Rome converted all of Europe to Christianity, but that is not so. It was fight all the way. Even Constantine rejected what Rome was doing, see the Cyril and Methodius site below.

The earlier Orthodox (before there was the Great Schism) missionaries included Cyril and Methodius, in the Slavic areas to the Baltic, see http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Saints_Cyril_and_Methodius.aspx; and Ansgar, Apostle of the North, also had an orthodox background, we understand. The violence of the Holy Roman Emperors, including Charlemagne, did not get this far, but word did most likely. Do what Rome wants.

The original transept here could fit an Orthodox-slanted tradition, see http://www.pointleb.net/directory/index.php?title=Cathedral_architecture_of_Western_Europe; that would leave for later years the need for a convenient rain-shielding entryway.

Bjernede Kirke. Odd-looking transept, stair-step facade. Who put that on? Bjernede Round Church getting less round with the years.

Brick peak roof addition. Fake. Take it off. This is supposed to be a round church.

See other round churches: they mostly follow an axis inside as that Greek cross, equal arms, creating an easy circle form. Add an entry and all is well. It was later that the Roman or Latin cross took over architecture, as Rome tried to diminish the influence of the Orthodox after Rome left the Orthodox in the 11th Century, is that so? But Orthodox had been at work in Scandinavia long before that, before the Schism, so a Greek cross would have been a natural.

Far side view, granite transept. This one looks good. Bjernede Rundkirke, Denmark. Bjernede Kirke.

Where the granite becomes brick - later brick gothic transept blocks and ruins the style.

The good guy transept, that fits; is on the right. The bad new guy, with the stair-step facade that doesn't fit, is on the left. Is that so? That is brick gothic, much later than the Romanesque of 1170. Doesn't match at all. Is there a brochure on this, or are we just wrong here? Who has the series of footprints, floor plans? Find a photo showing that odd transept more clearly, at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Bjernede_Kirke.jpg

.....................................................................

This is to keep ideas in one place, not necessarily recommended reading for anyone else.

FN 1 A History aside. Look again at the meaning of the shape of the round church. Can it be seen as a protest against the hierarchy, authoritarian set-up of the Roman version of Christianity elsewhere. A nod to the other branch known to the Scandinavians through the Slavs, the Orthodox.

What was Norse culture. Why do we patronize multi-deists as "pagan". We have the trinity -- a thinly disguised multi-deist system. They say there was human sacrifice. Was there? Was that event as bad as persecutions of Jews, Inquisitions, Crusades East and Crusades North, Witch-burnings? The Norse had a functioning centuries' old self-sustaining tradition. Where to find Christianity-history that is not an agenda, proselytizing, painting all the saints as saintly and all the men as good-looking, etc. Start with the BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/religion_01.shtml; but even that is assuming a superiority to the Christian.

Challenge the BBC. Scandinavians did not adopt Christianity easily. The first missionary came in the 700-800's. Conversion took until about 1200 for Scandinavia. BBC, even your account is rosy false. How can that be? Where is your narrative of Charlemagne against the Saxons; and the Northern Crusades.

Needed as we wind down this great (to us) trip to Denmark: A neutral statement of the multi-deist culture of the northern people: how were they worse than the Inquisition, the persecutions, the witch-burnings, etc? We need a good norse advocate. What did they gain by conversion except entry into the dubiously "superior" world of moneymaking and powergrabbing by making churches into institutions. They had a more egalitarian culture than ours, did fine. Is that so? It was merely force and not merit, that turned the tide.

So, when there is a round church, that suggests ties to the oldest Christian roots and ideas of egalitarianism, might that have come through an early church Orthodox influence, before the Great Schism? Or is it happenstance. Nobody seems to know. See http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=06&region=eue

What is Orthodoxy had won over Rome instead of Rome prevailing over the rest of Europe? Rome had militance and administrative skills; and the exclusions of Mithraism (no women allowed). Paul's home town was a center of Mithraism. None of that is merit in belief. That is force.

Was there an influence of the Orthodox in the 12th Century in Scandinavia, or at least a hesitation in adopting everything Roman. Round churches fostered either the informal service of the earliest times, in the round; or providing with the transept a place for the iconostasis, where parts of the service took place away from view. The Orthodox had been in Scandinavia, Cyril and Methodius' ideas including services in the native language (hated by Rome) came up through the Slavic areas of the Baltic, and had at least some influence until the Pope's Northern Crusades 1231-1282 or so (see http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/timeline/a/1300s1400sTimeline.htm).
Why the aversion to the West? It appears that the Viking raids on Christian monasteries began not long after Charlemagne's slaughter of the Saxons and forced conversions of other Holy Roman Emperors. Scandinavia wanted no part of this religion. Who wouldn't lash out? See the dates outlined and connection suggested at http://forums.skadi.net/showthread.php?t=76590. So Western Roman Christianity in that sense asked fo r it. They started killing off any who would not convert, or re-convert if they had been already Christianized by the Orthodox, according to Rome's standards. See Charlemagne in the Saxon lands: word spread.
And it got worse, with the Northern Crusades. Any Prussians targeted by the Teutonic Knights, for example, were already Christian -- converted by the Orthodox. But this site does not mention that, see http://www.crusades-encyclopedia.com/thenortherncrusades.html; this one does, and heavily (properly so) see http://www.conflicts.rem33.com/images/deut/drang.htm.
See also timeline at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1999/issue63/63h028.html

The Greek cross idea of equal distance between worshippers and whoever led the service, also in the early church had signified the equality of all before God, men, women, rich, poor -- as J himself had practised. The Latin-Roman sect after the Schism with the Orthodox changed architecture and doctrine that entrenched a hierarchy idea in Christianity -- the Roman or Latin cross with its huge vertical axis, and little horizontal.

Kalundborg - Church with Five Steeples; Theological and Economic Symbiosis; Stork Roof Symbiosis

2011-07-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

Kalundborg:

Economic or Industrial Symbiosis

Steeple Symbiosis

Roof-Sharing Stork Symbiosis

Kalundborg. A 12th Century town on a harbor (west coast of Zealand, Sea Land, Sjaelland, can't spell that, so back to Zealand), that fosters 21st Century multi-faceted use of its properties.

Kalundborg DK. Now crooked old connected residences, stables-garage, still in use

1. Economic Symbiosis. Industrial Symbiosis.

Economic or Industrial Symbiosis: This concept means that a community of commercial interests, businesses, locate at the same property. They collaborate on use of the environment and resources, and produce "enhanced environmental, economic, and social performance." See Kalundborg and its Economic Symbiosis at http://www.eoearth.org/article/Kalundborg,_Denmark.

The drive for common sense started in 1961 with a collaboration to preserve Denmark's precious groundwater (it and its islands are surrounded by salt water), and use instead lake surface water through a pipeline and purification system, and several economic interests contributed to the project to their mutual benefit. See uses of waste products at http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/regulatory-roadblocks-to-turning-waste-to-wealth/. This is all for the benefit of later generations, as the groundwater was not used. See also Dollars and Sense: Denmark Shows the Way. Kalundborg

Good idea. Read and learn - economic symbiosis. Industrial symbiosis. More at a regional site, http://www.baltcica.org/casestudies/kalundborg.html. Could it work somehow for natural gas fricking fracking here?

2. Steeple - Saint Symbiosis. Church of Our Lady

This means that a community of multiple steeple interests, deity invocators, locate at the came church. Collaborate on airspace and produce an enhanced steeple experience. Find it at the Church of Our Lady. Count them: 1,2,3,4, and there in the back, peeking out and pointing dutifully up, 5.

Church of Our Lady, Kalundborg DK. Five steeples.

Enjoy the hedge-maze landscaping. The covey of gardeners will watch you pass, and smile and nod when you do. Don't hesitate to be first.

Each tower one is named for a saint, and as was common in Scandinavia before Rome decided enough attention to women was enough, and the men had to take over prominent positions instead to be true to the Doctrine they pushed, they are named for female saints:

St. (Virgin) Mary's in the center,
then east to St. Anne,
south to St. Mary Magdalene,
west to St. Catherine.

You know the Virgin and Mary Magdalene, and St. Anne, mother of Virgin Mary.

St. Anne does not appear in the New Testament, however, we learn; and only is in the Apocryphal literature, James' Protoevangelium, or Protevangelium. She was much venerated in the Middle Ages but not until the 13th Century. Also find her as Anna. Spend time with her role, see St. Anne, Anna, Mother of Mary, James' Infancy Gospel
That means she would be a newcomer to the devotions. She must have made an impact on the faithful, because at that early stage of European focus, she had a steeple tower named for her.

Catherine? That could not have been the Italian Catherine of Siena, who lived 1347-1380. It could have been St. Catherine of Alexandria, greatly revered in the Middle Ages, a scholar a beauty and a martyr, but Orthodox and historicity may be questioned, see that quick look at Wikipedia.

It takes time to get all the steeples in at once. Getting closer does not help.

The church architecture is an equal sided Greek cross, with a steeple also in the center, making all the steeples feasible and equal.

The town, began in earnest as a trading center in 1170, and once looked like this model. The church tower-tower-tower-tower-tower towers high. Do they all have bells? Do they ringbongclangringbing in sync?

Kalundborg, Denmark. Church yard model of walled medieval town, Church of Our Lady

The model of the town is a fine use of church yard space at the Church of Our Lady.

Note there were many towers in the town, in the town. There (2-3) were towers in the town, in the .....

Kalundborg, Denmark. Medieval Kalendborg Castle model, Keep and defensive walls (some walls remain)

Watch it.

In Denmark and we find in most of Europe, you will not see protective railings around depressions in the ground. You are expected to watch where your own feet are going, and not fool around with your companion. A careless stumble into this little model would produce some nasty gauges, so be careful. Don't expect to sue. That's what your eyes are for.

3. Stork-Roof Symbiosis

This means that the stork population may want to use the same roof as humans, and should be allowed to do so. Find this one and look closely to see that the nestic construction is not a continuation of the treeline behind the roof.

That is a European White Stork nest, followed up on the ridge line by wise footholds for little storklets and storklings (females and males) to cling to when time to fledge. In some places, the roof owner will construct a wooden frame to make the nest secure, see Ribe.
,

Stork - Roof Symbiosis, Kalundborg Denmark

Rural DK: Windmill, Burial Mound, the Flats

2011-07-15T04:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Glavendrup Part II: Tryggevaelde. Rune Stones; Who is Ragnhild; The Holes in the Stones;

2011-07-13T11:03:00.000-07:00

Glavendrup Part II

Stone Ship Site:
Part I at http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2011/07/glavendrup-viking-stone-ship-ragnhild.html

Who is Ragnhild: Erectress of Stones

Why the Drill-type holes?

I. Ongoing Mystery I.
Holes in Stones at Glavendrup Stone Ship Site

Ragnhild. Ragnhild is a woman of the Scandinavian Viking era, 10th Century. She is a person of means, who can afford not one but two rune stones and at least one stone ship for her husbands, that at the same time pay deserved tribute to herself for doing it. I did this. Me. Moi. Good for her. She erected Glavendrup rune stone for Alle, a priest and clan chieftan. She erected Tryggevaelde rune stone for Gunnefi, a "clamorous" man.

Pronounce Ragnhild as "Wrong-heel" says http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=644001

Glavendrup is in the woods. See it at http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2011/07/glavendrup-viking-stone-ship-ragnhild.html. There are two stones with holes drilled through at top, to the side.

Tryggevaelde is in the Copenhagen Museum, and we did not see it. But we learn now that it also has a drill hole at the top, and that the holes are unexplained. .

First stone with hole, front view, Glavendrup Stone Ship, Ragnhild erected, DK

Second stone with hole, front view, Glavendrup Stone Ship, Ragnhild erected, Denmark

Be still, heart.

The heart shape means courage in the old symbolism, the heart as the seat of courage, warlike virtue. See http://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/10394/1/RAEI_21_03.pdf. This stone bears some resemblance to the heart, but beyond that, we cannot go. There is a modern stone erected to Ansgar, Apostle of the North, with a heart also on it, see the Glavendrup Part I site.

Rear view, second stone with hole, Glavendrup Stone Ship, Denmark

II. Ongoing mystery - Who was Ragnhild, and what are the holes for?

A. She has relatives; can we place and date her.

Stone 1: Glavendrup, erected by Ragnhild to honor

Alle,
her husband,
clan chieftain, and
priest of the Soelve.

There was a Soelve Soelvedal who went with Erik to colonize Greenland, see http://usazweb.com/lib/news/Norse-Discovery-of-America.html
Gamers find Soelve, Sea-King Jutland, in Pendragon, see http://www.scribd.com/doc/37672574/Pendragon-Chaosium-2718-Land-of-Giants

See inscription and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryggev%C3%A6lde_Runestone.

Soto carved the runes.

Who is Soto? A slave? A superior?

Stone 2: Tryggevaelda, erected by Ragnhild to honor

another husband, Gunnulfr,
a "clamorous" man.
Ragnhild is the sister of Ulfr.
Gunnulfr is son of Nerfir.

See inscription and same site, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryggev%C3%A6lde_Runestone ; http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Tryggev%C3%A6lde%20Runestone

Soto carved the runes again.

The rune-carver of a rune-stone in Sweden did his work for his master, so perhaps this Soto is also a slave.

See http://swedenroadways.blogspot.com/2011/02/anundshog-viking-burial-mound-at.html

Name itself. The name itself, Ragnhild, has come down to us as "regin" for advice, and "hildr", for battle. Ragnhild is no mere domestic goddess, the the shadow of the other. See http://www.behindthename.com/name/ragnhild

B. Side interest -- status of women. If a woman is wealthy and powerful, she can show it. Was there polyandry at that time? Or was this a more modern sequential monogamy, after casting one aside; or widowhood.

III. IDENTITIES SEARCH

A. RAGNHILD:

1. Story - genealogy Part I

Was this the same Ragnhild, daughter of Hakon who was King of the Nitherians? Here is old historian Saxo's account of Danish history-myths.

Hadding is a hero. He is said to be called "Ing" by his people, see http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/tml/tml14.htm
[The King Inge buried at Vreta Kloster in Sweden?? See http://swedenroadways.blogspot.com/2010/12/linkoping-berg-burials-at-vreta-kloster.html]. He may also be Hadingus, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadingus

"Hadding chanced to hear that a certain giant had taken in troth Ragnhild, daughter of Hakon, King of the Nitherians; and, loathing so ignominious a state of affairs, and utterly abominating the destined union, he forestalled the marriage by noble daring. For he went to Norway and overcame by arms him that was so foul, a lover for a princess."

