Denmark; A small country perhaps, but with strong historical significance defining the world of today. In this take, I will look into some of the most defining and interesting moments of the more than 1000 year old institution of our royal family and the process of building the Denmark I love so much and is my ancestral home and inheritage.
The oldest national flag in the world, the danish "Dannebrog".
The great "jelling stone" is Scandinavia's largest and most beautiful runestone, also known as "Denmark's Baptism Certificate". It is equipped with Christian symbols, including a christian figure and lane writing. Crafted and put up approx. 965, by and about Gorm den Gamle ("Gorm the old") and Thyra Danebod of their son, Harald Blåtand.
(from here on named "Harald Bluetooth" which is the exact translation- and the very reason for the wireless technology we know today, as "bluetooth". That is after King Harald the name was chosen) The stone is 2.43 m high and weighs 10 tons.
By the time and its customs, it is the glorious traveler's own accomplishments glorified: "(the one) Harald who won all Denmark and Norway and made the Danish Christians"
The oldest image -or portrait- of Jesus Christ, that exists in the north
of Europe. Hence, this site is commonly known as "Side of Christ".
Harald Bluetooths runestone with the crystalline image, which is the country's oldest.On this site, you will see a man in robe with widespread arms and crossbones on his head. The crucified Christ, without cross. The two image sides are framed by bands and ropes which are coherent, which indicates that the images must be read as a whole .Harald Bluetooths cenotaph ("stone of memory") of Gorm and Thyra is even today 1000 years after it was set up, an impressive monument. At the time of Harald Bluetooth, the inscription and the pictures were even more pronounced.The art of the day was characterized by strong colors, and colors has been found on other runes after having been buried in the ground, protected from the elements.
In 1219 Valdemar went to Estonia together with Denmarks army. The raid was regarded as a crusade. At once the Estonians submitted and accepted christening, but three days later (15th June) they attacked the Danish camp, and brought it into great danger, until the king had his warriors gathered together, and after that he won a bloody victory. This raid has given king Valdemar the by-name “Sejr” (Victory). To this battle the legend about the flag falling down from the heaven is tied (Dannebrog). Estonia belonged to Denmark from 1229 - 1346.
the royal vax-seal of Queen Magrethe the 1st of Denmark.
The first queen and chosen ruler of Denmark, "Magrethe the first" back in the the 1350s and for nearly 6 decades to follow consolidaiting the united Denmark and the monarchy dating back to "Gorm den gamle" (Gorm the old) and the era of the vikings, and when "Gorm" in 958 became the first ever king or monarch to make the danes come together and to become united (becoming the first King of the Danes, but the first in a line that exists today) creating the nation which today, more than a 1000 years later, still is build and works on many of the same principles.
The current Danish monarch, her Majesty Magrethe the 2. have been on throne since 1972. She assumed the throne when her father, King Frederik the 9th. died.
When the Queen abdicates the throne some day, it also means that for the first time since instated in the line of danish Kings in the 14th century, the first born boychild to the Monarch would be given the name of either "Christian" or "Frederik" in turns. In 1448 the first Christian, King Christian the 1th climbed the throne and it was decided, that his successor was to be called "Frederik"(becoming the 1th Frederik) and so on. Due to a lot of things happening^1. But two things have now come into play; most importantly the change made to "The Act of Succession of March 27, 1953"^0
Wanting to focus my angle a bit on women- and how they influenced and created the foundations for many great things- things that most of the Western part of the world takes for granted today; and have been doing for many years- I, however chose to post the chronological timeline separately and just focus on a few things here, next of which was the second wife and "countess"- (in danish, "grevinde" ) with the name "Danner" (her name was in its correct form: "Louise Christine lensgrevinde "af"^2 (>means "of something, a family tree or name or "to" relation only acuired by marriage" Danner". Importance in this case is, that because she was "only" married to the kings "left hand" -not being the first wife (and the King (Frederik d. 7) notorius for not being the most God-fearen man on the subject and institution of marriage, having already been married into a german family -and out again) she was favored the title of "lensgrevinde" ie. "countess (to) Danner" (the house of Danner !) A strong, independent woman with her heart in the right place fighting human rights, but even children and WOMENS rights -quite ahead of her time, she was born in 1815.
And that actually led me to one last thing, to wrap this up around. The work of late viking era-midieval times danish writer, author "Saxo Grammaticus" and his "Gesta Danorum" (roughly "achievements of the danes").
