The Jelling stone ship is a stone ship

Stone ship

The Stone ship or ship setting was an early Germanic burial custom, characteristically Scandinavian but also found in Germany and the Baltic states. The grave or cremation burial is surrounded by tightly or loosely fit slabs or stones in the outline of a ship...

, the longest known to have existed, remains of which lie under the two royal barrow

Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...

s at Jelling

Jelling

Jelling is a village in Denmark with a population of 3,248 , located in Jelling Parish approx. 10 km northwest of Vejle. The city lies 105 metres above sea level.-Location:...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

.

The Jelling ship was formerly thought to have extended between the two mounds and been 170 metres (557.7 ft) long, by far the longest stone ship discovered. However, recent archaeological research and the re-evaluation of large pits on the west side of the north mound which were noted in the 1960s has led to a different reconstruction, in which the ship had the north mound as its centre rather than its stern and was 354 metres (1,161.4 ft) long; this length corresponds to 1,200 Roman feet, and the Trelleborg fortresses were also measured out in Roman feet.

King Harald Bluetooth erected a great mound, the largest burial mound in Denmark, over an existing Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 burial mound at Jelling, and buried in it the remains of his father Gorm the Old

Gorm the Old

Gorm the Old , also called Gorm the Sleepy , was the first historically recognized King of Denmark, reigning from to his death . 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 .-Ancestry and reign:Gorm is the reported...

. Later, to the south of it he raised an even higher empty mound, which a runestone raised by Gorm describes as the grave of Harald's mother, Queen Thyra

Thyra

Thyra was the consort of King Gorm the Old of Denmark. She is believed to have led an army against the Germans. Gorm and Thyra were the parents of King Harald Bluetooth....

. One end of the stone ship is preserved under this southern mound. Between the two mounds, Harald placed a larger runestone in memory of both his parents, and the smaller stone now stands beside it. The two stones are now in the churchyard on the south side of Jelling church, the fourth church to occupy the site south of the north mound. Still during the 10th century, Gorm's body was moved from the north mound, which now contains only the grave goods, to a grave under the church.

The triangle of stones under the south mound was previously thought to have enclosed a heathen temple

Heathen hofs

Heathen hofs or Germanic pagan temples were the temple buildings of Germanic paganism; there are also a few built for use in modern Germanic neopaganism...

 and the runestone to Thyra, but when the base of the south mound was opened in 1992 in connection with work on a road, the lines were found to be slightly curved, and traces of the other end of the ship were then found under the north mound also. Dendrochronological evidence

Dendrochronology

Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree-rings. Dendrochronology can date the time at which tree rings were formed, in many types of wood, to the exact calendar year...

 dates the building up of the north mound and the creation of the new burial chamber within it to 958-59 CE, coinciding with Gorm's death that winter, and the creation of the south mound to approximately 970. The lichen on the ship stones which were covered by the south mound suggests that by then they had stood in the open for some 20 to 30 years. However, if the ship setting was centred on the north mound, then it post-dates it.

The runestone to Thyra, whose original position is unknown, may have been associated with the ship, perhaps forming its prow, in which case it would have been part of Gorm's monument to his queen. There is also a stone ship associated with a Bronze Age burial mound at Bække, where a runestone was raised by Tue, son of Ravn, to his trutnik Thyra, claiming that Tue raised Thyra's mound. A recent suggestion is that Thyra was married first to Gorm and then to Tue and that the mounds and ships represent rival claims to her lands on the part of Tue and Harald. This would explain the raising of an empty mound and the prominent runestone between the two Jelling mounds, in which Harald refers to both his parents.

Sources

• Knud J. Krogh. "The Royal Viking-Age Monuments at Jelling in the Light of Recent Archaeological Excavations". Acta Archaeologica 53 (1982) 86-216: the initial identification of the remains as a ship.
• P. Mohr Christensen and S. Wulff Andersen. "Kongeligt?" Skalk 2008 pp. 3–10: reinterpretation as centred on the north mound. (pdf, Danish)

See also

• Jelling stones
  Jelling stones
  The Jelling stones are massive carved runestones from the 10th century, found at the town of Jelling in Denmark. The older of the two Jelling stones was raised by King Gorm the Old in memory of his wife Thyra...