The Viking Age. Volume 1 (of 2): The early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nationsDu Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
History
The Viking Age. Volume 1 (of 2): The early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nations
[Illustration:
Fig. 512.—Ring of gold. Real size.
]
Among the finest and most valuable objects found in the North were the
two superb golden horns discovered at Mögeltönder on the peninsula of
Jutland, which were once the pride of the great Museum of Northern
Antiquities in Copenhagen.
They were without equals in any part of the world; their exterior was
made of different bands of gold, with figures in repoussé work, fastened
to the harder gold of the body of the horn. Both were stolen from the
old Danish Museum on the 4th of May, 1802, and the ignorant thief melted
them; thus those two superb specimens were for ever lost to science, and
with an unfortunate fatality the cast of each has also been lost; but
luckily the drawings made can be relied on. The thief was captured a
year after, and his punishment was not adequate to the crime he had
committed.
The representations given upon them must have had a meaning; these were
symbolical, and were probably very significant and not used for mere
ornamentation; what the figures and symbolical signs meant is impossible
for us to tell. Among the most remarkable of the former is the
three-headed man, holding in one hand what appears to be an axe, while
with the other he leads some kind of horned animal.
[Illustration:
Fig. 513.—Golden horn discovered at Mögeltönder, 1639, with thirteen
broad rings round it. Length, 2 feet 9 inches; weight over 7 lbs.
⅕ real size.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 514.—Golden horn discovered at Mögeltönder, 1734. The exact
length of this horn, which had round its broadest end an inscription
in earlier runes, has not been stated, but, judging from a
_facsimile_ in silver gilt made by command of Frederick VII. from
the old drawing, and presented by him to the old Northern Museum, it
must have been over 20 inches long. Though the lower part was broken
off and lost, it still weighed more than 8 lbs.
⅕ real size.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 515.—Inscription in earlier runes on horn.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 516.—Facsimile of each ring of the damaged horn (Fig. 514).
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 517.—Facsimile of the rings of the perfect horn (Fig. 513).
]
_Bangstrup Find (Fyen)._—Conspicuous among many remarkable finds is the
Bangstrup find (Fyen, 1865), in which rings of gold used as money,
ornaments of peculiar shape, and 46 gold Roman coins, which were pierced
or had a loop attached to the top, were discovered. The coins, ranging
from the time of Trajanus Decius (249–251) to that of Constantine II.
(337–351), give an approximate idea of the time of the deposit of the
find; for, while most of the earlier coins are well worn, the later ones
are very well preserved and the coinage is very sharp and clear, thus
indicating that they cannot have been long in circulation. As the dates
of these later coins are about 340–350, the find cannot have been buried
much later than that time.
[Illustration:
307–323.
Fig. 518.
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