The Kongeå (in German ''Königs Au'') is a watercourse in

Southern Jutland Southern Jutland ( da, Sønderjylland; German: Südjütland) is the name for the region south of the Kongeå in Jutland, Denmark and north of the Eider (river) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The region north of the Kongeå is called da, Nørr ...

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. It rises southeast of

Vejen Vejen with a population of 10,009 (1 January 2022) is the main town in Vejen Municipality, Denmark. Geography The town is situated in the Danish region of Syddanmark and is a railway town at the railway between the cities of Kolding and Esbjerg. ...

and

Vamdrup Vamdrup is a town in the Region of Southern Denmark, near Kolding in Denmark with a population of 4,809 (1 January 2022). History Three oak coffins were uncovered from graves in the Bronze Age mound Guldhøj in Holt near Vamdrup in 1891, and ar ...

and after about it flows through a sluice to tidal mudflats and sandbanks north of

Ribe Ribe () is a town in south-west Jutland, Denmark, with a population of 8,257 (2022). It is the seat of the Diocese of Ribe covering southwestern Jutland. Until 1 January 2007, Ribe was the seat of both a surrounding Ribe Municipality, municipali ...

, and eventually into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. The eastern section is little more than a stream, while the western section is navigable by boat as far as the sluice. The Kongeå, however, passes no port or market town of any significance, and small boats use Ribe Å. Historically, the watercourse has been the administrative border between regions to the north and south. In the Middle Ages it was called ''Skodborg Å'' after the royal castle Skodborghus, where a track crossed the watercourse south of Vejen. For centuries a customs border near Kongeå separated the Kingdom of Denmark from the

duchy A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a Middle Ages, medieval country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition. There once exis ...

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

. From 1864 to 1920, except in the extreme west, Kongeåen marked the border between Denmark and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The Kongeå is mentioned (as "Skotborg river") in the

Heimskringla ''Heimskringla'' () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorre Sturlason (1178/79–1241) 1230. The name ''Heimskringla'' was first used in the 17th century, derived ...

in a description of the 1043 battle in which King Magnus I of Norway and Denmark defeated at Lyrskov Hede (''Hlyrskog Heath'') a large army of

Slav Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

s who had invaded southern Denmark from the current

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label=Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin ...

region in retaliation for a Viking attack on

Jomsborg Jomsborg or Jómsborg (german: Jomsburg) was a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea (medieval Wendland, modern Pomerania), that existed between the 960s and 1043. Its inhabitants were known as Jomsvikings. Joms ...

, which at the time was the Slavic kingdom's primary town on

Wolin Wolin (; formerly german: Wollin ) is the name both of a Polish island in the Baltic Sea, just off the Polish coast, and a town on that island. Administratively, the island belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Wolin is separated from the ...

island. The area around the river is the site of several preserved burial mounds that have been the subject of archeological study, including Skelhøj.

References

Rivers of Jutland {{SouthernDK-stub