1.
Absalon
Absalon or Axel was a Danish archbishop and statesman, who was the Bishop of Roskilde from 1158 to 1192 and Archbishop of Lund from 1178 until his death. He was the foremost politician and churchfather of Denmark in the half of the 12th century. He combined the ideals of Gregorian Reform ideals with loyal support of a strong monarchical power, Absalon was born into the powerful Hvide clan, and owned great land possessions. He endowed several church institutions, most prominently his familys Sorø Abbey and he was granted lands by the crown, and built the first fortification of the city that evolved into modern-day Copenhagen. His titles were passed on to his nephews Anders Sunesen and Peder Sunesen and he died in 1201, and was interred at Sorø Abbey. Absalon was born around 1128 near Sorø, due to a name which is unusual in Denmark, it is speculated that he was christened on the Danish Absalon name day, October 30. He was the son of Asser Rig, a magnate of the Hvide clan from Fjenneslev on Zealand and he was a kinsman of Archbishop Eskil of Lund.
He grew up at the castle of his father, and was brought up alongside his older brother Esbern Snare and the young prince Valdemar, who became King Valdemar I of Denmark. During the civil war following the death of Eric III of Denmark in 1146, Absalon travelled abroad to study theology in Paris, at Paris, he was influenced by the Gregorian Reform ideals of churchly independence from Monarchical rule. He befriended the canon William of Æbelholt at the Abbey of St Genevieve and he was a guest at following Roskilde banquet given in 1157 by Sweyn to his rivals Canute V and Valdemar. Both Absalon and Valdemar narrowly escaped assassination at the hands of Sweyn on this occasion, Absalon probably did not take part in the following battle of Grathe Heath in 1157, in which Sweyn was defeated and slain and led to Valdemar ascending the Danish throne. On Good Friday 1158, bishop Asser of Roskilde died, and Absalon was eventually elected bishop of Roskilde on Zealand with the help of Valdemar, Absalon was a close counsellor of Valdemar, and chief promoter of the Danish crusades against the Wends.
During the Danish civil war, Denmark had been open to coastal raids by the Wends and it was Absalons intention to clear the Baltic Sea of the Wendish pirates who inhabited its southern littoral zone which was called Pomerania. The pirates had raided the Danish coasts during the war of Sweyn III, Canute V. Absalon formed a fleet, built coastal defenses, and led several campaigns against the Wends. He even advocated forgiving the earlier enemies of Valdemar, which helped stabilize Denmark internally, the first expedition against the Wends that was conducted by Absalon in person, set out in 1160. These expeditions were successful, but brought no lasting victories, what started out as mere retribution, eventually evolved into full-fledged campaigns of expansion with religious motives. In 1164 began twenty years of crusades against the Wends, sometimes with the help of German duke Henry the Lion, in 1168 the chief Wendish fortress at Arkona in Rügen, containing the sanctuary of their god Svantevit, was conquered
2.
Polabian Slavs
Polabian Slavs is a collective term applied to a number of Lechite tribes who lived along the Elbe river in what is today Eastern Germany. The approximate territory stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north, the Saale and the Limes Saxoniae in the west, the Ore Mountains and the Western Sudetes in the south and they have been known as Elbe Slavs or Wends. Their name derives from the Slavic po, meaning by/next to/along, the Polabian Slavs started settling in the territory of modern Germany in the 6th century. They were largely conquered by Saxons and Danes since the 9th century, the tribes were gradually Germanized and assimilated in the following centuries, the Sorbs are the only descendants of the Polabian Slavs to have retained their identity and culture. The Polabian language is now extinct, both Sorbian languages are spoken by approximately 60,000 inhabitants of the region and the languages are regarded by the government of Germany as official languages of the region. The Bavarian Geographer anonymous medieval document compiled in Regensburg in 830 contains a list of the tribes in Central-Eastern Europe to the east of the Elbe.
