Portal:Denmark/Selected article/2008 archive
Week 1
Christiansborg Palace on Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen is the home of Denmark's three supreme powers: the executive power, the legislative power, and the judicial power. Christiansborg Palace is the only building in the world which is the home of all a nation's three supreme powers. Christiansborg Palace is owned by the Danish state, and is run by the Palaces and Properties Agency.
The palace today bears witness to three eras of Danish architecture, as the result of two serious fires. The first fire occurred in 1794 and the second in 1884. The main part of the current palace, built in 1928, is in the historicist Neo-baroque style. The chapel dates to the 1800s and is in a neoclassical style. The showgrounds date were built in the eighteenth century in a baroque style.
Week 2
The Haraldskær Woman is a well-preserved Iron Age bog body naturally preserved in a bog in Jutland, Denmark. The body was discovered in 1835 by labourers excavating peat on the Haraldskær Estate. Disputes regarding the age and identity of this mysterious well preserved body were settled in 1977, when radiocarbon dating determined conclusively that her death occurred around 500 BC. This archaeological find was one of the earliest bog bodies discovered, the other two known being Tollund Man from Denmark and Lindow Man from the UK.
The body of the Haraldskær Woman is remarkably preserved due to the anaerobic conditions and tannins of the peat bog in which she was found. Not only was the intact skeleton found, but also the skin and internal organs. Her body lies in state in an ornate glass-covered coffin, allowing viewing of the full frontal body, inside the Church of Saint Nicolas in central Vejle, Denmark.
Week 3
The Danelaw (from the Old English Dena lagu) is an 11th century name for an area of northern and eastern England under the administrative control of the Vikings (or Danes, or Norsemen) from the late 9th century. The term is also used to describe the set of legal terms and definitions established between Alfred the Great and the Viking Guthrum which were set down following Guthrum's defeat at the Battle of Edington in 878. Later, around 886, the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum was created which established the boundaries of their kingdoms and made some provision for relations between the English and the Danes.
The area occupied by the Danelaw was roughly the area to the north of a line drawn between London and Chester.
Five fortified towns became particularly important in the Danelaw: Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Stamford and Derby, broadly covering the area now called the East Midlands. These strongholds became known as the "Five Boroughs". Borough derives from the Old English word burg, meaning a fortified and walled enclosure containing several households — anything from a large stockade to a fortified town. The meaning has since developed further.
Week 4
Anne of Denmark (12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was queen consort of James VI of Scots, I of England. The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark, Anne married James in 1589 at the age of fourteen and bore him three children who survived infancy, including the future Charles I of England. She demonstrated an independent streak and a willingness to use factional Scottish politics in her conflicts with James over the custody of Prince Henry and his treatment of her friend Beatrix Ruthven. Anne appears to have loved James at first, but the couple gradually drifted and eventually lived apart, though mutual respect and a degree of affection survived.
In England, Anne shifted her energies from factional politics to patronage of the arts and constructed a magnificent court of her own, hosting one of the richest cultural salons in Europe. After 1612, she suffered sustained bouts of ill health and gradually withdrew from the centre of court life. Though she was reported to have died a Protestant, evidence suggests that she may have converted to Catholicism at some stage in her life.
Week 5
The Golden horns of Gallehus were two golden horns, one shorter than the other, discovered in Southern Jutland, Denmark. The horns were believed to date to the fifth century (Germanic Iron Age).
The horns were made of solid gold and constructed from rings, each covered with figures soldered onto the rings, with yet more figures carved into the rings between the larger figures. These figures probably depict some actual events or Norse saga which is now unknown to us. The most probable theory is that the illustrations come from Celtic mythology rather than Norse: the horns portray a man with horns and a necklace, very similar in appearance to the Celtic god Cernunnos.
The horns are believed to originate with the Angles, but several theories of their origins exist. The horns have probably been used for ritual drinking and subsequently sacrificed in the earth or buried as a treasure, though this is also uncertain. Similar horns of wood, glass, bone and bronze have been found in the same area, some obviously used for blowing signals rather than drinking.
Both horns had been the same length, but the narrow end of the second (short) horn was plowed up and recovered prior to 1639, and the gold was melted down and lost.
Week 6
The Golden horns of Gallehus were two golden horns, one shorter than the other, discovered in Southern Jutland, Denmark. The horns were believed to date to the fifth century (Germanic Iron Age).
