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From: alahelma@cc.Helsinki.FI (Antti Lahelma)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic,soc.answers,news.answers
Subject: soc.culture.nordic FAQ, part 3/8 (Denmark)
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Date: 15 Feb 1995 16:31:18 +0200
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Summary: This posting is a part of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
file for the newsgroup soc.culture.nordic. Its purpose is to
introduce new readers to the group, provide some general information
about the Nordic countries (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and
Iceland) and to cover some of the topics frequently discussed in
the group.
Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu soc.culture.nordic:34970 soc.answers:2554 news.answers:35134
Archive-name: nordic-faq/denmark
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Version: 1.0
A Frequently Asked 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 ***
------------------------------
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
Natural resources: crude oil, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone
Land boundaries: Germany
Pop.: 5,132,626 (1991)
Life expectancy: male: 73, female: 79 (1991)
Capital: København (Copenhagen) (pop. 1.4 mill, including suburbs)
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'; the oldest flag
in the world to be still in use. All Nordic flags except the
Greenland flag are variations of the 'Dannebrog')
Type: Constitutional monarchy
Head of state: Queen Margrethe II
Languages: Danish (official), German
Currency: krone (Danish crown, DKK). 1USD = 6.12 DKK (Jul 1994)
Climate: temperate sea-climate. Average temp. in Copenhagen:
-3C - 2C in Feb., and 14C - 22C in June.
Religion: Evangelic-Lutheran (91%, 1988) (official state-religion)
Exports: meat, dairy products, fish, machinery, electronics, chemicals,
furniture
------------------------------
Subject: 3.2 General information
Denmark is the southernmost of the Nordic countries. 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 Sealand
(Sjælland) (on which Copenhagen is located) and Funen (Fyn). It 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; 3/4 of Denmark is arable land. Animal husbandry
is especially important for Denmark; sausages, bacon and butter being
the most famous products. Danish design is world famous, and Denmark has
oil rigs in the North Sea.
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. 46,000). Eskimos form the largest group of Greenlanders; the inhabi-
tants of Faroe Islands descend from the Viking settlers who arrived in
the 9th century and the pre-existing Celtic population.
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 culture is more Central European than that of other Nordic countries.
Important figures in Danish culture 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).
The parliamentary system is 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 less 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.
------------------------------
Subject: 3.3 History
A chronology of important dates:
800-1050 Viking age. Danes raid England, France and Spain.
983 Harald Blaatand ("blue-tooth") unites Denmark and Norway as
a single kingdom.
1013 The king Sven Tveskaeg ("double-beard") conquers England,
which remains in Danish control until the year 1042.
1018-35 Knud den Store (Canute the Great), king of Denmark and England.
1219 King Valdemar II Sejr conquers northern Estonia. According to
legend, the Danish flag 'Dannebrog' fell down from the sky while
laying siege to the the Estonian fortress of Lindanise.
1346 After an Estonian uprising, Denmark sells its possessions in
Northern Estonia to the Order of Teutonic Knights.
1361 King Valdemar IV Atterdag conquers Gotland.
1397 The Danish Queen Margrethe I unites all the Nordic countries
as a single kingdom, the Kalmar Union.
1460-74 The Danish King Christian I becomes Duke of the German
duchies of Schleswig (1460) and Holstein (1474).
1523 The Kalmar Union breaks apart when 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 'War of the Counts'
between rivals to throne follows. Frederik's 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. Halland is
ceded for 30 years.
1658 In the peace treaty of Roskilde, Denmark-Norway cedes Skåne,
Halland, Blekinge, Bohuslän, and Trøndelag to Sweden
after a failed war against Sweden declared by king Frederik
III the year before.
1658-60 After the peace treaty Sweden continues the war and besieges
Copenhagen for two years. However, after an uprising Bornholm
returns to Denmark and Trøndelag to Norway.
1675-59 In the 'war of Scania' and later in the 'Great Northern War'
1700-21 Denmark tries to conquer back the territory lost in 1658
but is unsuccessful due to pressure from the great powers
of Europe.