Among other tribes it lists the Uuilci - with 95 civitates, the Nortabtrezi -53 civitates, the Milzane -30 civitates, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia classifies the Polabian Slavs in three main tribes, the Obotrites, the Veleti, and the Lusatian Sorbs. The main tribes of the Obotritic confederation were the Obotrites proper, the Wagrians, the Warnabi, other tribes associated with the confederation include the Linones near Lenzen, the Travnjane near the Trave, and the Drevani in the Hanoverian Wendland and the northern Altmark. The Redarier were the most important of the Veleti tribes, the Rani of Rügen, not to be confused with the older Germanic Rugians, are sometimes considered to be part of the Veleti. South of the Rani were the Ucri along the Ucker and the Morici along the Müritz, smaller tribes included the Došane along the Dosse, the Zamzizi in the Ruppin Land, and the Rěčanen on the upper Havel. Along the lower Havel and near the confluence of the Elbe and the Havel lived the Nelětici, the Liezizi, the Zemzizi, the Smeldingi, the middle Havel region and the Havelland were settled by the Hevelli, a tribe loosely connected to the Veleti.
East of the Hevelli lived the Sprevane of the lower Dahme, small tribes on the middle Elbe included the Moriciani, the Zerwisti, the Serimunt, and the Nicici. South of the Hevelli lived the ancestors of the modern Sorbs, the Lusici of Lower Lusatia, near these tribes were the Selpoli and the Besunzanen. The Colodici and Glomaci lived along the upper Elbe, while the Chutici, Plisni, Puonzowa, Weta, on the middle Oder lived the Leubuzzi, who were associated with medieval Poland. Small groups of West Slavs lived on the Main and the Regnitz near Bamberg, a Polabian prince was known as a knes. His power was greater in Slavic society than those of Danish or Swedish kings in their kingdoms. He was the leader of his tribe and was foremost among its nobles, holding much of the forested hinterland. However, his authority extended only to the territory controlled by his governor, or voivot
3.
Norse mythology
The cosmos in Norse mythology consists of Nine Worlds that flank a central cosmological tree, Yggdrasil. Units of time and elements of the cosmology are personified as deities or beings, various forms of a creation myth are recounted, where the world is created from the flesh of the primordial being Ymir, and the first two humans are Ask and Embla. These worlds are foretold to be reborn after the events of Ragnarök, there the surviving gods will meet, and the land will be fertile and green, and two humans will repopulate the world. Norse mythology has been the subject of scholarly discourse since the 17th century, by way of comparative mythology and historical linguistics, scholars have identified elements of Germanic mythology reaching as far back as Proto-Indo-European mythology. In the modern period, the Romanticist Viking revival re-awoke an interest in the subject matter, the myths have further been revived in a religious context among adherents of Germanic Neopaganism. The majority of these Old Norse texts were created in Iceland and this occurred primarily in the 13th century.
The Prose Edda was composed as a manual for producing skaldic poetry—traditional Old Norse poetry composed by skalds. Originally composed and transmitted orally, skaldic poetry utilizes alliterative verse, the Prose Edda presents numerous examples of works by various skalds from before and after the Christianization process and frequently refers back to the poems found in the Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda consists almost entirely of poems, with some prose narrative added, in comparison to skaldic poetry, Eddic poetry is relatively unadorned. Numerous further texts, such as the sagas, provide further information, the saga corpus consists of thousands of tales recorded in Old Norse ranging from Icelandic family histories to Migration period tales mentioning historic figures such as Attila the Hun. By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology, comparisons to other attested branches of Germanic mythology may lend insight, wider comparisons to the mythology of other Indo-European peoples by scholars has resulted in the potential reconstruction of far earlier myths.
