Golden Dynasties in the North

All Roads Lead to Rome

The Roman Empire ruled a great part of the world from 27 BCE to 476 CE. Due to their commercial predominance, collaboration with the allies and military conquests, Romans were on their way to global world domination, subjecting many civilizations and countries under their rule.

What does the Roman Empire have to do with Scandinavian barbarians far in the North? Well, they both shared the same enemy, the Germanic tribes who lived in the area between the said kingdoms. As the well known proverb goes: The enemies of my enemy are my friends. This means that the Romans were eager to make allies wherever they had problems with their enemies.

A Man Is Known by the Company He Keeps

In the third century a dynasty in South-Sweden conquered their tribesmen in East Denmark, replacing the local tribal chiefs with their warrior rulers. The peninsula of Stevns became their frontier post.

This eastern dynasty affiliated later on with the Norwegian West-Danish Alliance, in order to be able to conjointly control all the northern waterways. I call them the Scandinavian Alliance here.

Scandinavians had without a doubt heard about the powerful Roman Empire, and as warrior people they must have admired the Roman military power and far-reaching fame. Therefore many Scandinavian juveniles were sent to the Roman army to learn warfare, skills and general knowledge.

After Flemming Bau's exhibition Det skapende menneske, 2006

When the youngsters in time came back to Scandinavia, they were educated and rich men in comparison with their countrymen. They brough not just advanced weapons, military experience and wealth, but also the Roman way of life with them. They could read and write, and they built new Roman style roads in the wilderness, and fords across rivers. The Peninsula of Stevns became their commercial center for import of Roman luxury items. The local chiefs bought some of the luxury, while the rest were brought further northward to the whole Scandinavian Alliance. From the same place, iron and amber were exported to the Roman Empire.

Ravens and Swastikas

The Romans wore jewellery shaped like snakes. Sometimes the snake had one, and sometimes two heads.

Roman jewellery with snake heads.

The Scandinavian aristocrats wanted to imitate the mighty Romans and demonstrate their liaison with the Roman Empire by crafting and carrying special Roman style jewellery. These armlets, rings and bracelets were of course made of Roman gold. However, the Scandinavians modified the snake theme to a more abstract direction, or used other animals than snakes.

The Lords of the Stevns had their entirely own variation of the Roman jewellery theme: They used raven head, which was the symbol of their dynasty. Such jewellery has only been found where the Scandinavian Alliance was in power, and the grand majority of them were found in Stevns, where the Alliance had its heart. The two ravens were not just ravens, but the divine ravens of the major god Odin: Hugin and Munin. Thus, it seems evident that Odin was the main god in the region.

On the left: A sketch of an Iron Age golden bracelet with raven heads from Stevns.

 On the right: Odin, the chief god with his ravens on a Swedish plate on helmet. 

Below: Golden raven head rings from the Scandinavian Alliance area.

The previous types of jewellery were used both by men and women, while a kind of brooch was used only by the women. It is called fibula in Latin and by means of it, one could fasten clothes, as buttons and safety-pins were not yet invented. The wives of the Stevnsian lords and their allies used two characteristic types of brooches, called swastika and rosette fibulas.

On the left: A restored swastika fibula found in Denmark, Kroppedal Museum.

On the right: A hindu swastika. Below: An ancient Roman floor mosaic.

Swastika is an ancient Indo-European solar symbol, which was popular in the Roman Empire as well. Therefore, I assume that with this sign, the Stevnsian aristocrats show the connection both to their own Aryan roots and to Rome, the super-power.

Runes: The Nordic Script

As soldiers in the Roman army, the Scandinavian youngsters of the dynasty had to learn to read and write in Latin. The need for it was evident, should they wish to use these skills after coming back home to Scandinavia.

A rosette fibula with runes and a swastika.

The first Scandinavian scripts are from the third century of Iron Age Denmark, and they are either in runes or in Latin letters. However, since the very first runes were carved on wood, there are no surviving examples. Therefore, it seems like they appear quite mystically and quickly out of nowhere in their final form, without any clear preceeding styles or transitions. Other European scripts originate from Latin or Greek alphabet. Even the order of the letters in the runes is different from other languages. Thus, the runes are a rather interesting and broad topic.

