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Nordic FAQ - 3 of 7 - DENMARK |
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A Frequently Answered Questions (FAQ) file for the newsgroup
S O C . C U L T U R E . N O R D I C
*** PART 3: DENMARK ***
Index
3.1
Fact Sheet
3.2
General information
3.2.1
Geography, climate, vegetation
3.2.2
Economy
3.2.3
Government
3.2.4
Population & culture
3.2.5
The Danish language
3.2.6
The Danish alphabet
3.3
History
3.3.1
A chronology of important dates
3.3.2
A list of Danish monarchs
3.3.3
@ Denmark during world war II
3.3.4
@ Sønderjylland - The Duchy of Slesvig
3.4
Main tourist attractions
3.4.1
Getting there and getting around
3.4.2
Copenhagen
3.4.3
Zealand and surrounding islands
3.4.4
Bornholm
3.4.5
Fyn and surrounding islands
3.4.6
Jutland
3.5
Danish literature
3.6
Faroe Islands
3.6.1
Fact sheet
3.6.2
General information
3.6.3
History
3.6.4
Main tourist attractions
3.6.5
Faroese language and literature
3.7
Books for learning Danish
_________________________________________________________________
Subject: 3.1 Fact Sheet
Name: Kongeriget Danmark
Telephone country code: 45
Area: 43,075 km² / 16,631 sq mi.
Terrain: low and flat to gently rolling plains
Highest point: Yding Skovhøj, 173 m (568 ft)
Natural resources: crude oil, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone
Land boundaries: Germany
Population: 5,163,955 (1992)
Population density: 119.9 persons per km² (310.5 per sq mi.)
Distribution: 84% urban, 16% rural (1989)
Life expectancy: women 78; men 72 (1992)
Infant mortality: 7 per 1,000 live births (1992)
Capital: København (Copenhagen) (pop. 467,850)
[ pop. of Metropolitan area: 1.4 million ] (1989)
Other major towns: Århus (245,000),
Odense (170,000),
Ålborg (154,000)
Administrative units: 14 counties (amter)
Flag: white cross on red background (the "Dannebrog")
Type: Constitutional monarchy
Head of state: Queen Margrethe II
National anthem: Der er et yndigt land (Sound)
Royal anthem: Kong Christian stod ved højen mast
Languages: Danish
Currency: krone (Danish crown, DKK)
for the current exchange rate,
see the URL
Climate: temperate sea-climate
average temperature in Copenhagen:
-3°C - 2°C in Feb., and 14°C - 22°C in June
Religion: Evangelic-Lutheran (91%, 1988) (official state-religion)
Exports: meat, dairy products, fish, machinery, electronics,chemicals, furnitu
re
------------------------------
Subject: 3.2 General information
3.2.1 Geography, climate, vegetation
Denmark is the southernmost of the Nordic countries. Located between
the North Sea on the west and the Baltic Sea on the southeast, Denmark
is separated from Norway by the Skagerrak and from Sweden by the
Kattegat and the Øresund. In the south, it shares a 68 km border with
Germany. It consists of the peninsula of Jutland (Jylland) in the
west, and an archipelago of 406 islands in the east, of which the most
important ones are Zealand (Sjælland) on which Copenhagen is located,
and Funen (Fyn). Denmark is part of Europe's temperate deciduous
forest belt. The natural vegetation in most of the country is a mixed
forest, with the beech most common tree. However, almost all parts of
the country are under cultivation today, and virtually all the
existing forests have been planted. Coniferous trees prevail in parts
of the former heath areas in western Jutland, and the dune areas have
been forested with spruce and pine. Denmark has a 12% forest cover.
3.2.2 Economy
Denmark is one of the smaller states of Europe, only slightly larger
than Switzerland. All of Denmark is very flat, the highest peak being
only 173 meters high. This, as well as the fertile soil and temperate
climate, makes it very suitable for agriculture; about 70% of
Denmark's land surface is used for agricultural production (but only
about 7% of the labor force is in agriculture). Barley is the most
important crop, followed by grass and green fodder, and root crops.