Of the mythical tales and poems that are presumed to have existed during the Middle Ages, Viking Age, Migration Period, numerous gods are mentioned in the source texts. In the mythology, Thor lays waste to numerous jötnar who are foes to the gods or humanity, the god Odin is frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed and raven-flanked, and spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the worlds, Odin has a strong association with death, Odin is portrayed as the ruler of Valhalla, where valkyries carry half of those slain in battle. Odins wife is the powerful goddess Frigg who can see the future but tells no one, and together they have a beloved son, Baldr. After a series of dreams had by Baldr of his death, his death is engineered by Loki, and Baldr thereafter resides in Hel. Odin must share half of his share of the dead with a powerful goddess and she is beautiful, wears a feathered cloak, and practices seiðr. She rides to battle to choose among the slain, and brings her chosen to her afterlife field Fólkvangr, Freyja weeps for her missing husband Óðr, and seeks after him in far away lands
4.
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages or High Medieval Period was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, by 1250 the robust population increase greatly benefited the European economy, reaching levels that would not be seen again in some areas until the 19th century. This trend was checked in the Late Middle Ages by a series of calamities, notably the Black Death but including numerous wars, from about the year 780 onwards, Europe saw the last of the barbarian invasions and became more socially and politically organized. The Carolingian Renaissance led to scientific and philosophical revival of Europe, the first universities were established in Bologna, Paris and Modena. The Vikings had settled in the British Isles and elsewhere, the Magyars had ceased their expansion in the 10th century, and by the year 1000, a Christian Kingdom of Hungary was recognized in Central Europe, forming alliances with regional powers.
With the brief exception of the Mongol invasions in the 13th century, in the 11th century, populations north of the Alps began to settle new lands, some of which had reverted to wilderness after the end of the Roman Empire. In what is known as the clearances, vast forests. At the same time settlements moved beyond the boundaries of the Frankish Empire to new frontiers in Europe, beyond the Elbe River. The High Middle Ages produced many different forms of intellectual, the rediscovery of the works of Aristotle led Thomas Aquinas and other thinkers of the period to develop Scholasticism, a combination of Catholicism and ancient philosophy. For much of the time period Constantinople remained Europes most populous city, in architecture, many of the most notable Gothic cathedrals were built or completed during this era. The Crisis of the Late Middle Ages, beginning at the start of the 14th century, in England, the Norman Conquest of 1066 resulted in a kingdom ruled by a Francophone nobility. The Normans invaded Ireland by force in 1169 and soon established throughout most of the country.
Likewise and Wales were subdued to vassalage at about the same time, the Exchequer was founded in the 12th century under King Henry I, and the first parliaments were convened. In 1215, after the loss of Normandy, King John signed the Magna Carta into law, from the mid-tenth to the mid-11th centuries, the Scandinavian kingdoms were unified and Christianized, resulting in an end of Viking raids, and greater involvement in European politics. King Cnut of Denmark ruled over both England and Norway, after Cnuts death in 1035, England and Norway were lost, and with the defeat of Valdemar II in 1227, Danish predominance in the region came to an end. Meanwhile, Norway extended its Atlantic possessions, ranging from Greenland to the Isle of Man, while Sweden, under Birger Jarl, the Norwegian influence started to decline already in the same period, marked by the Treaty of Perth of 1266. Also, civil wars raged in Norway between 1130 and 1240, by the time of the High Middle Ages, the Carolingian Empire had been divided and replaced by separate successor kingdoms called France and Germany, although not with their modern boundaries.
Germany was under the banner of the Holy Roman Empire, which reached its mark of unity
5.
Kall-Rasmussen Fragment
The Kall-Rasmussen Fragment is a parchment page from c. It is one of the four remaining, or early copy of. It consists of two pages with four written sides, found in 1855 by M. N. C. Kall Rasmussen in the Danish Geheime-archive, where it was used as staple-list on Kronborg Castles cadastre of 1627-1628 and it is now owned by the Royal Library of Copenhagen. It has the Royal Library signature of Ny kgl, correspond to page 320-324 in Peter Erasmus Müller Latin version of Gesta Danorum from 1839 or page 181.17 –184.16 in Jørgen Olrik & H. Ræders Latin version of Gesta Danorum from 1931. Angers Fragment Lassen Fragment Plesner Fragment Apoteker Sibbernsens Saxobog, C. A. Reitzels Forlag, Copenhagen,1927
6.
