Winter's Solstice

Today is the Winter's Solstice, the shortest day of the year.  In the southern United States (Latitude about 31 degrees), the difference between the shortest day and the longest day (Summer's Solstice, June 21st) is about 4 hours.  Quite a big difference, or so I thought.

Living in Odense, Denmark during this Winter's Solstice, our Latitude is about 55 degrees, about 24 degrees further away from the Equator.

As I type this, it is getting dark at 3:43 PM.

At my home in Alabama, the sun rose at 5:50 this morning and will set at 4:55 this evening, a 10 hour and 9 minute day.

In Odense, Denmark, the sun rose at 8:44 this morning and will set at 3:49 this evening, a 7 hour and 5 minute day.

Hard to get used to, but it is really good to know that tomorrow the days start getting longer.  And come Summer's Solstice, the sun will rise at 4:36 in the morning and set at 10:04 at night, a lovely, bright 17 and 1/2 hour day!  10 1/2 hours difference.

What a difference a few degrees of Latitude makes.

Julemarked in Odense

The last two weeks the city of Odense has put on a "Julemarked", or Christmas Market.  Mary and I have had a wonderful time shopping, eating, drinking, and just taking in the sights.  There were rides for the children, Julemanden (Santa Claus), singing, street performers, and beautiful lights.  I took a ton of photos, so I think I will just show them to you.

"Old Fashioned Christmas Market"

 There were people everywhere!

 Choirs singing and Bands playing

 Beautifully decorated streets

 Old fashioned shopping

Woodworking

 Metal working

 Natural Sea Salt, harvested in Denmark

Viking Mead (this one is for Lukas.  It was delicious!)

 Rides for the children

 Street performers

Julemanden

  And just a wonderful time for two lucky people

  A chance to spend Christmas in Denmark together

The only thing missing now is the SNOW!

The Stones! (not Mick)

"Gorm the old" is the first historically recognized King of Denmark, reigning from 936 to his death in 958.  He was married to Thyra and had three sons, one was "Harold Bluetooth", who was the second King of Denmark, reigning from his father's death until his death in 986.

Yes, Bluetooth, just like the wireless technology.  The idea for the Bluetooth name came from Jim Kardach of Intel, who was reading a historical novel about Vikings and King Harald Bluetooth at the time he was working on the technology.

Both Kings reigned over Denmark from the town of Jelling.  When Gorm's wife Thyra died, he had a giant mound constructed for her burial.  He also had a stone carved with Danish "runes".

When Gorm died, his son, then King Harald, had a second monument made, also a stone carved with runes.

King Harold is credited with being Christianity to Denmark.  His father had been buried as a "pagen". When Harold converted to Christianity, he had his father reburied in the church.

All of this history lesson is leading to a train trip Mary and I took to the small village of Jelling to see these stones that were carved over 1000 years ago!

From the train to Jelling

 The church at Jelling

The graveyard around the church was beautiful.  The groundskeepers were in the process of decorating the graves with evergreens for winter season when we visited.

 The stones were carved over 1000 years ago.  In 2008 cracks were found in the stones, due to weathering.  The Heritage Agency of Denmark decided to enclose them in glass casing that creates a climate system to keep the stones at a fixed temperature and humidity and protect them from weathering.

I have noticed I am "weathering" as well.  I have signed up for the enclosure system and will let you know how it works out.

 The smaller of the two stones

For all of you "Non-Rune Readers", I have translated the stones for you.

 "King Gorm made this monument in memory of Thyrvé, his wife, Denmark's adornment"

This is the first time the word "DENMARK" appears anywhere!

 The larger stone

The stones were originally painted 1000 years ago, but only bits of paint chips survived.  This is a what it is thought to have looked like.  Besides the runes, one side of Harold's stone has a carving of Jesus Christ

"King Haraldr ordered this monument made in memory of Gormr, his father, and in memory of Thyrvé, his mother; that Haraldr who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian."

 The two mounds surround the church

 I climbed to the top of both mounds.  WOW!  The white posts off in the distance represent the wall King Harold built around the town of Jelling

A panoramic shot

Mary and I also got to go inside the church

 It was beautiful.  Very plain, white, and stark

 But when the church was first constructed, the walls were covered in paintings.  The only ones to have survived were around the alter.

Most churches in Denmark have a ship.  

The largest part of any Christian church is the area where the congregation 

sits and is called the nave, which comes from the Latin noun "navis", 

meaning ship.  It is called that because of the long shape. 

Since Danes have literally been sailors as far back as can be traced, it makes sense that they would place ship models in the nave of their parish churches to remind the congregation of their heavenly destination and the perils which could "sink" them during the voyage.

Mary and I enjoyed our trip to Jelling.  It is a beautiful place.

One last thing.  Take a look at your Bluetooth device.  The logo looks like this:

Danish runes!  The logo is a combination of the rune for "H" and "B"

Harold Bluetooth, the second King of Denmark.