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The Trelleborg (or Trælleborg), west of
Slagelse Slagelse () is a town on Zealand (Denmark), Zealand, Denmark. The town is the seat of Slagelse Municipality, and is the biggest town of the municipality. It is located 15 km east of Korsør, 16 km north-east of Skælskør, 33 km south-east of Ka ...
on the Danish island of
Zealand Zealand ( ) is the largest and most populous islands of Denmark, island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size) at 7,031 km2 (2715 sq. mi.). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 Januar ...
, is one of seven known Viking ring castles. When built, the fortress was situated on a peninsula that jutted into the swampy area between two rivers. The swamp was connected to the
Great Belt The Great Belt (, ) is a strait between the major islands of Zealand (''Sjælland'') and Funen (''Fyn'') in Denmark. It is one of the three Danish Straits. Effectively dividing Denmark in two, the Belt was served by the Great Belt ferries fr ...
by a lake and could be navigated by Viking ships. Trelleborg is believed to have been ordered by King
Harald Bluetooth Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson (; , died c. 985/86) was a king of Denmark and Norway. The son of King Gorm the Old and Thyra Dannebod, Harald ruled as king of Denmark from c. 958 – c. 986, introduced Christianization of Denmark, Christianity to D ...
in the year 980 AD and it might have commanded the
Great Belt The Great Belt (, ) is a strait between the major islands of Zealand (''Sjælland'') and Funen (''Fyn'') in Denmark. It is one of the three Danish Straits. Effectively dividing Denmark in two, the Belt was served by the Great Belt ferries fr ...
and its sea traffic, between the islands of
Zealand Zealand ( ) is the largest and most populous islands of Denmark, island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size) at 7,031 km2 (2715 sq. mi.). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 Januar ...
and
Funen Funen (, ), is the third-largest List of islands of Denmark, island of Denmark, after Zealand and North Jutlandic Island, Vendsyssel-Thy, with an area of . It is the List of islands by area, 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in th ...
. Trelleborg is the best preserved of the Viking ring fortresses. Since 1995, the Trelleborg Museum has presented the story of this particular fortress and the nearby area. Some of the artifacts found in connection with the archaeological excavations are on display at the museum, while others are on display at the Nationalmuseet in Copenhagen. Along with four other Viking ring fortresses in Denmark, Trelleborg was inscribed on the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...
in 2023 because of its unique architecture and testimony to the strategic and military power of the
House of Knýtlinga The Denmark, Danish House of Knýtlinga (English language, English: "House of Cnut's Descendants") was a ruling royal house in Middle Ages, Middle Age Scandinavia and Kingdom of England, England. Its most famous king was Cnut the Great, who gave ...
(Jelling Dynasty).


Layout and construction

Similar to the other Viking ring castles found so far, the Trelleborg at Slagelse was designed as an exact circle with two roads crossing at right angles in the geometric center, leading to four gates with two gates always opposite each other. In each of the four quarters stood four almost identical
longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from lumber, timber and ...
s arranged in a square. Unlike other ring castles, Trelleborg was extended with a sort of bailey. The whole fortress may have supplied room for some 1,300 people. Along with Aggersborg,
Fyrkat Fyrkat is a former Viking ring castle in Denmark, dating from c. 980 AD. It is located near the town of Hobro, some distance from the present end of the Mariager Fjord in Northern Jutland. The fortress is built on a narrow piece of land, with ...
, Trelleborg is the only ring castle to have been fully excavated. As a result, many conclusions about it are tentative and may change with further excavation of other sites.


Main castle

The circular main castle was surrounded by a 5 m high
rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * LAPD Rampart Division, a division of the Los Angeles Police Department ** Rampart scandal, a blanket ter ...
, 17.5 m wide at the base and with a diameter of 137 m. The outer walling was made of
oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...
. Two rows of poles were supported by slanted beams from the outside and the room in between the poles was filled with loam and stones. The inside walling was also clad with wood and the two facades were reinforced by beams connecting the two. In the east, there was a 5 m broad
berm A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of Soil compaction, compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way, especially partway up a long slope. It can serve as a terrace road, track, path, a fortification line, a b ...
protected by a ditch with a pointed profile, 17 m wide and 4 m deep. The ditch was not filled with water and had a
palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymo ...
at its base. The two roads were covered with wood, and the four gates lined with stones on the inside. As in
Fyrkat Fyrkat is a former Viking ring castle in Denmark, dating from c. 980 AD. It is located near the town of Hobro, some distance from the present end of the Mariager Fjord in Northern Jutland. The fortress is built on a narrow piece of land, with ...
, there may have been a circle path along the inner side of the ramparts. The fortifications encircled a total of 16 longhouses arranged in four squares 29.42 m long each. The houses had a somewhat ship-like form as the long walls were bulging outwards. Each house had four entrances, two at the short ends and two in the long walls, and was divided into three rooms with a large central hall (18 x 8 m) and two smaller rooms at the ends. The doors were protected by porches. Besides the large longhouses, there were also smaller houses to the north of the north eastern quarter, two small houses in the inner yard of the northeastern and southwestern quarter and a little square hut, each near the northern and western gates.