Colophon (publishing)
In publishing, a colophon is a brief statement containing information about the publication of a book such as the place of publication, the publisher, and the date of publication. A colophon may be emblematic or pictorial in nature, colophons were formerly printed at the ends of books, but in modern works they are usually located at the verso of the title-leaf. The term colophon derives from the Late Latin colophōn, from the Greek κολοφών and it should not be confused with Colophon, an ancient city in Asia Minor, after which colophony, or rosin, is named. The term is applied to clay tablet inscriptions appended by a scribe to the end of an Ancient Near East text such as a chapter, manuscript. The colophon usually contained facts relative to the such as associated person, literary contents. Colophons and catch phrases helped the reader organize and identify various tablets, colophons on ancient tablets are comparable to a signature line in modern times. Bibliographically, they closely resemble the imprint page in a modern book.
Examples of colophons in ancient literature may be found in the compilation The Ancient Near East, Supplementary Texts, colophons are found in the Pentateuch, where an understanding of this ancient literary convention illuminates passages that are otherwise unclear or incoherent. An extensive study of the eleven colophons found in the book of Genesis was done by Percy John Wiseman. C. sometimes additional information, such as the name of a proofreader or editor, or other more-or-less relevant details, might be added. A colophon might be emblematic or pictorial rather than in words, the normal position for a colophon was after the explicit. After around 1500 these data were transferred to the title page. Colophons sometimes contained book curses, as this was the one place in a medieval manuscript where a scribe was free to write what he wished, such curses tend to be unique to each book. In Great Britain colophons grew generally less common in the 16th century, in some parts of the world, colophons helped fledgling printers and printing companies gain social recognition.
For example, in early modern Armenia printers used colophons as a way to gain power by getting their name out into the social sphere. Some commercial publishers took up the use of colophons, and began to include details in their books. Such colophons might identify the designer, the software used, the printing method, the printing company, the typeface used in the page design. Book publishers Alfred A. Knopf, the Folio Society and OReilly Media are notable for their substantial colophons, some web pages have colophons, which frequently contain HTML, CSS, or usability standards compliance information and links to website validation tests. Jerusalem Colophon Union label Wiseman hypothesis
7.
Gorm the Old
Gorm the Old, called Gorm the Languid, was the first historically recognized ruler of Denmark, reigning from c. 936 to his death c. 958. He ruled from Jelling, and made the oldest of the Jelling Stones in honour of his wife Thyra, Gorm was born before 900 and died c. 958. Gorm is the son of semi-legendary Danish king Harthacnut. Chronicler Adam of Bremen says that Harthacnut came from Nortmannia to Denmark and he deposed the young king Sigtrygg Gnupasson, reigning over Western Denmark. When Harthacnut died, Gorm ascended the throne, heimskringla reports Gorm taking at least part of the kingdom by force from Gnupa, and Adam himself suggests that the kingdom had been divided prior to Gorms time. Gorm is first mentioned as the host of Archbishop Unni of Hamburg, according to the Jelling Stones, Gorms son, Harald Bluetooth, won all of Denmark, so it is speculated that Gorm only ruled Jutland from his seat in Jelling. Gorm married Thyra, who is given conflicting and chronologically dubious parentage by late sources, Gorm raised one of the great burial mounds at Jelling as well as the oldest of the Jelling Stones for her, calling her tanmarkar but.
Gorm was the father of three sons, Toke and Harald, King Harald Bluetooth and his wife, Thyra, is credited with the completion of the Danevirke, a wall between Denmarks southern border and its unfriendly Saxon neighbors to the south. The wall was not new, but it was expanded with a ditch, the Danevirke ran between the Schlei and the Treene river, across what is now Schleswig. Gorm died in the winter of 958–959 and dendrochronology shows that his burial chamber was made from wood of timbers felled in 958, arild Huitfeldt explains how in Danmarks Riges Krønike, The three sons were Vikings in the truest sense, departing Denmark each summer to raid and pillage. Harald came back to the enclosure at Jelling with the news that his son Canute had been killed in an attempt to capture Dublin. Canute was shot with an arrow while watching some games at night. No one would tell the king in view of the oath the king had made, Queen Thyra ordered the royal hall hung with black cloth and that no one was to say a single word.