Fair use, Saxo, see http://omacl.org/DanishHistory/book1.html;nsee also http://www.vildbabel.dk/viking/saga/saxo/book1.htm

2. Story - the ring holds - love interest Part II

The story continues, with perhaps an explanation of the hollowed holes like ring holds in the stones:

"For he thought so much more of valour than of ease, that, though he was free to enjoy all the pleasures of a king, he accounted it sweeter than any delight to repel the wrongs done, not only to himself, but to others. The maiden, not knowing him, ministered with healing tendance to the man that had done her kindness and was bruised with many wounds. And in order that lapse of time might not make her forget him, she shut up a ring in his wound, and thus left a mark on his leg. Afterwards her father granted her freedom to choose her own husband; so when the young men were assembled at banquet, she went along them and felt their bodies carefully, searching for the tokens she had stored up long ago. All the rest she rejected, but Hadding she discovered by the sign of the secret ring; then she embraced him, and gave herself to be the wife of him who had not suffered a giant to win her in marriage."

http://www.vildbabel.dk/viking/saga/saxo/book1.htm

But no Hadding is listed on the stone. See The Danish History - no names there except for Ragnhild.

Nonetheless: Try this. Raghnild, in her gratitude for deliverance by Hadding the Hero from the proposed marriage to the giant, sewed a ring in one of Hadding's (the hero's) wounds, so it left a mark on his thigh, and she then could feel it later and find him. Yes! That would make the "clamorous" man, Gunnulfr, on whose rune stone as husband is the ringmark, her heart's delight? But not so much Alle, because the holes on the the ship stones are not on his rune stone. Imagination wins again.

3. Husbands

Look for husbands Alle or Gunnulfr, sister Ulfr, Gunnulfr son of Nerfir. Those do not appear in the Saxo Danish History, or anywhere we can find so far. Try sites: Medieval Danish Families -- http://medievaldanishfamilies.blogspot.com/2010/08/hakon-jyde-1131-ragnhild-daughter-of_20.html .

Hakon: date given as 1131, but that and other names do not fit?

4. Modern people tying themselves in with great history

Genealogy

Is this fictitious? See genealogy at http://fabpedigree.com/s001/f602571.htm. Still, no other names fit.

5. Difficulty: Many Ragnhild's

The name is common, but none seem to fit -- http://home.comcast.net/~homerbjames/HBJ/V01/V01_NorthSeas.htm

14. Was she an illegitimate daughter of Haakon? But other names do not fit. http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/NORWEGIAN%20NOBILITY.htm

B. RAGNHILD AS DAUGHTER OF KING OF THE NITHERIANS

1. Nitherian appears in the Anglo-Saxon and means to put down, or afflicted, see the Danish-Swedish nedrig, or neddert, meaning low or abject. See The Dialect of Cumberland at page 92, by Robert Ferguson, http://books.google.com/books?id=UMgqc2AstxkC&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=Nitherians+Norse+history&source=bl&ots=O2VoUsH9GW&sig=VCLHz66vUBtvoyFQvD7-f-ZsofM&hl=en&ei=-c4dTp3IEcfb0QHat_CyBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=nitherian&f=false

2. Nitherians live in a wintry, cold land, Teutonic Mythology, http://gersey.tripod.com/religion/mythology, /teutonic_40-49.html, perhaps on the way to the lower worlds.

3. Is this Nid-Elven in Norway? Niftheri? Niflieri? See footnote at http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924089406593/cu31924089406593_djvu.txt, another presentation of the Ragnhild-Giant-Ring-Marry Hadding story. The full text of The First Nine Books of the Danish History by Saxo Grammaticus.

" ' Nitherians] Niflieri. M. says these are unknown. Holder (Index) says " Nid-Elven, in Norway". Gheysmer, in his Compendium, has Rxitenorum, Russians. Query, the mythical Niars? See Weyland's srrg, Corp. Poet. Bor., i, 170. "

There is a Rica Nidelven Hotel in Trondheim, Norway.

There is a Nidelven River also, see http://www.myetymology.com/encyclopedia/Reliquary_of_San_Olaf.html. It relates to relics of St. Olaf near Trondheim.

There was a city of Nidaros, and a Cathedral of Nidaros there.

Old Norse Kings were crowned at an Oleting ceremony at the mouth of the Nidelven River. If Ragnhild is a daughter of Magnus, or there are multiple names for Magnus- Hakon, we may have a connection, but this later era is after Christianity was on the march. She may well not have done a stone ship if she lived in that era?

With that, Nitherians connected to the Nidelven area, we declare ourselves victorious and leave the field. Soto Rune Carver. Where art thou?

Glavendrup Part I - Viking Stone Ship. Ragnhild; Commemorative Stones

2011-07-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

Glavendrup Part I.

Glavendrup is an archelogical monument north of Odense, a little west of Otterup. It is a fine Viking era stone ship and rune stone, back in the woods. There is also a less apparent barrow, or burial mound. It was constructed by one Ragnhild, for her husband, Alle. See more of Ragnhild at Glavendrup Part II.

The symbol with the four-square loops means an attraction or monument. Follow them and hope.

The stone ship and stone date from the 10th Century and looks interesting. This is off the usual track, but surely worth a country drive. Remote, one lane road, if everything is gone when you get back, or the Beast slips up the path after you, life is tough.

Dan Widing at Glavendrup Runestone carpark DK

The barrow burial in Scandinavia: Put the body in a circular depression, on stones, and cremate it. Cover the remains with more stones, and layers of turf, to make a tumulus. A hill-size tumulus may have an opening (later opened?), others have no visible entry place. In other countries where barrow burials were common, the body was buried under the tumulus without burning, but the Scandinavian countries followed Odin (Odin: Sweden, Scandinavian Origins of a People real person in a real migration, a Sigge Fridulfson or some such who took the name Odin, or a deity manifest, or both?).

Trust the fates, leave your car hanging out there, and head up the long path with no end in sight

Daniel Widing heads down the path to the Ragnhild runestone, Glavendrup DK

The crematory burials: fair use of a snippet of the Ynglinga Saga, Norse oral histories and stories written down finally by one Snorri Sturulson, poet from Iceland, in 1255. This Heimskringla part relates the tales of the ancient Norse kings and their accomplishments, see the section numbered 8 --

"Odin established the same law in his land that had been in force in Asaland. Thus he established by law that all dead men should be burned, and their belongings laid with them upon the pile, and the ashes be cast into the sea or buried in the earth. Thus, said he, every one will come to Valhalla with the riches he had with him upon the pile; and he would also enjoy whatever he himself had buried in the earth. For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other warriors who had been distinguished for manhood a standing stone; which custom remained long after Odin's time."

http://omacl.org/Heimskringla/ynglinga.html

Ragnhild. It was Ragnhild who erected the runestone at the head of the ship, and added a curse at the end. See http://www.vikingdenmark.com/glavendrup-stone-ship-runic-stone-funen-denmark.html

Ragnhild. A Viking lady of means and drive. She erected another rune stone for another husband, Ganulf; and that one is said to be in the museum in Copenhagen, see the vikingdenmark site.

Path to Glavendrup, rune stone, stone ship, Denmark

A stone ship is standing stones erected in the shape of a ship, with a memorial marker usually to one side. It is not always an actual burial site. See the plan. It is clear by the ages of the components that the grave is not that of the person memorialized by the runestone at the left, but a far older barrow grave is there, Bronze Age, on the plan to the right. A little hard to follow. The rune stone here should be placed more to the left, to be in its original location; without that particular mound in front of it. The site has been "improved".

Stone ship archeological plan, fair use small section, Glavendrup DK

The setting was discovered in 1794, and saved from a recycling stone mason in 1808.

Glavendrup Rune Stone Ship setting, Denmark

Where is the tumulus for the Bronze Age barrow burial?

On to the Rune Stone: three views, same stone.

Glavendrup Rune Stone, Glavendrup DK, front view

Glavendrup Rune Stone, side view, Denmark

Glavendrup Rune Stone, rear view, Denmark

The text on the rune stone:

Glavendrup runes inscription, translated to Danish

The text is the longest on any Danish rune stone, 210 characters, and reads:

"Ragnhild placed this stone in memory of Alle, priest of the Soelve, honorable clan chieftain. Alle's sons made these runes after their father and his wife after her husband. And Sote carved these runes in memory of his master. Thor hallow these runes. To a 'something you do not want to become ' become he who uses violence on this stone or drags it away to stand in memory of somebody else."

Spend time with the individual stones.

To the fey among us, it soon appears that they are conversing, watching. An imagination is a good thing.

Our numbering of stones is arbitrary and for our own identification, and not based on placement. Start with the one with the eye.

Glavendrup stone ship stone #1

Move on to the puzzled stone.

Glavendrup stone ship stone #2

There is an integrated cluster of listeners. And, for the curious, Denmark is very much an integrated country and addressing the same kinds of immigration-assimilation-ethnic identity issues as any other country in transition to a global-people world.

Glavendrup stone ship stones 3-5

This side looks too artificially lined up.
#

Glavendrup stone ship stones, row #6-13

The bare minerals blush stone. Are those drilled impressions, or just lichen?

Glavendrup stone ship stone #12

Are those drilled impressions? These are in a line, part of an original drill pattern to split off this from a larger stone, or with meaning of their own.

Glavendrup stone ship, stone #14

Circular impressions.

The three circular areas on the stone look intentional. Part of a splitting off process from a larger stone? Or is there a resemblance related to the three circular areas (with dots in the middle) in patterns also on this representation of a Viking man's head. This head in the pointy helmet is shown on the Glavendrupexhibit there.

There are three more circular areas with a dot in the center, along the browline of the helmet, and possibly more. Shield representations? Rank? The Vikings had a "vibrant culture" of their own, so no element should be ignored as meaningless. See http://britishbattles.homestead.com/files/europe/baltic/denmark/danskhistoria.htm.

Their symbols, then, had meaning - as to these, what?

Small linear symbol. The linear symbol to the right with the radiating lines like legs at each end could be an element of a runic charm, an Aegishjalmur simplified, for a "helm of awe", or a Vegvisir for runic compass, both using this element Algiz or Elhaz (all this from a totally reliable scholarly site, for tattoos, at http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/tattoos.html).
Circle with dot. Here it is! A circle with a dot in the center is a circumpunct, see Symbols and their Meaning at http://www.crossroad.to/Books/symbols1.html. This is widespread among ancient and contemporary cultures: the sun as in Ra in Egypt; gold in alchemy; archangel Kabbalah; "emotional restraint" in Freemasonry; creative spark, divine consciousness, astrology; dot as male and circle as female in Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

What we know: Alle was a priest, see Glavendrup Part II; so the symbols on the exhibit helmet might well signify the divine consciousness idea, and on we go. Or that he went on voyages and that is part of the compass.

Recess.

Glavendrup stone ship stones #15, #16 and again #14

So what is the drill hole in our numbering, Stone #17?

Researching Ragnhild herself, the one who erected this stone ship for her husband, Alle, we came up with new information: she erected a second rune stone for a second husband, called Tryggevaelde, and that one is in the Copenhagen Museum, and that also has an unexplained drill hole. See http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2011/07/glavendrup-tryggevaelde-rune-stones.html

Drill hole, stone ship stone #17, Glavendrup DK

We found a second stone with a hole at Glavendrup - and there are perhaps more that we missed. These holes are not on the main rune stone, however; so the Tryggevaelde stone is unique in that regard.

Drill hole, stone ship stone #18, Glavendrup DK

A stone left without full re-upping. This one looks restful, not as forced at attention as the others.

Standing stone #19, stone ship, Glavendrup Denmark

The area was in a field when first noted as something to be preserved; not in the woods.

1874 view, Glavendrup, fair use of small part of tourist explanation

II. Contemporary Uses

The area is used by other groups, and our understanding is that this second artificial stone ship shape area is a recent construction, in order to preserve the original area from damage.

Second and artificial stone ship arrangement, for civic and other groupvceremonies, Glavendrup Denmark; later construction

1. Ansgar Stone, modern.

Ansgar was an early missionary, known as the Northern Apostle. The Biographicon site, http://www.biographicon.com/view/o5t2n, is good for neutral life stories, acknowledging what is verifiable, and what is tradition.

This is a 1100-year memorial to Ansgar, erected in 1926.

Heart symbolism:

Note the little heart shape in the center, with a cross top above. The heart symbol in Scandinavia means a number of things, including energy and courage -- take heart, etc -- as well as other meanings and uses of heart, some purely speculative. The heart here is not only courage, but heart-heart. Ansgar kept at it despite great and frequent setbacks, and practised charity - another meaning for heart - see http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/20/2018.html

There are several non-Viking inscriptions on various stones, later uses, ceremonies, modern civic occasions.

2. Stone Commemorating the Reformation 1536.

This stone, erected in 1936, appears to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the arrival of the Reformation to Denmark. I cannot read the Danish words, but looked up the date. See the account at the History of Denmark at http://www.worldrover.com/history/denmark_history.html

Old ways. Standing stones to memorialize important events and people.

Have a seat a while, rest up. Petrified penguin behind. Is that so?

Seat stump and companion stone, Glavendrup DK.

Varde - Artillery Museum. Denmark's Wars. Sword History

2011-07-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

Varde and its Military Museum

A. Denmark's military history - a long span, and gradual chipping away of lands.

The grandeur of the old Denmark began to fall away forcibly in the early 19th Century. Denmark had supported Napoleon, and in 1801, Britain won the Battle of Copenhagen, with huge bombardments. There were more bombardments in 1807, and Britain then hauled away the Danish fleet.

Denmark then was penalized further: as part of the peace settlement in about 1814, Denmark had to give up Norway.

There had been national bankruptcy in 1813.

Frugal times followed, see biography, the Hans Christian Andersen, Life of a Storyteller , for the impact on regular people, at page 52, this biography by Jackie Wullschlager, published by Knopf in 2001.

B. Varde is a quiet place to catch a breath overnight.

Small hotel, Varde DK

C. Varde

Varde Artillery Museum -- Small towns and small institutions can be far more flexible than the large touristy places. The Artillery Museum here opened for classes of recruits early in the morning, but let us go through the exhibits anyway.

So: on to the exhibits - Dan heads for the heavy artillery. See museum site.

More delicate: Size and variation of swords, eras of use, see http://www.georgehernandez.com/h/xMartialArts/Gear/SwordHistory.asp.

D. Sword history

1. Cutting Swords

1.1 Viking or Scandinavian sword: double-edged blade, straight blade, single hand (other hand held a shield). Hack and thrust.

1.2. Cruciform sword: a cross piece at the grip, a "quillon" - demonstrating the power of the Cross the better to Christianize you with

Small portion, swords exhibit, Varde Artillery Museum, Denmark

3. Medieval Thrusting Swords --

3.1 Two Handed, The Great Swords -- very rare.

3.2 1200's The Hand-and-a-Half, The Long Sword, -- also called the Bastard Sword. The double-edge straight sword evolved into a tapered end, the better to pierce your mail with, and other armor, whether plate or chain (get in the joints).

Also strengthened for cutting.

1300-1700 -- see the Scots Claymore, for cutting, double edge, two handed, but with special sloping cross guards.

