coast, can also be dated to this period. A site about 220 yards (201 m) long and 70 yards (64 m) wide was drained, levelled with a layer of sand over 2 feet thick, and divided up into rectangular plots. Oak planks from a timber-lined well date the event to between 704 and 710. Around 720, a central street was laid out and this was paved with planks around 730. No traces of permanent buildings have been found on the site but there are signs of temporary huts and craft workshops so Ribe functioned at first as a seasonal market place. The market place was surrounded by a ditch and fence. These were too small to be for defence so were probably intended to make it easier for Ribe’s ruler to manage access and collect tolls.
Ribe was linked in to extensive trade networks, extending to Italy, Byzantium and Norway, but the most common imported artefacts originated in the Frankish kingdom: lava quernstones from the Eifel Mountains, and glass and pottery from the Rhineland. Large amounts of unworked amber have been found on the site so this was presumably an important export. There is evidence that large quantities of cattle were brought to the market, so perishable goods like hides were probably also exported. Ribe’s foundation demonstrates the existence of a ruler who could control where and when trade was conducted in his territory and presumably also guarantee traders’ security when visiting the site. Scandinavia’s earliest coins, imitations of a Frisian coin type known as a scaetta , were produced at Ribe c. 720, so this ruler could also to some extent control the means of exchange. A permanently inhabited site about 250 yards (229 m) south-east of the market may have been the ruler’s compound. The identity of the ruler cannot be ascertained with certainty but there is a good chance that it was Angantyr, a Danish king who was visited by the Anglo-Saxon monk Willibrord on the first Christian mission to Scandinavia in c. 725. Willibrord’s biographer described Angantyr as ‘crueller than a wild animal and harder than a stone’, but he greeted the missionary politely enough even though he showed no interest in converting to Christianity.
Angantyr was not the only king in Denmark. In ‘Beowulf’, the hero’s Danish host, Hrothgar, is described as a member of the Scylding dynasty. The same dynasty appears in semi-legendary saga traditions and in the Gesta Danorum (‘Deeds of the Danes’) by the twelfth century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus as the Skjöldungs. Opinion about the historical reality of the Skjöldungs has wavered over the years: the consensus today is that the dynasty really did exist but that the stories that have come down to us belong more to the realm of legend than fact. Traditionally, the Skjöldungs were associated with the village of Gammel Lejre (‘Old Lejre’) on the island of Sjælland. An extraordinary concentration of impressive prehistoric barrows, dating from the Neolithic through to the late Viking Age, surround the village, marking it as a place that once possessed intense and enduring spiritual significance. In the last thirty years, archaeological excavations at Gammel Lejre have revealed that a succession of great timber feasting halls were built there between the sixth and tenth centuries, confirming that it was also a royal power centre in the period when the first Danish kingdoms were being forged. The attraction of the site for the kings of Sjælland must have been its many ancient monuments: they will have hoped to strengthen their authority by associating themselves with a place of such obvious ancient power.
Halls and hørgs
The earliest hall at Gammel Lejre was built at Fredshøj, close to a prominent Bronze Age burial mound on a low ridge overlooking the marshy valley of the Lejre river. The bow-sided hall was around 150 feet (45 m) long and 20 feet (7 m) wide and has been dated to around the second quarter of the sixth century. If Hrothgar was a real historical
Ribe was linked in to extensive trade networks, extending to Italy, Byzantium and Norway, but the most common imported artefacts originated in the Frankish kingdom: lava quernstones from the Eifel Mountains, and glass and pottery from the Rhineland. Large amounts of unworked amber have been found on the site so this was presumably an important export. There is evidence that large quantities of cattle were brought to the market, so perishable goods like hides were probably also exported. Ribe’s foundation demonstrates the existence of a ruler who could control where and when trade was conducted in his territory and presumably also guarantee traders’ security when visiting the site. Scandinavia’s earliest coins, imitations of a Frisian coin type known as a scaetta , were produced at Ribe c. 720, so this ruler could also to some extent control the means of exchange. A permanently inhabited site about 250 yards (229 m) south-east of the market may have been the ruler’s compound. The identity of the ruler cannot be ascertained with certainty but there is a good chance that it was Angantyr, a Danish king who was visited by the Anglo-Saxon monk Willibrord on the first Christian mission to Scandinavia in c. 725. Willibrord’s biographer described Angantyr as ‘crueller than a wild animal and harder than a stone’, but he greeted the missionary politely enough even though he showed no interest in converting to Christianity.
Angantyr was not the only king in Denmark. In ‘Beowulf’, the hero’s Danish host, Hrothgar, is described as a member of the Scylding dynasty. The same dynasty appears in semi-legendary saga traditions and in the Gesta Danorum (‘Deeds of the Danes’) by the twelfth century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus as the Skjöldungs. Opinion about the historical reality of the Skjöldungs has wavered over the years: the consensus today is that the dynasty really did exist but that the stories that have come down to us belong more to the realm of legend than fact. Traditionally, the Skjöldungs were associated with the village of Gammel Lejre (‘Old Lejre’) on the island of Sjælland. An extraordinary concentration of impressive prehistoric barrows, dating from the Neolithic through to the late Viking Age, surround the village, marking it as a place that once possessed intense and enduring spiritual significance. In the last thirty years, archaeological excavations at Gammel Lejre have revealed that a succession of great timber feasting halls were built there between the sixth and tenth centuries, confirming that it was also a royal power centre in the period when the first Danish kingdoms were being forged. The attraction of the site for the kings of Sjælland must have been its many ancient monuments: they will have hoped to strengthen their authority by associating themselves with a place of such obvious ancient power.
Halls and hørgs
The earliest hall at Gammel Lejre was built at Fredshøj, close to a prominent Bronze Age burial mound on a low ridge overlooking the marshy valley of the Lejre river. The bow-sided hall was around 150 feet (45 m) long and 20 feet (7 m) wide and has been dated to around the second quarter of the sixth century. If Hrothgar was a real historical
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