When Gorm entered the hall, he was astonished and asked what the mourning colors meant, Queen Thyra spoke up, Lord King, you had two falcons, one white and the other gray. The white one flew far afield and was set upon by birds which tore off its beautiful feathers and is now useless to you. Meanwhile the gray falcon continues to catch fowl for the kings table, Gorm understood immediately the Queens metaphor and cried out, My son is surely dead, since all of Denmark mourns. You have said it, your majesty, Thyra announced, Not I, according to the story Gorm was so grieved by Canutes death that he died the following day. This account would contradict information on the Jelling Stones which point to Queen Thyra dying before Gorm
8.
Roskilde
Roskilde, located 30 km west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand, is the main city in Roskilde Municipality. With a population of 50,046, the city is a business and educational centre for the region, Roskilde is governed by the administrative council of Roskilde Municipality. Roskilde has a history, dating from the pre-Christian Viking Age. Its UNESCO-listed Gothic cathedral, now housing 39 tombs of the Danish monarchs, was completed in 1275, among the largest private sector employers today are the IT firm BEC and GPI, specializing in plastics. The Risø research facility is becoming a major employer, extending interest in sustainable energy to the clean technology sphere. The local university, founded in 1972, the historic Cathedral School, Roskilde has a large local hospital which has been expanded and modernized since it was opened in 1855. It is now active in the research sphere. The Sankt Hans psychiatric hospital serves the Capital Region with specialized facilities for forensic psychiatry, the cathedral and the Viking Ship Museum, which contains the well-preserved remains of five 11th-century ships, attract more than 100,000 visitors annually.
The city is home to the FC Roskilde football club play in the Danish 1st Division, the Roskilde Vikings RK rugby club. In the 1970s, the city benefited from the opening of the university, Roskilde has the oldest operational railway station in Denmark, with connections across Zealand as well as with Falster and Jutland. The local airport opened in 1973, mainly serving light aircraft for business use, from the 11th century until 1443, it was the capital of Denmark. By the Middle Ages, with the support of kings and bishops, the Saxo Grammaticus and other early sources associate the name Roskilde with the legendary King Roar who possibly lived there in the 6th century. According to Adam of Bremen and the Saxo Grammaticus, Roskilde was founded in the 980s by Harald Bluetooth, on high ground above the harbour, he built a wooden church consecrated to the Holy Trinity as well as a royal residence nearby. Although no traces of buildings have been discovered, in 1997 archaeologists found the remains of Viking ships in the Isefjord.
At the time, there were two churches in the area, St Jørgensbjerg, an early stone church, and a wooden church discovered under todays St Ibs Church. Harald was buried in the church he had built on the site of todays Roskilde Cathedral. In 1020, King Canute elevated Roskilde to a bishopric, giving it high national status, the Danish bishop, had a brick church built on the site of Haralds church in 1170. Todays cathedral was completed in 1275 after five of Absalons successors had contributed to its construction, as a result of Absalons influence, many other churches were built in the vicinity, making Roskilde the most important town in Zealand
9.
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired in the Middle Ages.
In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period.
Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date.
English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
10.
Lassen Fragment
The Lassen Fragment, is a parchment page from c. It is one of the four fragments remaining of the original, or early copy of and it consists of one page with two written sides. It was found 1860 in the remains of library-secretary G. F. Lassen. It has Royal Library signature of Ny kgl, correspond to page 275-282 in Peter Erasmus Müller Latin version of Gesta Danorum from 1839 or page 152.29 –156.14 in Jørgen Olrik & H. Ræders Latin version of Gesta Danorum from 1931. Angers Fragment Kall-Rasmussen Fragment Plesner Fragment Apoteker Sibbernsens Saxobog, C. A. Reitzels Forlag, Copenhagen,1927