However, in this blog I will discuss only one theory about them. According to this suggestion, the Scandinavian Alliance needed to create a script that was understandable both for them and the Romans. Therefore the Stevnsian aristocrats invented the runes, which became a symbol of the Alliance, in the same way as Odin's ravens and swastikas had become. Many of the previously pictured items have runic inscriptions, which are some of the oldest existing, as well as from the Peninsula of Stevns.

Actually, in the Norse the poem Hávamál, in stanzas 138-139, the major god Odin explains that it was him who received the runes through self-sacrifice by hanging upside down from the World Tree.

I know that I hung on a windy tree nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin, myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run.
No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn, downwards I peered;
I took up the runes, screaming I took them, then I fell back from there.

Well, we'll never know. Perhaps he handed them over to his his devotees in the Stevnsian golden dynasties?

All Good Things Must Come to an End

In the late third century the Roman Empire was in trouble struggling with a civil war and hostile tribes, and the Romans no longer had time for diplomacy or luxury items for their allies. In that way the Scandinavian-Roman connection died away, and it was never repared again, even after the Roman Empire gained its strenght for the last time in the early fourth century.

Additionally, the Scandinavian Alliance broke down in the early fourth century, and the Stevnsian lords attacked their Swedish allies. This conflict ended devastating the dynasty in Stevns, leading to its disappearance.

To Hi Dal Doodle to Fairy Land

When I was very young, maybe four or five years of age, I remember playing on the floor alone. This is one of the first things I can remember. Suddenly I raised my glance and saw my parents' wedding picture on the table. I thought to mysef: Yes, they say that those people are my parents, but I am sure that they are not. They can't be. My parents don't look like that. Who are these people? What on earth I am doing here?

Edmund Dulac: Fairy Land for Edgar Allan Poe

After this moment everything was changed. The light of the Sun, the taste of food and the whole world were different, as if an enchantment had been broken. Ever since I've always felt a vague depression and frustration in my heart. Only when playing and wondering alone in the great northern forests could I feel some true happiness.

Actually, there was something besides this that enrapt my mind: Fairytales. I could not have enough fairytales. I even learned to read just to be able to read fairytales, to not depend on other people´s time and will. I deeply felt that the world of the fairytales was the real world; a world where I belonged to and wanted to be. However, that world was not separeted from the world I was living in. In my universe these worlds were mixed, always together: I was afraid of the nix in the lake, I danced with fairies on the fern meadow, I followed pixies into the darkest forest, I talked with angels and hid myself under the bed in fear of ghosts.

Margaret Tarrant: Secrets

Fairytales also gave me an explanation for what, and how, I was. As I read about changelings, I became entirely convinced I was a one. I was not a freak who was teased by other kids and misunderstood by adults, nor was I stupid or a crazy loser. No, I was a changeling from the kingdom of the fairytales.

Several European folklores tell how wights sneak to a house of a newborn infant. On the Orkney islands, they would to sing the following (quite meaningless?) song, when entering the house without being seen.

Spinning yet, spinning yet?
Got to bed, go to bed!
Short spoon and wooden ladle
Unsound horse and torn saddle
In childbed and unwell;
To hi dal doodle and to hi del doo-dee

Then they could steal the human baby unobserved putting their own child back to the cradle. When human parents came back, they would understand they now had a troll child.

  A 14th century painting in a Danish church, Skamstrup. 
A troll changing the babies.  Link

The ancient Romans didn't have a name for a changeling, but they believed that female creatures called lamiae and strigae could kidnap babies. In Danish a changeling is called skifting, in Norse skiptungr, in Norwegian bytting, in Icelandic umskiptingr, in Swedish bortbyting, in Finnish vaihdokas and in German Wechelbalg. They all have the same meaning as changeling.