Most of the barley and root crops are grown primarily for use as
livestock feed (some, of course, goes to the worldfamous Danish
beers). About 90% of all farm income is derived from animal products;
sausages, bacon, cheese and butter are the most famous products of
Danish animal husbandry. Danish design is world famous. Denmark
doesn't have much natural resources, although limestone, clay, and
gravel are mined in many areas. In northern Jutland, salt deposits
have been exploited since World War II, and granite and kaolin are
mined on the island of Bornholm. Since 1972 petroleum and gas deposits
of the Danish sector of the North Sea have been exploited.
3.2.3 Government
According to the constitution Denmark is a constitutional monarchy
with the legislative power jointly vested in the regent and the
Parliament, but the responsibility for the actions of the king/queen
solely taken by the ministers in the Cabinet. The Evangelical Lutheran
Church is supported by the State as a State Church.
The parliamentary system has been unicameral since 1953; the
parliament is called the 'Folketing'. The 179 members (of which two
are elected in Greenland and two in the Faroe Islands) are elected for
four-year terms. The Prime Minister can call an early election. For
the last 20 years there have never been fewer than 8 parties
represented in the Folketing.
Denmark is a member of the European Union, and elects 16 members of
the European parliament. The Faroes and Greenland, on the other hand,
are outside the EU.
Since 1955 Denmark has had an ombudsman, who oversees the conduct of
the cabinet and the decisions of the administration. All citizens have
the right to appeal government actions to the ombudsman.
[ the sections above are available at the www-page
http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq31.html ]
3.2.4 Population & culture
Denmark was settled already 10,000 years ago, when the ice retreated
from Scandinavia. Danes descend from various Germanic tribes,
including the Jutes and Angles who settled England in the 5th century.
There is a small German minority living in southern Jutland and a
Danish minority living in North Germany. Danish is a Germanic language
of the Nordic branch, mutually intelligible (with some practice) with
Norwegian and Swedish.
The kingdom of Denmark includes also the autonomous areas of Greenland
(area: 2.2 mill. km², pop. 53,000) and Faroe Islands (area: 1,400 km²,
pop. 48,000). The inhabitants speak a language (Faroese) resembling
Icelandic and some Western Norwegian dialects. Eskimos speaking
Greenlandic (a language based on a mid-19th century creation of a
single literary language out of many Inuit dialects) form the largest
group of Greenlanders; the inhabitants of Faroe Islands descend from
the Viking settlers who arrived in the 9th century and the Irish monks
and slaves who also made it to the Island.
As can be expected Danish culture could be called more Central
European in character than that of other Nordic countries.
Particularly it could be noted that mentality and food are rather
similar from Holland to Scania.
Important figures include e. g. the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard
(1813-55), the composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931), the astronomer Tycho
Brahe (1546-1601), the authors Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75) and
Karen Blixen (1885-1962), the architect Jørn Utzon (1918-), the
painter P. S. Krøyer (1851-1909), the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen
(1768-1844), and the physicist and Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr
(1885-1962).
3.2.5 The Danish language
This is a brief description of some of the characteristics of the
Danish language and some of the differences and similarities between
Danish and the other North Germanic languages.
How do I identify a Danish text if I don't know the language?
Look for the letters æ, ø, and å. If you find all three of them, you
have narrowed your choices down to Danish or Norwegian (both bokmål
and nynorsk). Telling written Danish from Norwegian (especially
bokmål) can be fairly difficult; you sometimes come across whole
sentences that are absolutely identical in the two languages. The
easiest might be to look for double consonants at the end of words,
Norwegian often has words ending in -ss, -kk, etc. while this is never
the case in Danish.
How is Danish pronunciation different from Swedish/Norwegian?
The spoken Danish has a rather poor reputation for some reason. The
many soft d's and g's are often a cause of much amusement among other
Nordics (of course, _their_ languages sound pretty funny in our ears
too :-).
The soft Danish d's and g's are reasonably close to their Spanish (!)
equivalents; this might give you an idea about the pronunciation. D's
and g's tend to get soft between vowels but never at the beginning of
a word.
