Samsø

The name Samsø is of unknown origin.[3] The name is known from 1075 as Samse. This word is a simplex and the addition of -ø, Danish for 'island', is thus a later compounding,[4] known in toponymy as epexegesis.

Ballen's beach and village are popular with visitors. The island is served by a bus service which runs around the island, including the two ferry terminals in Sælvig and Ballen. In clear weather, the peninsula of Helgenæs to the north is visible. Geographically, the island divides into three areas:

• the North Island
• the Stavns Fjord
• the South Island

The soil and geology of the northern part of the island is made up of sand and gravel deposited during the deglaciation, while the southern part is made of both areas of boulder clay (Danish: moræneler) and outwash plains (Danish: smeltevandsslette).[5]

The North Island is divided from the South Island by the artificial Kanhave canal. Here a larger part of the countryside is uncultivated and it presents a wavy landscape of meadows and small patches of woodland and heath. Like the rest of Samsø, the coastline is characterized by steep cliffs and stony beaches, with some sandy beaches in between suited for bathing. Issehoved is Samsø's northernmost point and presents what have been described as a miniature of Skagens "Grenen". The small towns of Nordby, Mårup and Langør is situated on the North Island. Just north of Nordby is the world's biggest permanent labyrinth named 'Labyrinten', founded in the year 2000. It comprise a 60,000-square-metre (645,835-square-foot) patch of conifer woodland, grown on a previous christmas tree plantation.[6] Northwest of Nordby, is the hill of Ballebjerg, Samsøs highest point, reaching 64 m. Near the village of Mårup is the harbour of Mårup Havn. In the summer months (17 June to 22 August) the old wooden freight-ship M/S Tunø, ferry passengers back and forth from here to the island of Tunø just west of Samsø, two days a week. Other two days of the week, the same boat is offering seal-safaris from Langør at Stavns Fjord.[7]

Ingeborg Hoy Jæstutte

Ørby Runddysse or Knøsen

People have lived and hunted on Samsø from the earliest of times, when the ice receded at the end of the last Ice Age. Samsø first became an island approximately 9,000 years ago and there are several traces like dolmens, burial mounds, passage graves, kitchen middens, etc. from the Stone Age and Bronze Age cultures across the landscape. Excavations at Tønnesminde and Endebjerg, for example, show evidence of human habitation from the Stone Age through the Viking Age.

Norse mythology

The Norwegian warrior Örvar-Oddr bids a last farewell to his blood brother, the Swedish warrior Hjalmar after the Battle of Samsø, by Mårten Eskil Winge (1866).

On this island, Saxo Grammaticus relates that there was a legendary battle, when the Swedish champion Hjalmar and his friend Orvar-Odd fought against the twelve sons of the Swedish berserker Arngrim. This battle was once famous, since it also figures in Faroese ballads, in Orvar-Odd's saga and in Hervarar saga.[8]

According to the Hervarar saga and the Waking of Angantyr, the mounds of the slain berserkers were haunted. This did not stop Arngrim's granddaughter Hervor from approaching the mounds and demanding the enchanted sword Tyrfing from her father Angantyr.

"Samsey" (-ey being an earlier Norse form of -ø) is the island upon which Odin, under the name Jalk, learned Seid magic.[9]

Medieval fortresses

All the known sources suggests, that the island was the property of the Crown throughout medieval times, but it was an age of conflict and insecurity nevertheless, as a total of five fortresses were built on Samsø in the Middle Ages; Vesborg where the lighthouse is nowadays, Gammel Brattingsborg where the town of Tranebjerg is now, Hjortholm on the islet of the same name in the Stavns Fjord lagoon, Bisgård at the bishop's palace (official residence) in the parish of Onsbjerg and the small fortification of Blafferholm in the garden of Brattingsborg manor. None of them are left standing today. Only the castle hills and the archaeological excavations of the foundations remains. The National Museum of Denmark initiated thorough archaeological investigations of the fortification sites a few years ago and the field work terminated in 2012. [11][12][13]