John Bauer: An Illustration to Helena Nyblom's The changelings 
in anthology Among pixes and trolls, 1913

Usually, the changeling was ugly and malicious, while the human baby with the trolls was sweet and beautiful. It is quite clear that people believed they had a changeling, when they actually had a retarded or a handicapped child. However, I think this coincedence is a consequence, not a cause, of the folklore.

Changelings could also be wise and intelligent, but they were eccentric: they wanted to barefoot around, and their hair was always hopelessly tangled. Some changelings would forget their origin and live their lives as humans. Others would return back to their wight parents without warning. The human changeling would usually stay with the wights forever.

 John Bauer: An Illustration to Helena Nyblom's The changelings 
in anthology Among pixes and trolls, 1913

Once one had a changeling, there were still a couple of things one could do. For example, one could force the changeling to laugh or to make him utter an expression of surprise by doing something very absurd: brew beer or cook stew in an eggshell or acorn, or make sausages of a dog with all hairs and skin. (I don't know why this would be so awfully strange.) Seeing this craziness, the changeling would expose his true identity, jump up laughing or shouting: Many things I have seen, but never anything so stupid. I'm out of here!

The human mother could also throw the changeling into a hot fireplace or stove, throw them into water, beat them severely with a switch, leave them unfed and crying in an open field. Actually, there is evidence that these things really happened to the suspected changelings, because people believed that the mercilessness towards the changeling would bring the troll mother. She would return the human child and take her own baby with her: Here is your own child. However, I was never as evil towards your child as you were towards mine!

 Arthur Rackham: The Changeling 1905

In the Celtic, more violent version, the mother throws the changeling into the fireplace, and the changeling then flies screaming up through the chimney. In the English, even more violent version, it is described how the changelings would burn as wood if one put them into fire. (I don't even want to imagine how many deviating real babies lost their lives in that way in the past.) 

The best thing one could do to prevent getting a changeling was to baptize the baby, for after that trolls could no longer take him away. Iron scissors or a knife on the top of the cradle would also protect babies, because nature spirits in folklore don't fancy iron. In practice, this also meant that the family and neighbours took it in turns to keep eye on the infant's cradle throughout the first weeks at nights, so that the baby could not be stolen away or replaced by a changeling.

Can the concept of a changeling teach us anything? Folklorists and antropologists have already concluded that changelings were merely some congenitally handicapped children. Thus these fairytales would just be a long and agonising illustration of West European family massacres.

The earlier truth leaves us in a world without magic. Therefore, I can't belive it would be the truth in its entirety.

Megalithic Stories 3: Whispers from the Age of Dynasties

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.

Dr. Ravi Livingstone, I presume?

Dr. Ravi Livingstone, a legendary adventurer and the coolest brown tailed grey parrot ever, happened to wobble across the path of my laptop camera today amidst making his burrow inside my pull-over, his favorite base of operations. It was hardly possible to not have it go on record. Sayonara, say no more. Ravi is world-class Zen.

Ravi is on record for flying once in his half a decade of adventures. Otherwise he navigates by jumping off platforms, making a crash landing and wobbling about to his next destination. And he's particularly effective in fast wobbling when there's food on the table, go figure. We're still working on the music lessons, expect to see a future installment once the baby-yoddling and space-beeps become more consistent and systematic.

Video

Link

Megalithic Stories 2: The Greatest Troll Castle

Something Dreadful

The Lamb Mound (Lammehøj) is the only more or less existing barrow in Varpelev. Its fame is due to the rather unpleasant fact that it was being used as an execution place. Last time this happened was in 1853, when a murderer was executed, giving rise to a ghost story:

There was a tramped path from the Lamb Mound to the place where the victim was found, but this path was tramped by non-living beings.

Inger M. Boberg: Stevns gravhøje i sagnoverlevering, 1931

A local author, late Martin A. Hansen, describes the horrors of the Lamb Mound:

When I was a child passing through Varpelev in a wagon, I would tremble every time I saw the fogs of the meadow. My father would point with his whip the route to the Lamb Mound in the darkness, of which my grandfather had something dreadful to tell about. As a young man he was forced to stand and watch by as his old play mate was executed. It was the last public execution around here. After that the villagers could hear his ghost by night. He would drive throught Varpelev and everybody could hear the sounds of the horses and a wagon, although nothing could be seen. One night my grandfather experienced this himself in the middle of the village road.