Sturdy, to go through muscle, bone, arms, armor. Expensive to make because they were expected to last.

4. Early Renaissance. Cutting swords for power and fashion. The warrior sword evolved into the symbolic, nobleman's sword, for dress occasions, or in civilian dress. Merchants also took up the sword. Purposes: sport, duels, fencing to learn defense,

Sword weaponry, Varde Military Museum, Denmark

1400's - Side Sword. Back to thrusting. Slender shape for the cruciform - better because armor also had improved, so thrusting was more effective than cutting. Fencing guilds arose to make the swords. Germany became known for that.

1500's - peak in the 1600's -- Rapier, for robe sword or dress sword. Evolving: hand protections, finger ringholds, top shields, and moves were standardized -- parry, thrust, etc

And in Scotland, the basket-hilt -- also helped balance the blade

1700's - Rapier became the "small sword", and the "foil" that was used for practice and with a flattened tip. Target areas on the body for practice were limited, protected by a mesh

1800's - Small sword, that had produced many casualties, became the dueling sword with no cutting edge; and its practice sword, the epee.

Swung swords: the backsword, the sabre, the cutlass Yaargh. Etc. See site. Now, name these swords:

Esbjerg - Man and the Sea. Wait. Who Relates How To the Sea?

2011-07-11T03:56:00.000-07:00

Esbjerg.

Do you see what I see?

1. Mennesket ved Havet. Man Meets the Sea.

That identification is common parlance, so accepted that a search for Man Meets the Sea pops up with this sculpture and nothing else. So, why is it not Man Meets the Sea, famous sculpture by Svend Wiig Hansen 1922-1997, see ArtCyclopedia there.

Man Meets the Sea, sculpture by Svend Wiig Hansen, Esbjerg DK. Jutland

2. Man Meets the Sea?

No, it isn't. That Man Meets the Sea is English claptrap attributing nobility of purpose and destiny to Man - meaning him, and him, and him, and him. How pure they are, how very ---- White. Ah, yes, Man. Pure. White. Surely that is what Svend Wiig Hansen meant. What else could it mean?

If not that, what?

Men Meet the Sea, rear view. Esbjerg DK

These people by the beautiful sea look precariously perched. These folks follow orders. You. Sit.

Naming:

The sculpture we in English call "Man Meets the Sea" is simply Men At Sea, according to http://www.danishnet.com/info.php/travel/esbjerg-28.html.

Men at Sea. Sure are. Yes. Very much so. Men at Sea. And aren't we all. Think of the sea of troubles, in this land of Hamlet, and what comes next: and who and how by opposing, ends them. Or People at the Sea. "Homo sapiens at the Sea". No drums rolling, no soundtrack, no manifest destiny. You project what you want. Translation issues.
See FN 1. Mennesket. Person. Persons.

Mission: snap pictures when the people have wandered off. Or catch them in the act.

Daniel Widing Meets Men at Sea, Esbjerg DK

People at Sea. These are individuals up close. The angles are a little different. Those are lights at the feet, not microphones.

4. Port History:

Esbjerg is new. Denmark's big port city on Jutland's west coast was built after World War II. Earlier, Denmark had controlled another port city farther south on the peninsula, Altona, from 1840-1864. At that point, after the second of its wars with Germany over territory in the 19th Century, Denmark lost Altona, but kept it and Schleswig-Holstein in its national heart.

Still, Denmark's monarchy built Esbjerg instead in 1868 as a substitute port, rather than fight another war against growing Germany. It still had markets for continuing exports and processing for its fisheries and other industries.

Denmark hoped for the return of Altona after WWII, but by that time Altona had become more Germanic than Danish, and remained with Germany by plebescite. Now Esbjerg is a large port on its own, but with beautiful beaches, and a booming economy.

Esbjerg DK. The Sea. Beach view from sculpture by Svend Wiig Hansen, known as Man Meets the Sea. Jutland.

5. Battle of Jutland 1916. See Eyewitness to History, Jutland

The Esbjerg area is south of the main sea battle area from World War I, and there are memorials and graves for bodies washed up with the currents in Sweden and elsewhere. We did not see memorials to the Battle of Jutland here.

Esbjerg DK, beach walkway, near Man Meets the Sea

6. World War II. Bunkers.

Germany occupied Denmark from 1940-1945, and built a line of bunkers to defend the Jutland coast. This remains. There may be others, buried, sanded over.

The sculpture is just beyond. Consider the placement of the sculptures: did Svend Wiig Hansen intend a meaning to relate to what happened here?

German WWII bunker, by Man Meets the Sea sculpture, Esbjerg Denmark

The benefit of improvised travel is absence of schedules. When a nice beach walk beckons, go do it.

Esbjerg Denmark, German bunker WWII, beach.

There is a Fishing and Seafaring museum here. We were too late (thanks to an endlessendlessendless lunch wait -- and for salads! at Ribe, to the south). We looked in the museum's windows, however, and found gist. There are often no fences, and provided walks around buildings and big big windows. Inviting. Thank you.

This is an industrial-fishing town. Much business going on. See the http://www.danishnet.com/info.php/travel/esbjerg-28.html site -- a local saying is, "Esbjerg doesn't smell like fish; it smells like money."

Gun emplacement? German bunker area, Esbjerg DK.

Look again.

Naming controls the concept. Consider the issue of naming. Man meets the Sea. Such courage. And Man will prevail!

But is this really a representation of the noble species holding firm to the right? The vision of righteous destiny against apostasy? Capitalism against whatever else may provide happiness and sharing? A slight tweak, perhaps? Men deserve these seats, but not women. And don't you forget it. English suggests that. It is part of the mindset, the absence of strong words meaning humana and not a gender.

Men at Sea, Esbjerg DK

This is not that. Not at all.

Svend Wiig Hansen did not sculpt that. This guy is scared. As scared as the rest of us.

Man at sea. Esbjerg DK. Detail of head.

What is that, just at the horizon? Aargh. Where did it go?

Can't blink. Must not blink.
................................................................................................

FN 1 Translations and Culture

Mennesket ved Havet. http://www.danishnet.com/info.php/travel/esbjerg-28.html.

Translate. "Man At Sea," says Bing. Google agrees. Yahoo doesn't do Danish. Neither does Best-Translator. Not best. So, so far, Man At Sea. But there are four? Men at Sea? No, that gets too action oriented.

Mennesket ved Havet. What does that mean, by looking at the Danish mechanically, transliteration; and not wafting poetic in some English dreamworld of what was intended, even if not quite said that way. We cannot ask Mr. Hansen. You may find "Mennesket ved Have" instead of Havet.

Look further. Menneske: means person (no gender) see http://www.babylon.com/define/100/Danish-English-Dictionary.html. Mennesker means Homo sapiens (species thing). People by the Sea. Babylon. http://translation.babylon.com/danish/to-english/ Even "mankind" sounds too stilted to be "menneske". These are just people.

Translation issues. How one culture imposes its values on another, by the words it uses to translate the other culture's communication. And by what right, except the general right to misrepresent and push one's own point of view, does one culture do that to another?

Point: Cultural vision fields.

Gender vision. Danes, Swedes, judging from their own words and art have no problem seeing "person" or "human" or "human being" first; and gender only when that relates to a relevant part of what is being communicated. Gender otherwise is not first in relevance. Gender not emphasized, see Adams and Eves, looking alike, even androgynous, tradition of strong women, is that so? Is that so? Speak up. There can be secondary status to women, and abuse, but not to the degree as elsewhere?

Americans go nuts if they don't know somebody's gender so they can discriminate on the basis of it. Very insecure men.

Race/ethnic vision. On the other hand, Danes and Swedes are beginning to see race first, and person or human or human being second, as immigration issues emerge -- assimilation, culture threat, costs of services, whatever.

Americans have always (always?) seen gender first, and role first, and race first (three firsts) and ethnicity first (four firsts) and political affiliation first (five firsts). Despite founding language that is inclusive, is it so that Americans will only see "person" or "human being" if hauled, kicking and screaming, away from the status pole around which they are dancing for their own benefit. A black in a white house? Pass the smelling salts!

English language: Too quick to consider "man" as that particular gender, not as the species. We don't have masculine and feminine nouns, but yes we do.

Fix. How about Homa sapiens at the sea. No, Svend has his rights to say what he wants. Svend must have been intentional in which accoutrements he sculpted.

Ribe - Slowest Town. Storks, Webs, and A Glass of Water

2011-07-10T03:42:00.000-07:00

Ribe, Denmark. Historic. Events of moment, theological, invasion by lower Europe's culture and doctrine, commerce abounding, Viking Museum. But skip it if you have lunch to eat, and want to sit a while in the shadow of the Cathedral while you enjoy it with civility. The course of recent history:

1.Pick a venerable-looking dining emporium. Not full at all. Lots of tables, inside and out. Look around, tentatively sit. Look over and down a ways. Nice stork's nest.

Stork platform and nest, Ribe, Denmark. European White Stork.

Both Horace 65-8 BCE, and Ovid, 43 BCE-8 or so CE record items about the stork. Wikipedia so claims, and cites a dictionary. The best part, however, is following the notations to the explanation of the bar code on books these days: the International Standard Book number. It (the stork) is carnivorous, has broad black tip areas on the wings.

Ribe is on the migratory flight path of storks, and cherishes them. Just waiting to be fed here.

2. Look up. Nice post and beam construction, and ooh the cobwebs just overhead. Now, those have been here since the area was first settled (archeological finds) about 710 CE. Whoops! That one nearly landed on Dan's head. Duck, Dan!

Ribe, Denmark, window web view

A waiting diner is tempted to scramble up on the chair with a feather duster, if only a duster could be found. Just waiting. Lots to see here, http://www.visitribe.dk/international/en-gb/menu/turist/historie/ribes-historie/ribesstorhedstid/ribesstorhedstid.htm

3. And this is the place to be for lunch. Everything saggy with centuries of half-timber weight, and holding strong, and little panes in some windows that look as though they are really really original.

Dan Widing waiting for lunch, Ribe DK,

4. That Viking Museum is going to be great.

5. Amble inside. Treasure! A six-plate stove, or "close stove" -- German, say early 1700's,only the well-to-do could afford them (find another at Kronborg Castle at Helsingor). The panels could be used separately as firebacks, to shield the back of the fireplace. Bricks or stone and mortar could crack eventually from the heating and cooling. See some at http://www.stovax.com/fireplaces/classicfireplaces/classic_fireplace_tiles/cast_iron_panels.aspx

Iron stove, six plate, Ribe, Denmark

Glance outside. Nope. Nothing going on. Take a closer look here.

Detail, cast iron stove panel, Ribe DK

Is that a castle, two towers, arch? People there. How about those things on pedestals. Looks secular rather than religious in theme.

6. Oh - a stack of plates to the side. Are those for us?

Dan Widing still waiting for lunch. Soon we will need a zimmer. Ribe DK

Now, about those storks. Look! The eggs hatched, the fledglings fledged right before our eyes, and the whole family took off! See European white storks at http://www.ribe1300.dk/About%20Ribe/The%20history%20of%20Ribe/Storken.aspx Finally, got the food. Nice enough but not for that wait. Over an hour. At least. What do proprietors think we are doing in their town? Counting old spiders? And we were tired, and didn't want to be rude and get up and leave, and after all, we had these two glasses of water.

7. Dash off! Find the museum! But, this being September, the Viking Museum had just closed.

Riba riba. Unreasonable delay is an increase in the cost of the loan of the seat, and is forbidden as interest, without an increase in services. Other cultures forbid it. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riba

Fair use from Wikipedia as to Qur'an 2:275
وَأَحَلَّ اللّهُ الْبَيْعَ وَحَرَّمَ الرِّبَا
Trade, yes. Interest, no.

Some music would have been nice. Riba! Riba! http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=riba+riba&view=detail&mid=889D922CCE597951810C889D922CCE597951810C&first=0&FORM=LKVR8

And there was this fast food truck just over there. Happy people came and went, French hot dogs, pork sandwiches.. to die for.

Ribe - Oldest Town. Cathedral, Adam and Eve

2011-07-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

Ribe

St. Mary's Cathedral

Ribe is said to be the oldest town in Denmark. It is now part of a larger community of Esbjerg and Bramming, all known as "Esbjerg" - but signs to Ribe remain. Good idea.
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Ribe was first mentioned in a document from 854-860 AD, a request from Archbishop Ansgar of Hamburg-Bremen to the King of Denmark. The Archbishop wanted to build a Cathedral in this growing trade town. The "mission to the north" -- backed up by killer crusades in the Baltic area, also known as the Baltic Crusades; or the Northern Crusades, re-employing unemployed crusader knight groups back from the fiascos in the Holy Land. See Malbork Castle, Teutonic Knights, in Poland, attacking the Prussian tribes.
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St. Mary's Cathedral, Ribe Denmark

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Nothing happened until 948, and that is not surprising since Christianity had not been particularly attractive to people of the North.
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Charlemagne had slaughtered 4,500 Saxon prisoners who had refused conversion not long before - say 780-82 AD. See Sachsenhain. The Saxon lands were just to the south of the Danish Jutes of Jutland, Saxons had fought Charlemagne for 30 years; with help and hiding the leader Widukind among the Jutes. The two groups, although clearly identifiable, had variously intermarried, or assisted each other in warfare as needed against Charlemagne, or the Wends, or other. Yet, despite the nice request to be invited, the clear threat was there: refuse, and enter the Holy Roman Empire with force.
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So St. Mary's Cathedral was built in due time.
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A disastrous fire in 1580 burned most of the town. I believe the square brick tower would be newer than the gray stone, but have to check. The brick is in the style of 'brick gothic", a later period than the romanesque gray broad arch motif. Is that so?

Romanesque arch, St. Mary's Cathedral, Ribe, DK

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Excellent door, St. Mary's. The reinforced iron would be needed for defense in early days when the church was also a place of refuge.
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Iron door, St. Mary's Cathedral, Ribe, Denmark

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Scandinavian Adams and Eveses look unisex. It is as though which is which gender does not matter at all. Identifying characteristics barely noticeable. Here, she has longer hair, and barely a size A. He has barely a muscle. This makes sense if the original Adm or "human" was androgynous, and merely was separated out into two. There is textual support for that, although culturally suppressed.

Adam and Eve, St Mary's Cathedral, Ribe, DK

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Little motifs of death are found in unexpected places. Here, a tiny skull and bones, and a tiny hour glass above. I enlarged this to find the date, 1639; and cannot translate the words. Peder something?
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Memorial plaque, death imagery, burial, St. Mary's Cathedral, Ribe, DK

This also looks 1600's, judging from the costume - Reformation era? Two men and a woman, I think. Menage a trois. Denmark and Sweden often show more women in the decorative surroundings than we saw in Germany. Even with the enlargement, we cannot make out the words at the bottom of this painting and sculpture.

