Dan (Denmark)

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Dan is the name of a legendary Danish king. The name " Denmark " is derived from him.

Medieval chronicles

Dan has been mentioned in Norse chronicles and sagas since the 12th century. The chronological and genealogical information about him is so different that it cannot possibly be traced back to a real historical person. The earliest mention of Dan was in the Chronicon Lethrense , a short Latin chronicle about the Danish legend kings from the 12th century. There he is one of three sons of Ypper, the first king of Uppsala , and becomes ruler of Zealand , Funen and Skåne . His lifetime is dated to the reign of Emperor Augustus .

Saxo Grammaticus probably used this chronicle as a source. He saw Dan as the originator of the Danish monarchy , from which the name Denmark is derived. As his ancestors in his sources either the Danaer , the biblical Dan or because of the Latin name for Denmark, Dacia , the Dakier . According to Saxo, Dan and his brother Angul, from whom he derived the hinges , came from outside Denmark, where they took control. Dan himself was not yet king, but his son Humblus / Humbling from his marriage to a noblewoman named Gytha was of Thing elected king, but later sold by his brother Lotherus that about his son Skjöld of the Danish royal family of the ancestor Skjöldinger was . Two more kings of the name appear later: Dan II. As the son of Uffi / Offa and Dan III., Who crossed the Elbe and fought against the Saxons . The latter had a grandson Frotho. In the Ynglingasaga of 1230, Dan is named "mikilatta" (= the great / proud) as the brother of Drott, the wife of the Swedish King Dyggvi . His son was Frode Fredegod, who also appears in Saxo, but only several generations later. According to the Skjoldungesaga , Dan was ruler of Jutland and brother-in-law of the aforementioned Offa.

Modern historians

Modern historiography since humanism tried to unite the contradicting information. Various localizations of his grave were also made.

Johannes Magnus , the last Catholic Archbishop of Uppsala, quoted in his Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus , the story of all Gothic and Swedish kings, published in 1554, ten years after his death , an alleged old ballad about Erik, supposedly the first king of Gotland . He let an uncultivated land called Vetala settle in the 3rd century AD . Dan, the son of Humli, after whom the country Denmark was named, was appointed regent.

In 1750, Ludwig Holberg classified the historians according to which “hypothesis” they followed about the beginning of Danish history: First, there are the successors of Saxo Grammaticus, including Albert Krantz , who start Danish history with Dan; second, the representatives of the genealogy established by Johannes Magnus and Nicolaus Peträus , which traced Dan's ancestors back to Noah's Ark ; and third, the Icelandic sagas , which let the Danish royal line begin much later. The latter followed Holberg. Also Ludewig Albrecht Gebhardi rejected the etymology of Saxo and in its wake from the humanistic historians. In his history of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway from 1770 he listed "Dan the Magnificent" or "Dan Mykilati" as one of the pre-Christian kings who ruled from around 450 to 470. In his time he dates the conquest of Britain by fishing and jutes . Dan is said to have given up the custom of cremating the dead and instead was the first to be buried unburned with his horses and treasures in a barrow . Gebhardi located this at the "Hjesteberg" near Gammel Lejre . Dan's son is Frotho III. been.

The legend of King Dan's funeral developed into a mountain rapture in the 19th century as a parallel to the German Kyffhauser legend . According to this, King Dan sleeps surrounded by his warriors on a throne in a cave under a hill near Tönning until his people need his help.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gesta Danorum 1,1 ( Paul Herrmann : Explanations of the first nine books of the Danish history of the Saxo Grammaticus. Volume 1: Translation. Leipzig: Engelmann 1901. ( Digitalisat  - Internet Archive ), SS 14f.)
  2. ^ Gesta Danorum , 4.
  3. ↑ Ynglinga saga 20th Dauði Dyggva.
  4. ^ Ludwig Holberg: Danish and Norwegian State History . 1750, pp. 171-176.
  5. ↑ Ludewig Albrecht Gebhardi : History of the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway , Volume 1. Halle 1770, p. 276
  6. ^ Ludewig Albrecht Gebhardi: History of the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway , Volume 1. Halle 1770, pp. 357–359.
  7. ↑ Ludwig Bechstein : King Dan . In: Deutsches Sagenbuch , Leipzig 1853.