Martin A. Hansen: Sidste Noveller og Skildringer, 1959. Translation: Author

It is possible that it was due to these unpleasant memories that nobody would resist when the final disaster came. It is described in the archeological investigation from 1900 how the Lamb Mound was raped, robbed and disgraced:

According to a informant, gravel had been taken for building the railway in 1879. The railway workers found many ancient items [and gold], which however disappeared. It is suggested that the Lamb Mound is a natural ridge with Iron Age graves.

Det Kulturhistoriske Centralregister: Fund og fortidsminder. Translation: Author

Impudent methods were used when the local railway was built near the Lamb Mound in 1879.

It Is Much More

However, the history of the Lamb Mound is much longer than this, having nothing to do with its appearance, executions or lost discoveries. Its importance is concealed in the mythological values, for there are many folkloristic themes around it. These folklores were so deep-rooted that they still effect local people's collective consciousness. For this reason, I believe the Lamb Mound must have been an ancient sacred place.

Therefore the Lamb Mound was respected and not completely forgotten, although it was almost removed.

There are still trolls in the Lamb Mound, even if it was dug away. One auntie saw one of them jumping around some 16-18 years ago [1885].

One day a man plowed near the Lamb Mound. This time he was plowing closer the barrow as usual and could hear a noise coming out of the barrow. A voice told him that if he wouldn't fill in the plowing track, his best animal would die. The man ignored the voice. On the next day his best horse died, and then he fixed the track near the barrows. Everybody knows this story in the village and consider it true.

Inger M. Boberg: Stevns gravhøje i sagnoverlevering, 1931. Translation: Author

Martin A. Hansen writes:

At the meadow outside the village, there are remains of the Lamb Mound. Perhaps a Bronze Age grave. In fact, it is much more: A cult place and the home of the dead.

Martin A. Hansen: Sidste Noveller og Skildringer, 1959. Translation: Author

The Lamb Mound is also mentioned in a recent book of famous barrows:

The mound is the greastest troll castle in Stevns.

Mads Lidegaard: Danske høje fra sagn og tro, 1998. Translation: Author

Some Strange Celebrations

All these stories paint a picture of the Lamb Mound as more than an old graveyard. First, the archeological investigations indicate it was a natural ridge. There were only few hills and ridges in the vicinity, and the Lamb Mound was the biggest of them. Therefore it is likely that people have been using the place in their holy rituals since the Ice Age. It was important that the sacred places were elevated from the ground and closer to the heaven. For example, it was easier see and to welcome the returning Sun on a hilltop than in the bottom of a valley.

One cannot underestimate the function and value that ancestors had for people in earlier times. Even if the religion changed, the worship of ancestors was an important practice for thousands of years. Therefore the ancestors, or at least the best among them, had to be buried in a most safe and holy place, namely the cult place. The late forefathers became a part of the holy place's sacred power and could better help the descendants and other deceased buried nearby. This idea was so strong that the same burial places were used again and again, and they still are.

There is also other evidence for the Lamb Mound being an old cult place:

It is told that some strange midsummer celebrations took place there.

Martin A. Hansen: Sidste Noveller og Skildringer, 1959. Translation: Author


Youngters living in the area are celebrating the Whitsun there.

Thorkild Gravlund: Herredsbogen 1-3, 1926-30. Translation: Author

If this is true, it is certain that a heathen bonfire has been burned there for chasing away evil spirits and bad luck. This happened especially at May Day and midsummer, but also when alerting of danger. The heathen bonfires at annual festivities were the most difficult thing for the Christianity to get rid of, and they are still being obstinately lit in the Nordic countries.

Jørgen Sonne (1801-1890): Sct.Hansaften, 1860, Ribe kunstmuseum

Thus Lamb Mound was not only a Christian execution place, but rather an ancient place of gathering for as long as people have been living in the area. It had an important religious, juridical, geological and social function in the village.

