Golden horns of Gallehus
Encyclopedia
The Golden Horns of Gallehus were two horns made of sheet
Sheet metal
Sheet metal is simply metal formed into thin and flat pieces. It is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and can be cut and bent into a variety of different shapes. Countless everyday objects are constructed of the material...
gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, discovered in Gallehus, north of Møgeltønder
Møgeltønder
Møgeltønder is a small town with a population of 896 , located in Møgeltønder Parish and Tønder Municipality in the southwestern corner of the Danish peninsula of Jutland 5 kilometers north of the Danish-German border and 4 kilometer west of Tønder.Møgeltønder is known for the royal residence of...
in South Jutland, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
.
The horns date to the early 5th century, i.e. the beginning of the Germanic Iron Age
Germanic Iron Age
The Germanic Iron Age is the name given to the period 400–800 in Northern Europe and it is part of the continental Age of Migrations.-Germanic Iron :...
.
The horns were found in 1639 and in 1734, respectively, at locations only some 15–20 meters apart. They were composed of segments of double sheet gold. The two horns were found incomplete, the longer one found in 1639 has seven segments with ornaments, to which six plain segments and a plain rim were added, possibly by the 17th century restorer. The shorter horn found in 1734 has six segments, a narrow one bearing a Proto-Norse Elder Futhark
Elder Futhark
The Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...
inscription at the rim and five ornamented with images. It is uncertain whether the horns were intended as drinking horn
Drinking horn
A drinking horn is the horn of a bovid used as a drinking vessel. Drinking horns are known from Classical Antiquity especially in Thrace and the Balkans, and remained in use for ceremonial purposes throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period in some parts of Europe, notably in Germanic...
s, or as blowing horn
Blowing horn
The blowing horn or winding horn is a sound device by and large shaped like a horn or actually a cattle or other animal horn arranged to blow from a hole in the pointed end of it...
s, although drinking horns have more pronounced history as luxury items made from precious metal.
The original horns were stolen and melted down in 1802. Unfortunately, casts made of the horns in the late 18th century were also lost. Replicas of the horns must thus rely on 17th and 18th century drawings exclusively and are accordingly fraught with uncertainty. Nevertheless, replicas of the original horns were produced and are exhibited at the National Museum of Denmark
National Museum of Denmark
The National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen is Denmark’s largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main domicile is located a short distance from Strøget at the center of Copenhagen. It contains exhibits from around the world,...
, Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark and the Moesgaard Museum, near Aarhus
Aarhus
Aarhus or Århus is the second-largest city in Denmark. The principal port of Denmark, Aarhus is on the east side of the peninsula of Jutland in the geographical center of Denmark...
, Denmark. These replicas also have a history of having been stolen and retrieved twice, in 1993 and in 2007.
Description
Both horns consisted of two layers of gold sheet, the inner sheet of lesser quality, amalgamated with silver, the outer sheet of pure gold. The outer sheet was constructed from a number of rings, each covered with cast figures soldered onto the rings, with yet more figures chased into the rings between the larger figures. The second horn bears an Elder FutharkElder Futhark
The Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...
inscription in Proto-Norse which is of great value for Germanic linguistics.
Both horns were once the same length, but a segment of the narrow end of the second (shorter) horn, which was missing when it was found (1734), had already been plowed up and recovered prior to 1639. It also was subsequently melted down and lost.
The longer horn in its restored state was 75.8 cm in length, as measured along the outer perimeter; the opening diameter was 10.4 cm., and the horn weighed 3.2 kg.
Because the casts made of the horns were lost, is uncertain whether the horns were simply curved, whether they had a winding, helix-like curvature like a natural ox-horn.
Runic inscription
The second horn bore the following Elder FutharkElder Futhark
The Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...
inscription (DR 12 †U
Rundata
The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future research...
):
- (1734 drawing after the original)
- (Runic UnicodeUnicodeUnicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
) - ekhlewagastiz:holtijaz:horna:tawido: (transliteration)
This is read as a sentence in Proto-Norse, , translating to "I Hlewagastiz Holtijaz made the horn". This inscription is among the earliest inscriptions in the Elder Futhark that record a full sentence, and the earliest preserving a line of alliterative verse
Alliterative verse
In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal structuring device to unify lines of poetry, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of alliterative verse are those found in the oldest literature of many Germanic...
.
The meaning of the given name
Germanic name
Germanic given names are traditionally dithematic; that is, they are formed from two elements, by joining a prefix and a suffix. For example, King Æþelred's name was derived from æþel, for "noble", and ræd, for "counsel". Many of these names are still used today, while others have fallen out of use...