1773 Denmarks obtains the whole of Schleswig in exchange for
Oldenburg.
April 1801 The battle of the Roadstead of Copenhagen (Slaget på Reden).
The British forced Denmark to retreat from the Armed Neutral
Alliance with Sweden and Russia. Nelson in charge of the part
of the British fleet participating in the battle.
September 1807 The British under Wellington bombard Copenhagen, to make
Denmark cede its navy. Denmark becoms a French ally.
1813-14 The alliance with Napoleon becomes a disaster for Denmark:
The country goes bankrupt. In the peace treaty of Kiel,
Denmark has to cede Norway to Sweden. Iceland, Greenland,
and the Faroe Islands remain with Denmark. Denmark also get
Swedish Pomerania which is traded with Prussia to Lauenburg.
1848-51 The 'first war of Schleswig' ends with a status quo. Denmark
still controls the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and
Lauenburg.
1849 Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy, with the power
divided between the King and the parliament.
1863-64 Denmark adopts the 'November Constitution' which aims to
unite Schleswig with the Danish Kingdom and therefore is a
breach of the peace treaty of 1851. Due to this, Prussia
and Austria declare war and conquer Schleswig, Holstein,
and Lauenburg in the 'second war of Schleswig'.
1901 'Parliamentarism' is introduced: No goverment can rule against
the majority of the paraliament.
1914-18 Denmark remains neutral during World War I.
1917 Denmark sells its three Caribbean islands to the USA for
25 million dollars (the present-day US Virgin Islands).
1920 The northern part of Schleswig / Sønderjylland is rejoined
with Denmark after a referendum.
1940 9th of April, Germany occupies Denmark; the Danish government
gives up military resistance.
1943 It comes to a final break between the Danish Government and
the occupying German forces. Most of the Danish Jews are
evacuated to Sweden. Local resistance groups perform a number
of sabotage actions during the war.
1944 Iceland breaks away from union with Denmark and declares
independence.
1945 4-5th of May: The German forces in Denmark surrender to
Britain. The end of World War II and the German occupation
of Denmark. The German forces on Bornholm refuse to surrender
to the Red Army, and Bornholm has to suffer Soviet bombardment
before the Germans finally surrender a few days later.
1948 The Faroe Islands are granted autonomy within the Danish
Kingdom.
1949 Denmark joins NATO as one of the founding members.
1953 A new constitution changes the status of Greenland from colony
to a 'county' (amt) of Denmark. Parliament changes from a two-
chamber system to a single-chamber system. By the same consti-
tutional changes, Princess Margrethe becomes heir to the
throne. The Nordic Council founded.
1972 Denmark joins the European Community (EC) after a referendum.
1979 Greenland is granted home rule and starts taking over some of
its internal affairs.
1992 In a referendum Denmark votes "NO" to the Maastricht treaty
which was aiming for a more federalized European Union. The
"NO" shook the whole European Community.
1993 A new referendum on the Maastricht treaty - allowing Denmark
to opt out on issues like common European currency, citizen-
ship, defense policy, and police - is arranged and Denmark
votes "YES" to that.
Note: Present-day (i.e., Swedish respectively German) spellings for the
former Danish/Norwegian landscapes and Danish controlled duchies have
been used.