More Barrows?

There used to be a rumour about another barrow next to the Lamb Mound. This would have been a burial mound from the Stone Age, which the National Museum tried to explore in 1900, but could not come near due to the growing corn on the field.

A shallow ridge can still be seen where the burial mound once was. The Lamb Mound on the right.

A map from year 1835 confirms the existence of the barrow in question along with another barrow next to it. Today they are destroyed and forgotten, but one can still see two light bumps on the field south of the Lamb Mound. This fits together with the theory of smaller mounds being always placed south of the main holy place or a grave, because this was the most beneficial point of the compass.

To be continued in a subsequent blog.

Megalithic Stories 1: Where the Trolls Dwelled

The intention of the following description is not to tire the readers with irrelevant facts about non-existing barrows in a tiny village. Rather, I want to show through these stories something interesting about the historical continuation and illustrate the previous blog Megalithic Marvels with some practical examples and folklore.

Once upon a time there were at least ten burial mounds in the parish of Varpelev, but they have all been destroyed, and have disappeared. In the map below, one can see where at least some of those holy barrows were once located.

It is worth noticing they all were situated near the river or the main road, additionally on top of natural ridges. It was impossible not to to notice them, while sailing by on the river or travelling by the road, which was according to the plan.

The intention was not to hide the dead away. They were a part of the tribe, just as the living were.

Klaus Ebbesen: Gravhøjenes mennesker, 1989. Translation: Author

The other explanation for the location near traffic routes is the fact that rivers and roads were sacred. Therefore all the holy barrows would be situated near these other already sacred places, so that the holy effect of all the holy things would accumulate and spread. The burial mounds were considered to protect roads, rivers, travellers and fords with their holy power.

Where the Trolls Dwelled

North of the village, at the roadside, there were three barrows near each other on the both sides of the road. They were all round barrows and were used as burial places from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. An archeological exploration was done there in 1900 with a statement about the first barrow:

Seriously damaged. According to the informant, there had been a burial mound. It was evened out in around 1850, and in the same time crocks with ashes, burnt bones and a bronze sword were found.

Det Kulturhistoriske Centralregister: Fund og fortidsminder. Translation: Author

About the two other barrows, it was stated in 1900:

A plot with two barrows evened out. Nothing left. (Ibid.)

However, bronze items and urns were found at the plot. The names of the all three barrows seem to be forgotten, but at least one of them was called the 'Gravne' Mound (Gravnehøj) in the literature, whatever it may mean:

In Varpelev there were some mounds, where the trolls dwelled [...] Gravne Mound.

Local historian Anna Pedersen: 1917. Translation: Author

I believe this was the barrow on the western side of the road, while one of the eastern barrows has been the North Mound (Nordhøj), because the farm next to them is called the same. In the old times the roads and the farms were always named after the adjacent mounds. This indicates their importance.

There were one barrow on the left western side of the road and two on the right eastern side.

Actually even the Christian peasants had a very special relationship with the barrows next to their farms, despite the fact there was a furious church opposition against the megalithic culture. The peasants no longer understood that their ancestors were buried in the barrows, but they could not help feeling that there lived some nice and helpful beings in the barrows.

Those creatures had to be treated well, for otherwise they could ruin the fortune and the prosperity of the farm. The barrows were taken care of exemplarily, and the holy hawthorns on top of the barrows were given food and drink sacrifices still in the 20th century. If the beings in the barrow were happy, everthing was going fine at the farm, in the same way as before the Christianity, when the ancestors in the barrows took care of their descendants and the other way around.

Treasures in the Light of the Moon

Pors Munch (1626-1668) was the protestant parson in Varpelev, and in 1667 he was asked about the ancient local monuments. He told there existed only one burial mound, namely The Silver Mound (Sølvhøj):

Regarding the burial mounds, the kinds with stones, there is only one left and it is called the Silver Mound.