Hlewagastiz is debated: it may mean either "lee guest" or "fame guest". Holtijaz may either be a patronymic, "son (or descendant) of Holt", or express a characteristic such as "of the wood".
Possible cipher runes
Cipher runes
Cipher runes, or cryptic runes, are the cryptographical replacement of the letters of the runic alphabet.-Preservation:The knowledge of cipher runes was best preserved in Iceland, and during the 17th and the 18th centuries, Icelandic scholars produced several treatises on the subject...
encoding a runic text of 22 letters, although there is no universally accepted decipherment. Hartner (1969) read luba horns ens helpa hjoho, an "apotropaic sentence" translated by Hartner as "may I, the potion of this horn, bring help to the clan".
Iconography
The figures embossed on the horns combine depictions of numerous anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and hybrid motifs. In addition to the main figures which are soldered to the horn, protruding from the horn surface, there are a number of additional figures and ornaments realized by chasing.There are numerous attempts at their interpretation, all of them speculative. Interpretation is especially difficult since it has to rely on the imprecise drawings made before the loss of the original horns. Interpretations usually try to align the iconography with Germanic mythology
Germanic mythology
Germanic mythology is a comprehensive term for myths associated with historical Germanic paganism, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, Continental Germanic mythology, and other versions of the mythologies of the Germanic peoples...
, although Mediterranean (Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
) elements are also cited.
Obvious parallels with Germanic Migration Period art
Migration Period art
Migration Period art denotes the artwork of the Germanic peoples during the Migration period . It includes the Migration art of the Germanic tribes on the continent, as well the start of the Insular art or Hiberno-Saxon art of the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic fusion in the British Isles...
are rather limited. There are large considerable number of serpents, some of them intertwining in the fashion of the wider animal style
Animal style
Animal style art is characterized by its emphasis on animal and bird motifs, and the term describes an approach to decoration which existed from China to Northern Europe in the early Iron Age, and the barbarian art of the Migration Period...
of Dark Age Europe. A figure holding a horn may be compared to the "valkyrie" shown on the Tjängvide image stone
Tjängvide image stone
The Tjängvide image stone, listed in Rundata as Gotland Runic Inscription 110 or G 110, is a Viking Age image stone from Tjängvide , which is about three kilometers west of Ljugarn, Gotland, Sweden.-Description:...
. Two masked figures armed with sword and shield on the smaller horn are reminiscent of other Germanic depictions of sword-dances, e.g. on the Sutton Hoo helmet. Two other armed figures with large horns or antlers may be compared to horned helmet
Horned helmet
European Bronze Age and Iron Age helmets with horns are known from a few depictions, and even fewer actual finds. Such helmets mounted with animal horns or replicas of them were probably used for religious ceremonial or ritual purposes.-Prehistoric Europe:...
iconography, or to the "Cernunnos
Cernunnos
Cernunnos is the conventional name given in Celtic studies to depictions of the horned god of Celtic polytheism. The name itself is only attested once, on the 1st-century Pillar of the Boatmen, but depictions of a horned or antlered figure, often seated in a "lotus position" and often associated...
" figure on the Gundestrup cauldron
Gundestrup cauldron
The Gundestrup cauldron is a richly-decorated silver vessel, thought to date to the 1st century BC, placing it into the late La Tène period. It was found in 1891 in a peat bog near the hamlet of Gundestrup, in the Aars parish in Himmerland, Denmark...
. The peculiar image of a tricephalous figure has been taken as a pagan predecessor of depictions of a tricephalous Christ symbolizing the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
in Christian iconography but is difficult to place in a contemporary context. Olrik (1918) nevertheless recognized a number of Norse gods among the figures, including Tyr, Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
, Thor
Thor
In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
and Freyr
Freyr
Freyr is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with farming, weather and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals"...
.
Frankfurt historian of science Willy Hartner
Willy Hartner
Willy Hartner was a German scientist and polymath.He studied at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, where he obtained his PhD in physics in 1928 and where he later served as professor from 1940, as ordinary professor [German academic terminology] from 1946.In 1943, he founded the Institute for...
in 1969 published an interpretation involving gematria
Gematria
Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like...
and archaeoastronomy
Archaeoastronomy
Archaeoastronomy is the study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky how they used phenomena in the sky and what role the sky played in their cultures." Clive Ruggles argues it is misleading to consider archaeoastronomy to be the study of ancient astronomy, as modern...
