Denmark: The Journey Begins
Hello from Copenhagen, or as the Danish say, “hej!”
The first couple days have been great. Taking it slowly, acclimating, and seeing some sights, mainly Viking stuff which should come as no surprise to you. My first impressions of Denmark are that it’s flat, clean, calm, and historic. The weather is mild, and I can see why people like it here.
We are in Copenhagen for just a few initial days — me and my intrepid traveling partner @christmastrees365 — before heading out to parts west. Yesterday we hit a place I’ve been longing to see because of the number of Viking Age artifacts in its care, so many of which I have been sharing via images with my students for years, the Nationalmuseet, or National Museum of Denmark. It was awesome to finally meet these pieces in person.
The little figure of a Valkyrie above, found not far from where I write this, is just one exquisite example. She’s known as the “Valkyrie from Hårby.” She is a relatively new find, a discovery by an archaeologist in 2012. While she’s been given the name Valkyrie, it is uncertain if that’s what she represents. As some of you may know, Valkyries were part of the Norse system of spirits that permeated the Viking Age Nordic world. They were fearsome, terrifying female figures responsible for choosing the men who would be slain in battle and taken to share the afterlife with the god Oðinn in Valhöll. She may also be a goddess such as Freyja — another key figure in Norse mythology — or a shieldmaiden. That last one would make me happy :) The amazing thing about her, besides the execution of detail such as the sword and shield, is how utterly tiny she is at only 1.3 inches (3.4 cm). In the exhibit, she is accompanied by other tiny figurines also of various females such as these….
The other thing to note that I already knew, but is always nice to see firsthand in the artifacts, is just how important silver and gold were to the Viking Age economy. I mean both precious metals continue to have value and importance today, but they were incredibly crucial for trade during the Viking Age, particularly for Scandinavians who had no minted money culture. The bits and pieces you see below had value as bullion, that is for their weight, not for any intrinsic value like, for instance, how we know today that a U.S. quarter coin is always worth 25 cents. Vikings were notoriously paid in the thousands of pounds of silver by their victims for ransoms and/or to simply get them to go away. As you might imagine, that kind of demand, once met, would not stop there. Once someone paid, they marked themselves out for future extortion — one of the hallmarks of “Viking” culture.
I was also reminded of the utterly martial culture that defined the Viking Age in Scandinavia. No matter how you slice it, it was a time of endemic conflict. The numbers of weapons that have been unearthed from both land and bodies of water is astounding. In addition to weapons there are helmets, stirrups, and shields, and of course remnants of the famous Viking ships, one of which was included in the exhibit that spans an impressive 123 feet (37.4 m). It came from the nearby town Roskilde, which I will be visiting in the coming days to see its ship museum, so stay tuned for more about those.
All in all, we’re off to a great start. More sights to see in Copenhagen today before heading off tomorrow to see Trelleborg, a great fortress constructed/commissioned by the Viking King Harald Bluetooth. And yes, he’s where we get the name for our famed technology.
More to come! Vi ses næste gang!