Inger M. Boberg: Stevns gravhøje i sagnoverlevering, 1931. Translation: Author

However, maybe the parson, living in another village, didn't know Varpelev well enough? It is also amazing that he tells nothing about all the other barrows, which he should have passed every time he travelled to the village for the High Mass. Maybe he believed they belonged to the adjoining parish?

A natural shallow ridge where the Silver Mound once stood.

The Silver Mound was a round barrow from the Stone Age. An archeological exploration was done there in 1900 with the statement:

A mound, the Silver Mound was evened out by taking of gravel a long time ago. Seriously damaged.

Det Kulturhistoriske Centralregister: Fund og fortidsminder. Translation: Author

At that point, it was not entirely forgotten, because the neighbouring yard is named after it and it is mentioned twice in the literature in the beginning of the 20th century. However, it had been destroyed about a hundred years before, because it does not exist in a map from year 1835.

John Bauer for Alfred Smedberg's: Trollen och tomtepojken, 1909

The name of the mound suggest there could have been a folklore around it, as around other barrows with a prefix of noble metals. Silver leads one to think about a treasure. It was a general idea, or actually an old remembrance, there were huge treasures hidden in the barrows. Often this was true, for in old times the dead got the most valuable things with them in the burial mounds. Later on as well, at times of war or danger, people hide their articles of value in the barrows, which were the only safe place at the time.

There are numerous folklores describing so called treasure barrows and optical phenomenons around them. Mysterious nocturnal lights were seen around mounds, and people believed it was caused by the mound dwellers airing their treasures in the moonlight. Additionally, one could sometimes hear how the cover of a treasure chest was slammed.

The Swallow Mound

South-East of the Silver Mound, another prehistorical barrow was situated, directly translated as the Swallow Mound (Svalehøj). I have no idea where the name comes from. However, it is possible that svale could refer to a male name Svale rather than a swallow. An archeological exploration was done there in 1900 with the statement:

A mound, the Swallow Mound [/Svale's Mound] was evened out by taking of gravel a long time ago. Seriously damaged. (Ibid.)

The place where the Swallow Mound once was located. One can sense a gently sloping terrain in front of the firs.

The Swallow Mound is mentioned only once in literature in the beginning of the 20th century by Inger M. Boberg, and it is not drawn in a map since 1835. However, suprisingly its name is preserved in another connection: The road next to the mound is called Swallow Mound's Road, and the neighbouring yard is named after it.

The Royal Dynasty

Part of the treasures found in Thorkel's Mound.

Thorkel's Mound (Thorkelhøj) next to Thingstead Yard cannot be found in literature, but there were archeological explorations at the place in 1877 and in 1900. In 1877 the museum made a drawning of the mound. Most of the discoveries are from the Roman Iron Age, but originally the round barrow was from the Stone Age:

A gravel pit, where we discovered forty finds. There had been a natural ridge at the place, but it was taken away in time. According the informant nothing had been found after 1880.

Det Kulturhistoriske Centralregister: Fund og fortidsminder. Translation: Author

All the dead had some specials skills, but not everybody could be buried in the holy barrows. It was absolutely essential to know who laid in which mound. Therefore the names of the barrows named after a person are preserved through thousands of years to this day.

Note the Thingstead Yard and Thingsted Road next to Thorkel's Mound. A thingstead was always an important place in the whole district. An insignificant person would not be buried at such an area.

Part of the treasures found in Thorkel's Mound.

Here we have a male name Thorkel, and we can play with the thought that he really was buried in Thorkel's Mound. Only extraordinary persons could get this kind of elevated burial, so Thorkel must have been important either while living, or — in death.

Those who died for others, for their tribe, homestead, land or religion, owned a kind of holy power after their dead. [...] The same kind of power as those, who were sacrificed to gods for the public good as martyrs.

Mads Lidegaard: Danske høje fra sagn og tro, 1998. Translation: Author

There were certainly many who received a mound burial for their bravery towards dead. However, if Thorkel wasn't a martyr, he might have been the ancestor of ancestors, the founder of the village. Such an elevated person will automatically achieve the respect of the living.

