Wednesday, October 23, 2019

“Then rings in the mould, the ancient gold”: the Golden Horns of Gallehus

Upon the pages
Of the olden ages,
And in hills where are lying
The dead, they are prying;
On armour rusty,
In ruins musty,
On Rune-stones jumbled,
With bones long crumbled.
Much due to a renowned theft in 1802, resulting in the horns being re-melted and lost for prosperity, the Golden Horns of Gallehus became a Danish national symbol, as well as the subject of Adam Oehlenschlägger's poem by the same name. Based on previous drawings however, copies were later made for the National Museum. These copies were stolen from an exhibition in Jelling on September 17, 2007 and recovered. They are currently exhibited at the National Museum in Copenhagen.


Ole Worms drawing (1641) of the larger of the two golden horns of Gallehus, Denmark. The golden horns are from around the 4th century. The copies can be seen at Nationalmuseet in Denmark.

Krysings drawing of the smaller of the two golden horns of Gallehus, published as a fold-out in the 1734 treatise on the artefact by J. R. Paulli.

The horns were recovered individually in two laps. A young girl named Kirsten Svendsdatter found the long golden horn on July 20, 1639, and on April 21, 1734, the short horn was found by Erik Lassen. Both horns were found on a field near Gallehus in Schleswig in Southern Denmark (hence the epithet). Kirsten wrote a letter to the king and received a skirt (!) as a finder's fee. Erik delivered the short horn to the Count at Schackenborg. The Count handed the horn to the king, and through the Count, Lassen received 200 Richsdaler as a reward. The horns were thus granted to the crown and stored at the Royal Kunstkammer at Christiansborg. The long horn, Christian 4. gave to his son Prince Christian ("the chosen prince") who used it as a drinking horn.

Kirsten Svendsdatter Finds The Goldhorn (1859), 
painting by Danish artist Niels Simonsen

Originating from the Germanic Iron Age in the 400s, there is no certainty about the original use of the horns. However, the precious material and the nature of the decoration suggest that they were used in rituals at religious ceremonies. Wether used as drinking horns or as wind instruments is difficult to say, as there are no definite documentation to support this assumption.

The motifs of the Golden Horns show depictions of humans, animals and fantasy creatures in several divided panels. These images can be linked to myths from the Mediterranean as well as to the Nordic and perhaps Celtic myths and have been subjected to numerous interpretations.

The inscription of the short horn, Ek HlewagastR HoltingaR horna tawiðo, has been interpreted as "I, Lægæst, Holt's son, made the horn" or "I, Lægestst, son of the forest, made the horn", but this interpretation has been doubted, as some researchers claims that HlewagastR is not a proper name. According to the classical interpretation, Hlewa probably means "shelter". A later study furthermore suggests that this reading may be extended to "a place where there is shelter", ie. a camp where the people are staying. If read as a religious motive, 'forest' may be interpreted as 'the holy tree.' 

However, in Ancient Scandinavia, there is a consistant use of the word Ihwa for holy tree. It is therefore more likely that the runes refer to the actual meaning of the word forest which, during the Migration Period signified the place of a threatening darkness. Historian Dan Hemming, in his book "The Speech of the Golden Horns," suggests that Lægæst is actually Liutgast, whom in the middle of the 5th century was referred to as a Danish king, who allegedly was "rich in gold." Liutgast is described in the German epic poem Nibelungenlied, put into writing around 1200. The content however, may be traced all the way back to the migration period at the beginning of our era, and the descriptions match other sources from that time. The stories are also known from the Elder Edda. 

The two golden horns of Gallehus. Copies on display at the National Museum of Denmark

Although the inscriptions alone cannot determine whether the Golden Horns were produced for ceremonial purposes - or simply to be part of a feast - the Golden Horns of Gallehus remains to this day as significant symbols of Danish romantic nationalism. Even reknowed Danish author Hans Christian Andersen was inspired by the theft when writing the tale of the Princess on the Pea, about a young woman whose royal identity is established by a test of her sensitivity. She claims to be a princess, so the prince's mother decides to test the girl by placing a pea in the bed she is offered for the night, covered by huge mattresses and 20 feather beds. In the morning, the girl tells her hosts that she endured a sleepless night, kept awake by something hard in the bed that she is certain has bruised her. The ending goes:
"They could see she was a real Princess and no question about it, now that she had felt one pea all the way through twenty mattresses and twenty more feather beds. Nobody but a Princess could be so delicate. So the Prince made haste to marry her, because he knew he had found a real Princess.
- As for the pea, they put it in the museum. There it's still to be seen, unless somebody has taken it.

There, that's a true story."
Sources:

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