Faith helped in daily life. In the early stages of Christianity in the eleventh century, the priest’s ability to influence everyday life was taken extremely literally. In a letter to the Danish king in 1080, the pope complained that the Danes blamed the clergy for a failed harvest, storms and disease. This practice gradually stopped, but the priest remained active in blessing livestock and crops. Christian beliefs were combined with magic, seen from archaeological finds of lead amulets with inscriptions that summoned demons or were intended to protect the wearer against elves and trolls. A wooden magic stick from around 1300, excavated in Ribe, invoked the earth and the sky, the sun, Mary and God to heal a disease and banish it to a rock named Black, which stood out in the sea. Danes did not do everything according to the Bible, but the Christian faith certainly dominated their lives in the Middle Ages.

The art of writing and the technology to make writing possible spread throughout the Middle Ages. This fresco in Keldby Church on the island of Møn, c. 1325, depicts a writer holding an inkhorn. His doctoral hat shows that he is a learned man. Drawing: J. Kornerup, National Museum of Denmark, kalkmalerier.dk   

Language and books

New developments were reflected linguistically in new words. Danes borrowed words such as sjæl (soul), nåde (grace) and dåb (baptism) from other European languages, and baptism now became unavoidable for all. Unbaptised individuals were regarded as heathens. The newly learned words were used. At Klemensker Church on Bornholm, a rune stone from around 1100 carries the inscription ‘Gunhild had this stone raised in memory of Ødbjørn, her husband. Christ help Ødbjørn’s soul into light and paradise. Christ and St Michael help the souls of Ødbjørn and Gunhild into light and paradise’. Runic inscriptions on stones had existed for a long time, so even though the word ‘writing’ (skrift) came with Christianity, being able to write was nothing new. As the written Latin word began to prevail, however, a book culture emerged.

The oldest surviving book written in Denmark contains the four gospels in Latin and was completed shortly after 1066 in Dalby Monastery in Skåne. In the early centuries of the Middle Ages, monasteries and bishoprics began busily producing ecclesiastical texts, chronicles and church inventories. According to the Øm Abbey chronicle, at the end of the twelfth century, Bishop Svend of Aarhus ‘had parchment prepared’ and ‘paid scribes and book illustrators’. A highpoint in the writing of ecclesiastical texts was reached with Archbishop Anders Sunesen’s poem Hexaemeron from around 1200, which, in splendid Latin, told the story of the six days of creation and constituted a scholarly text on a par with the most advanced theology of the time.

Parchment charters

The issuing of formally constructed and sealed parchment letters or charters in Latin was a skill that also came from the clergy. An example of such a document is the previously mentioned charter from 1085, in which Knud the Holy handed land over to Lund Church in Skåne, which was under construction as a bishop’s church. In the Early Middle Ages, the king had to make do with the assistance of a clerical minister, a chaplain, when he wished to write letters, but, from the Age of the Valdemars (1157–1241), a proper administrative office for this task emerged, led by the chancellor. Correspondence from the king was now routinely sent abroad and to the local administration. Saxo describes how King Valdemar I (the Great), whilst hunting on the island of Samsø, wrote a letter to his adviser Bishop Absalon on Sjælland to ask him to come and discuss some government matters. Thanks to writing, there was less need for the king to be personally present.

Another testament to the importance of writing is the above--mentioned Danish Census Book, Kong Valdemars Jordebog, from c. 1231, which was a central register of royal revenues and moreover relied on local written reports. Naturally enough, in the thirteenth century, the practice of sending written and sealed letters spread to the secular aristocracy and townspeople.

The beginning of historical writing

The first written accounts of Danish history emerged in the Church, in Latin. In the cathedrals and monasteries of the twelfth century, hagiographies and chronicles were produced, and, around 1138, the first coherent history of Denmark was written in the form of the Chronicle of Roskilde. This chronicle and other sources were subsequently used by Svend Aggesen and Saxo Grammaticus in their narrative works.

Svend Aggesen’s work Brevis Historia Regum Dacie (The Brief History of the Kings of Denmark) began with the legendary kings and ended with contemporary history in 1185. In this text, Svend was primarily interested in highlighting the kingdom’s age and heredity, as well as the independence of the Danes in relation to German arrogance.

On this point, Saxo Grammaticus was in line with Svend Aggesen. However, Saxo – who prior to c. 1208 wrote Gesta Danorum (The History of the Danes) on the invitation of Archbishop Absalon – had even greater ambitions. He begins by explaining why he wrote: ‘Because other nations are in the habit of vaunting the fame of their achievements, and joy in collecting their ancestors, Absalon, archbishop of Denmark, had always been fired with a passionate zeal to glorify our fatherland; he would not allow it to go without some noble document of this kind and, since everyone else refused the task, the work of compiling a history of the Danes was thrown upon me’.

Inspired by Roman Latin writers, Saxo’s great work provided a history of Denmark from ancient times to around 1185. His aim was to show how the Danish kingdom constituted a Nordic parallel to the ancient Roman empire and was independent from the contemporary German empire, as well as how the Danish Church achieved its independence. He also intended to portray the righteous path to power of Valdemar I (the Great) and Absalon with the Hvide family, and how they ruled the kingdom in the best possible manner. A highlight of this work is the depiction of the conquest of the Slavic island of Rügen in 1168. The reliability of Saxo’s sources and the partiality of his account is open to debate, but his work is indispensable and remains an object of intense exploration.

♦ The High Middle Ages as a precondition

The High Middle Ages (1050–1340) was the period in which the Danish kingdom assumed a more stable form and experienced economic and cultural growth. This is an image acquired through the work of Saxo Grammaticus, among others, but it is also supported by all the available written and archaeological sources. Against this background, it may seem paradoxical that, at the end of the period in the 1330s, the royal regime was in ruins, the country was divided into small units and there were already signs of the economic and demographic crisis of the Late Middle Ages, which is explored in the next chapter.

It is, however, the nature of history that it is not linear but moves in waves. Out of disaster came renewed growth in the second half of the fourteenth century, and a Danish state that stood as the centre of the Nordic region and was a significant player in European politics. The precondition for this was the history of the High Middle Ages. It was during this period that the monarchy took shape and began to build a more stable administration. Denmark became part of Christian culture, and the Catholic Church remained dominant until the Reformation in 1536. The parishes and church buildings that continue to characterise the country today were built in the early centuries of the Middle Ages, and the social structure that was established during this period was to endure for several centuries. First and foremost, the High Middle Ages saw the creation of a wealthy, land-owning aristocracy that would influence Danish society until modern times. In addition, agricultural practices and techniques assumed a form that lasted until the nineteenth century in many respects, and the Danish system of towns, which functioned for just as long, also flourished.