Three benefactors, or is this a burial? St. Mary's Cathedral, Ribe, Denmark

Here, Adam and Eve are still the same size, same bodies , really. But did someone add that beard to Adam? Or is it an original beard? It looks affixed, not growing. Perhaps it was disturbing to someone that no-one could tell which gender was which. Also, the snake did not become a snake (that is, something without legs) until after the pair were found out, and here, Adam is just about to enjoy his portion.

Adam and Eve, still androgynous in many ways? St. Mary's Cathedral, Ribe, Denmark

Froslev Internment Camp, WWII, Jutland

2011-07-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

Froslev.

One town in Zealand, agricultural area;

and this in Jutland, a former Nazi Internment Camp WWII

It is not a waste of time to go to the Zealand Froslev, thinking it is the WWII Froslev. People are helpful, and we found a medieval tower in the middle of a farm there.

But if your time is pressed, search for "Internment" and not just Froslev, in finding your way.

Froslev, Denmark, is currently in the news because Denmark has tightened its borders with other European Union countries, including Froslev's nearby border crossing to and from Germany. See http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/Reuters-World-News-Highlights-1800-GMT-July-5-2011-07-05T180000Z We crossed without stopping. Now, not so.

Immigration to Denmark is not as free as it was recently. As part of the European union to date, Denmark had permitted free access back and forth across its borders without checks on papers. Denmark is asserting rights to scrutinize who enters.

Froslev is otherwise known for its World War II internment camp,

Rroslev Internment Camp, Jutland, DK. Guard tower.

1. Purpose of camp,

The Froslev Camp was built to cage political prisoners, members of the Resistance that were spared somehow from summary trials and executions, by connections or whatever, see http://www.visitdenmark.com/island/is-is/menu/turist/oplevelser/attraktioner/produktside.htm?wbc_purpose=Bas?CallerUrl=1&wbc_purpose=Bas&Id=006174; or other high ranking persons opposed to Nazism (Germany occupied Denmark from 1940-1945).

Froslev was not a place to collect Jews, gypsies, other ethnic or mental "defectives" or challenges to Naziism as a whole, not a labor camp, not an extermination camp, not a concentration camp. Froslev was a severe but manageable holding pen. These were, after all, fellow "Aryans" - the master white race -- even if temporarily misguided.

2. Keep Denmark happy.

It was a nod by Germany to its need for Danish cooperation (not another military front). It required hard work for some (just the rebellious?), but provided basically decent living and diet conditions, There was always threat. My understanding is that Danes ran the camp, at Nazi bidding; and did follow orders to transport rebellious prisoners to Theresienstadt CZ or other concentration and labor and extermination camps in Germany's territory.

Froslev Internment Camp DK, sand pit work area, Jutland, DK

3. People still died here, or were transported elsewhere for death, or a chance at survival if they were lucky

There are memorials to those who died, or who were transported to Theresienstadt, CZ, for further disposition.

Some 1,600 prisoners of the German Security Police were transported to German camps; with some total 8,000 interned here. See http://www.visitdenmark.com/island/is-is/menu/turist/oplevelser/attraktioner/produktside.htm?wbc_purpose=Bas?CallerUrl=1&wbc_purpose=Bas&Id=006174

Memorial, Froslev Internment Camp, rebellious inmate sent for further "disposition" through Theresienstadt CZ and elsewhere.

Yet, the numbers of deaths compared to other facilities is small. Today, Froslev has its museum, see http://www.ww2museums.com/article/1662/Fr%F8slevlejrens-Museum-Fr%F8slev-Prison-Camp-Museum.htm is cheerful, sterile. Kids come for summer and other programs. Use the facility.

Layout, Froslev WWII Internment Camp, Jutland, DK

Froslev Internment Camp, renovated for Youth ad other use,

4. But this looks so nice?

Denmark made a choice for use for the future, over memorial to the past; but keeps the past alive, in its way.

There is tension between preserving what was, to show what inmates endured; and reusing facilities for the future. These are renovated, repainted, nicely presented new uses.

Renovated inmate barracks, now arts and youth uses, Froslev Internment Camp, WWII Jutland, Denmark.

To be sent to Theresienstadt was a virtual death sentence because of the transports out to death or labor camps. See the site for the Czech Republic Theresienstadt; then see a Theresienstadt (Terezin) timeline at http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007460

Our understanding is that troublemakers from here at Froslev were transported to Terezin, or Theresienstadt.

Guard tower view, Froslev Internment Camp, Froslev, Jutland, DK

Further memorial, deaths at Froslev.

Memorial Frpslev Nazi Internment Camp, Jutland, Denmark

The museum houses caricatures of HItler and the "situation" -- fair use. Are these inmates' artistic renditions, or examples of resistance propaganda? Have to go back.

HItler puppet caricature, Froslev Internment Camp, Froslev, Jutland DK (fair use)

A favorite theme is puppetry. Who is pulling whose strings.

Puppetry caricatures, Nazi officials, Froslev Internment Camp, Jutland, DK, WWII

And the familiar imagery of the ostrich: head in sand. Whose, when?

Nazi head in sand cartoob fair use, Froslev Internment Camp, Jutland, DKi

An overall theme is the moral dedication of Danes, as they see themselves, through the ages as warriors for good causes. Denmark, and worldwide. See the scope of apparel, uniforms, equipment.

Danes as Warriors in History, Part I. WWII Froslev Internment Camp, Jutland DK

Danes as Warriors, for Denmark and Others, Exhibit portion, Froslev Internment Camp, Jutland, DK

Danes in uniform serving humanity's causes, fair use, Froslev Internment Camp exhibit, DK

Always to remember: Deprivations can be huge, but they are relative. Inmates here, however, were privileged and not personally attacked as inferiors, as were the ethnic and religious targets of other parts of Europe. They did have the basics for sustenance, reasonable health. They had some heat, a basic diet, and were not abused or beaten to death. These were political prisoners with clout, and family connections, and political connections. They wrote letters, and got letters back. It paid to be an Aryan.

The Nazis here, at this internment camp as opposed to labor and extermination camps elsewhere, did not engage in widespread extermination of intellectuals, dissenters.

They killed ordinary members of the Resistance who had not these connections that could benefit the Nazis, but only sent those for further disposition elsewhere, if they did not behave.

Sp. shiver, but have some basic heat.

Stove for barracks, Foslev WWII Internment Camp, Jutland, DK '
AtFrpslev Museum, Internment Camp during WWII, Jutland, KK.

After the war, German officials and other ranking persons, including Danish collaborators whose actions to support the Nazis came under scrutiny, were held here until further disposition. Did any from Denmark warrant trial at Nuremberg?

Denmark did win special treatment for its high-ranking and respected political and respected resistance officials and directors. Collaboration, and whether principles should be compromised in order to fight another day, never resolved. Fair use here of an extensive total exhibit.

Froslev Internment Camp, WWII Jutland DK. Crowded, severe. but not life-threatening in itself.

The pretty barn-red colors were not there then.

Korsor - History of the Wends. Timeline. Crusades Against. Highways Bypass. Wends to Texas.

2011-07-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

Korsor

A Highway Passes By It
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. Defense Against the Wends: Which groups' attacks came first?

Harald Bluetooth had a Wendish Wife

History of the Wends, the Sorbs. The Northern Crusades.

We could use them wow. Some went to Texas. Really. http://www.network54.com/Forum/221692/thread/1034607123/last-1173827883/The+Sorbs+or+Wendish+People
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Merit in absorbed, abSorbed? nearly vanished cultures.

Wend your way through history. Turn. Wander. See http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=wend&searchmode=none
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The Wends were a large tribe, Slavic, in Northern Europe. Harald Bluetooth married a Wend. Forts were built to protect against them in their pirating years. Ironically, Harald Bluetooth taught them the pirating arts. Korsor, in Denmark, then needed its fortress against them. Beset on all sides, the Wends held their own. We read time and again of the need for Danes to protect against attacking Wends. Defense was an early reason for the building of the fortress tower at Korsor, although its location would be strategic against any attackers and for promoting commerce. And Wends ultimately, in 1854, migrated to Texas from their lands in Lusatia, in Germany, along the River Spree, so it is said. See http://texaswendish.org/BriefHistory.aspx
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I. Korsor
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Korsor, on the west coast of Zealand, was a large port on the Great Belt, the waterway between the large island of Zealand and the smaller island of Funen, or Fyn. There is a huge bridge now spanning the Great Belt. See the Storebaeltsbroen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKzqKCl1_l4 &
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Come to Korsor off the main road to see the ruin of its 12th Century castle, and a later 14th Century tower still standing, with walls. For businesspeople, come to enjoy a convenient central location for conventions, business meetings at efficient hotels, see http://www.mapsofworld.com/denmark/denmark-cities/korsor.html. The square is quiet, nice pubs. Not touristy at all. Sit and enjoy.
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Korsor, Denmark. 14th Century Tower; port storage houses

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II. Wends. Vends in Germany. Who?
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A. Summary
B. Cultural-religious discussion of them, and
C. Timeline
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A. Summary

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Our interest is in origins, and why the Wends are a focal point in early Denmark and Northern Germany, and elsewhere. Find Wends in in Slovenia, see http://sloveniaroadways.blogspot.com/2007/10/ljubljana-peasant-uprising-1515-world.html ; and the lost kingdom known as Carantania there, the Wends, http://sloveniaroadways.blogspot.com/2008/06/expunged-ancient-dynasty-of-carantania.html; More modern history is back at http://www.wendishheritage.org.au/wends/history.php
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Wends were a western slavic tribe, also known as Lusatians, or Sorbs. They were active in European history from 518 to 1218 ACE and resisted Christianity with a vengeance. They were also a more pastoral people, originally, known for their hospitality. The Carantanian Law, Slavica Lex, would have been part their heritage, although whether it survived in those who migrated north is not clear. Female succession in particular would be a matter that infuriated the Roman Catholic Institution because of the status of woman as equals in government and family. Female succession was provided for, see http://www.theslovenian.com/articles/savli.htm
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The Roman Empire of the Church attacked them with a vengeance. Convert them, and any other tribe that would not bow, by fire and sword, or death.
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Germany: Charlemagne, a Frank, pushed them into the Saxons, Thuringians, Flemish and other Franks, and the Wends could not prevail. These names do get familiar over time. Many Wends were enslaved, their lands colonized. Meanwhile, others learned to invade as well, and in 983, Wendish King Mistivoj invaded Brandenburg, Holstein, and burned Hamburg. Frankish Emperor Otto was distracted by Saracens in Italy at the time, leaving an opening.
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Denmark: Harald Bluetooth's wife was a Wend. Harald, says http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/III1a.html. He taught the Wends to be sea pirates, and they learned well. The Baltic became a Wendish battleground. When he was thrown off his throne by Karl Hakon in 985 ACE, he sought refuge among Wends. Harald's son, Svein Forkbeard, joined with the Wends and set up the Joms-Vikings garrison, a kind of warrior cult like Templars. Very fierce. By 1000, there were "hordes" of Wends aiming up Jutland, see Denmark section at http://cnx.org/content/m17870/latest/
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By 1043, however, the then Scandinavian King Olof had beaten the Joms-Vikings garrison; and Danish and other by-then-Christian armies took on the Wends, slaughtering them: 15,000 dead, said Adam of Bremen. See fanaticus site. Soon the Wends' access to the sea was cut off, and their power diminished.
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Rome: Enter Saint Bernard in 1147. Bernard of Clairvaux. He wanted to drum up business for the crusades to retake Jerusalem, but the newly-Christianized Saxons and Danes preferred to get the pagans in their own back yard, the Wends; and their lands. See http://www.military-history.us/2011/02/the-wendish-crusade
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Said Bernard, according to The Wendish Crusade, fight the pagans until they are converted or deleted. The "Crusade" went on until about 1185, a longer period than other sites suggest.
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Germany: Henry the Lion of Saxony (as well as Albert the Bear of Brandenburg) set out and see what happened - go quick to Luneberg Germany: http://germanyroadways.blogspot.com/2011/03/luneberg-and-german-exceptionalism.html. Lune -Moonberg. Are those Wends lined up? They aimed to convert the Wends by the sword, a popular pastime, see http://www.military-history.us/2011/02/the-wendish-crusade. See Charlemagne at it, in his earlier time attacking pagan Saxons at Verden, Sachsenhain, Saxon's Grove Tribes knew what could happen.
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B. Wend Culture, Religion
(not one group, but many, so generalization does not fit all)

Religion

Wends. Vends in Germany. W or V. Scandinavia. They were a deeply religious group, a dualistic faith, see http://www.wendishheritage.org.au/wends/history.php

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Belief in dualism was and is common still. Even Christianity still has a hard time arguing that there is not good and evil, both. And that the two struggle for dominance. Earlier manifestations of the Wends' religious beliefs, however, included other gods, festivals, and some persist today. Fair use from wendishheritage:

"Alfons Frencl, a well known Sorb writer, has also drawn attention to the famous Lusatian Waterman and to the Black Miller and Magician Krabat." Lusatian Waterman? The Black Miller? The Magician Krabat? Quick! Find them!

http://www.everyculture.com/Europe/Sorbs-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html

http://www.lausitzerseenland.de/en/culture_scenery-sorbian_traditions.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRlqytQFQjs&feature=related (post-Christian era)

The Wends overall believed in two main groups of gods, one for good, producing wealth, represented by Bogu; and one for evil (so far so good), producing bad times, and coincidentally black, and represented by and named Zernabog.
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The Wend god name is also found as Chernobog or Black God, also seen in Disney's Fantasia, at http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2002/432.htm. See him at the Night at Bald Mountain section, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Ca_edg6RE. Still, how did that black color identification with evil start?
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Dauva is also the name given to the evil side. Our Slavic Origins at http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/spirit/chap2.htm. Gradually the dualism fell away, as did the common language understood to have bound them until the migrations about 500 AD. Are the Wends part of the Magyars? Have to check. The Slavic Origins site is detailed.
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Bogu, see Slavic Origins. Bogeyman? No. This site identifies the Bogeyman with the Bogomils, "Lovers of God," another dualistic group, many in Bosnia, rising in power in about 950 CE, see http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/misc/europe.htm, then were subject to Papal crusades to kill them as heretics. But Bogu was good. Still, a powerful being.
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They also believed in life after death, and in egalitarian principles of government, like democracy rather than a king or queen. As to dualism, the fanaticism of the Roman Catholic Church against the Wends in particular could have been connected to the fact that the early Christian institutional faith labeled any early Christian theologian as heretic for belief in dualism, or gnosticism. The idea of dualism now in the Wendish community must have been infuriating. Also the Crusade against the Cathars, more gnostics, the Albigensian Crusades of 1209-1255 came soon after. Compare the similarity of the status of women among the Cathars, with that of the Slavonica Lex, Carantanian Law, see http://www.theslovenian.com/articles/savli.htm
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Adam and Eve, Sonderborg Castle, Denmark. Both still androgynous. Gender inequality is a cultural construct. Denmark is comfortable with that but not Rome.