Denmark is probably the only country in the world that can produce an uninter-
rupted list of monarchs for more than thousand years. So here goes:
3.3.1 The list of Danish monarchs:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chochilaichus (Hugleik?) mentioned 515
Ongendeus (Angantyr? or Yngvin?), mentioned in the beginning
of the 8th century
Sigfred mentioned in the end of the 8th century
Gudfred died around 810, mentioned 804
Hemming 810-812
Harald Klak 812-813
Sons of Gudfred mentioned 813-817
Hårik I (Horik) died 854, mentioned from 827
Hårik II (Horik) 854-around 870
Helge
Olav mentioned in the 890's
Gnupa (Chnob) and Gurd mentioned 909-919
Sigtryg
Hardeknud (Hardegon)
Gorm den Gamle died around 940
Harald I Blåtand around 940-around 986
Svend I Tveskæg around 986-1014
Harald II 1014-1018
Knud I den Store 1018-1035
Hardeknud 1035-1042
Magnus den Gode 1042-1047
Svend II Estridsen 1047-1074
Harald III Hen 1074-1080
Knud II den Hellige 1080-1086
Oluf I Hunger 1086-1095
Erik I Ejegod 1095-1103
Niels 1104-1134
Erik II Emune 1134-1137
Erik III Lam 1137-1146
Oluf II Haraldsen 1140-1143
Svend III Grathe 1146-1157
Knud III 1146-1151 and 1154-1157
Valdemar I den Store 1154-1182
Knud IV (VI) 1182-1202
Valdemar II Sejr 1202-1241
Erik IV Plovpenning 1241-1250
Abel 1250-1252
Christoffer I 1252-1259
Erik V Klipping 1259-1286
Erik VI Menved 1286-1319
Christoffer II 1320-1326 and 1330-1332
Valdemar III 1326-1330
Valdemar IV Atterdag 1340-1375
Oluf III 1376-1387
Margrethe I 1375-1412
Erik VII af Pommern 1396-1439
Christoffer III af Bayern 1440-1448
Christian (Christiern) I 1448-1481
Hans 1481-1513
Christian (Christiern) II 1513-1523
Frederik I 1523-1533
Christian III 1534-1559
Frederik II 1559-1588
Christian IV 1588-1648
Frederik III 1648-1670
Christian V 1670-1699
Frederik IV 1699-1730
Christian VI 1730-1746
Frederik V 1746-1766
Christian VII 1766-1808
Frederik VI 1808-1839
Christian VIII 1839-1848
Frederik VII 1848-1863
Christian IX 1863-1906
Frederik VIII 1906-1912
Christain X 1912-1947
Frederik IX 1947-1972
Margrethe II 1972-
------------------------------
Subject: 3.4 Main tourist attractions
[by Jens Chr. Madsen>
3.4.1 Getting there and getting around
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copenhagen Airport has a large number of connections to destinations within
the Nordic Countries and the rest of the world. Numerous ferries connect
Denmark to Britain, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Germany; and of course
there is also a 'land connection' from Germany. There are several daily
direct trains to Denmark from Germany and Sweden. Due to the country's
modest size and general topography it is easy to get around in Denmark, be
it by bicycle, car, or public transportation.
Denmark is an almost ideal country for bikers: Relatively short distances,
practically no steep roads, and a dense network of bike paths and small
country roads. Even large cities are bicycle-friendly (compared to many
other countries at least) with bike paths on most major streets. The
reason for this, of course, is that a significant number of Danes from
all groups of society commute by bicycle.
There is not much to be said about travelling by car in Denmark, except
that you should be aware of the large number of bicycles, as mentioned
above. *Please* be careful and look for bicycles, especially when you
make a right turn. Apart from that, the most special thing about driving
a car in Denmark is that you will have to get on a ferry if you intend
to travel between the western (Jutland, Funen) and eastern (Sealand,
Lolland, Falster) parts of the country. The shortest and busiest crossing
is between Halsskov on Sealand and Knudshoved on Funen. That crossing
will be replaced by a bridge-tunnel system in a few years (train
connection to open in 1996). There are also a number of ferries between
Sealand and Jutland - Ebeltoft-Odden is the shortest and most frequent.
Travelling by air in Denmark is also possible of course; all domestic
flights go to/from Copenhagen and none of them is longer that 45 minutes.
You do save som time, but often at a rather high price. However, there
are often some good offers during the summer holiday period, so especially
if you are going to Bornholm or Ålborg from Copenhagen, flying there
might be worth considering.
Otherwise, public long-distance travelling is done by train (there are,
however, a few coach lines from Copenhagen to Århus, Ålborg, and
Fjerritslev; 2-3 departures per day and prices approximately as for the
train). There is an hourly intercity train service connecting cities on
'the main line' from Copenhagen via Odense and Århus to Ålborg.