The horns were made of solid gold and constructed from rings, each covered with figures soldered onto the rings, with yet more figures carved into the rings between the larger figures. These figures probably depict some actual events or Norse saga which is now unknown to us. The most probable theory is that the illustrations come from Celtic mythology rather than Norse: the horns portray a man with horns and a necklace, very similar in appearance to the Celtic god Cernunnos.
The horns are believed to originate with the Angles, but several theories of their origins exist. The horns have probably been used for ritual drinking and subsequently sacrificed in the earth or buried as a treasure, though this is also uncertain. Similar horns of wood, glass, bone and bronze have been found in the same area, some obviously used for blowing signals rather than drinking.
Both horns had been the same length, but the narrow end of the second (short) horn was plowed up and recovered prior to 1639, and the gold was melted down and lost.
Week 7
Margaret Valdemarsdatter (Norwegian: Margrete Valdemarsdotter) (1353 - October 28, 1412) was Queen of Norway, Regent of Denmark and Sweden, and founder of the Kalmar Union which joined the Scandinavian countries for over a century.
She is known in Denmark as "Margrete I", to distinguish her from the current queen, but she never (except for a brief period in 1375) actually styled herself Queen of Denmark; rather she called herself "Margrete, by the grace of God, Valdemar Daneking's daughter" and "Denmark's rightful heir" when referring to her rulership in Denmark. Others simply referred to her as the "Lady Queen" without specifying what she was queen (or female king) of, but not so Pope Boniface IX, who blatantly styled her "Queen of Denmark" or "Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden" in his letters.
As to Norway, she was known as Queen (queen-consort, then dowager queen) and regent. And, as to ruling Sweden, she was Dowager Queen and Plenipotentiary Ruler. When she married Haakon, in 1363, he was yet co-king of Sweden (and Margaret thus was its queen), and despite of becoming deposed, they never relinquished the title (Haakon actually held Sweden's westernmost provinces throughout his reign up to his death). Therefore, when Swedes expelled Albert I in 1389, Margaret theoretically just resumed her original position.
Week 8
Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark began with Operation Weserübung 9 April 1940, and lasted until German forces withdrew at the end of World War II following their surrender to the Allies on 5 May 1945. Contrary to the situation in other countries under German occupation, most Danish institutions continued to function relatively normally until 1943. Both the Danish government and King remained in the country in an uneasy relationship between a democratic and a totalitarian system until German authorities dissolved the government following a wave of strikes and sabotage.
The occupation of Denmark was initially not an important objective for the German government. The decision to occupy its small northern neighbour was taken to facilitate a planned invasion of the strategically more important Norway, and as a precaution against the expected British response. German military planners believed that a base in the northern part of Jutland, specifically the airfield of Aalborg, would be essential to operations in Norway, and they began planning the occupation of parts of Denmark. However, as late as February 1940 no firm decision to occupy Denmark had been made. The issue was finally settled when Hitler personally crossed out the words die Nordspitze Jütlands (the Northern tip of Jutland) and replaced them with Dä, a German abbreviation for Denmark.
Week 9
The Olsen Gang (Danish: Olsen-banden, Norwegian: Olsenbanden, Swedish: Jönssonligan, German: Die Olsenbande) is a fictional Danish criminal gang in the movies of the same name. The gang's leader is the criminal genius and habitual offender Egon Olsen. The other members of the gang are Benny and Kjeld (Kjell in Norwegian). The gang members are harmless and never use violence. A Norwegian version of the movies (a total of 14 from 1968 to 1999) were also made, sometimes produced simultaneously with the Danish ones. Later, Sweden also produced their own version: Jönssonligan.
Most of the movies start with Egon coming out of jail and being enthusiastically welcomed by Benny and Kjeld. The three men will then have a beer together in the living room of Kjeld's dilapidated home in a run-down Valby neighbourhood. Egon will inform his friends of his latest plan for making them all millionaires (for example, eluding an alarm system to steal some crown jewels that happen to be on display in Copenhagen for the moment) and instruct them to provide the necessary equipment. The plans usually feature everyday artefacts such as Lego, party balloons, cigarettes etc., which are combined to work like Rube Goldberg machines, and clever social engineering. Egon often serves time with lawyers or executives who provide him with the information he needs, such as duty rosters for the national public record office.