Visit the land of the Viking Age
Among royal halls, ancient burial mounds and rolling landscapes shaped by the last Ice Age, you can feel history come alive. Discover archaeological finds, myths and beautiful nature in the footsteps of Denmark’s earliest royal dynasties.
On a rise by the Kornerup Stream, a row of large, pointed stones stands proudly, forming the shape of a ship. More than a thousand years ago, this stone ship, according to legend, provided a ritual setting when our ancestors were sent off to the realm of the dead.
With nothing around us but green meadows and a few grazing cows, it is easy to imagine weather-beaten men and women, dressed in skins and furs, gathering solemnly around the stones.
We are standing on the backbone of Denmark’s fourth national park, Skjoldungernes Land, and the stone formation, together with nearby excavations of enormous prehistoric halls, bears witness to the fact that the area around Lejre was once associated with power and grandeur.
According to the legends, the Skjoldungar — descendants of King Skjold — ruled here from around AD 600 to 950. The stories are supported by archaeological treasures that document Lejre as the home of powerful chieftains in the late Iron Age and Viking Age.
Photo:Ole Malling
Beowulf on the curriculum
In England and the United States, many people know of the Skjoldungar from the heroic poem Beowulf, in which the hero comes to King Hrothgar’s aid when his magnificent hall is ravaged by the monster Grendel. The famous Old English poem consists of no fewer than 3,182 lines and is part of the curriculum in English schools. Here in Denmark, the poem is not widely known, but students instead read Icelandic sagas, gaining insight into the age and lineage of the Skjoldungar.
In England and the United States, many people know Lejre as the place where the dragon-slaying Scandinavian hero Beowulf came to the aid of the Skjoldungar king Hrothgar when his magnificent hall was ravaged by the monster Grendel.
Much more down-to-earth and historically grounded opportunities to explore our distant past can be found at Lejre Land of Legends. Since 1964, research and experimental archaeology have been carried out here to gain insight into what life was like in the Stone Age, Iron Age and Viking Age. Here, you can quite literally experience the past on your own body — for example by grinding grain into flour, shooting a bow and arrow, or paddling a hollowed-out log boat.
Photo:Ole Malling
At Lejre Land of Legends, you can also search for hidden treasures in the muddy water, knowing that fragments of precious drinking glasses, silver coins, arrowheads and gilded jewellery have surfaced from the soil here in recent times. Throughout the summer, Lejre Land of Legends focuses especially on Viking craftsmanship. Visitors can follow the millimetre-precise carving of decorative motifs on columns and doorframes, as well as the skilled production of everything from chests to tools.
Denmark’s largest Viking hall
One of the most significant discoveries made in the Lejre area is the so-called ‘royal hall’. Remains of several halls have been unearthed — the largest in Scandinavia — each replacing the previous over time. The outlines of some of these halls are today marked by low turf embankments, but before long, visitors will be able to experience a more realistic sense of standing inside one of these enormous Viking halls.
Lejre Land of Legends is, with the support of major foundation donations, in the process of constructing a full-scale replica of the largest of the halls, just two kilometres from where the remains of pillars and the original foundations were found. The result will be Denmark’s largest Viking hall, measuring 60 by 12 metres with a ceiling height of ten metres. According to archaeologists and their findings, the hall was used for feasting and as a demonstration of power and prestige.
The royal hall is expected to be completed in early summer 2020, but the basic structure, with pillars weighing several hundred kilos, has already been raised and can be experienced up close. How the Vikings managed to transport the timber from the forest and erect these enormous buildings — designed with remarkable geometric precision — remains something of a wonder, and specialists expect to gain further insight during the construction process.
Step out into nature and into history
It is said that Hrothgar — or whoever hosted the lavish feasts — handed out gold rings to his guests, in addition to generous servings of food and mead. Some of the treasures from the tables of the elite have since been recovered from the soil, and at Lejre Museum you can explore several of these archaeological finds and delve into legend and history through words, sound and film. Among the museum’s exhibits is the large Mannerup Hoard, which was discovered only in 2012. It had been buried near Osted and consisted of between three and four kilograms of silver rings, coins and silver bars.
Another significant and important treasure — although in reality very small — is the world-famous Odin figure, which was discovered at the same site as the royal hall. The figure is only 1.75 centimetres tall but richly detailed. The finely dressed person, believed to represent Odin, sits on a throne with a raven on each side and a backrest behind him, whose posts end in animal heads — perhaps snakes — gripping the throne.
Photo:Jeppe Michael Jensen
Experience Skjoldungernes Land National Park on foot as you explore woodlands, manor landscapes and the shoreline of the fjord.
Find route suggestions at www.nationalparkskjoldungernesland.dk
Right outside the museum, the Skjoldungesti trail guides walkers and cyclists in every compass direction. With Lejre at the centre, the paths naturally converged here from all parts of Zealand. The Skjoldungesti leads you out into nature and further into history. If you follow the trail north through the river valley, you will pass a series of burial mounds in the first stretch of the route. The various routes along the Skjoldungesti take you through large forests, across open farmland and along the coast of Roskilde Fjord.
Right outside the museum, the Skjoldungesti trail guides walkers and cyclists in all compass directions, for with Lejre at the centre, the paths naturally led here from across Zealand.
If you follow the section of the trail through Boserup Forest, you can continue along the fjord all the way into Roskilde, which became Zealand’s new central town after Lejre lost its status as a centre of power. In Roskilde, the Skjoldungesti forms a loop around Roskilde Cathedral, which is also part of Skjoldungernes Land National Park. As the preferred church of the royal dynasty since the 15th century, the thousand-year-old cathedral tells its own story of kings, power and grandeur.