Intercity services to other larger cities in Jutland normally run every two
hours. (The intercity trains are transferred on the ferry between Sealand
and Funen. The concept of putting a passenger train on a ferry is possibly
unique to Denmark; international trains from Copenhagen to Sweden or Germany
also travel onboard ferries.) In addition to the intercity, there are
regional trains every hour on most lines. Short distance travelling is
mostly done by bus.
3.4.2 Copenhagen, Sealand and surrounding islands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Durant Imboden
- Copenhagen: Frilandsmuseet (the Open-Air Museum),
either the Carlsberg or Tuborg brewery, the "alternative city" of
Christiania, Tivoli, and the Bakken amusement park.
- Hillerød: Frederiksborg Castle
- Roskilde: the cathedral and, as long as you're there, the Viking Ship Museum.
- Louisiana art museum has excellent collections of modern art, while
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek concentrates on older sculpture and painting.
- The view from the top of the City Hall (Radhuset) is not to be missed.
3.4.3 Bornholm
~~~~~~~~
From: Durant Imboden
- Bornholm: an island in the Baltic, easily reached by overnight ferry from
the Copenhagen waterfront. Well worth a few days--or even a week, if you're in
a mood for leisurely exploration. (There's also a ferry from Bornholm to
Sweden, making Bornholm a convenient stopover on a tour through Scandinavia.)
3.4.4 Funen and surrounding islands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3.4.5 Jutland
~~~~~~~
Compared to Sealand and Copenhagen, Jutland has not many castles etc. to
offer. Jutland's main asset is the nature, which spans a wide spectrum from
lakes, hills, and forests (very like the landscape of Sealand and Funen) to
heaths, moors, marsh and dunes, unique to the Jutland landscape. Some of
Europe's finest beaches are found on Jutland's North Sea coast.
Here is a brief description of some of the attractions in Jutland - going
from south to north.
- Sønderjylland:
This part of the country was the northern part of the duchy of Schleswig -
a Danish 'dominion'. It was ceded from 1864 to 1920 (see history section)
and became reunified with Denmark after a referendum. Close to Sønderborg,
the windmill and embankments of Dybbøl is part of the national heritage.
It was here that Denmark was defeated in the 1864 war against Austria and
Prussia. Further west, the marshlands and dikes form a unique landscape with
an abundant bird life. The islands of Rømø and Fanø are popular
resorts.
- Vejle and the Jelling Stones:
In south-east Jutland the city of Vejle is a good starting point for an
excursion. On both sides of the Vejle Fjord there are beautiful beech
forests with some (for Danish conditions) unusually steep hills. The train
from Vejle to Jelling will take you through the Grejs Valley; again with
some unusually hilly terrain and beautiful forests. In the village of
Jelling the 'Birth Certificate' of Denmark can be studied: Two large stones
with runic inscriptions set by King Harald Blåtand for his father Gorm
den Gamle (Gorm the Old) and his mother Thyra. The inscriptions on the
stones are some of the oldest known writings in 'Danish' translating
approximately as: "Harald had this stone made, for his father Gorm and his
mother Thyra; the Harald who united all of Denmark and Norway and
christianized the Danes". Two large burial mounds adjacent to the stones
are popularly believed to be the graves of Gorm and Thyra.
- Billund:
About 28 km west of Vejle is the small (but world famous) town of Billund -
home to the Lego factories and Legoland. It's not just for kids. The
centerpiece is "Miniland", a great many models of cities, palaces, and
harbors, all made of Legos and constructed in scale of 20-to-1. The
Amalienborg Palace is there, and Bavaria's Neuschwandstein Castle, and a
Dutch town, and a Norwegian fishing village, and an oil refinery, and
trains, and Mount Rushmore, and the U.S. Capitol, and zebras, and rabbits,
and many more. Many of the exhibits have moving parts: boats are drawn
up into dry dock, trucks pick up loads, bridges rise and fall, and so on.
