Jelling is a railway town in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

with a population of 3,658 (1 January 2022), located in Jelling Parish, approximately 10 km northwest of

Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality ('' kommune'') and the ...

. The town lies 105 metres above sea level.

Location

Jelling is located in Vejle municipality and Region of Southern Denmark. The town is mainly famous for the Jelling stones, national monuments. Until the Municipal Reform of 2007 on 1 January 2007, Jelling was the capital of Jelling municipality. Jelling was also the only town in the former Vejle County headquarters for a bank – Jelling Sparekasse, which had its headquarters in the town until 2007 when it merged with , headquartered in

Grindsted Grindsted, with a population of 9,750 (1 January 2022),BY3: ...

. Jelling Sparekasse's slogan was: "If king Gorm was alive today ... we would probably be the country's National Bank." One source at least claims that Jelling was the capital of an ancient kingdom of Denmark that was known as Jellund.

Infrastructure

From Jelling it is 56 km to

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwe ...

and 10 km to the regional capital

. Jelling is close to the Østjyske Motorvej – ( E45) and Midtjyske Motorvej – (

Primary Route 18 Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works ...

). Jelling is served by Jelling railway station, located on the Vejle–Holstebro railway line. The stations offers direct InterCityLyn services to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

and Struer operated by the railway company DSB as well as regional train services to

Herning Herning () is a Danish town in the Central Denmark Region of the Jutland peninsula. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Herning Municipality. Herning has a population of 50,565 (1 January 2022)Struer operated by Arriva. In 2003 Jelling municipality was the first municipality in Denmark to offer its residents wireless Internet connection, up to 4 Mbit broadband, at a distance of up to 10 km from Jelling.

Town centre

Vejle municipality has executed a reconstruction project in the village centre. The main road, Gormsgade, was closed and a new bypass constructed, leaving space for the monument area of Jelling. The plan was estimated to cost in the neighbourhood of 250 million DKK (33,5 million €) which included financing allocated by The State of Denmark, Vejle municipality, Haderslev Diocese and other private foundations, among them "AP Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation for General Purposes" – which has donated 70 million DKK (10 million €) for the project. A new culture house and city square was built as additions to the modern village life, while houses were demolished elsewhere to make space for the monument area. Some houses of historical value were preserved in the museum of

Den Gamle By Den Gamle By, or The Old Town in English, is an open-air town museum located in the Aarhus Botanical Gardens, in central Aarhus, Denmark. In 1914, the museum opened as the world's first open-air museum of its kind, concentrating on town culture ...

History

Jelling is an old and important historical town in the history of Denmark. In the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...

it served as the royal seat of the first Monarchs of the Kingdom of Denmark. Jelling is the site of a large stone ship and two large

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

s, the Jelling stones and Jelling Church which are an

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

since 1994. In the North Mound, built between 958 and 959 CE (possibly for King Gorm of Denmark), an empty burial chamber was found. The South Mound was built around 970 and contains no burial. Beneath the two mounds is a large stone ship from around the end of the 9th century. Between the two mounds stand two

rune stone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones d ...

s, the Jelling stones. Near the stones, Gorm's son King

Harald Bluetooth Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson ( non, Haraldr Blátǫnn Gormsson; da, Harald Blåtand Gormsen, died c. 985/86) was a king of Denmark and Norway. He was the son of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod. Harald ruled as king of Denmark from c. 958 ...

built a wooden church (965), and beneath it re-interred (965–966) the remains of his father.

Local culture

The Jelling Music Festival is held annually and is currently Denmark's third largest festival. Bredagerskolen (situated in Jelling) is the largest school in Vejle municipality. The school currently has 810 students (2009) divided into 0–9 classes over 2–5 traces. The village houses the CVU Lillebælt, which trains teachers and educators. There are three grocery stores in Jelling, two gas stations, three garages, two banks, two breweries, and some other stores. The newly opened town house is to house Borgerservice, a library, a cinema, a café, and one of the two breweries.

Notable people

* Gorm the Old (900-958) ruler of Denmark, reigning from c.936 to his death c.958; he ruled from Jelling, and made the oldest of the Jelling Stones * Nielsine Paget (1858 in Jelling – 1932) a New Zealand homemaker and community worker

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities and towns in the Region of Southern Denmark Viking Age populated places Vejle Municipality