, taking many of the figures as representing constellation
Constellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....
s, claiming that the iconography refers to a lunar eclipse of 4 November 412 and a solar eclipse of 16 April 413.
The first horn (A) has figures arranged in seven segments, The second horn (B) has six segments including the narrow one containing the runic inscription around the rim.
| horn | segment | in relief | in chasing |
| A | 1 | two rows of anthropomorphic and theriomorphic figures, including snakes and fish (Hartner's cipher runes) | Two intertwining snakes and five four-pointed stars |
| A | 2 | Five figures, four anthropomorphic, including one on horseback, one armed with a bow, one holding a drinking horn, besides a horse without a rider. | five mythological hybrid figures, |
| A | 3 | an armed figure standing behind a prostrate body (similar to the arrangement on the 4th segment of the second horn), a centaur, and two figures with dogs' heads. | intertwining snake figures, one with a human torso |
| A | 4 | another armed figure and three animals. | five snakes, one four-pointed star |
| A | 5 | two figures playing a board game, with a creature sitting beneath the board, two snakes, and a fish. | four snakes and a number of small stars |
| A | 6 | five images in a row, two of them dogs (of which one is facing a sun or star), the others possibly plants. | |
| A | 7 | three symbols of uncler significance, two plant-like and one like two boards or flags with triple dots or holes | a vertical dotted line, and an arrangement of vertical wavy and zig-zag lines |
| B | 1 | the Elder Futhark inscription | |
| B | 2 | four anthropomorphic figures, all of them armed, two of them with large horns or antlers. Between and below these are a number of theriomorphic figures, one of them with antlers. the two "sword-dancers" had an opening probably intended for a chain for carrying the horn | Scattered among the figures are star symbols with three to eight points and a number of animals, including a fish |
| B | 3 | two anthropomorphic figures, one armed with a bow aiming at an animal figure, and one with three heads holding an axe in one hand, and a rope attached to an antlered or horned animal, perhaps a goat. Three snakes, a large one holding a ball in its mouth and two smaller ones biting the belly of the larger one. Lincoln (1976) takes the tricephalous figure, the tethered horned animal, and the three snakes "lying dead" as a Germanic reflex of the Indo-European dragon Dragon A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern... -slaying and cattle-raiding myth. |
other theriomorphic figures and star symbols. |
| B | 4 | a rider on horseback, another figure holding a sword standing in front of a prostrate body, and a centaur. A horse-like animal with a head on each end and no tail. A curling snake facing or devouring a plant-like item which may represent the wyrm (dragon) Níðhöggr devouring the roots of Yggdrasill | fish shapes and star symbols. |
| B | 5 | a figure holding a large sickle or sword in the left hand, and holding a horse on a tether in the right hand. Two dogs. | boar, bird and fish figures |
| B | 6 | four anthropomorphic figures, one armed with a bow, one with two daggers, one holding its right foot in its right hand, and one apparently decapitated, | four fish figures and eight four-pointed stars. |
Discovery
_harald_slott-mller.jpg)
First horn
The longer horn was discovered on July 20, 1639 by a peasant girl named Kirsten Svendsdatter in the village of Gallehus, near MøgeltønderMøgeltønder
Møgeltønder is a small town with a population of 896 , located in Møgeltønder Parish and Tønder Municipality in the southwestern corner of the Danish peninsula of Jutland 5 kilometers north of the Danish-German border and 4 kilometer west of Tønder.Møgeltønder is known for the royal residence of...
, Denmark when she saw it protrude above the ground. She wrote a letter to King Christian IV of Denmark
Christian IV of Denmark
Christian IV was the king of Denmark-Norway from 1588 until his death. With a reign of more than 59 years, he is the longest-reigning monarch of Denmark, and he is frequently remembered as one of the most popular, ambitious and proactive Danish kings, having initiated many reforms and projects...
who retrieved it and in turn gave it to the Danish prince Christian
Christian V of Denmark
Christian V , was king of Denmark and Norway from 1670 to 1699, the son of Frederick III of Denmark and Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
, who refurbished it into a drinking-horn, adding a golden pommel to be screwed on at the narrow end to close it up.
The Danish antiquarian Olaus Wormius wrote a treatise named De aureo cornu on the first Golden Horn in 1641.
The first preserved sketch of the horn comes from this treatise. Wormius notes that he had not seen the horn in the state in which it was found, and it cannot now be determined whether the rim and the narrow segments devoid of ornamentation were modern additions like the pommel.
In 1678, the horn was described in the Journal des Savants.