The DSB (state railway) sells a very attractively priced ticket at the
central train station in Copenhagen: DKK 344 round trip (as of May 1994),
including transfer to the Vejle-Billund bus and admission to the park.
The town also has Denmark's second largest airport with many European
connections. 'Museum Center Billund' houses a collection of vintage cars
and aircraft.
- "Lake District":
Further north-east you enter the 'Jutland Highlands' and the 'Lake
District' - the area between Horsens, Silkeborg, and Skanderborg. The
world's oldest still-operating paddle steamer will take you on a
sightseeing tour of the lakes. On the southern shore of one of the lakes
is 'Sky Mountain' (Himmel-bjerget), so named for its astonishing height
-- 147 metres! There is a nice look-out from the tower on top of
Himmelbjerget.
- Århus:
North-east of the Lake District is Århus, Denmark's second city, which
offers a wide range of things worth seeing.
The Moesgaard Museum is located in a forest some 15 km south of the city
center (bus #6) and it gives a splendid display of prehistoric Denmark. The
museum's main attraction is the Grauballe Man, a ~2000 year old body found
in a bog in eastern Jutland in 1952. Also in the city center you will find
museums, e.g. the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Art, both
located in the southern part of the university campus (which BTW is well
worth visiting in its own right). You will also find lots of restaurants,
cafes, places with live music etc. The concert hall (Musikhuset) opposite
the City Hall was completed in 1982 and is home to the Jutland Opera and the
Århus Symphony Orchestra.
The university campus is both a beautiful park and a good example of
Danish architechture (by Danish architecht C.F.Møller). The university
is an architectural unity where there is no random mixing of different styles
like at many other campuses; the same simple (some might say barren) design
with yellow bricks has been maintained right from the first buildings of the
1930's to present-day new constructions.
Århus' main attraction, however, has to be the museum 'The Old Town'
(Den Gamle By). This is a collection of old houses from all over Denmark,
carefully dismantled at their original site and re-erected at this open-air
museum adjacent to the Botanical Gardens, within walking distance from the
city center.
- The "Mid West":
In the central and western parts of Jutland you find the infertile moor
which is probably the closest Denmark has to a 'wilderness'. In late summer
the purple heather provides a nice setting for a long hike. Last century
large parts of the moor were converted into plantations and farmland. This
was a consequence of the defeat in the war in 1864; the pioneer of moor
plantation E. M. Dalgas put it like this (approximately): "What was lost
abroad must be won at home".
West of Viborg there are two old chalk mines (Daugbjerg and Mønsted)
with guided tours. Furter west there is an open-air museum at Hjerl Hede
with a display of iron age life. At the west coast the large lagoon
Ringkøbing Fjord is home to a bird sanctuary - Tipperne. Also the tounge
of land separating the Fjord from the North Sea is a popular resort.
- The Limfjord and Himmerland:
The western part of the Limfjord is great for yachting. The island of
Mors in the Limfjord has many splendid landscapes, e.g., the cliff of
Hanklit at the northern part of the island. The porous clay (called mo-ler)
of this cliff consists of zillions of fossilized diatomers, and this type
of clay is not found anywhere else in the World. Another large bird
sanctuary can be found at Bygholm Vejle 20 km east of the city of Thisted.
This marshland is a result of a failed draining project, and the would-
have-been farmland is now left in a "neither land nor fjord" state.
Close to the city Hobro between Århus and Ålborg you find the
remains of a circular viking fort called 'Fyrkat'. A viking house has been
rebuilt there as accurately as possible.
In the middle of Himmerland (the landscape between Hobro and Ålborg)
the Rold Forest and the Rebild Hills (Rebild Bakker) are found. Every year,
the beautiful hills at Rebild are home to what is said to be the largest
4th of July celebration outside the USA. There is also a small museum
showing aspects of life of Danish immigrants in the USA in the 19th century.