On the other hand, contemporary Danish does not have the Swedish or
Norwegian "soft k" (in Swedish/Norwegian a k/kj is pronounced
something like sh/ch before a front vowel - e, i, y, ä/æ, or ö/ø). In
Danish (probably due to German influence) the k is always pronounced
as a "hard k", i.e. like the English "key". However, this is a fairly
recent thing; old spellings like "Kjøbenhavn" indicate that also
Danish had "soft k" (only a century ago?). And also the dialects of
Bornholm and Northern Jutland (these areas are often the last to pick
up pronunciation trends originating in the capital) still follow
"Swedish pronunciation rules" with regard to k (and g).
The glottal stop ("stød" in Danish) is another characterstic feature.
It is similiar to the non-pronunciation of "tt" in the Cockney
"bottle".
Genders and definite articles.
Like Swedish, Danish has two genders: The common gender (originally
there were both masculine and feminine) and the neuter gender. Some
Danish dialects (e.g. in North Jutland) still have all three genders;
dialects in western and southern Jutland have only the common gender.
Like the other North Germanic languages Danish has the definite
article at the end of the word, thus "a man" = "en mand", but "the
man" = "manden". Surprisingly, dialects of western and southern
Jutland follow the more usual system of English, German, French, etc.:
"A man" = "en mand", "the man" = "æ mand". It is not clear why one of
Europe's most significant linguistic borders (separating areas having
the definite article before/after the word) is running straight
through Jutland!
3.2.6 The Danish alphabet
Danish has three additional letters compared to the English alphabet:
æ, ø, and å (see the section 1.8 on the Nordic graphemes for more
details).
A question often asked by non-Danes is: "Why are Århus and Ålborg
sometimes spelt with double-a and sometimes with a-with-circle? What's
the difference?" Well, it is a matter of old and new spelling
conventions. According to Søren Hornstrup the
"Nudansk ordbog" (Concurrent Danish) quotes "Retskrivningsordbogen"
for the proper usage of å versus aa:
The letter å was substituted for aa in 1948 as the token for
å-sound. It is still possible to use aa for å in Danish personal
and place names. In personal names you should follow the way the
named person uses. [...]
In Danish place names Å, å is always the correct spelling, e.g.,
Århus, Tåstrup, Grenå. Only if you want to respect strong local
traditions you could use Aa, aa, e.g., Ålborg or Aalborg, Åbenrå or
Aabenraa. In Nordic place names you should use Å, å, e.g., Ålesund,
Skåne.
And from "Håndbog i Nudansk":
It is always correct to use å in Danish place names. But you should
know that you might offend the local residents. [...]
Until 1984 the central administration (statsadministrationen) had
to use å, but in 1984 it was allowed to follow local traditions.
More from the same book:
The Danish alphabet has 29 letters in the following order:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z æ ø å (aa)
The letter aa is placed in parentheses. This is because it is not
normally used in the language, only in names. Also note that the
capitalization of the double-a is "Aa" and not "AA".
Århus was among the first cities to adopt the a-ring; Ålborg on the
contrary, has been insisting on using the double-a. Since the central
administration between 1948 and 1984 only recognized the å-spelling,
all road signs etc. said "Ålborg". After 1984 when a number of cities
successfully readopted the old spelling with double-a, the new road
signs said "Aalborg". So if you see a sign with the old spelling
(double-a) it is probably a new sign, and if you see a sign with the
new spelling (a-ring) it is probably an old sign ... confused?
Surprisingly perhaps, the reason for cities like Ålborg, Åbenrå, and
Grenå to readopt the double-a is not one of internationalization
(though double-a is surely more "ASCII-friendly" than a-ring) but
rather one of nostalgia, it seems.
The alphabetical sorting is not affected by the aa/å controversy;
Danish person names and place names with aa are alphabetized as if
they were spelt with å (i.e. last in the alphabet), but _only_ when
the aa represents the å sound rather than a "long a". Thus, in a
Danish encyclopedia the city Aabenraa and the author Jeppe Aakjær are
at the end of the encyclopaedia, while the German city Aachen and
Finnish architect Alvar Aalto are found in the beginning!
