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Dannevirke

By FRODE C. W. RAMBUSCH

ANNEVIRKE, the ancient fortification on the border line of Denmark, which has stood for more than a thousand years as the bulwark of the Danish nation, is now a name that brings sorrow and sad memories to the hearts of Danes; and not only of Danes but of many others who believe that an old nation—a land never conquered should have the right to live its own life and to develop whatever is good and valuable in its race. To all such it appears a cruel wrong when a strong and aggressive neighbor takes away by brute force smaller or larger parts of a country not its own, no matter how desirable a good harbor or other local advantage may

appear.

Dannevirke itself and the historic facts connected with it disprove all German pretensions to ancient claims north of the Eider. Old sagas and traditions dating back long before the historic era often refer to the old fortification. They even relate how an attack

by the Germans on these ramparts caused all the Danish peoples to unite under one king whose name was Dan, and how the newlyfounded kingdom was called after him "Danmark"-Dan's field or land. Another saga tells about King Vermund, who in his day won great victories over foreign invaders. When he became old and blind he was threatened by the Saxon king, who coveted his land, but his son Uffe, nicknamed "The Meek," suggested that the trouble be settled by a duel instead of by war and offered to fight against two at once the son of the Saxon king and his best warrior. The fight was arranged "on the island in the Eider between the two countries," on the spot where Rendsborg now stands; here Uffe met and felled both his opponents.

The land bounded by these fortifications and the Slie Fjord on the north and by the Eider River on the south was in olden days a dense forest called Mörkved or Jernved (ved, woods), but the Eider was then, as it is now, the border line between the old Danish province, South Jutland, and the German province, Holstein. Part of this territory is even to-day called by the Germans Dänischwold, the Danish forest.

In Tyrfing's Saga we read about the maiden warrior, Hervor, who was entrusted with the position of Earl of the border line— "the good moat," as it is called in this tale. The Germans, who in this case as in several other Danish sagas are referred to as Huns, prepared an immense army, penetrated Morkved forest, and surprised the small band of warriors left there as "keepers of the moat.' Hervor refused to retreat, and fought a desperate battle "before the south gate," the saga tells us. Her foster-father Orm got away after Hervor and nearly all her men had fallen, and brought the tidings to Hervor's brother, King Angantyr, saying:

"From the south I carry sad news for the country;

Laid waste are the plains at Morkved forest,

The ground is red with heroes' blood.

I saw a high-born virgin felled

It was, my king, thy noble sister."

For a whole week, so the story goes, King Angantyr and his men fought the enemy and finally avenged Hervor, winning a great victory over the Huns.

At the dawn of Scandinavian history, we encounter the great emperor, Charlemagne. He had with difficulty conquered the largest of the German nations, the Saxons, whose land took in the entire territory from the Eider, the Danish border line, down through Holstein and all the other provinces to the mountains of Thuringia in the south and as far east as the Rhine. In the year 804, he was in Holstein subduing the last of the northern Saxon tribes, and he then sent an ambassador to King Godfred or Gotrik of Denmark

inviting him to a meeting at the boundary between their respective realms. The Danish king did actually come down to Hedeby at Slien (Slitorp, the Frankish historians call it) with his ships and cavalry, but was advised by his counsellors not to risk a visit to the powerful emperor. As Godfrey did not come, Charlemagne sent him word that he must deliver up all Saxons that had sought refuge in Denmark. It is not stated whether the king complied with the emperor's request, but four years later they were on the verge of war, because King Godfred had attacked the Obotrits, a Slavic nation inhabiting the eastern part of Holstein and what is now Mecklenburg. The Obotrits were subjects of Charlemagne and now asked him for protection against the Danes; a son of the emperor was sent with an army to assist them, and Godfred returned to his own country, where he made preparations for war.

The Frankish historians say that the Danish king built a rampart north of the Eider River, from the salt water in the east all the way to the water in the west, in other words, from Slien, a fjord of the Baltic, to the impenetrable swamps and small lakes that covered the area bordering the North Sea. The moat together with the earthen wall was called Kograv or Kovirke and can be plainly seen to this day. In answer to this, and for the protection of his own border, the emperor gave orders to build a strong fort in the northern part of Holstein where Itzehoe now stands. The warlike Godfred soon after attacked Friesland and threatened to invade Saxony, but was killed by his own men. His successor, Hemming, concluded peace and made the agreement with Charlemagne that the Eider should be, as before, the boundary line between Denmark and the empire. At a meeting on the border, ten men from each side took a solemn oath to keep the peace. The heathen Danes swore on their swords, but nevertheless proved themselves very unruly and warlike neighbors, so that the civil and ecclesiastical authorities in the empire were impelled to lay plans for the conversion of the Danes to Christianity.