- Ålborg and Nørresundby:
Like Århus, the city of Ålborg at the eastern part of the Limfjord
provides lots of city entertainment like bars, restaurants, museums, a zoo
and an amusement park. On the northern side of the Limfjord in Nørresundby
is one of Scandinavia's largest Viking burial sites, the 'Lindholm Hills'
(Lindholm Høje). The remains of a big town from 600-1100 AD have been
found.
For more information on Ålborg have a look at:
http://www.iesd.auc.dk/general/aalborg_guide.html
- North of the Limfjord - Vendsyssel:
As mentioned, the west coast of Jutland is more or less one long beach.
Especially the beaches of northern Jutland - facing the Skagerrak - are
exellent. But treat the ocean with respect; each year people unfamiliar with
the North Sea do silly things like drifting to sea on air mattresses etc.
Also, the surf and current can be strong some days. The resorts of Blokhus
and Løkken are among the most popular (and thus the most crowded) in
Scandinavia. Løkken offers a range of hotels and camp grounds as well
as restaurants and some night life.
Further north, the small hamlet of Lønstrup is a scaled-down version
of Løkken; however, the coast line is somewhat different with rather
steep slopes and cliffs. Just south of Lønstrup there is an old light-
house at Rubjerg Knude. The lighthouse was abandoned in 1968 when the sand
dunes grew taller than the lighthouse itself. Some years ago it was
converted into a museum with displays on the problems of sand migration,
but it will now have to close because of ... yes, sand migration.
The city of Hirtshals is one of Denmark's most important fishing ports
and a gateway to Norway with ferries to Kristiansand and Oslo. In 1981 a
large North Sea research center was built, housing a lot of Denmark's
fishing research. The center also houses the North Sea Museum - a nice
exhibition and aquarium (including seals), situated close to the highway
leading to the ferry terminal. The Hjørring-Hirtshals railway also stops
at the North Sea Center.
The coast line between Hirtshals and Skagen also has some excellent
beaches, which are generally much less crowded than the ones in Blokhus
or Løkken. Approaching Skagen, one passes the migrating dune of
'Råbjerg Mile'. It is the largest of its kind in northern Europe and
gives you a small-scale Sahara feeling. The dune migrates a distance of
8-10 m per year. Also, between Råbjerg Mile and Skagen you will find
"the buried church"; a church abandoned due to problems with sand migration.
Skagen at the very top of Denmark was probably the first Danish holiday
resort. In the last century it became popular with a school of Scandinavian
painters, who were attracted to Skagen because of the special light and
reflections the two seas (Skagerrak and Kattegat) give. (If the weather
conditions are right you can see waves from the two seas engage in a
head-on collision off the tip of Grenen.) The Museum of Skagen houses a
fine collection of the work of the Skagen painters. Another - partly
outdoor - museum 'Skagens Fortidsminder' gives a good impression of the
local culture and history, which is almost 100% based on fishing.
Approximately 40 km south of Skagen is the city of Frederikshavn, naval
base and home to Denmark's ice breakers. Frederikshavn has ferry connections
to Larvik, Oslo, and Moss (Norway) and to Göteborg (Sweden).
------------------------------
Subject: 3.5 Addresses; Internet and regular mail
INTERNET
--------
* e-mail addresses *
jensen@mv.us.adobe.com (Freddy Jensen) runs a Danish mailing-list.
He writes:
The purpose of the list is, for Danes and other Danish speaking people
living abroad, to maintain and cultivate our Danish cultural and
professional interests. All communication takes place mostly in Danish.
There is at the moment more than 500 members on the list, and we are
spread out all over the world. Most of us, though, are living here in
the United States but we also have members in Scotland, England, Canada,
France, Australia, Japan, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Ireland,
Hungary, Italy, Belgium, and Denmark.
The list is mostly of interest for Danes who are living abroad, but
anyone is of course welcome to be on the list.
