You remember 'Lord Thorkel' and his barrow from Megalithic Stories? I previously tried to find out who he was, and why he received such an exceptional funeral. I recently got a small step closer to truth, when I acquired some forgotten pictures from the dusts of the National Museum.
I can't leave my body and physically be at Thorkel's Mound, when it was more than a bump on a field.
I can't see how and when all those people were buried inside the barrow.
I am not able to understand how big and high the barrow complex originally was.
I can't imagine how the place was once decorated and how the surroundings appeared.
I can't hear what people spoke when they performed their sacred rituals and funerals.
I am so far away in time.
However, I feel I am being so close to them both in my heart and in space.
After Flemming Bau's exhibition Det skapende menneske, 2006
And the pictures? What else are they than some ugly shadows of some dead people and dead time? Black and white, no taste or smell, nothing else than illustrated remains of physical remains. There are but motionless and meaningless pictures left of something that once was meaningful and important.
However, the pictures are my only chance to get closer to a world taken away from us. I have to accept that they show bones and skulls, not real persons in flesh and blood. Thus, it is our task to built a bridge between life and death, past and future: a bridge made of magic and wisdom. We have to see further and deeper. We have to dream for ourselves all the colours, smells, tastes, sounds and feelings in a lifeless picture. At one point the magic of the fantasy exceeds its boundaries, unveiling the reality...
Above is a cross-section of the Thorkel's barrow as it was in 1877. It tells its sad tale how only fifty years taking of gravel, greediness of mankind, and the Industrial Age, ravaged everything. The barrow, which was earlier called 'a noteworthy ridge', was at that point only half a meter high according the picture. However, it was still noteworthy for its length. The megalith grave was located in the east end of the mound, and its opening faced towards the rising Sun in north-east, as they used to. This must be the grave of the most important person. Thorkel?
But what about the others?
There are other skeletons drawn in the pictures. They all have their knees bent and are surrounded by sacrificial crocks. Are they relatives, who died peacefully and were buried beside their family? Or are they slaves murdeded and buried as a present for their deceased master, serving him in the Otherworld as well? Or are they the most sacred sacrifices for gods, namely human sacrifices?
It is not easy to say something definitive about a place, which at least has been a Stone Age round barrow, a Bronze Age urn graveyard and an Iron Age ground burial place. The 20th century archeologists estimated there were a minimum of 5-30 graves in the barrow, and it must have been in use for thousands of years. Almost fifthy exceptional artefacts were found at the place, and they all were taken to the National Museum due to their archeological value.
However, not even the most valuable golden item can supply us with the most essential story or a full picture of the past. It can only be concluded that prehistorical people owning golden jewelry were prosperous, but what did they think and believe? What stories would they tell, and which songs would they sing to me if they could? What was their greatest wisdom?
Urd Magazine by Andreas Bloch and Olaf Krohn, 1900-1905.
I don't know, but I am hoping that I some day would become less ignorant and a little more like Wyrd (Urðr in Norse, meaning Fate or Become), the norn of the past. She waters and sustains the World Tree Yggdrasil, that is, the whole universe with the wisdom from her clear well. This well, Urðarbrunnr, is actually the well of the past, meaning that wisdom comes from past. Besides this, it represents the past affecting the future by setting up the laws, the dharma that sustains the universe.
The description of Urðarbrunnr inspires me, and I would eagerly wish to acquire even a tiny drop of that well.
To be continued in a subsequent blog.
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