Jelling

by Steen Hvass, Director of The Heritage Agency of Denmark

For generations, the Jelling monuments – the two large burial mounds and the two runic stones – have served as national symbols commemorating the founding of the Danish nation and the establishment of Danish identity.

They have held this status because they tell, in both textual symbols and pictures – and for the first time in history, about Denmark as a nation and about the Danes as Christians.

At the same time, the monuments also constitute a narrative account about Jelling as a political power center for King Harald I Bluetooth who, at the time, was building large circular fortifications around the country, expanding the Dannevirke ramparts at Denmark’s southern border and erecting the great bridge at Ravning meadows as a manifestation of his power.

The stones’ tale about the Danes
In the city of Jelling, the two runic stones are standing outside, in the open air, in front of the white church, between the two burial mounds – the North Burial Mound and the South Burial Mound. The smaller of the two runic stones is King Gorm’s stone, which he erected in memory of his wife, Queen Thyra. On the stone, in vertical bands, as is usually the case with runic stones, the following text can be deciphered: “King Gorm made this monument  kumler in memory of Thyra, his wife, Denmark’s adornment.”

It is the first time in the history this country that the word “Denmark” appears in written form. The larger of the two runic stones is King Harald’s memorial to his parents, Gorm and Thyra. At the same time, it is also a testimony to Harald’s own achievements as king of Denmark, inasmuch as what is inscribed upon the stone is the following text:

“King Harald ordered that this monument kumler be made in memory of Gorm, his father, and Thyra, his mother; The Harald, who conquered for himself the whole of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian.”

Right here on the runic stone, then, Harald I Bluetooth inscribes that he succeeded in gaining control of all Denmark and Norway. This would imply that he did not rule all of Denmark when he ascended to the power as a king. The act of laying out the five circular fortresses around the country can be viewed in connection with the fact that Harald incorporated Jutland, Funen, Zealand and Scania into the kingdom.

Denmark’s birth certificateOn the large runic stone, Harald tells that he made the Danes Christian. The runic stone therefore casts light on Denmark’s official transition to Christianity as the state religion. For this reason, the large runic stone is called “Denmark’s birth certificate.”

This took place around the year 965. Harald had political reasons for surrendering to Christianity and he writes this in stone, as testimony. In point of fact, he was under a great deal of pressure from Europe’s mightiest power, the Christian German- Roman emperor, situated south of the border, and it is plausible to assume that the runic stone’s message might even have prevented an invasion. But this is not known with certainty.

The animal, the snake, and Christ on the cross
It appears likely that the large runic stone was originally painted with bright colors. Also, by virtue of its relief technique, its inscription and the rendering of its images, the runic stone stands as a radically new innovation.

The stone has three sides: a text side, with the inscription in horizontal lines, which are elaborated in the form of a Latin-character, Christian manuscript; an image side, where a large animal is entangled in battle with a snake; and yet another image side, where Christ is depicted with a cruciform halo, wide-open eyes and outstretched arms. This image is the oldest known representation of Christ on the cross.

A burial mound of vast dimensions
About six years before the erection of the runic stones in the winter of 958/959, King Gorm the Old was interred in what was then the largest royal burial monument in Denmark.

Inside a burial chamber that was raised like a building, Gorm the Old was positioned with luxurious accessories that could hardly have been surpassed at that time. Above the burial chamber, an enormous burial mound – the North Burial Mound in Jelling – was erected, spanning a diameter of approximately 62 meters and a height of 8 meters. With the burial chamber and the burial mound as the center, a ship tumulus, encompassing a length of approximately 355 meters and a width of more than 70 meters, has been found.

It was the customary practice in the pagan tradition to bury kings and high-ranking dignitaries in such ship-shaped stone circles, where the ship, symbolically speaking, was supposed to carry the deceased to the realm of the dead. Around the perimeter of the stone ship, a four-sided palisade was constructed, a palisade that once enclosed an area of more than 10 hectares.