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Culture, like Krabat, takes many disguises in infiltrating theology for the benefit of the institution, not the integrity of the teaching, the soul.
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C. Wend (Slavic Group) Timeline

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5000 BCE- 500 BCE Archeological evidence, Indo-european (Aryan), proto-Slavic, see http://www.wendishheritage.org.au/wends/history.php
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Agriculture, animal husbandry, open areas, peaceful (no weapons in graves)
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500 BCE - migrations westward, and any vacant land, see http://www.wendishheritage.org.au/wends/history.php
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Terms for groups at the time: Wends, Slovenes, Serboi (means shepherd), Goth tribes push up from lands south of the Wends. "Barbarians" attacking Europe include not the Wends, but Huns, Bulgars, Avars, and meanwhile the Slavs were hemmed in by Scythians (think OT), Sarmatians, Goths.
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Go west, and become "Poles, Slovaks, Czechs, Sorbs and Kashubians." [and Obotrites and more now extinct]. Go south and become "Serbs, Croats, Macedonians and Bulgarians." Finns knew the Wends as Venaja, and called the Russians also Venaja, coming fromt that direction, pushing the Finns north (not exterminating them) and so the Wends were clearly not Scandinavian. See 1910 Encyclopedia Britannica, Wends (scroll to find) p.392 [Google book
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Find detailed overall Slavic history at http://www.third-millennium-library.com/MedievalHistory/Cambridge/II/14-SLAVS.html
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So many Slavic peoples were enslaved that the word "slave" derives from them, see http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=slave
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518-1218 ACE Years of most recorded activity:
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Wends were a western slavic tribe, also known as Lusatians, or Sorbs. They resisted Christianity with a vengeance. See http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/III1a.html They were also a more pastoral people, known for their hospitality, just not to the incursion of the Roman Empire legacy Christian forces and their force. As with many of the northern European tribes, they came together and leaders arose in wartime, but then the people went back to their farms and lives. Meanwhile, they also learned to invade and in
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531 - Saxons and Franks beat the Wends' neighbors, the Thuringians http://www.wendishheritage.org.au/wends/history.php
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620 - Emperor Heraclius invites the Wends, Serbs (Sorbs), to come to the Balkans, see http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/misc/europe.htm. The German name for Sorbs is Wends. See site.
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806 - Charlemagne's son, Karl, beats the Wends and Milceni (also Wends?) at Budysin, burns the fortress.
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810 Charlemagne, a Frank, Charlemagne had tangled with recalcitrant Saxons for years, see Verden, Sachsenhain, Saxon's Grove: Charlemagne Slaughters Saxon Prisoners. Then came other tribes. He attacked the Wends and could not defeat them any more easily, and pushed the rest into the Saxons, Thuringians, Flemish and other Franks. With all that pressure, Wends could not prevail. Many were enslaved, their lands colonized.
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869 Slavic Saint Cyril died in Rome, see http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/spirit/chap1.htm
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885 Slavic Saint Methodius died, see http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/spirit/chap3.htm
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Increasing animus between Roman Catholic branch of Christianity, and the Orthodox
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932 Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony, tries to force Roman Catholic conversion on the Wends (they had not yet become Orthodox, although other Slavic groups had), succeeds some, but not a lgreat deal http://www.wendishheritage.org.au/wends/history.php
http://www.third-millennium-library.com/MedievalHistory/Cambridge/II/14-SLAVS.html
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955 Otto the Great defeats the Magyars at Battle of Lechfeld (relation to Wends??) See http://www.medievaltimes.info/medieval-history-timeline/timeline-from-814-ad-to-1223-ad.html
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The Turul, symbol of the Magyar People, Budapest, Hungary

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963 Otto the Great invades Lusatia and the Wends, appoints a governor, the German Margrave Ekhard
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965. Harald Bluetooth married a Wend. See http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/III1a.html . Harald taught the Wends to be sea pirates, and they learned well. The Baltic became a Wendish battleground. The Baltic had been known as the Wendish Sea.
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983, Wendish King Mistivoj invaded Brandenburg, Holstein, and burned Hamburg. Frankish Emperor Otto was distracted by Saracens in Italy at the time, leaving an opening.
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985 ACE, Harald Bluetooth was thrown off the throne by Karl Hakon and sought refuge among Wends. Harald's son, Svein Forkbeard, joined with the Wends and set up the Joms-Vikings garrison, a kind of warrior cult like Templars. Very fierce.
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990 The Milceni (Wend group) were finally beaten by Margrave Ekhard, who earlier had invited sme 30 Sorbian princes to a banquet, then murdered them. Lusatians, says wendishheritage.org, have never regained autonomy.
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1002 Polish King Boleslaw invades Lusatia, forces unification with Wends, lasts to 1032.
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1020-1040 Other Wends invade Southern Sweden, and Denmark. German tribes force conversion on Wends by sword, fire, then forced taxes on them. Cultural animus deepens. http://www.wendishheritage.org.au/wends/history.php
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1032 German King forces Polish King to surrender Lusatia and the Wends are subjugated further.
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1043 ACE Scandinavian King Olof won at the Joms-Vikings garrison; and Danish and other by-then-Christian armies took on the Wends as well, slaughtering them: 15,000 dead, said Adam of Bremen. See fanaticus site.
Soon the Wends' access to the sea was cut off, and their power diminished.
.
Enter Saint Bernard. (Why are these killer people called saints?) After the Great Schism in 1054, Roman Church separated from the Eastern Orthodox, the institution need converts, money, territory. He drummed up business for the crusades to retake Jerusalem.

But the Wends were a good target for the newly-Christianized Saxons and Danes in their own back yard. Why kill the Wends? Because they did not bow to Christianity.
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Henry the Lion of Saxony (as well as Albert the Bear of Brandenburg) set out to do his crusade against them. See what happened - go quick to Luneberg Germany: http://germanyroadways.blogspot.com/2011/03/luneberg-and-german-exceptionalism.html. Lune -Moonberg. Are those Wends who are lined up there?
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1147 - 1177 ACE. Northern Crusade Against the Wends. The Wendic Crusade. Henry and Albert aimed to convert the Wends by the sword, a popular pastime, but this Crusade took 30 years. Joined by then-Christian Saxons, Danes, and Poles, the multi-deist ways were cast aside and the Wends defeated.
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1185 Wends now dominated by Poles.
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1360 Germany annexes Lusatia, remaining lands of the Wends
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And on, but little identifiable appears to remain.
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1850's Wends from the Spree River area in Germany migrated to Texas. See http://wendish.concordia.edu/
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Look at the slideshow of woodcuts and illustrations at this texaswendish site, and find Phrygian Caps - origins, and in the very old days of Rome, a slave history, http://texaswendish.org/ImageGallery.aspx. For Phrygian caps, also known later in the French Revolution and American Revolutions as the Liberty Cap (from servitude to freedom), see http://joyofequivocating.blogspot.com/2008/05/proud-hat-hair-phrygian-cap-to-supplant.html
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Even James Joyce wends wend into his stream of consciousness, see http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-580.htmSee the wendishheritage site for events to date. We could use the female succession, dignity for women, warfare carried on only as needed, given outside pressures -- just think. Earliest graves in ancient times, no weapons. Were they even vegetarian? Some sites suggest so. Or was that just as required by the environment of the time. Wend your way back and find out.
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Pushed on all sides, they pushed back. Is that so?

Wendy. Why not derived from the Wends? See http://www.behindthename.com/name/wendy

Froslev and Elsewhere: Stair-step Church Towers - Denmark

2011-07-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

Steeples - Stair-step in Denmark
Step-Gable Style
Corbie Style
Crow Step Style

Denmark Stair-Step Steeple, Step-Gable Steeple.

Countries develop their own styles of any architecture, but this stair-step or step-gable style for a church tower is a puzzle in Denmark and Sweden. We believe these are Protestant. Lutheran is or was the official church? These originated as plain towers in medieval times, later often modified to serve as church adjuncts and still good for defense, as originally intended. This was seen in passing.

This is also called Corbie Style, from the Scots meaning "crow", or Crow Steps, and date from the 15th Century see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow-stepped_gable Call it trapvegel in Dutch. There is an illustration there of such a tower built by a medieval Danish knight in Sweden.

Another tower with this style stair-step is on a family farm in the town of Froslev, the one located on Zealand. There is a different pattern of window openings on the side, and the front design is more plain. We do not think it is a church at all.

See the old, sagging roof, with the weight of tiles, but still strong. This rural Froslev is near Store Heddinge, south of Koge, on Zealand. There is another, more famous, Froslev, on Jutland - the location of the World War II internment camp.

internment camStair-step, step-gable style tower, Froslev, Zealand, Denmark

The farmhouse and barn are close, right off the same barnyard. We had stopped to ask directions, thinking that we were at the correct Froslev for the internment camp - wrong.

Koge - Oldest House; Infractions Industry, Thatching, Koge Huskors, Jante Law

2011-07-06T04:17:00.000-07:00

KOGE near COPENHAGEN

Old Houses, Modern Parking Issues, Thatching Technique, Witches, Jante Law

Koge was founded in 1288, see http://www.facebook.com/pages/Koge/108017442565569, and was also the site of witch-burnings, as also occurred in the rest of Europe, here in 1608-1615, the Koge Huskors time. Witch trials. The article there is extensive. Some 15-20 women were burned. Two more killed themselves. It started with allegations against the unfortunate Johanne Thomes, that she let Satan into somebody's house, and accusations spread from there. Among the burned: Mette Banghors, Kirsten Laurisdatter, Annika Kristoffersdatter. Read the 1487 handbook for the Inquisition's prosecuting heretics, developing with a focus on women as witches, the Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches. Identify, interrogate, convict.

1. Oldest house

Denmark's allegedly oldest (and perhaps smallest) house is in Koge: built in 1527, see http://www.sphereinfo.com/denmark/koge.htm. The inhabitant here would have known about the Koge Huskors trials in the early 17th Century.

Koge, Denmark's oldest (and smallest?) house, front view

How did it survive? Castles may survive, and palaces. When they burn, they are likely to be rebuilt, remodeled, reimagined, or simply reinstated. The owners had the money to do that. The tradesmen also could afford to redo. The shop could be on the first floor, the family above. The truly little person's home, however, built not for evolving comfort or cultural ideals, or sheltering extended families, small chance of survival. Gone. Nothing worth saving, is that so? See Home, A Short History of an Idea, by Witold Ribcynszki

So how did this one manage to survive fires and time? Virtue of the inhabitants, and good fortune.

With the width appreciated, now admire the side half timber pattern. The timber framing would be filled with rubble, horsehair, plaster, bricks, anything; it provided an insulated, sturdy wall. See the technique at http://english.turkcebilgi.com/Half-timber

Koge, Denmark. Tiny house, half-timber side view

Other countries vie for narrowest house, and display a width inside that da Vinci's man in the circle, perhaps, could touch with extended arms and reaching fingers out both sides. Those houses may go up substantially past a first floor and a loft, even to the height of the grander neighbors. Taxes might have been based on frontage -- so the alley-builder won. See The Netherlands Road Ways, Narrowest House in Amsterdam, perhaps, for example.

Other old homes in Koge

These look more like the old parts of other towns, with long flat fronts, half timber structure, patterns. There are many such streets here - the fire gods looked the other way for conflagrations.

Koge DK, half-timber house, broad frontage

The yellow ochre color, an earth source, is traditional, see http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/recipe/yellowochre.html

Most roofs now are tile. Thatch caught fire too easily.

Koge, half timber house with carriageway. Denmark

Homes also could provide carriage access to the inner courtyard, where the horses also would be stabled.

Koge, Denmark, street scene

2. Infractions Industry

We are very, very careful with driving rules. It is not worth finding a wee ticket. For example, there is a little no-parking sign at the end there. Pay close attention to no-parking signs. These are songs without words and may take some learning ahead of time. They are well standardized, however, so learning one basic European vehicle control symbols system works most everywhere.

Watch out particularly for free-looking spaces, because they are probably not. There will probably be a fee box machine down a ways. Pay for the time you want, get a little slip ad put it on your dashboard. Even for five minutes.

Towns are not cruise-vehicle friendly. Too many cars, and money to be made in the Infractions Industry. See Elisabeth Rosenthal -- NYT on Irking Drivers. European pastime.

Signs are in three categories:

a. Warning signs -- these are usually self-explanatory little pictures of what is coming; bumps, curves.
b. Prohibitive signs -- these can be anybody's guess. Photocopy a crib sheet and keep it in the door pocket for fast use. Your basic guide book also should have a section on driving.
c. Informative signs, but these also include prohibitive signs for parking. Other sites show further signs for kinds of vehicles allowed up this alley, etc. Basics are at http://www.alltraveldenmark.com/Denmark/Car_Rental/Road_Signs.htm

3. Thatching.

Thatched roofs are still common. The methods are old, old. Hear and see some being constructed, but from the UK, Thatching a Roof, see Thatch.org/diy.htm

Koge DK, thatched roof, half-timber cottage

Do watch the thatching video. It covers global kinds of thatching.

Even let it run in another window with the music while you do something else. It is not a talkie.

4. Jante Law

Koge as a small town might (or might not) embody the Jante Law that operates to keep people in line: see Jante Law or Jante's Law at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A668694 The term for this community driven social control when individuality or creativity threaten the status quo, regardless how oppressive, derives from a book by author Aksel Sandemose, A Refugee Crosses His Tracks. The concept of conformity by group pressure is not at all unique to the Scandinavian countries, but was best articulated there.

Jante says: Don't think you are special because you are not. Don't think you know more than the rest of us because you don't, now sit down. Don't talk back. Find Koge's house here as an example of a small Scandinavian town, but not claiming that the fictitious Jante was here. http://sassafrastree.blogspot.com/2011/06/jante-law-and-politics-of-group-wild.html

Copenhagen - Nyhavn, New Port

2011-07-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

Nyhavn

Waterfronts traditionally supplied pleasures to sailors interested in lubbing. Nyhaven did so as well, for centuries. Now it is tourist heaven, with cafes, manicured building fronts where boarding houses once sagged. It began as a royal project in 1671, with Christian V building a harbor "New Port" "New Harbor, "or Nyhavn, that extended right into the city, but in later years it lost its glow. Now it has it back. See http://spisinyhavn.dk/uk/

Nyhavn, Copenhagen

It is properly known as a canal, rather than a harbor, because of the anticipation of commerce up and down.

Nyhavn waterfront, Copenhagen

The street-harbor came into its own in 1671 when Christian V built it to bring goods and services right into the heart of Copenhagen. Both Soren Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen frequented it frequently. That is King's Square and the Royal Theater at the end, see http://www.apartmentincopenhagen.com/attractions/nyhavn.html Hans Christian Andersen had lodgings there, at numbers 67 and then 18. See http://www.copenhagenet.dk/CPH-Nyhavn.htm.