Bailey

The bailey of the fortress is unique, as other ring castles do not appear to have a bailey. The bailey was protected by a rampart of its own to the east. The 14 longhouses of the bailey, each 26.33 meters long, were placed with their axis through the length of the buildings pointing to the center of the main castle. In an extension of this bailey is a cemetery of 135 graves. Most of the buried were found to be young men, but a few were women or children. Three graves contains mass burials, one for five and the other for eleven persons. Over two-thirds of the graves had no grave offerings, the others only had few pieces, weapons being rather rare. Only two graves were rich in items. One was a woman's grave with pearls, a bronze bucket, a wood casket and game stones. The other was the grave of a man with a bronze bowl and a silver adorned axe. The large amount of simple graves may indicate a Christian influence. Graves of horsemen were found on surrounding higher grounds.


Excavation and finds

The site was excavated from 1934 to 1942. Most of the finds at Trelleborg, reflects a relatively peaceful daily life here and includes every day utensils such as pottery, locks, keys, fittings, knives, whetstones, combs, weaving weights, scissors and needles. A few craftsmen here were engaged in silver, gold and bronze work of a more delicate nature. Weapons such as iron axes, arrow points and parts of shields were also found and there are strong indications of a battle and castle attack taking place at some point during the castles' short lifespan. 19 arrowheads were found buried deep into the ramparts and gates. Combined with the three mass graves, this is taken as solid evidence. The slain soldiers were quickly buried in the massgraves, many of them showing deep cuts and lethal wounds from close combat weapons. Strontium analysis of the skeletal remains has revealed that a larger part of the dead, originated from what we now know as
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
and
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
and are therefore thought to have been foreign mercenaries, stationed here as castle guards. This discovery falls in line with Harald Bluetooth's strong alliance with the Obotrite Slavs through his marriage with Tove, daughter of prince Mstivoj. Harald later fled to the town of Wolin (then known as Jumne), where he died from his wounds after fighting off his persecutors in 986-87 AD.


Dating

Datings by
dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of chronological dating, dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, ...
, have found the wood used for the constructions to have been felled in the fall of 980 AD and subsequently used for building, presumably in the spring of 981 AD. The rather short construction time and the complete lack of any signs of maintenance, indicate an only short use of the buildings of no more than perhaps 10–15 years. Parts of the fortress, such as the outer eastern rampart was probably never completed before the site was abandoned. Archaeological finds shows that Trelleborg was under attack at some point, resulting in several dead soldiers and signs of fire, suggests the castle might have been destroyed by fire. The regions around the gates show signs of longer usage though. Older, previous datings put the castle near the year 1000 AD.


Today

The landscape surrounding the Trelleborg has changed considerably since the
Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...
, due to a land rise known as
post-glacial rebound Post-glacial rebound (also called isostatic rebound or crustal rebound) is the rise of land masses after the removal of the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period, which had caused isostatic depression. Post-glacial rebound an ...
, affecting this part of the world, and the previous swamp has shrunk to a small bog, while the two rivers of ''Vårby Å'' and ''Tude Å'', has reduced to narrow streams. In 1948, one of the longhouses was reconstructed on the site, but more recent investigations have since led to other opinions on its true original design. Today the site of the Trelleborg is an open-air museum with some buildings for exhibits. The museum was established in 1995, and from 1999-2004 the Danish
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
Kåre Johannessen was the
curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...
at the museum. Slagelse Municipality has recently granted DK 25 mio. to update Trelleborg Museum with digital and virtual technology, in a project known as Ny Trelleborg. The municipality has also initiated a large nature restoration project of the entire
river valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over a ...
of Tude Å, including the trelleborg.


In popular culture

In the book '' Eaters of the Dead'' by
Michael Crichton John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author, screenwriter and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavil ...
, Trelleborg (mentioned as Trelburg) was a stop on Ibn Fadlan's journey. In the footnotes, Crichton confirmed that this was indeed Trelleborg near Slagelse. In the book “Jomsviking” by Norwegian author Bjørn Andreas Bull-Hansen, Trelleborg figures as the base of Danish King Svein Forkbeard at the time of the battle of Svolder.


Bibliography

* Steen Wulff Andersen: ''Vikingeborgen Trelleborg.'' Museet ved Trelleborg, 1995 * Steen Wulff Andersen: ''Trelleborg''. In:
Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ''Germanische Altertumskunde Online'', formerly called ''Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde'', is a German encyclopedia of the study of Germanic history and cultures, as well as the cultures that were in close contact with them. The first ...
Bd. 31. Berlin 2006. S. 157–160. * Bent Jørgensen: ''Et gensyn med navnet Trælleborg''. In: Gillian Fellows-Jensen, Niels Lund: ''Beretning fra fjortene tværfaglige vikingesymposium 1995.'' * Eva Nyman: ''Trælleborg.'' In:
Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ''Germanische Altertumskunde Online'', formerly called ''Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde'', is a German encyclopedia of the study of Germanic history and cultures, as well as the cultures that were in close contact with them. The first ...
Bd. 31. Berlin 2006. S. 118–119.


References


External links


Trelleborg
Nationalmuseet
Trelleborg
Pamphlet from the Trelleborg Museum
Source
{{Viking ring fortresses Viking ring fortresses Buildings and structures in Slagelse Municipality Archaeological sites in Denmark Forts in Denmark Harald Bluetooth Museums in Denmark National Museum of Denmark Viking Age museums