The South Burial Mound was constructed on top of the ship tumulus

Simultaneous with the erection of the new Christian monument – the enormous runic stone bearing the inscription that reads, “... and made the Danes Christian,” the pagan ship tumulus was demolished and the South Burial Mound was constructed across and over the southern part of the ship tumulus.

The South Burial Mound was under construction in the year 965. After a lull in the process of building up the mound, it was finally brought to a conclusion in the year 970. The four-sided palisade that surrounded the ship tumulus was also demolished, certainly by the end of the 10th century.

Today, the large runic stone is standing exactly where it was placed by Harald I Bluetooth a thousand years ago: midway between the South and the North Burial Mound’s centers and precisely along the central axis running between the mounds – the very same central axis that also fashions the central axis in the ca. 355 meter long ship tumulus.

Bluetooth fortifies and entrenches
After Gorm the Old’s death, Harald I Bluetooth took over the royal power, which was centered at the time in Jelling. Harald needed to mark out his territory and to reinforce the fortifications in the country’s three commercial cities: Ribe, Aarhus and Hedeby/Schleswig.

Harald also reinforced the Dannevirke ramparts, which were approximately 12 kilometers long. In the years from 979 to 981, he built several large circular fortresses: Fyrkat and Aggersborg in North Jutland, Nonnebakken on Funen, Trelleborg on Zealand and Borgeby in Western Scania.

In the years after 980, an impressive bridge at Ravning meadows in the Vejle river valley was built. The bridge offers testimony that there was, already at that time, a well-functioning road network in the country, where one could move around safely and unhindered during all the seasons.

The royal monuments in Jelling serve to localize kings Gorm the Old and Harald I Bluetooth in Jelling, as the center of this royal dynasty, which started in Jelling and became Northern Europe’s strongest power.

Gorm the Old’s two funerals
In connection with the introduction of Christianity – and during Harald’s reign – the first church in Jelling was constructed. The church is situated right in between the two burial mounds. Around the perimeter of the church today there is a cemetery. Harald’s church building is the first of a succession of three wooden churches, all of which eventually burned down, in turn, and which were succeeded on the very same spot by the present travertine church.

The situation here that there were four churches built on one and the same spot has no parallel elsewhere in Denmark. The first of the wooden churches in Jelling was built as a mausoleum with a burial chamber under the floor, right in front of the chancel, where one person was interred. This person might very well have been King Harald I Bluetooth’s father, Gorm the Old.

It seems plausible to assume that Gorm the Old’s corpse might have been moved from its original pagan burial site in the North Burial Mound to a more suitably Christian burial site in front of the church’s altar, as a symbol that the Danes had indeed become Christians. Certain finds that have been unearthed in the burial chamber evince that a person has been moved.

Harald I Bluetooth’s death
Harald I Bluetooth moved the royal power’s center of gravity from Jutland to Roskilde on Zealand, thus to the midpoint of the new unified kingdom, which included the whole of Denmark. He must have died sometime between 985 and 986. Unfortunately, we do not know where his gravesite is located. According to Adam of Bremen’s chronicles (written around 1072), Harald built the first church in Roskilde, where his own body was eventually buried.

One of many popular legends tells that Harald I Bluetooth was killed by his own son, Sweyn I Forkbeard, because Sweyn held a more pagan view and felt that his father had been pushing too hard when it came to introducing Christianity in Denmark.

Sweyn I Forkbeard (reigned ca. 986-1014), conquered England in 1013, and Harald’s grandson, King Cnut the Great (reigned 1019-1035) eventually became the king who reigned over a North Sea Empire comprised of Denmark, a considerable portion of what is currently Sweden, Norway and all of England.

All of Denmark’s monarchs – including our present regent, Queen Margrethe II, are descendants of King Gorm the Old and Queen Thyra. The fact that the ancestry of our Danish royal house can be traced back to a progenitor who reigned over a thousand years ago is something unparalleled in world history.