Tuesday 4 July 2017

Friday 30th June 2017 - Kolleruplund, Jelling, Denmark

The weather is still awful this morning – dull and damp, definitely a day for coats and staying indoors where possible. Today’s destination is Jelling, less than a quarter of an hour away. Jelling is very close to the hearts of the Danes, who are extremely proud of their nation. It was, in the 10 century, the royal seat of Gorm the Old, who created the Danish state by conquering its component lands, and of Harald Bluetooth who adopted Christianity as the Danish religion (although Christianity and paganism continued side-by-side for many years). Two rune stones were placed here between two massive mounds, the first, by Gorm the Old, has the first mention of Denmark as a state and the second, by Harald Bluetooth, states that he converted the Danes to Christianity and has the first known depiction of Christ in Denmark. Also between the two mounds and next to the rune stones, is a church which dates to 1100 but at least three older churches lie beneath it.
The weather was not good so we started at the Kongernes Jelling, an exhibition centre very close to the very convenient car park that we had parked in and also opposite the church and mounds. As with all Danish museums, the presentation of the history of the site was excellent with plenty of background information and lots of interactive bit for children and over-grown children. One particularly good interactive display allowed visitors to take a tour around the larger of the two rune stones, the old commissioned by Harald Bluetooth. The stone was originally painted in bright colours and this had been done on the computer-enhanced image. The runes and other features were well explained in English and the figure of Christ was very clear to see. There was also a very interesting section about the excavations and investigations on the site. These showed the uncovering of the stone outline of massive boat encompassing both of the mounds and the church. In addition they also discovered an outer, diamond-shaped palisade 3m high, centred on the northern mound and covering an area of 20 football fields. This has now been marked out on the ground by metal posts and enables visitors to appreciate the size of the site. From the roof of the building, it is possible to view most of the site, although this would have been much more fun if the weather had been better.
We went back to Henrietta for lunch and then headed for the church and rune stones. The weather had not improved and the outdoor areas were visited at speed. The rune stones were very good, although the side of the stone with the representation of Christ was very worn and it could have shown three bears riding on a mini as far as I was concerned. I was even more appreciative of the 3-D graphics that had shown it in its painted glory.
We got back to Kollerupland by 17:00 but the bad weather prevented us from further investigating our environs.

Photos: A particularly amusing interactive display (“touch anything orange and it will interact”) showing five ways to kill a warrior e.g. touching the arrow on the left informs us that the arrow had punctured the warrior’s artery and that he would die from blood loss in 30 minutes – something that every child should know!; Jane about to enter Valhalla; View from the museum roof with the church, north mound and, in the distance far left, the white posts showing the position of the palisade; The Harald Bluetooth rune stone, the side with the majority of runes; The enhanced and painted view of the stone showing the Christ figure engraving; View from the top of the north mound showing the outline of the stone ship and the outer enclosure – the white rectangular areas show the location of large buildings within the enclosure.





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