Nyhavn, with Kongens Nytorv at the end, Copenhagen

The opera at the Royal Theater there at the end is a draw. Sail on. See http://emj-travels.com/?p=792

A Necessary for Men Only, Pissoir, Nyhavn, Copenhagen.

Copenhagen - Goddess Gefion Fountain, St. Alban's Church, Christianity spread by Threat

2011-07-05T06:32:00.000-07:00

Old Religion and the New.

Gefion v. St. Alban's.

Old Wins in Copenhagen

Goddess Gefion Fountain vs. English St. Alban's Church, Copenhagen. Gefion wins.

St. Albans, Copenhagen. English church, right out of one of the shires. It was built in 1885.

Juxtapose the goddess Gefion in 1908, and the contrast with Christianity. Christianity presents itself with hard points and heavy walls.Then look at the old Norse Gefion, with vitality, flowing waters, might of the woman who ingeniously turned her sons into bulls so she could get more of what she wanted; would you believe. Who wins? Gefion.

Norse gods. Pre-Christian.

The Norse gods are best understood from a genealogy chart of them. See http://www.pantheon.org/areas/genealogy/principal_norse.html. Write in her name, because she is not one of the "principal" gods and goddesses. Some say she is the same as Frigg, and Frigg was a wife of Odin.

Here she is: Gefion, near Nyhavn in Copenhagen, near the place of the Little Mermaid. She is the goddess of vegetation and fertility and virgins and the plough, whose tale explains the shape of Lake Vanern, Sweden; and other large lakes of Sweden; and the shape of Zealand, of Denmark. Vanern is close to the shape of Zealand.

The Kings of Sweden themselves are descendants of Gefion, it is told there.

A King of Sweden told Gefion that she could have as much land as she could plow in a night. So she turned her four fine sons (not including that King of Sweden) into four fine Swedish oxen. She harnessed them up and dug out much of central Sweden that night, tossed it into the sea, and it became Zealand and other parts of Denmark. See http://www.copenhagenpictures.dk/gefion.html

Gefion on the move. Gefion Fountain, serpent in front, Copenhagen

Even the sea serpents cower.

Diversion. And ask this: how did the old Norse know that large Lake Vanern is the same basic shape as Zealand. The perspective from the air that produces that mapping information would have to be from heavenward; or was the comparative map-producing ability of ancient navigators that good on their own.

Looking down. That proves the story of Vanern and Zealand. So Gefion up there must be real and the transmitter of the information, more real than St. Alban. Who was he? An early martyr, see http://www.stalbanscathedral.org/history/story-of-st-alban. Or is logic in the tales of space visitors (ooh) in ancient times, with their wide knowledge left here in bits and pieces, leaving their clues. So how else did the story of Gefion creating Zealand out of the same shaped Vanern come to be?

Norse Goddess Gefion, perhaps same as Frigg, ploughing out central Sweden and making Denmark. Copenhagen

Those sons of hers - no misbehaving, with that mom. Gee! Haw!

Dan Widing admires Gefion's creativity in harnessing her own sons to plough out central Sweden, flinging it into the sea, and making Denmark

Norse tales. These were transmitted orally, and so with variations, until written down in the 16th century. See http://www.tree.com/lifestyle/the-impact-of-norse-mythology.aspx

The Christians who forced their conversions initially accepted the presence of females in power positions, as in the stories of ancient gods and goddesses. Find many females in the large number of Christian Saints seen in the oldest churches. See http://swedenroadways.blogspot.com/2011/02/old-uppsala-gamla-uppsala-royal-burial.html However, soon that participation of women became disfavored, and later churches show mainly the male saints -- who often were later in time as well.

How did all that happen? Is culture the theology, rather than what the Founder said and did. Are we better off with the forced conversions to such a system, or could we have done better, or at least conducted moral lives, with the old. FN 1

Lake Vanern 1928, some relative's house in tough times. Gefion's Revenge.

.........................................................................

FN 1 Norse (pan-Scandinavia) Religion

Pre-Christian
Philosophical-religious questions ripple after conquests:

Scandinavia did not go under Christianity easily, and neither did Germanic tribes more on the mainland. See http://germanyroadways.blogspot.com/2010/02/verden-and-sachsenhain-memorial.html

At least in Scandinavia, the news of the slaughters of Charlemagne's era had spread; Danish tribes, especially the Jutes on the Jutland peninsula with Germany on the other side of the land mass, knew full well what was happening in Verden, Germany, under Charlemagne. The later Harald Bluetooth still set up his Danewerk on Jutland against Otto of Germany, but knew the military force of Rome's men (with all that Empire militaristic and organizational experience) was unstoppable.

So, Christian incursion was not as murderous in Denmark as it was in early Germany's cultural areas, but it was under threat of it all the same.

Then came further "forced conversion" (a true oxymoron: forced conversion is brainwash, is that so?) efforts through the Northern Crusades of the Pope from 1145-1505, finally stopping at the Russian frontier. See http://www.crusades-encyclopedia.com/thenortherncrusades.html

The twelfth century saw the Pope, after the split of the Roman Christian faction from the Orthodox Christians, deciding it is not enough that people were converted to Christianity in northern Europe. If the slavic and northern peoples had been converted by Orthodox Christians, like Saints Cyril and Methodius, then they were not Christian at all and subject to extermination.

1. When there is military-religious conquest, is the conquest "ordained" and "right" because it worked; or is the conquest merely an example of might overcoming others without the same military strength.

The conquered and the conqueror. Does the right to write history belong to the conqueror because the conqueror is right? Hardly, if we look at the merit of the religious and social-cultural systems overcome, diminished, forced to change to give power to the conqueror.

2. Western culture, Western religion.

These were imposed by religious forces early on; and later by colonials with economic profit in mind.

3. Did Christianity spread because it was "good" or because people had no choice, and once "converted," found it simpler and safer to stay in line.

Does that mean that anyone who became "Christian" under duress - pain of death - is not a convert, but a brainwash? Objective analysis needed.

Colonialism. Its earliest form was religious proselytyzing. Is that so?

Copenhagen: Museum of Danish Resistance WWII; and the Danish Jewish Museum, Artifacts

2011-07-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

Danish Resistance Museum

Museum of Danish Resistance, Copenhagen

WORLD WAR II

Frihedsmuseet

and

Danish Jewish Museum, Copenhagen

1. The Museum of Danish Resistance, Copenhagen.

Copenhagen presents the Nazi-WWII-Holocaust experience as to that country effectively. The sites are manageable in size, and focused. In Germany, the concentration camp settings are so large, and the quantity of photos and films and other documentation so overwhelming, as to become numbing. We consider these photos from the Resistance Museum to be fair use of a totality. Let us know, Museum, if you object to us highlighting your work this way.

Nazis occupied Denmark from 1940-1945. Members of the Danish Resistance were executed with few exceptions, when discovered. The Grand Hall at the museum shows a stained glass window area, nondenominational, with the last letters of many of them on exhibit, as to those who had jail time and writing materials - few did.

Hangings, of Danish Resistance members WWII. Resistance Museum, Copenhagen.

a. Ryvangen (off site)

Killing the Resistance also took place by means of mass shootings largely at Ryvang, Tuborg, with burials hastily arranged and a memorial since erected. See http://www.copenhagenet.dk/CPH-MAP/CPH-Ryvang.asp.
This site cites over a hundred. See http://www.suite101.com/content/the-museum-of-danish-resistance-a49964.
Is that an accounting of the hangings and other murders?

But that cannot include the 200 bodies found buried at Ryvangen, however, that 200 according to the museum exhibit itself.

Ryvangen, from Museum of Danish Resistance, Copenhagen, burials of resistance workers executed or who otherwise died there.

The names of many are known only because someone wrote a list and inserted it as a cylinder into a little bottle. The numbered markers are for particular graves, scraped into the ground.

Museum of Danish Resistance, Copenhagen. List of killed resistance workers and grave markers, Ryvangen

b. Resistance activities

Resistance included, as elsewhere, homemade bombs, industrial and personnel sabotage, communications, and in October 1943, organizing the saving of hundreds of Jews by arranging the smuggling of them to Sweden. See Gilleleje and its fishing boats. These steps had not been needed at the outset. The Danes knew they could not prevail over a German military invasion through the Schleswig Holstein area at Jutland, or by water or air so close; so accepted broadly the German control of media and other matters. Daily life was not that much changed. See http://www.suite101.com/content/the-museum-of-danish-resistance-a49964. Then it was: curfews, outlawing the communist party,

c. Communications

Copenhagen Resistance Museum, illegal telegraphy room

During the 1930's, Jews in Germany had been forced into second-class citizenship, and measures taken to force them to leave, first voluntarily because their property and rights had been taken, and then forcibly by deportation; then the policy turned to extermination.

d. Saving the Jews.

History in Denmark:

Denmark had invited educated, financier and merchants Jewish persons to settle, and by 1619 there was a thriving community at Fredericia. The Danish government protected the Jewish population in WWII as long as its government still functioned independently. However, the Germans launched an anti-Jewish campaign in October 1943. The German Reich Commissioner for Occupied Denmark, Werner Best, approved, as did Hitler; see Werner Best, who had been the Senior Security Police and SS leader before becoming Reich Commissioner at the Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team site, http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/best.html. Best's motives for acting at that particular time, after several years of Occupation, are not clear. Also read about the Danish Resistance Movement at that site, http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/revolt/danishresistance.html

The German Leak

It was a member of the German legation who leaked the plans, enabling the mass rescue.

The Rescue

Over 7,000 Jews escaped arrest, with citizens and members of the Resistance. However, another 481 Jews were caught, and sent to Theresienstadt in the now Czech Republic, see http://czechrepublicroadways.blogspot.com/2007/08/old-terezin-theresienstadt.html. Fifty two died, whether there or after transport elsewhere, is not told. The story of Danish Jews during the War is also told at the Holocaust Research Project site, http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/danishjews.html

Hitler Youth, Denmark, Resistance Museum

e. Holocaust, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, elsewhere

Muselmaend: Nazi term for those almost dead from

disease, hunger, fatigue. Museum of Danish Resistance, Copenhagen

f. Denmark's Internment Camp - Not labor, not extermination

There was an internment camp for political prisoners, Danish government workers, officials, high profile persons, even from the Resistance where a killing would be risky to the Nazis, and (is this so?) including some Danes who collaborated and who sought protection against the Resistance (how did they fare there?).

So long as Denmark cooperated in the Occupation, these lived without forced labor but with the guard towers, and in barracks, but with food and conditions that were tolerable and not geared to kill them. See Froslev, on Jutland. There, a fence separated the German guards' area from the prisoners' barracks; and only those who caused trouble were threatened with or actually transported to the concentration and extermination camps in Poland and elsewhere.

g. How did it start

Summary from exhibit:

National Socialism began with a humiliated and angry Germany after defeat in WWI. An economic crisis arose in the 1930's, and Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) offered security, reconstruction, revival and dignity through his militaristic organization, buttressed with street violence. See http://sassafrastree.blogspot.com/2011/02/unser-kampf-our-struggle-paraphrase-of.html He improved upon the poor use of propaganda during WWI, learned from it, and rode it to Holocaust and WWII. His tactics have by now become part of politics and commerce in our country, is that so?

Political opponents were persecuted, killed. For that he needed a scapegoat group to blame for Germany's ills: He chose the Jews.

In 1933, Hitler was made Reich Chancellor of Germany, even though the National Socialist party presented itself as against parliamentary forms of government. From that position, he began to abolish civil rights and instigate terror programs to silence opponents. His party legislated without even the pretext of democratic processes. It was a "Fuhrer-State" according to the exhibit at the Resistance Museum on Nazism, and there was no legal framework provided or apparently needed. Struggle, said Hitler, and that is life, that is the doctrine. The strong shall dominate and shall eliminate the weak. See museum exhibit, fair use portion to show how very clear the progression is in the exhibit. This is easier to grasp than so many bigger, fancier exhibits in Germany:

Danish Resistance Museum, Copenhagen, portion of exhibit on Nazism and its rise

2. The Danish Jewish Museum

This museum presents artifacts, history, a reading room, shop, and the logo "Mitzvah", for good deed, at the front door and elsewhere. See http://www.jewmus.dk/logo.asp The letters themselves are the framework for the walking areas within the museum. As in Berlin's holocaust museum, there are few right angles, slants everywhere, a feeling of disorientation intended and resulting in many places. See also http://www.arcspace.com/architects/Libeskind/jewish_cph2/jewish_cph2.html

Danish Jewish Museum, Copenhagen. "Mitzvah" - Good Deed

That is the crux. Resistance skills can be easily learned - just find a teacher and willing student. The issue is whether the resistance is aimed at a common good so that an individual can thrive at others' expense; or whether the resistance is aimed at those truly exploiting others, carrying their banner. Any nation can have its covert and overt resistance ideology, see some of ours at http://www.4shared.com/u/pAj8YLyC/Franke_Schein_-_The_LoneWolf_R.html/ ; or http://www.kickasstorrents.com/guerrilla-warfare-manuals-t3165573.html

Without concentrated, neutral, all sides education, information becomes propaganda. To let the bullies, the disaffected, otherwise unsuccessful at positive contribution, who take pleasure in coercing others, take charge, defeats everyone.

Copenhagen - Stroll to Tivoli, Christiansborg, the Bull

2011-07-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

STREET-WALKING

TO TIVOLI

Think Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition:

Bum BUM ba-de bum
bum bum bum bum
[BUM BUM]
Bum Ba-de BUm ....

1. Dog column base

Collared at a walkway.

Copenhagen dog column

2. Food culture: The Golden Bull - A butcher shop

These trade signs were not only to identify the products inside. The fancier ones also could indicate that the purveyor was a member of one of the guilds that enabled producers to band together and meet standards that would draw customers, and keep the cheaters out. See http://scandinavian.wisc.edu/mellor/hca/glossary/guilds.html Go to that site and see trade signs for a glover, a bootmaker.

Golden Bull, Butcher Shop, Copenhagen

Food: Denmark's open-faced sandwiches, smorrebrod, are better seen than worded, so go to http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-eating.htm Scroll to the end for the recipe for liver paste, or leverpostej. Everywhere are the shrimp and hard-boiled egg sandwiches. The rye bread is chewy, thin-sliced, seeds of different kinds. Texture.

3. Navigate the bicycles

The city uses roundabouts for traffic calming, adding traffic lights and do-not-do-this signs where wheeled matters are particularly dicey. When in doubt, ease in, and keep going around until you are sure where your exit street is.

Park and walk. Don't drive. Copenhagen.

