Gevninge

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Gevninge
Town
Gevninge-Kirke.jpg
Gevninge church
Denmark Zealand location map (da).svg
Red pog.svg
Gevninge
Location in Region Zealand
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Red pog.svg
Gevninge
Gevninge (Denmark)
Coordinates: 55°38′42″N11°57′25″E / 55.64500°N 11.95694°E / 55.64500; 11.95694
Country Denmark
Region Region Zealand
Municipality Lejre Municipality
Area
  Urban
0.81 km2 (0.31 sq mi)
Population
 (1 January 2024) [1]
   Urban
1,646
  Urban density2,000/km2 (5,300/sq mi)
Time zone UTC+1 (CET)
  Summer (DST) UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
DK-4000 Roskilde

Gevninge is a small town, with a population of 1,646 (1 January 2024), [1] in Lejre Municipality on the island of Zealand in Denmark. Its old section is located alongside a small river, Lejre Å, approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from its mouth at Roskilde Fjord. [2]

Contents

History

The Gevninge helmet fragment Gevninge helmet fragment - 150x105.png
The Gevninge helmet fragment

Gevninge is a small and modern village, but its history dates back to the Iron Age. [2] The earliest indisputable written mention of Gevninge is from 1244, when its name appeared as Giæfning; a source from 1202 may also mention the village. [2] Archaeological finds from the area, including the Gevninge helmet fragment, show evidence of occupation during the Iron Age and Viking Age, from approximately 500 AD to 1000 AD. [2] [3]

Gevninge is located 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) north of Lejre, [4] a modern-day town that is believed to have been the seat of the Scylding kings during the Iron and Viking ages. [5] Though Lejre is also on the Lejre Å, the river that far south was likely too small for effective navigation. [6] Gevninge may have thus served as the "port of Lejre", an outpost at which any visitor would have to disembark and pass through on the way to the capital. [7]

In the epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf , the titular hero travels to the mead hall, Heorot, the seat of King Hrothgar, [8] on his way to kill the monster Grendel. While the tale is fictional, the anonymous author set the poem in the real world, and Hrothgar's seat of Heorot is thought today to have been located at Lejre. [9] Upon disembarking, Beowulf and his men are met with an armed warrior who says his job is to protect the Danish shores; only after Beowulf announces his business is he escorted to Heorot. [9] This has led to speculation that the author of Beowulf may have been familiar with the topography of the region, and imagined his hero disembarking at the site of modern-day Gevninge. For example, working through old maps and the poem of Beowulf, the scholars Gillian Overing and Marijane Osborn passed through Gevninge in an attempt to retrace the journey of Beowulf to Heorot/Lejre as described in the poem. [10]

The fragment of a helmet discovered in Gevninge provides evidence of an armed outpost in the Iron Age and Viking Age. [9]

Notable people

Related Research Articles

<i>Beowulf</i> Old English epic poem

Beowulf is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025 AD. Scholars call the anonymous author the "Beowulf poet". The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 5th and 6th centuries. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel for twelve years. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother takes revenge and is in turn defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is mortally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a barrow on a headland in his memory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lejre</span> Town in Region Zealand, Denmark

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hrólfr Kraki</span> Semi-legendary Danish king

Hrólfr Kraki, Hroðulf, Rolfo, Roluo, Rolf Krage was a semi-legendary Danish king who appears in both Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hrothgar</span> Legendary Danish king

Hrothgar was a semi-legendary Danish king living around the early sixth century AD. Many years later, Hrothgar paid money to the Wulfings to resolve a blood feud they had with Ecgtheow, Beowulf's father.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jomsborg</span> Semi-legendary Viking stronghold

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hrunting</span> One of the swords used by Beowulf

Hrunting was a sword given to Beowulf by Unferth in the ancient Old English epic poem Beowulf. Beowulf used it in battle against Grendel's mother.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heorot</span> Location in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf

Heorot is a mead-hall and major point of focus in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. The hall serves as a seat of rule for King Hrothgar, a legendary Danish king. After the monster Grendel slaughters the inhabitants of the hall, the Geatish hero Beowulf defends the royal hall before subsequently defeating him. Later Grendel's mother attacks the inhabitants of the hall, and she too is subsequently defeated by Beowulf.

The Danes were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting southern Scandinavia, including the area now comprising Denmark proper, northern and eastern England, and the Scanian provinces of modern-day southern Sweden, during the Nordic Iron Age and the Viking Age. They founded what became the Kingdom of Denmark. The name of their realm is believed to mean "Danish March", viz. "the march of the Danes", in Old Norse, referring to their southern border zone between the Eider and Schlei rivers, known as the Danevirke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wealhtheow</span> Fictional character in Beowulf

Wealhtheow is a queen of the Danes in the Old English poem, Beowulf, first introduced in line 612.

<i>Beowulf</i> (2007 film) Film by Robert Zemeckis

Beowulf is a 2007 American adult animated fantasy action film produced and directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, based on the Old English epic poem Beowulf, and featuring the voices of Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright, Brendan Gleeson, John Malkovich, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman, and Angelina Jolie. The film depicts the rise and fall of the warrior Beowulf after he travels to Denmark to kill a monster. It was produced by Shangri-La Entertainment and Zemeckis's ImageMovers and features characters animated using motion-capture animation, which was previously used in The Polar Express (2004) and Monster House (2006).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mead hall</span> Residence of a lord and his retainers in medieval Germanic Europe

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ravning Bridge</span> Bridge in Denmark

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Stephen Joseph Herben Jr. was an American professor of philology at Bryn Mawr College. He specialized in English and German philology, and among other places did work at the American-Scandinavian Foundation in Copenhagen and Oxford University, as well as at Rutgers, Princeton, and Stanford University. His work included assistance with the etymological work of the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary, and two articles on medieval literary descriptions of weapons and armor. The second of these articles, "Arms and Armour in Chaucer", is still considered a standard on the subject.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tjele helmet fragment</span> Viking Age fragment of a helmet

The Tjele helmet fragment is a Viking Age fragment of iron and bronze, originally comprising the eyebrows and noseguard of a helmet. It was discovered in 1850 with a large assortment of smith's tools in Denmark, and though the find was sent to the National Museum of Denmark, for 134 years the fragment was mistaken for a saddle mount. In 1984 it was properly identified by an assistant keeper at the museum as the remainder of one of only five known helmets from the Viking era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gevninge helmet fragment</span> 6th or 7th century artefact

The Gevninge helmet fragment is the dexter eyepiece of a helmet from the Viking Age or end of the Nordic Iron Age. It was found in 2000 during the excavation of a Viking farmstead in Gevninge, near Lejre, Denmark. The fragment is moulded from bronze and gilded, and consists of a stylised eyebrow with eyelashes above an oval opening. There are three holes at the top and bottom of the fragment to affix the eyepiece to a helmet. The fragment is significant as rare evidence of contemporaneous helmets, and also for its discovery in Gevninge, an outpost that is possibly connected to the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. It has been in the collection of the Lejre Museum since its discovery, and has been exhibited internationally as part of a travelling exhibition on Vikings.

Marijane Osborn is an American academic. Her research spans literary disciplines; she is a specialist in Old English and Norse literature and is known as an early pioneer of ecocriticism. Osborn has published on runes, Middle English, Victorian and contemporary poets and writers, and film, and is a translator and fiction writer. She is Professor Emerita at UC Davis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hellvi helmet eyebrow</span> Iron Age helmet eyebrow fragment

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References

Bibliography