If you have questions about the list or want to be added to it, send
mail to Freddy or dansk-request@sysadmin.com
* Gopher *
This URL leads to a lot of nice stuff in Denmark
gopher://gopher.denet.dk/
DK-Net's gopher server:
gopher://gopher.dknet.dk/
* FTP *
ftp.dknet.dk (DK-Net's FTP server)
osiris.dknet.dk (DE-Net's FTP server)
* WWW *
DK-Net's WWW server:
http://www.dknet.dk/
DE-Net's WWW server:
http://info.denet.dk/
REGULAR MAIL
------------
- Tourist information
Danish Tourist Board
Vesterbrogade 6 D
Copenhagen, 1620 Denmark
phone: +45-33-11-14-15; FAX +45-33-93-14-16
Danish Tourist Board (Canada, Toronto)
P.O. Box 115, Station N
Toronto, ON
phone: +1-416-823-9620
Danish Tourist Board (USA)
655 Third Ave.
New York, NY 10017
phone: +1-212-949-2326; FAX +1-212-983-5260
Koebenhavns Turistinformation (Copenhagen)
Bernstorffsgade 1
1577 Koebenhavn V
Denmark
phone: +45-33-11-13-25; fax: +45 33 93 49 69, fax: +45 33 12 97 33
(These people are very helpful and pass stuff on to proper recipients)
- Hotel booking
Easy Book (the whole country)
Aarhusgade 33-35
2100 KOebenhavn OE
Denmark
phone: +45 31 38 00 37
fax: +45 31 38 06 37
Hotelbooking Koebenhavn (only in Copenhagen)
Vesterbrogade 3
1620 Koebenhavn V
Denmark
phone: +45 33 12 28 80
fax: +45 33 12 97 23
- Booking rooms in private homes
Use It
Youth Information Copenhagen
Raadhusstraede 13
1466 Ko/benhavn K
phone: 33 15 65 18
(serves all ages despite the name)
- Youth hostel organizations & stuff for wanderers
Landsforeningen Dansk Vandrelaug
Kultorvet 7
1175 Koebenhavn K
Denmark
phone: +45 33 12 11 65
fax: +45 33 13 11 65
(an association for users of youth hostels)
Campingraadet
Hesseloegade 16
2100 Koebenhavn OE
Denmark
phone: +45 36 27 88 44
(an association for users of camping sites)
Dansk Cyklist Forbund
Roemersgade 7
1362 Koebenhavn K
Denmark
phone: +45 33 32 31 21
(an association for bicycle fanatics)
Hosteling information is also available at Use It (see above).
------------------------------
Subject: 3.6 Danish literature, language, etc.
3.6.1 The Danish alphabet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Danish has three additional letters compared to the English alphabet: æ,
ø, and å (see the section 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 (horn@login.dkuug.dk) 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 ency-
clopaedia, 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".
3.6.2 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 have works 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, modern 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' indicates 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!
3.6.3 Danish literature
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3.6.4 Books for learning Danish
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dictionaries:
Gyldendals røde ordbøger (Gyldendal's red dictionaries)
Dansk-engelsk, ISBN 87-00-73972-3 (niende udgave, 10. oplag)
Engelsk-dansk, ISBN 87-01-09312-2 (11. udgave, 6. oplag)
These dictionaries are very much the standard dictionaries in use.
In the same series Gyldendal publishes Danish-German and Danish-French
dictionaries plus a couple of others.
They are, however, rather expensive in the States (over 100 dollars the
pair). Persons who are just starting out might buy the yellow pocket-size
Berlitz dictionary, available in many bookstores. Unlike the Gyldendals
books, it does indicate pronunciation, which can be a help to students.
Readers might want to stay away from the Hippocrene Practical Dictionary,
which does not indicate the genders of nouns.
Books for learning Danish:
Teach Yourself Danish, by H. A. Koefoed
Colloquial Danish, by W Glyn Jones and Kirsten Gade
(available in pack of book + 2 cassettes, from the
publisher, Routledge: +1 212 244-3336 in New York;
there's also a London office)
Danish: A Grammar (same authors) (published by Gyldendal)
(available with cassettes and workbook)
A source in the U.S. for dictionaries and grammars of Nordic and other
languages is
IBD limited
24 Hudson Street
Kinderhook NY 12106
phone in USA: 1-800-343-3531
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