4. Watch for palaces - Christiansborg

Christiansborg Palace, now the Danish Parliament, Copenhagen

Bishop Absalon of Roskilde built "Absalon's Palace" on this site in the early 1100's (Christianity appeared showing all its muscle). In 1417, King Erik VII took it; and Christiansborg passed through various renovations and additions as the royal residence for centuries after. Then either there was a fire, or it began to crack and collapse with the new additions and towers, and was effectively demolished. By then, the royals were elsewhere.

5. Tivoli! Tivoli Pleasure Gardens 1840's-50's and to date

Step right up for bazaars, pastry shops, theater, fireworks, playgrounds galore, adult and child, boats on lagoons, skittles, restaurants, billiards, coffee houses, see and be seen.

Tivoli Gardens, entrance, Copenhaven

Poster dummy outside Tivoli. The fun starts outside. No chance to miss where it is.

Copenhaven Tivoli Poster Boy

In the gate! Long open malls. These are landscaped and flow, not all in straight lines. Prepare to meander.

Tivoli mall

And restaurants, restaurants. Expect long waits. The longer they make you wait, the more small dishes or little liquids you may order.

Dan Widing with ribs at Tivoli

Copenhagen - Assistens Cemetery, Squirrel, Hans Christian Andersen, Soren Kierkegaard, Nastasja Saad, Axel Hindberg

2011-07-03T00:40:00.000-07:00

Assistens Cemetery

Copenhagen

An Assistens Cemetery means a burial ground established to assist a parish whose own grounds were full, especially in times of walled cities and crowded conditions, living and dead. First, the poor would be shunted there; but soon the Assistens Cemeteries became desirable and notables and others requested burial there. A visit, a stroll, a family outing, a destination point, all take place at the Assistens Cemetery system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistens_Cemetery_%28Copenhagen%29

Beings, living and gone, watching.

Here, the tombstone and photograph of Danish reggae and rap artist Natasia Saad, or Natasja Saad, 1974-2007, killed in Jamaica in a car accident, see her memorial site at http://www.myspace.com/tasjamusic/ Look up Calabria 2007.

Grave, Natasja Saad, Natasia Saad, Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen

And here:

1. A Squirrel Nutkin excursion;
2. Hans Christian Andersen grave
3. Soren Kierkegaard grave.
4. Axel Hindberg grave

1. Squirrel Nutkin, Beatrix Potter 1866-1943. Read the Tale of Squirrel Nutkin at http://www.wiredforbooks.org/kids/beatrix/sn1.htm, and mind your manners next time.

Spot a red squirrel. Missed him. Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen.

Chase the red squirrel. Run! Lose him. Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen.

Got him! Snap the red squirrel. Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen DK

The European red squirrel. This fellow cannot compete well with the larger gray squirrel introduced from North America. It is extinct already in England and Wales, oh, my. In other places, it is protected; or numerous (Central Europe). It is mad when it waves its tale fast back and forth at you. See http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/euro_red_squirrel.htm
This site, however, does not mention extinction for the red squirrel, but does note that the gray brought with it a disease that kills red squirrels; and that gray and red squirrels do not crossbreed, and the reddish gray squirrels are just variations of fully gray squirrels. http://www.uksafari.com/greysquirrels.htm

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2. Hans Christian Andersen

Copenhagen statue, Hans Christian Andersen. He is buried at Assistens Cemetery.

Hans Christian Andersen, 1805-1875, was from Odense, Denmark, see http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2010/09/odense-hans-christian-andersen-homes.html

Grave, Hans Christian Andersen, Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen

The inscription is something like "DEN SJAEL GUD I SIT BILLEDE HAR SKABT / ER VFORKRAENNELIG KAN EI GAAE TABT / VORT JORDLIV HER EK EVIGHEVENS FRO / VORT LEGEM DOER MEN SJARLEN KAN EJ DOE," H. C. A.

Grave inscription, Hans Christian Andersen, Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen.

That best-efforts at the Danish for Hans Christian Andersen's grave inscription is wanting, but an online translation gives a gist: "THE SOUL TO GOD IN HIS IMAGE HAS CREATED/IS VFORKRAENNELIG CAN EI CHRISTINE LOST/OUR JORDLIV HERE EK EVIGHEVENS IMPLY/OUR LEGEM DOOR BUT SJARLEN CAN NOT DOE", see http://www.microsofttranslator.com/

Read his own story, The Old Gravestone, at http://hca.gilead.org.il/old_grav.html. Old Preben and Martha there - not to be forgotten.

Andersen had had a special and complex relationship-friendship with Edvard Collin; and Edvard Collin and his wife had been buried in the same plot with Hans Christian Andersen. But in 1920, disputes arose among the living and the Collin man and wife were moved out. See http://www.copenhagenet.dk/CPH-HCA.htm

Clues:

" *** Most complicated of all was Andersen's relationship with Jonas's son Edvard, who was not only Andersen's closest friend but also (Andersen scholars now believe) the great love of Andersen's life. Edvard's response to Andersen, by contrast, was stolid and unsentimental. *** "

Fair use from this biographical essay, Hans Christian Andersen, Father of the Modern Fairy Tale, by Terri Windling http://www.endicott-studio.com/jMA03Summer/hans.html (why does an "i" at the end of a name make the author look frivolous? is this a nickname, for Teresa, or the real? culture, culture)

The Windling essay is an excellent presentation of HCA's life.

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3. Soren Kierkegaard 1813-1855

Theologian, philosopher, http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6172.S_ren_Kierkegaard

The quotations - a quick introduction, but not to be read speedily. This biography is detailed and so much is given in lumps that it is hard to retain - http://www.egs.edu/library/soeren-kierkegaard/biography/
This biography site, however, separates sections, see http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/ and navigating is easier. Existentialism. Takes time.

Grave, Soren Kierkegaard (lower left inscription tablet) and Kierkegaard family, Assistens Cemetery, Copenhagen

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On our way out:

Nestor on the grave of Axel Hindberg.

This gravestone is in the form of a Viking runestone,with a fine cartoon on front.

"Multikunstner Pianist" Axel Ludvig Hindberg. He started as a banker and auditor, but left it. Good choice. He loved piano and strings - and fun. Look closely at the figure on the stone -- Nestor, a cartoon fellow with downsloping eyes and long hair and white beard, playing a keyboard with two fingers, a la chopsticks. Pianist, bandleader, multi-artist. How or why did he even start in banking??

Meet him at www.danskefilm.dk, click on translate, or try: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.danskefilm.dk%2Fskuespiller%2F6350.htm

www.danskefilm.dk (click on translate)

Copenhagen - Amalienborg Slot, Amelienborg Palace

2011-07-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

Amalienborg Palace

How to keep the castles straight.

As a start, our understanding is that a castle was built with defenses in mind, as well as a residence. A palace was built as a residence. We focus on Rosenborg, Christiansborg (by reference) and Amalienborg in Copenhagen.

Amalienborg.

Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen DK

This is the winter residence of the Danish Royal Family. Amalienborg has been a royal residence since 1794, when the family had to move from Christiansborg Castle because of fire. The land had been bought by Christian IV in the 1600's, with a royal residence at some point in mind. See http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-amalienborg.htm

Christiansborg is now the location of Parliament, with layers of ruins below, of castles with varying scary histories, see http://www.copenhagenet.dk/CPH-Chrborg.htm. Much construction and excavating going on at this very old site.

Guard, beaver hat, Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen Denmark

Guardhouse, Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, with heart-shaped peep-hole

History of the heart shape. The heart in medieval times symbolized courage, among other meanings in different eras including fertility. A Viking design that is similar represented the god Odin's power to induce battle-madness in warriors; and later was watered down to sentiment, see http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/roundtable/a-heart-shaped-history.php

King Frederik V, 1771 completed (after 12 years of work) Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen DK

See the whole complex of four castles around the central parade ground at http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-amalienborg.htm

Marble Church at Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, DK

The Marble Church is new - 1894 - and has the highest dome in Europe. See http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-amalienborg.htm

Prior to the royal family moving in to Amalienborg, Amalienborg had been used by other nobility. Style is Rococo, says site, but it looks plainer than most Rococo. See
http://www.copenhagendenmark.co.uk/2004/11/amalienborg-slot-copenhagen/

Vista, Amalienborg Palace octagon complex, Copenhagen, DK

Copenhagen: NATO Troops Return from Afghanistan September 2010

2011-07-01T05:14:00.000-07:00

Copenhagen Celebration Parade

Some Danish NATO Troops Return from Afghanistan

Matching troop withdrawal plans between the United States and Denmark. Denmark is withdrawing according to the same schedule, the Denmark Helmand Plan. See http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=596396. It is now June 2011. Denmark began the withdrawal nearly a year ago. President Obama addressed the nation last night with the accelerated withdrawal he has ordered, see one of the uncountable responses at http://swampland.time.com/2011/06/22/in-speech-on-afghanistan-obama-addresses-the-battle-at-home/ Obama - well done. France appears to be following suit.

Denmark brought some of her troops home from Afghanistan nearly a year ago. There were celebrations in Copenhagen, also known for Hans Christian Anderson and the Steadfast Tin Soldier. Find the Steadfast Tin Soldier's story at http://www.bartleby.com/195/9.html

Steadfast Tin Soldier, Hans Christian Andersen, Copenhagen DK

See the contemporary soldier, having done his duty and his best as well. Who wouldn't cry for the relief of it: men and women back, marching safe, if not all physically sound.

Copenhagen Military Commemoration Parade

Rosenborg Castle to Round Tower

Steadfast Danish Soldier. Honoring the wounded, Parade, return of Danish troops from Afghanistan 2010

And those who waited for them.

Home at last. Copenhagen honors and parade, Support for Danish NATO military returning from Afghanistan.

It started here, at the drill grounds of Rosenborg Castle.

Rosenborg Castle, Drill Grounds, Copenhagen DK

Ceremonies included medals, awards, and marching and bands, then it continued the march to past the Round Tower and Observatory also in Copenhagen. The parade watchers were also participants -- dash-weave ahead, to get a good view back from the Round Tower area. Both the castle and tower were built by King Christian IV in the early to mid 17th Century.

Danish NATO troops. Return from Afghanistan 2010 Military parade. Loss of limb but not spirit, amputee, Copenhagen

Copenhagen. Parade honoring returning Danish NATO troops from Afghanistan 2010.

Stark dark and light on the parade route.

Military band, at Round Tower, Copenhagen. Honor to returning NATO troops, Afghanistan

Danish flag, Round Tower, military parade, Copenhagen. Returning NATO troops from Afghanistan. Dan Widing's camera records.

Danish troops passing Round Tower, Copenhagen. Return from Afghanistan.

Continue on in the parade. Follow the soldiers to more ceremonies and an unveiling of what I recall as a new flag.

Denmark celebrates. Copenhagen military parade, troops home from Afghanistan. Families, support. 2010

Home at last. Home at last. Thank you, thank you. Home at last. Next time, ours.

Copenhagen: Rosenborg Castle, Round Tower, Military Parade

2011-07-01T04:45:00.000-07:00

Rosenborg Castle

Copenhagen

Kongens Have or King's Garden or Copenhagen

Rosenborg Castle, drill grounds, Copenhagen, DK

The occasion here at Rosenborg Castle is the return of Danish troops from NATO service in Afghanistan: awards of medals, speeches, cheers and applause, happy people, bands. The castle is elegant: Christian IV was a prolific builder. Find Rosenborg and the Round Tower and other landmarks he had constructed at http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-rosenborg.htm.

Christian IV was born at Frederiksborg Castle, at Hillerod near Kronborg; built and lived and died at Rosenborg, and is buried at Roskilde Cathedral with his first wife, Queen Anna Cathrine of Brandenburg. She had died much earlier (when?), the King remarried, and here dates of which Queen was where and who else is involved are a puzzle. The site says that the King's quarters were in the northern section of the castle, and the Queen was in the southern, which makes sense for dalliances du jour. But another site says that he actually built Rosenborg for the favorite, Vibeka Kruse, and that she only left in 1648 after the King's death, and when a son-in-law of the King expelled her. History's mysteries. See Denmark Road Ways, Kronborg and Frederiksborg: Christian IV and Mistress, Vibeka Kruse

Our focus was instead on the soldiers there, and the palace as a backdrop. Troops. Uniforms, men, women, and a diversity reflecting the globe.

Steadfast Tin Soldier, detail, Hans Christian Andersen, Copenhagen

Rosenborg is a place of gardens, a park, a parade drill ground. Perfect for doing honors. Squeeze closer.

Drill Ground, Rosenborg Castle, return of troops from Afghanistan 2010

Then run-walk-hustle ahead of the parade to get a good viewing spot near the Round Tower and Observatory, also built by Christian IV.

Copenhagen, hustle ahead for parade spot

Rungsted - Karen Blixen, Isak Dinesen

2011-06-30T23:10:00.000-07:00

Karen Blixen, pen name Isak Dinesen, is buried here at her home in Denmark, after many years in Africa. See ://www.karenblixen.com/

Karen Blixen, author: home, museum, and town marina, Rungsted, DK

In 1938, her novel, Out of Africa, was published -- but perhaps now the 1985 film based loosely on it, is better known, see ://www.karenblixen.com/movie.html/

Rungsted, Karen Blixen's House, DK

Part of the home was destroyed by fire; this shows the remaining wing.

Side view, Karen Blixen's house and museum, Rungsted DK

It is easy to pass by without noticing it. The view of the water is all on the other side.

Marina view, from front of Karen Blixen's house, Rungsted DK

The town is on the coast, expensive yachts bobbing at the elegant marina across the road, and the busy coast road full of people going in other directions. So, why bury her in the back yard, under a tree, when the view and the water and the salt smell and the bustle and the vistas are all on the other side, at the front.

Karen, rise up. Move!

My favorite from that Happy Valley (stories by Isak Dinesen pen name of Karen Blixen type era in East Africa) is still Beryl Markham, and her West with the Night, see ://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102496707

Esrum Abbey, Esrom Kloster, Cistercian Monastery Museum, Nature Center

2011-06-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

Esrum Abbey

Esrom Kloster

Cistercian Monastery Museum, Nature Center

Esrum Abbey was founded in 1153 as a Cistercian Abbey. Of a large complex, only a small brick section remains; but there are many outbuildings that show the age of the farming and other agriculture that supported the Abbey. See http://www.suite101.com/content/esrum-abbey-and-mill-in-north-zealand-denmark-a374421

An Archbishop Eskil was impressed with the Order of Cistercians at Clairvaux, and asked Bernard de Clairvaux to send monks to begin an Order here. The location is near Hillerod, north Zealand. FN 1

Esrum Abbey, Cistercian Monastery Museum, Building drawing, original and remainder

By 1536, the Abbey owned 300 farms, and many churches and lucrative mills, in the surrounding area.