In the year 823, a French archbishop, Ebo of Rheims, went to Denmark as a missionary. The results were but small, yet he at least persuaded one of the provincial kings, Harald Klak, to visit the emperor, Louis the Pious, at Engelheim, where he was treated with great kindness and honor. Soon Harald, his wife and son, and most of his followers accepted Christianity and were baptized at Mainz with great solemnity. Emperor Louis now wanted a priest to go with Harald to Denmark as a missionary, and a Benedictine monk, Ansgar, from Old-Corvey in Picardy, declared himself willing to go.

Ansgar and his friend, Audbert, accompanied the Danish king to the North in the year 826. In the town of Hedeby on the Slie, they

started the first Christian mission in Denmark and received permission to build a church. Hatteby a corruption of the ancient name is to-day a suburb of the City of Slesvig, so named from Slie and vig, a small bag. (The German name Schleswig has no meaning.)

After the missionaries at Hedeby had made themselves familiar with conditions among the Danes, they started other churches, not only in Denmark, but also in Sweden. Hedeby, so called from hede, heath, and by, town, very early became a center of business for the Northern peoples. Scandinavian products were sold and foreign merchandise was bought. The earls in Hedeby were men

of importance, and especially one of them, by name Sigtryg, who was born in Sweden, became very prominent.

The old English historians mention a certain Ottar, a Norwegian, who told King Alfred the Great about the Scandinavian countries. In the account of his voyage from Oslo in Norway to Denmark he says: "On one side we had Jutland, on the other the Danish isles; we came to the Danish town Hedeby near the Saxon border." He also mentions the peninsula Angel north of the town.

As time went on, the powerful German empire across the river became more and more of a danger to the Danes; there were frequent wars, and Kograv

proved an insufficient protection. Toward the end of the ninth century, Queen Tyra became the promoter and leader of the erection of a new and very large fortification, Dannevirke, the Danish Work. One

part called Eastwall ran from a bay of the Slie eastward to Egeren Fjord and formed a protection for the peninsula Swansö. The Westwall, which is the real Dannevirke, began at Selk-nor. At the starting point, a semicircular rampart was built, which is probably the place referred to as Oldborg. From there the wall ran westward and joined a northerly section, then continuing in a southwesterly direction it ran out to the great swamp. From that point the moats and earthen walls skirted the swamp on the north side out to a small marshy river, Trae Aa, which ran out into the impenetrable morass that stretched to the North Sea. It is said that thousands of men from the various provinces of Denmark labored for three years to construct this strong and complete fortification. The length of Dannevirke, as it can be traced to-day, is eight miles. At the time of its construction, it was in no place lower than thirty feet and in some places as high as forty-eight feet. The top of this mound. was about thirty feet broad. Earth and stone were the building materials, and the steep southern side was protected by palisades. For every hundred feet there was a tower or rather a bastion. Below the palisades there was a moat, nine fathoms in depth and ten fathoms in width. In its whole length, there was only one place where the moat could be crossed and only one passage through the mound, and this was called Karlegat or Viglidsdör; both words meaning "the door of the warriors."

Queen Tyra made herself very dear to her people, who honored her with the title of Dannebod, the benefactor of the Danes.

Dannevirke was then looked upon as impregnable, until King Otto the Second of Germany, in the year 974, succeeded in setting fire to the palisades and taking the wall by storm. The Danish army under King Harald Gormson was driven back to the Lim Fjord in North Jutland and had to seek peace. King Otto now built a castle called Reinholdsburg (Rendsborg) on the island in the Eider and placed a Markgraf with an army in charge of the fort. The king claimed the territory from the Eider northward to the Slie and opened up this woodland for German settlers. Up to that time, only a few Danes had cultivated farms south of the fortifications. The names in that district are nearly all of German origin, while those north of the Dannevirke, on the other hand, are distinctly Danish, and the same or similar names may be found in the other Scandinavian countries. The ancient inscriptions are written in the same Old Norse the "Danish tongue" or "Norröna"-which in olden days was used from Dannevirke to the North Cape and from Uppsala to Iceland.

In the year 983, King Svend of Denmark conquered the Markgraf's castle, burned it, and killed the garrison. He strengthened Dannevirke by building a stone wall up against the south side in