< A comment from Byrial Ole Jensen: >
This is not quite correct. aa should be alphabetized as å when it is
pronounced as one sound even if it is an "a" sound. So the right place
to search for Aachen in a Danish encyclopaedia is a little after
Åbenrå near the end of the encyclopaedia.
This is according to official rules for the Danish language which is
found in Retskrivningsordbogen (The Dictionary of Correct Writing??).
But I must admit that only few people know this alphabetizing rule and
it is likely that even not dictionaries follow it in order to not
confuse people not knowing the rule. Retskrivningsordbogen itself
places the word "kraal" BOTH between "kr." and "krabask" AND between
"krøsus" and "kråse".
[ the sections above are available at the www-page
http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq324.html ]
------------------------------
Subject: 3.3 History
3.3.1 A chronology of important dates
430
(circa) Saxo Grammaticus, in Gesta Danorum, says that the
Danish King Frode raised a huge united army from many conquered
lands and defeated a king of the Huns.
443
As Western Europe was threatened by the Huns (A.D. 406~436
- their most famous king was called Attila) and the Roman
Empire wasn't capable of holding its position on the British
islands any more, the Angles were (according to The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle) asked to come and participate in the war against the
Picts. The Angles are believed to have lived somewhere in the
area of Southern Jutland and the estuary of river Elbe, or
maybe further north on Jutland.
449
The Jutes, the Saxons and more Angles participate in the war on
Britain. Soon the Britons are fought by the new-comers.
515
The first Danish king known from contemporary sources is killed
during a military attack against the Frankish Empire. Name:
Huglik [or Chocillaicus in Gregor of Tours' annals].
737
(circa) Danevirke is founded.
772
Charlemagne begins the Frankish expansion to the North. The
deep woods of Holstein do however protect the Danes for several
decades yet.
787-1066 (circa)
Viking Age
Danes raid e.g England, France and Spain. The beginning of the
Viking era is by convention dated to the raid at Northumbria
A.D. 793 (referred to in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that too,
although the same source says that the first ships of the
Danish men that sought the land of the English nation came
A.D. 787).
808
(circa) The Danes defeat Slavic tribes.
During the war the market at Haithabu is abandoned to the
Slavic Vends. Haithabu /Hedeby/ is situated at the very same
bay as the later town Schleswig /Slesvig, on the narrowest part
of south Jutland, the short-cut between the Baltic Sea and the
North Sea.
811
As Charlemagne extended his realm in the late 8th century he
came to meet a united Danish army which successfully defended
Danevirke. A Danish-Frankish border was established at the
River Eider A.D. 811. Haithabu is regained.
Frankish sources, for instance Annales regni Francorum against
the year 811, gives a rather good picture of the Danish realm.
Godfred, or perhaps a predecessor, seems to have brought the
lands of the South- and North Danes together shortly before
800. And to end the war between the Franks and the Danes a
hostage was sent to Charlemagne in Aachen. That Danish hostages
came from Southern Jutland, Zealand and Scania ("Osfrid de
Sconaowe"). Probably also southern Norway was held by the kings
of Denmark of that time.
845
Hamburg is raided and burned by Danish Vikings. As a
consequence Arch-bishop Ansgar moves the Cathedral to Bremen.
874
The Danes get control of northern and eastern England.
890-935 (circa)
A separate kingdom of Haithabu was established by the Viking
chieftain Olaf from Svealand. Olaf's son Gnupa was however
killed in battle (against the Danish King Hardeknud?), and his
kingdom vanished. King Gorm is said to have regained Haithabu
A.D. 935.
911
(circa) Rollo, a Danish Viking chieftain, is granted Normandy
as a Duchy by the Frankish king Charles the Simple.
948
A bishopric is established in Slesvig.
958-986/988
Harald Gormsson (a.k.a. "Black-tooth") unites Denmark and
Norway as a single kingdom. Scania, Jutland and the islands
in-between had been ruled by the same king now and then, for
instance under King Godfred in the early 800s, but first with
the Christianization of kings and magnates the kingdom of
Denmark seems to have become a stabile entity. [ See also the
web-site at the Royal Danish Embassy, Washington D.C.