We like to think that religion where monks were up at 2AM for prayers because their superiors were serving the interests of God, submitted to punishments for infractions because God demanded, and worked hard as the Rules of the Abbey or group required. We like to think that all those foundations would be part of an institution that itself valued abstinence, doing without, harsh life. Not so. It became wealthy, wealthy.

Update: There is a book on this topic, reviewed today in delivery July 23, but dated July 24, 2011 page 14, Book Review in the New York Times, Render Unto Rome, The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church, by Jason Berry, see http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?date_select=full&query=Render+Unto+Rome&type=nyt&x=0&y=0/ As in other areas of corruption, he addresses institutional and groupsecrecy and non-accountability as not a product of divine will, but human avarice. Is that so?

Esrum Abbey, Cistercian Monastery Museum; property after Reformation used as tax offices, barracks, near Hillerod DK

Were these the offices, or are they caretaker residences?

After the Reformation, the Lutherans allowed the monks to continue their life here until it was closed in 1559. Down came the buildings, and the materials reused at Kronborg Castle and other places. A handy quarry-brickyard.

Esrom Kloster, Esrum Abbey, Cistercian Monastery Museum, renovations to original building, Denmark

Since its closing, the Abbey has been used as a stud farm, a tax office, to billet soldiers, and now a museum and nature center.

Essrum Abbey, Cistercian Monastery Museum farm building, thatch barn, near Hillerod DK (probably not original, but shows ongoing uses of Abbey grounds)

Esrum Abbey, later a stud farm, near Hillerod DK

Buildings are kept in the old manner, with thatch roofs still doing good service.

Cistercian Monastery Museum, Esrum. This old tree. Still life.

Sheep may safely graze. Cistercian Monastery Museum, Nature Center, Esrum, Denmark

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Fn 1

Bernard de Clairvaux. Bernard of Clairvaux. What follows is commentary, not a travel matter, except to the degree that extensive travel lets someone put pieces of a puzzle together.

Still: Why do we just say, "Ah-h-h. Bernard."

No free ride. Bernard de Clairvaux is the clarion call after The Great Schism, in 1054 AD or so, the split of the Orthodox Christians, from the Roman (think Empire) Christians, see http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/the-great-schism.htm.

Bernard issued the The Call of All Clergy (Roman) for its newly on-its-own religious machine to gain power, prestige, turf, converts at any cost. Is there anything in the dogma that reflects what the Founder did, said. Is sleep deprivation for monks brainwashing, or devotion.

Check history, check psychological control processes. See Bernard and what he preached -- killing an evildoer is not killing a person, so on with crusades and kill any who do not believe with us -- that extended not only to the middle east, but to France (heretic wars) and to the north of europe.

In the north of Europe, Northern Crusades converted people, not theology, not merit.

In some areas, Christians that were already converted, but by Central European Orthodox missionaries, not Rome, were targeted. See a view of Bernard as instigator and institutional promoter, not (is this also true? following the model of the Founder) http://worldwar1worldwar2.blogspot.com/2009/02/crusades-license-to-kill-nonhuman.html

End of rant. Instead of reinstating a renovation for a Cistercian Monastery, Denmark could establish a women's abuse shelter.

Gilleleje - Place of Harbors. Church and Fishing Boats Harbor Jews WWII

2011-06-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

Gilleleje Harbor, Denmark

Gilleleje. A Town that Saved Jews
Gilleleje Kirkegard. Sonaendenesk Church
Hornbaek Beaches

Gilleleje marina, Zealand, DK

Gilleleje. Now also busy marina and vacation home area, Gilleleje saved the lives of hundreds of Jews. Gilleleje (pronounced "GILL e ya", see http://www.globetrot.us/globetrotter2/stars/pronounce.htm, is a fishing town at the north of Zealand, Denmark. The harbor now is full of commercial and recreational vessels.

In World War II, however, Gilleleje rallied during the German occupation to save hundreds of Jews by smuggling them to Sweden in the fishing boats. There were 7,500 Jews residing in Denmark overall at the time, and nearly all escaped by means of various routes set up by the Danes to get them to neutral Sweden. Of that number, 1,500 or so moved through Gilleleje.

Gilleleje Church, Denmark

Find the full story at Rescue of the Danish Jews, at http://www.auschwitz.dk/denmark.htm

Gilleleje, DK, view from church that harbored Jews WWII

Many Jews were concealed in the attic of this church, until they could be taken to the fishing boats. See http://www.rudyfoto.com/hol/gillelej.html Eighty one, however, were in the attic at the Church when they were betrayed by someone in the town. They were captured, and killed.

To try to understand that era, read The Shoah Resource Center account, Yad Vashem: http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20696.pdf

Gilleleje Church, Sonaendenesk Church, Gilleleje Kirkegard, DK

There had been a longstanding Jewish population also in Gilleleje. This site states that the Germans sometimes were allowed some escapes, see http://hholocaust.wordpress.com/

This stone, in the Gilleleje Church graveyard area, shows Valdemar and Holga Lendorf, both born 1864-5, and I can't read the dates of death. 1920 something for Holga? Then Hugo and Beatrice Lendorf, all meticulously tended.

Jewish grave, Sonaendenesk Church (Gilleleje Church) Denmark

Find more of the story at http://www.kulturarv.dk/1001fortaellinger/en_GB/gilleleje

Gilleleje is a quiet, fishing and vacation spot, with wealthy areas on the access roads near the water. The town is quiet, with thatched-roof homes. Thatch is long-lasting, and seen often.

Gilleleje DK, thatched-roof cottage

The larger fishing boats in WWII made false sides, or put holes in the bulkheads, for concealing escaping Jews for the crossing.

Dock, Gilleleje marina, Denmark

Remembrance stones. Ours. Boulder at Hornbaek, beach, near Gilleleje DK

Sweden is just across the water. Just outside town, heading south, is an old lighthouse. Find world lighthouses at http://marinas.com/search/?search=1&q=Gilleleje+Lighthouse+Denmark

Lighthouse, Gilleleje, Denmark

In the front of the lighthouse, facing the water, is the lever light, original swinging iron basket light. These date from the 1630's in other places, like the Swedish Falsterbo Fyr lever light in Scania. Fill it with burning coals, hoist it up, and swing it so it would be more visible than a stationery light. The motion could distinguish it from another ship's light, or a lantern. The information for Falsterbo looks applicable to this, see more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsterbo_Lighthouse torch-light, as well as the mirrored light in the tower. Could this also have been used for signals to the fishing boats heading to Sweden, with Jews hidden inside?

Gilleleje lighthouse, lever light, Denmark

The beach is protected from development,

Dunes at Hornbaek, near Gilleleje DK

and full of beach plums.

Hornbaek Beach, homes, beach plums, near Gilleleje, Denmark

Steep slope, Lighthouse to beach, Hornbaek, near Gilleleje DK

Is this one the Nakkehoved Ostre Fyr lighthouse in our tour guide? It is very heavy looking. This has slimmer lines, and some decoration, a narrower light at the top.

Frederiksborg - Kronborg. Christian IV and Mistress: Vibeka Kruse

2011-06-29T23:10:00.000-07:00

Kronborg and Frederiksborg

Two Castles, One Christian IV

Kronborg, at Helsingor; and Frederiksborg, at Hillerod, are some of a number of castles, royal residences, other structures built or rebuilt in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Add Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen. Frederick and his son, Christian IV, were builders. This section sorts them out, and adds details about Christian IV's relationships, as we cobble them together from various sites.

Frederick and Christian are in the line of Oldenborg kings. Christian became King at age 11, in 1588, and was crowned at age 19.

Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerod Denmark. Frederiksborg Castle Lake.

1. Frederiksborg is baroque and elegant, a place for state occasions, show, carriages on the cobbles, elegance.

Compare that to the earlier Kronborg nearby, more massive, its defense designs still apparent in fortifications, ramparts. Kronborg had been built by Christian's father, Frederick. It was more functional than show-residential, and is on the Oresund waterway between Denmark and Sweden. It started as a place to collect shipping fees and defend against Sweden (only 2.5 miles away across this narrowest part). It is massive, heavy-looking, deep mazes of tunnels beneath, royal apartments and galleries around its central and cavernous courtyard. Fire. 1629.
Christian IV's father, Frederick, used the earlier site and made it into magnificent castle, and it was destroyed except for outer walls. Enter son Christian IV and the rebuilding, see http://www.ses.dk/en/SlotteOgHaver/Slotte/Kronborg/KronborgsHistorie/Chr4Kronborg.aspx

2. Christian IV was born at Frederiksborg in 1577 and lived there until he built and moved to Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen in 1610. He lived at Frederiksborg with his first Queen, Anna Catherine of Brandenburg, and they had six legitimate children with her (the designation is specific at http://www.copenhagenet.dk/CPH-Frederiksborg-Castle.htm)

The first Queen, Anna Catherine, died in 1612.

Note that the King is to have moved before then, in 1610, to Rosenborg in Copenhagen (with his mistress Vibeka Kruse? built for her?). Watch the dates. The puzzles of people and overlaps have to be cobbled from different sites.

Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerod DK

3. How to keep the castles straight.

The sites often overlap because reference to Christian IV, who did much building and restoring, will show them all. A fine overview with photos and details and chronologies for Christian IV's work focuses on his Copenhagen castle, Rosenborg, but offers information as well for Frederiksborg, see http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-rosenborg.htm.

Details of his Rosenberg Castle at Copenhagen are useful as corroboration for what we found as to Frederiksborg: It lays out clues of a lifestyle of opulence and indulgence as to Christian IV that is echoed elsewhere, and this in no way detracts from King Christian's many accomplishments militarily and as sovereign. At Rosenborg, for example, dinner banquets with 16-20 dishes, and 38 different courses, and wine and beer without limit, see copenhagenet.Frederiksborg is clearly a place of state, a royal residence, and was used as Christian's residence until he moved into Rosenborg at Copenhagen in 1610, according to Copenhagenet.

Dan Widing heads into Frederiksborg Castle, near Hillerod DK.

Did Christian IV ever live at old Kronborg? Perhaps not much? He did its extensive repairs after a disaster fire. See http://wictor.dk/wictor/frederiksborg/frbSlotGB.html

Potpourri of Castles

Rosenborg:
Built by Christian IV, used as his residence after 1610, and he died here 1648. Buried with Queen Anna Cathrine of Brandenburg (first Queen) at Roskilde Cathedral

Kronborg: built by Christian's father, King Frederick

Frederiksborg, near Kronborg: Christian was born here

Amalienborg: Current royal residence, Copenhagen

4. Life at Frederiksborg

Christian IV was fun-loving. Amorous themes at Frederiksborg are not subtle. And they are indulgent. One feast, it is said, began at 11 in the morning and lasted until late evening. There were 35 toasts, all drunk well up, and more as well. They finally carried King Christian to bed while still in his chair. A scheduled envoy arrived for an appointment the next day. The King was indisposed, and they were told he was off hunting, and had been since dawn. See http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=507. The carriage access road is cobbled, with quarters for soldiers, retainers, other, flanking. It is a long walk from the parking area past the old fortifications, into the castle, and from there into the interior courtyard.

Renaissance luxury, Frederiksborg.

Carriageway, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerod DK

The castle burned in 1859; this tower and some other wings survived. See http://www.copenhagenet.dk/CPH-Frederiksborg-Castle.htm,

Carriage gateway, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillebrod, DK

Fun in the chambers. The alternatehistory site is not clear whether its accounts refer to life at Frederiksborg or where, but Frederiksborg makes sense. If we find later that these are Kronborg and not Frederiksborg, we will fix. At this point, we believe from our own logs and the sequence of photos on the card that these are Frederiksborg. On the other hand, if Christian resided mostly at Rosenborg in Copenhagen after 1610, he would have wanted a recreational spot out of town, and would Kronborg provide the same elegance?

The photo at http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-rosenborg.htm shows this as Frederiksborg, so Frederiksborg it is. Scroll down for it.

See the hearts and flowers on the wrought iron gate top, whimsical little brass-toned figures in fake joust, and the number 4 for Christian IV inside the C and holding up the crown.

Wrought iron ornate gate, Christian IV, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerod DK

The crown is particularly symbolic because a special one was made for Christian IV, gold and pearls, very heavy, now on display at Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen. See http://dkks.dk/Christian-IV-s-crown

King Christian himself was a military man, however, and engaged in battles himself, even losing an eye to flying shards. http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-rosenborg.htm

Here he is, in the chambre a coucher, dressed like a Roman, about to Conquest. Note the clusters of grapes, and hunting horns for the chase? The horns could refer to the 1639 discovery of the Golden Horn at Gallehus. http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=507

Christian IV of Denmark, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerod, Denmark, gateway ornament, carriage entry to castle

Lots of little cupids, lots of little watchers.

Now we know what this little carriage entrance was for.

Carriage entry, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerod DK

Or do we?

Back to Rosenborg in Copenhagen: this site notes that the Queen had her quarters at the south end, and the King had his at the north. We had thought that Christian built Rosenborg for Vibeka Kruse. Was the Queen also in residence there? When did the first Queen die? Scandinavian soaps.

Look closely at the details on the wood carvings of this clock, we think it is, and the bright paints. Midway down: the two profiles facing out, not handsome people at all -- homely, real folks.

More important: They even look pregnant. Who is that in the center, looking out? Is that Vibeka Kruse, the King's Favorite? See FN 1. We see, however, that there were others. He had 23 children and "numerous lovers," see http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=507

Now back to Kronborg: are there themes here that suggest Christian IV's interests

Carved and gilt, pianted clock, Kronborg Castle, Helsingor Denmark

More figures looking pregnant. Why, Kronborg, why? Is that why? Note the lions -- a family name that meant Golden Lion was given to the King's off-road children. But these are blue lions

Detail, furnishing Kronborg Castle

More fun on the way out.

Ducks in the waterway, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerod, DK

Right this way, my little poppet. Don't let a bad camera color mechanism deter you, my dear. Down we go! Whoop!

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FN 1 Vibeka Kruse.

The favorite mistress of Christian IV was a woman named Vibeka Kruse, a waiting-maid to the second wife of Christian IV, Kirsten Munk. The first wife had been Anna Cathrin of Brandenburg. See http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=507 She also served Kirsten's mother, later, one Ellen Marsvin.

The King began his amorous affair with Vibeka in 1629 - the year of the big Kronborg other fire -- with the encouragement of the mother. The King's relationship with Kirsten had soured.

Vibeka had a son with Christian IV, a boy named Ulrik Christian Gyldenlove. That name means Golden Lion, and is a family name -- all the children of the sheets were given that surname. And they have done well: a noble lineage, with many accomplished personages.

Vibeka Kruse was influential, and the King gave her a Holstein estate, and a house in Copenhagen, a modest palace called Rosenborg.

But then the King died.

Queen Kirsten (she was still the queen?) had had a daughter who then married, and her son in law expelled Vibeka from Rosenborg, even though Vibeka was sick herself at the time. She died a few months later, in 1648. See http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/denmark_heads.htm