The village of Vindelev in Eastern Jutland was presumably a gift to a Vendish military commander, who operated east of Vejle in the middle of the 400s. An impressive gold hoard opens up the world, in which he lived.
Category: Medieval Denmark
Greenland Was Part of Scandinavia – and Denmark – for a 1000 years
When Greenland was settled by Norse immigrants in AD 997, it was uninhabited. From the outset it became part of the Danish–Scandinavian world
Why did the Norse Disappear from Greenland?
Why did the Norse People in Greenland upend their settlements in the late 15th century? A new explanation refers to their culture and way of life inherited from 9th century Viking Society.
Sweyn, Cnut and Valdemar at Tikøb Church in Denmark 1157?
Tikøb church in Denmark is unique. It is an imposing example of an early 12th-century brick church. Foremost, though, it features a series of striking portraits shaped in burnt clay. Three kings and a bishop – and an abbot, a monk and a horse on the north wall? Who might it be?
Elegant golden earring from Byzantium found by metal-detector
Unique 11th-century earring made of gold with cloisonné enamelling from was recently discovered by a metal-detector in Western Jutland. The earring likely derives from Byzantium or Egypt.
Royal Golden Dress from ca. 1400 returns to Denmark
Until 1659 the medieval dress of Queen Margaret I of Denmark and Norway was kept as a precious relic in the Cathedral in Roskilde. Today it is back for a splendid exhibition in Copenhagen at Christiansborg.
Eric IV – Murdered Danish King c. 1216-1241
August 1250, Eric IV – also known as Eric Ploughpenny – was murdered on a boat and dumped in the firth of Schlei. His death was the culmination of ten years of civil war and the harbinger of a tumultuous period in the medieval history of Denmark.
The Story of Henry II and Thomas Becket – Retold as a Moral Exemplum by Saxo Grammaticus
The story by Saxo of a murder, prompted by the Danish King, Sven Estridsen, in the Cathedral in Roskilde ca. 1160, echoes the events a hundred years later, when Henry II had Thomas Becket murdered