]
Lars Hemmingsen writes:
Harald boasts at the rune stone in Jellinge that he has won
"all of Denmark" - but what this really means is unclear: There
are some circumstantial evidence that Gorm lost Scania and
Norway, as well as his life, in 958 and that what Harald
accomplished was merely a re-conquest. But the standard
explanation is that Harald held the lands from the beginning
and that what he won of Denmark was merely the area around
Haithabu, A.D. 983, which he had first lost to Emperor Otto II.
965
Harald Gormsson (a.k.a. "Blåtand" - Black-Tooth) baptized.
983-1253
Southern Jutland (Sønderjylland) is an integrated part of the
Danish realm.
1013
The King Svend Tveskæg ("Double-beard" or "Fork-beard")
conquers England, which remains in Danish control until the
year 1042.
1018-35
Knud den Store (Canute the Great) ruled over a vast kingdom
that included present-day Denmark, England, Norway and southern
Sweden, and during his reign Christianity became widespread.
After his death, the empire disintegrated.
1022
Bishopric in Roskilde
1060
King Svend Estridsen lets build a stone church for the bishop
Egino in Dalby, close to Lund. (This church is the oldest
remaining stone church on the Scandinavian peninsula.)
This year the Church was re-organized with new bishoprics also
in: Lund, Aarhus, Borglum, Ribe and Odense.
1074
After King Svend Estridsen's death Denmark is from time to time
split between his sons. The Thing in Scania supports Knud ("the
Holy") against whom the Jutes revolt in 1086 and King Knud is
murdered.
1080
The Bishop in Bremen and the Bishop in Canterbury have fought
over dominance of Denmark, and as a move in this complicated
struggle, rich funds are donated by the king for a cathedral in
Lund. The cathedral school is opened in 1086. The school has
been in function ever since.
1104
With the first arch-bishop of Lund, Scandinavia was made a
separate church province, no longer belonging to Hamburg.
1137-1157
Denmark seems to divide itself in pieces. Scania, Zealand and
Jutland can't agree on choosing the same king and Civil War
follows, in which King Valdemar the Great comes out on top in
1157.
1145
The Lund cathedral is opened. (The church in Dalby had lost the
competition for cathedral status.)
1167
Copenhagen (Havn) is founded.
1168
The Vendic castle Arkona on the island Rügen is captured by
King Valdemar the Great.
1195
Saxo writes the history of Scandinavia.
1201-1227
King Valdemar II Sejr conquers Holstein with the town of
Hamburg,which soon enough is re-captured by a united German
army. He also conquers Pomerania, and Mecklenburg, and
reestablishes the nation as a great power in northern Europe.
Soon, however, a civil war between the nobles and the king
vying for control of the country erupted.
1202-1210
The Scanian Law is written down. 50 years later it's also
transcribed to runes.
1219
King Valdemar II Sejr conquers northern Estonia. According to
the legend, the Danish flag "Dannebrogen" fell down from the
sky during this mission. [ The Dannebrog is the oldest flag in
the world still in use. All Nordic flags except the Greenland
flag are variations of the Dannebrog. ]
1253-1325
Denmark's southern border had since long been guarded by troops
under command of an Earl (Jarl), later Duke, in Schleswig
/Slesvig in Sønderjylland. The Duchy had become also a means of
providing for the expenses of younger royal princes. As the
Hansa and the German Empire expanded, the Counts of Holstein,
the Duke of Slesvig and the Hansa found a common enemy in the
king of Denmark. The result was a long row of wars where the
Dukes strived for independence from the Danish Crown.
At the same time also the Arch-bishop in Lund strived for
supremacy over the secular king, or at least for independence,
and the nobility demanded the realm to be governed by a Senate
(Danehof).
1320-32
King Christoffer II was forced to make major concessions to the
nobles and clergy at the expense of royal power, which was also
diminished by the influence of the German Hanseatic League.
1326-30 King Christoffer is replaced by an under-age king with
Count Gerhard of Holstein as regent.
The Scanian nobility (alternatively the Thing in Lund) had in
the beginning of the 1330s chosen the young Magnus Eriksson to
be king also for the Scanian provinces, after his regents had
promised to pay Count Johan of Holstein to whom Scania was
pawned. At that time Magnus Eriksson was the under-age king of
both Norway and Sweden.