Saxo (1160-1208) was a Danish writer and historian of the Middle Ages . We know almost nothing about his life, but there are a few details of his own work, Gesta Danorum (Danes farms or more accurate as earlier stated as "Achievements of the Danes"). Here he mentions himself, both his father and his grandfather had served as warriors under King Valdemar first the Great , and that he may want to make Valdemar second victory , but preferably in a more spiritual way. Moreover, we know from Bishop Absalon will that writer Saxo had waived a loan. Finally, it was in the older part of Chronica SialandieThat he was "Saxo, cognomine Longus" (= "Saxo nicknamed the Long"). By contrast, nicknamed "Grammaticus" a term that first pops up in Chronica Jutensis around the year 1342 , where also a summary of Gesta Danorum , called Compendium Saxonis are included.
>>This last paragraph on Saxo was translated from danish to English by: Microsoft translator for mobile platforms.
(picture shows the original cover of the first edition of "Gesta Danorum")
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0. "The Act of Succession of March 27, 1953" - English version:
http://www.statsministeriet.dk/Index/mainstart.asp/_p_12711.html
1. a link to the complete line of Danish Monarchs, their respective houses and a brief summary
-the events mentioned are more closely described here:
2. "AF" means "of something, a family tree or name or "to" relation only acuired by marriage" Danner". Importance in this case is, that because she was "only" married to the kings "left hand" -not being the first wife (and the King (Frederik d. 7) notorius for not being the most God-fearen man on the subject and institution of marriage, having already been married into a german family -and out again) she was favored the title of "lensgrevinde" ie. "countess (to) Danner" (the house of Danner !
3. (1160-1208) was a Danish writer and historian of the Middle Ages . We know almost nothing about his life, but there are a few details of his own work, Gesta Danorum (Danes farms or more accurate as earlier stated as "Achievements of the Danes"). Here he mentions himself, both his father and his grandfather had served as warriors under King Valdemar first the Great , and that he may want to make Valdemar second victory , but preferably in a more spiritual way. Moreover, we know from Bishop Absalon will that writer Saxo had waived a loan. Finally, it was in the older part of Chronica SialandieThat he was "Saxo, cognomine Longus" (= "Saxo nicknamed the Long"). By contrast, nicknamed "Grammaticus" a term that first pops up in Chronica Jutensis around the year 1342 , where also a summary of Gesta Danorum , called Compendium Saxonis are included.
This paragraph, labelled "3",Translation from old-danish, modern and common danish to English done by automated translator provided by; Microsoft corporation and all rights are protected by Copyright.
4. The complete and authentic work, 16 books in total, can be found in it´s original, authentic form -and therefore in Latin- here:
I have concerning the paragraph on "Saxo Grammaticus" had to draw on sources. For the rest of this take, I have relied on my own knowledge and on:
5. My family tree dating back to the the beginning of the 15th century.
6. Two documents and a short antology, personal notes of "N.F.S. Grundtvig" - however, these documents is in my familys private collection, which is why I have chosen not to provide further information on the subject.
7. Jørgen Olrik: Studier over tilblivelsen af Sakses værk (Historisk Tidsskrift, Bd. 8, rk. 2; 1909)
http://img.kb.dk/tidsskriftdk/pdf/hto/hto_8rk_0002-PDF/hto_8rk_0002_97595.pdf
8. Kr. Erslev: Sven Estridsøn og Biskop Vilhelm (Historisk Tidsskrift, Bd. 6, rk. 3; 1891)
http://img.kb.dk/tidsskriftdk/pdf/hto/hto_6rk_0003-PDF/hto_6rk_0003_81257.pdf
9. Most importantly; For the pictures of the stone, for facts on the entire history behind the stones, the city of "Jelling" and all connected things, and for providing that for years and years now! One of my favourite pipelines to danish history and by far the best place to get the "grand perspective" on the complexity that is the foundation to our modern constiutionel monarchy, go to:
www.danskekonger.dkk or www.fortidensjelling.dk
Both the sites are available in English as well and it is by thanks to a man named
Erik Lynge Stenager.
In conclusion I actually started writing this while trying to post a fairly brief opinion to a question, asking who we thought might have made an impact and influenced us in our life and from starting out with Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi among others, I just wanted to post a note about for instance our first Queen of Denmark, since I find it to be inspirational and maybe others might think so too, but I figured very few people outside Scandinavia- let along many danish people as well- would know about her, and before I knew it, I´ve written half a story. The 4 hours I´ve actually spend on staying awake because I constantly discovered minor faults in my 3-4 first draws of this, so it became of a completely different level of effort I had to put into it than expected, but I hope someone might find it interesting to some extend :-)
So now, I will be getting on with the answer to that question from 9 hours ago :-)
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January 2017;
Paw Grundtvig Theander
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