Gl lejre from the air Ole Malling/Roskilde Museum.

Lejre Museum

Lejre in Denmark is famous as the mythical royal seat of the Scyldings, renowned in Beowulf. However, it is also a hugely fascinating archaeological site. A new museum is well worth a detour.

Granted, it is a small museum. And yes, more prominent exhibits from the Dark Ages may be found in the British Museum or in Uppsala. Nevertheless, it pays to travel to Roskilde in Denmark to see not only the Viking-ship museum, but also Lejre, a small inland village four km. from the see. Here, a new exhibition recently opened, which tells the story of the remarkable finds, which archaeologists under the leadership of Tom Christensen has been responsible for excavating during the last 30 years. Even though excavations continue and new information about the place is sure to surface in the years to come, the contours of a breathtaking archeological treasure have slowly emerged. What we get is a glimpse of a truly magnificent royal centre dominating for more than 500 years.

Landscape

Looking a Gl. Lejre from the air, it immediately becomes apparent that the 6th century settlement was located in an “old” landscape filled with ancestral mounds, some of which date back to the Bronze Age. To the east a small river borders up to a flat plain. This river, Kornerup, splits into two with Lejre Stream just east of the ancient settlement. Neither of these streams or tiny rivers are believed to have been navigable near Lejre by anything except prams. Between these two creeks spans a hilly isthmus filled with an ancient necropolis, consisting of a mound from the 7th century and a burial ground from the 10th.

To the east of the small streams the flat heath rolls across a landscape perfect for intensive farming. To the west a hilly landscape rises, covered in forests alternating with a more open landscape with a scrubby vegetation of oaks, elms, juniper and heather. A trip to the museum should include a visit to the nearby Land of Legends, where the ancient landscape has been recreated. If you have plenty of time, it is especially recommended to take a tour of  Særløse Overdrev (Særløse Commons) with ancient grassland recreating a sense of the timeless landscape.

Lejre Hall - AD 900
Lejre Hall – AD 900 – © Medieval Histories

Settlement

Entering Gl. Lejre from the south, the road reaches a small village bordering on the banks of the river to the right and a hilly promontory to the left. It is believed that the present village might originally have been a seasonal marketplace inhabited by craftsmen. On the hill to the left a number of great halls have been excavated. The earliest settlement found dates to the 3rd – 5th centuries and lies up north of here. Around AD 500 the first great hall appears to have been built. This hall was around 47 metres long and app. seven meters wide in the middle (5 meters at the ends). The hall was probably whitewashed and would have been visible from afar.

Around AD 600 this hall was demolished and a new hall was built to the south, a bit longer and wider. In the end,  all-in-all seven different halls of different sizes and probably some of them contemporary, have been excavated, the last one demolished some time around AD 1000. What we have here is a settlement of royal halls demonstrating continuous use in a period of 500 years.

To these magnificent halls were added a number of minor houses, serving the area as either sleeping quarters for visiting guests or – as some have speculated – “pagan temples”. Important features in the landscape were also the large stone hearths located next to the halls, were remains of grand feats have been found. To the west, on the bank of the river, a burial ground have been excavated. Here a number of stone ships were erected some time in the beginning of the 10th century. Probably a bit later, a warrior was buried together with some dependants at the centre of one of the later halls, which at that point was demolished. It is believed that the site of the ancient hall may have been chosen as a way of honouring the dead man.Visitors at lejre Museum © Medieval Histories

The museum

It is not easy to describe the shifting elements in this settlement. However, the museum has very kindly reconstructed the foundations of the halls in the landscape and it is recommended to take a walk there before visiting the newly refurbished museum, which tells the story in an immaculate, imaginative and very illustrative way.

Here the visitor is invited not only to get a sense of the history behind the place but also an overview of the magnificent pieces of archaeological finds – from jewellery to pottery – which has been found on location. Luckily, the curator of the exhibition has kept cool and let the finds speak for themselves. This means that we are not just treated to a few singularly impressive pieces, but are allowed to see the multitude of finds, which endless metal detecting have secured for us. With plentiful explanations and a fine and balance use of multimedia a visit is higly recommended.

If you are fan of Beowulf, this is where you should travel at some point in your life to get a sense of place and poem.

Source:

Lejre Museum

READ MORE:

Medieval News 2016 May 5 Cover‘Medieval News’ from May 2016 brings you stories about Lejre in the land of the Scyldings and Beowulf, which is about to be unlocked. But it also shares a lot of notices about upcoming conferences, new books etc….

Download & Enjoy!

Lejre bag myten by Tom Christensen coverRecently the director of the Museum, Tom Christensen, published the excavations and his carefully crafted understanding of the site. Although in Danish, it does pay to peruse the many illustrations here and it is highly recommended. This is the most recent and up-to-date presentation of the archaeological finds as well as the evidence, which can be gleaned from the written sources.

Lejre bag myten. De arkæologiske udgravninger
By Tom Christensen
ROMU, Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab 2015
978-87-88415-96-4

 

 

 

Beowulf and Lejre by John D Niles cover

 

A somewhat older publication from 2007, Beowulf and Lejre, makes the outline of this very complicated story available to English readers. One must hope that a new edition of this will in the future be made available in order to present the new knowledge which the continued excavations yield.

Beowulf and Lejre
Ed. By John D. Niles
Series: medieval and Renaissance Studies, vol 323
ACMRS 2007
ISBN: 978-0-86698-368-6

 

 

FEATURED PHOTO:

Lejre as seen from the air © Ole Malling/Roskilde Museum.

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