1332-40
Due to the expensive but failed wars almost all rights to taxes
and custom fees are given in pawn to the creditors of the realm
(mainly the Counts of Holstein). The Danish Crown has no
incomes to speak of, and no king is appointed.
1340-75
King Valdemar IV Atterdag succeeded in restoring royal
authority.
1346
After an Estonian uprising, Denmark sells its possessions in
Northern Estonia to the Order of Teutonic Knights.
1360
Valdemar IV Atterdag re-conquers Scania.
1361
Valdemar IV Atterdag conquers Gotland.
1375
The five years old Crown Prince Olof of Norway is elected King
of Denmark, with his mother Queen Margrete of Norway as regent.
In 1380 he becomes King of Norway too. The union between
Denmark and Norway will remain until 1814.
1386
To avoid a war on the southern border, and to regain the rich
Slesvig region, Queen Margrete I (the daughter of Valdemar IV)
unites the Danish Duchy of Slesvig with the German County of
Holstein by giving Slesvig as a fief to the Counts of Holstein.
The unity between Slesvig and Holstein has remained ever since,
although the northern part of Slesvig was split of in 1920.
Until 1440 the dukes of Slesvig fails to agree with their kings
over the Duchy's duties in the realm.
1388
Margrete, Queen-widow and mother of the late King Oluf, who had
died in 1387, is acclaimed as "plenipotentiary lady and
rightful warden" for Norway and Sweden.
1389-96
Queen Margrete of Norway and Denmark unites all the Nordic
countries as a single kingdom, the Kalmar Union, under the
under-age Eric of Pomerania, who is crowned in Kalmar 1397.
1429
Duty on goods through Öresund is introduced by King Erik of
Pomerania. This becomes an important income for the Danish
Crown, and creates heaps of enemies to the State of Denmark.
1448
The house of Oldenburg (one of the branches of Counts of
Holstein) was established on the throne in the person of
Christian I and has continued to rule Denmark up to the present
day.
1460-74
King Christian I becomes Duke of the duchies of Slesvig (1460)
and Holstein (1474). Holstein and Slesvig become twin duchies
with peculiar rules for succession. In 1490-1721 both of the
duchies are split in two or more parts, one of which is held by
the king of Denmark.
15th ct
During the late 15th century male serfdom (vornedskab) was
introduced on the islands.
1523
The Kalmar Union is dissolved as the Swedes revolt after the
"Stockholm bloodbath" performed by King Christian II of
Denmark. Denmark and Norway remain united, however.
1534-36
After the death of King Frederik I, the Civil "War of the
Counts" (Grevefejden) between the rivals to throne follows. The
parties struggled mainly over two issues: for or against
Hanseatic influence and for or against a national Lutheran
State Church. After 1536 the Hansa's dominance in Denmark's
domestic politics was broken. Frederik's Lutheran son becomes
King Christian III.
1536
Reformation. Denmark becomes Lutheran.
1645
Denmark-Norway has to cede Gotland, Jämtland, Ösel and Härjedal
to Sweden in the Brömsebro peace after King Christian IV had
intervened in the Thirty Years' War. Halland is ceded for 30
years.
1658-60
In the peace treaty of Roskilde, Denmark-Norway cedes Skåne,
Halland, Blekinge, Bohuslän, and Trøndelag (i.e. the district
of Trondheim) to Sweden after a failed war against Sweden
declared by King Frederik III the year before.
After the peace treaty Sweden continues the war and besieges
Copenhagen for two years. However, this results in Trøndelag
being returned to Norway and Bornholm (after an uprising) to
Denmark.
A consequence of the disastrous war was that the monarchy was
made hereditary in 1660, and royal Autocracy was introduced in
1661. The Autocracy came to last until 1848. The high
aristocracy had lost its influence over the government.
1671-85
Religious tolerance
Catholics (1671), Jews (1684) and Calvinists (1685) were
granted rights to perform their own worship.
1675-79, 1700-21
In the "war of Scania" and later in the "Great Northern War",
Denmark tries to conquer back the territory lost in 1658 but
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