There is only a little bulge left on the field of the great Thorkel's Mound.

Thorkel could as well have been a local chief. In the old days, a chief of the village didn't only have the worldly, but also the spiritual authority. A Nordic lord had to be a contact person between the gods and the people. He was responsible for there being corn on the fields and fish in the sea. He had to win the battles and so maintain peace. He had to take care of weather being good. Additionally, the Nordic lord had to be just, rich, handsome, athletic, articulate and clairvoyant. His hands and touch had to be healing. In other words, it was not easy to become a chief, but if it happened, it was likely his son would inherit this position.

The River Valley was actually the place of the first kings in the country:

The power triangle of the first king dynasties.

The graves of the first [..] kings are the rich graves of the kings of Stevns. There was a king dynasty that moved a bit later close to Lejre, which could be more easily defended.

Mads Lindegaard: Danske høje fra sagn og tro, 1998. Translation: Author

A local chief or a tribal king was buried in Varpelev. He had his whole household and slaves buried alive with him [...He] must be seen as a representative of the country's oldest kings.

Lone Hvass: Oldtiden i Danmark: Jernalderen, 2001. Translation: Author

Part of the treasures found in Thorkel's Mound.

There is also a third possibility. If Thorkel was not a martyr or a king, he could have been a holy man or a shaman. That kind of person would surely receive a fine burial place, owing to his healing ability and religious power. The descendants would share his holy powers by worshipping his burial mound.

The Fire Mound and the Great Cult Site

Flaming pillars at a barrow.

There have been massive megalithic Stone Age structures next to the Mound Yard's still existing Great Mound (Maglehøj), which sadly nowdays belongs to the next parish. The foremost of the burial mounds was called the Fire Mound (Ildhøj).

I presume the name has something to do with the folklore about flaming pillars: Always when elves were celebrating, their mound came open, rose up and stood on flaming pillars. It is also possible that fire in the name points out to the barrow's use as a place for bonfires, either for warning or for celebration.

A reconstruction of the Fire Mound at a museum.

The Fire Mound was located a shot from the Great Mound. Nowdays it is merely called the Stone Pile. It was damaged for ages ago. Still in last summer stones were blown up there and transported to the bridge over the Tryggevælde river, [where they were used as building material for the railway and the road]. Many bones and other artefacts were found at the Fire Mound. Now only the undermost stones are standing at the burial place.

Parson P. Holm in 1823 for the Royal Commission for Preservation of Archeological Findings. Translation: Author

Some of the items found on the floor at the Fire Mound: Amber pearls, white burned flintstone and sacrificial crocks. Køge Museum

Archeological explorations in 1991 at this place found remnants of an Iron Age burial place and at least two Stone Age mounds. Skeletons, flintstone tools, arrow heads, stone tiles, white burned flintstone, sacrificial crocks and traces of settlement (or a cult house?) were found. Almost all of the thousands of items were burned before the burial. It was calculated that the total diameter of the mound was 20 meters and the chamber was 19 m², thus the biggest mound in the river valley.

Modern plow traces on a field nearby the Fire Mound.

Additionally, ritual plow traces were found under the barrow. They were parallel and systematic. The Earth was identical with Mother Earth, and therefore these kinds of plow traces were considered as her holy feminine fathom, while the plow itself was masculine. Together they unite in a holy cosmic marriage. No evil spirit could cross plow traces as it is explained in many folklores. Before the barrow was built, the earth under the it was ritually plowed and burned for purification. This would give energy, protection and strength for the mound.

It seems like these destroyed structures had been a part of some kind of large cult center together with the Great Mound.

The Great Mound alone at twilight

The Great Mound is also called a passage grave, in Danish a giant's dwelling (jættestue). Many burial mounds are named as Giant's cave, Giant's grave or Giant's Tomb. These names were invented by people of later times, who couldn't see how normal human beings could been able to built the megaliths. They were convinced that only giants with supernatural powers could have constructed them. For a long time it was believed there were giants buried in the barrows, for no human could be as tall and big as the barrows are.

To be continued in a subsequent blog.