Second horn
About 100 years later on April 21, 1734 the other (shorter, damaged) horn was found by Erich Lassen not far from the first horn. He gave it to the count of Schackenborg who in turn delivered it to King Christian VI of DenmarkChristian VI of Denmark
Christian VI was King of Denmark and Norway from 1730 to 1746.He was the son of King Frederick IV of Denmark and Norway and Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow. He married Sophia Magdalen of Brandenburg-Kulmbach and fathered Frederick V.-The reign and personality of Christian VI:To posterity Christian...
and received 200 rigsdaler
Danish rigsdaler
The rigsdaler was the name of several currencies used in Denmark until 1873. The similarly named Reichsthaler, riksdaler and rijksdaalder were used in Germany and Austria-Hungary, Sweden and the Netherlands, respectively....
in return. From this moment both horns were stored at Det kongelige Kunstkammer (The Royal Chamber of Art) at Christiansborg, currently the Danish Rigsarkivet (national archive). The shorter horn was described in a treatise by archivist Richard Joachim Paulli in the same year.
Original horns
On May 4, 1802, the horns were stolen by a goldsmithGoldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...
and watchmaker
Watchmaker
A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since virtually all watches are now factory made, most modern watchmakers solely repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand...
named Niels Heidenreich, who entered a storage area containing the horns using forged keys. Heidenreich took the horns home and melted them down to recycle the gold. The theft was discovered the next day and a bounty of 1,000 rigsdaler was advertised in the papers.
The grandmaster
Master craftsman
A master craftsman or master tradesman was a member of a guild. In the European guild system, only masters were allowed to be members of the guild....
of the goldsmiths guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
, Andreas Holm, suspected that Heidenreich had been involved, since he had tried to sell Holm forged “pagoda
Pagoda (coin)
Pagoda was a unit of currency, a coin made of gold or half gold minted by Indian dynasties as well as the British, the French and the Dutch. It was issued by various dynasties in medieval southern India, including the Kadambas of Hangal, the Kadambas of Goa, and the Vijaynagar Empire.There were two...
s” (Indian coins with god motifs), made from bad gold mixed with brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
. Holm and his colleagues had kept watch on Heidenreich and saw him dump coin stamps in the town moat. He was arrested on April 27, 1803, and confessed on April 30. On June 10, Heidenreich was sentenced to prison, and not released until 1840. He died four years later. His buyers returned the recycled gold, which ended up in coins, not copies of the horns.
However, a set of plaster
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
casts of the horns had been made for a cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, but they had already been lost in a shipwreck off the Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
n coast. Approximate copies were instead created from sketches. The horns pictured above are newer copies, made in 1980.
Copies
In 1993, copies of the horns were stolen from Moesgaard Museum, which were shortly after recovered ditched in a forest near HasselagerHasselager
Hasselager is a small suburban area in the south-western part of Aarhus in Denmark. In practice, the area has largely become one with Kolt, the latter being the primary location of various useful facilities such as supermarkets as well as a small doctor's clinic.The community consists of...
. These copies are made of gilded brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
.
On September 17, 2007, a set of modern gilded
Gilding
The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt"...
silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
copies were stolen from Kongernes Jelling museum at 4:30 in the morning, but were recovered shortly after on September 19, 2007.
Literature
- Arthur Beer: Hartner and the Riddle of the Golden Horns, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 1, p. 139 (1970).
- Ottar GrønvikOttar GrønvikOttar Nicolai Grønvik was a Norwegian philologist and runology scholar.He was a lecturer from 1959 and associate professor from 1965 to 1986, at the University of Oslo. His doctorate thesis which earned him the dr.philos. degre in 1981 was Runene på Tunesteinen...
: Runinskriften på gullhornet fra Gallehus. In: Mal og minne. Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo 1999,1,1-18. - Willy Hartner: Die Goldhörner von Gallehus F. Steiner, Stuttgart (1969), reprint 1998, ISBN 351500078X.
- Heinz Klingenberg: Runenschrift – Schriftdenken – Runeninschriften. Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1973. ISBN 3533021815
- H. F. Nielsen, W. Heizmann, M. Axboe: Gallehus. In: Reallexikon der germanischen AltertumskundeReallexikon der germanischen AltertumskundeThe Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde is an important German-language encyclopedia treating the history of the Germanic peoples from antiquity to the middle ages...
, ed. Heinrich Beck. Bd 10. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin-New York 1998, p. 330 ff. ISBN 3-11-015102-2
External links
- http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/r/reproductions_of_the_gallehus.aspxReproductions at the British MuseumBritish MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
] - The Golden Horns (natmus.dk)