The island of Kyholm

Agricultural field (cabbage) on Samsø

Agriculture has been the primary occupation on Samsø for millennia and nearly all of the island comprise cultured landscapes. Nowadays, farming is still an important business and the biggest contributor to the islands economy, but compared to the rest of Denmark, it has developed in its own direction. Free range farming is very prominent, and the agricultural produce comprise mostly potatoes, various other vegetables and berries as well as some animal husbandry. In the 2000s, especially the vegetable and berry production has increased, as the Samsø brand has become more widely known and popular. At the same time, packaging and industrial processing is increasingly taken care of on the island before shipping, again increasing the local revenue of the farming trade overall. Close to 16% of the islanders work in the fishing and farming sector, not including derived labour, compared to 3.5% countrywide.[16]

In Denmark, Samsø is well known for its early harvest of new potatoes. The first few pounds of these potatoes usually fetch prices around £100, and are considered a great delicacy.[16] Samsø is popular among French, Welsh and Irish people for strawberry picking during the months of June and July every year. Ecological agriculture and production is significant on Samsø, with a broad network of cooperating associations. It comprise farming of a large variety of vegetables, grains and fruits, livestock meat and products (lambs, sheep, yarn, cows, pigs, horses, donkeys, goats, chickens, eggs), a dairy, a brewery, restaurants and cafés, candy production, permaculture and forest garden experiments. There are several plans for extending the overall ecological production and broaden the industry (a slaughterhouse, orangery, forest gardens and education), with a wish for creating more jobs and stimulate settlements on the island.[17]

Renewable energy on Samsø

In 1997, Samsø won a government competition to become a model renewable energy community. At the time, Samsø was entirely dependent on oil and coal, both imported from the mainland.[1] Therefore, Samso became the worlds first renewable energy island.[18]

Many different projects were started to realize the plan. An onshore wind farm comprising 11 turbines were built. The first turbine was erected and on-line in 2000. In addition to that, 10 offshore turbines (making a total of 21 altogether including land-based windmills), were completed in 2007, funded by the islanders.[19] The people of Samsø heat their homes straw burned in a central heating system and they power some vehicles on biofuel which they also grow. The island has four district heating plants in total. Now 100% of the island's electricity comes from wind power, with surplus electricity exported to the mainland grid, and 75% of its heat comes from local solar power and biomass energy.[20] An Energy Academy has opened in the town of Ballen. It is a community hall for energy concerns and a meeting place for energy and local development. The academy is currently working towards making Samsø 100% fossil fuel free until 2030, which is 20 years earlier than the national goals.[21]

Carl Frederik Sørensen, pre-1879

• Tyge (d. 1272 on Samsø) Bishop of the Diocese of Aarhus 1261-1272
• Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve, Count of Samsø (1678 in Brattingsborg – 1719) a Danish navy Admiral and Governor of Iceland; acknowledged illegitimate son of King Christian V of Denmark and his royal mistress Sophie Amalie Moth
• Carl Frederik Sørensen (1818 in Besser, Samsø – 1879) was a Danish artist who specialized in marine painting.
• Lotte Glob (born 1944 in Samsø) is a Danish ceramic artist, lives in the north of Scotland, the daughter of Peter Glob
• Anne Marie Løn (born 1947), novelist
• Nicolas Michaux (1984-), Belgian singer and songwriter.

• 
  Nordby Church.
• 
  The village bell in Nordby
• 
  Ballebjerg (Nordby Bakker), the highest point on Samsø.
• 
  Inside Labyrinten, the largest permanent maze in the world.
• 
  Village pond in Nordby
• 
  Stavns Fjord
• 
  Langør across Stavns Fjord
• 
  Tranebjerg church
• 
  Tranebjerg
• 
  View from Dyret, the highest hill on the South Island.
• 
  Kolby church
• 
  Kolby grain mill (Museum Samsø)
• 
  Museum Fredensdal
• 
  Brattingsborg Manor
• 
  Alstrup Jættestue

• List of islands of Denmark
• Samsø cheese

• Gudrun Krüger: "Tourism in the Kattegat area - Analyzing the travel behavior of Samsø tourists to enhance the tourism potential of the island". Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag, 2009. ISBN 3-639-14849-5.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Samsø.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Samsø.

• Official website
• The Energy Academy The academy's homepage.
• Nordby The towns own homepage. (in Danish)
• Labyrinten The labyrinths homepage.
• Melissa McNamara (8 March 2007). "Danish Island Is Energy Self-Sufficient". CBS News. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
• Elizabeth Kolbert (7 July 2008). "The Island in the Wind". The New Yorker. Retrieved 4 September 2015.