Himmerland - where the Cimbrians lived

GRYNDERUP

A short description of an old Cimbrian village

The village of Grynderup is situated in the south of Himmerland – about 15 km from the town of Hobro. The area of the parish is 1442 hectares (= 3.563.182 acres). Its history certainly goes much further back than the time of the Cimbrians 2000 years ago.  There are lots of burial mounds in the parish. On the land of one small farm near my home you could count 26 burial mounds. They were made in the Bronze Age 1000-500 years BC.  And in many fields we have found lots of tools made of flint stone. The Danish National Museum in Copenhagen has visited the parish many times to search and dig out tools from the Bronze Age. At the south end of the fields of my native farm my father and his ancestors have often hit huge stones and walls when they were ploughing the fields. They are most likely part of old settlements along a river, which is today a steep valley.  There is also an old burial mound next to it. But these remains have not yet been dug out.

It has almost been proven that the area where Grynderup is situated today was part of a huge glacial stream, which was running from the ice mountains retreating to the north-east towards the west. This happened about 10.000 years ago.  This was the period of the first settlements here. And the waterways were the transport system for everybody.  The huge, dark forests around they were far too dangerous to enter. But they were very important hunting grounds as time passed by.

The name Grynderup tells that the area was a –rup or –torp. This means that it was a clearing in the forest.  And where does the Grynde- come from?  In the medieval ages the village was called Grønnerup, so it probably comes from GRØN, which is the Danish word for green.  The names of villages were often related to one of the most important inhabitants at the time, for example the guy who made the clearing in the forest. But an old name like Grynde or Grønne is not known. But you never know.

When the Cimbrians are concerned we can only guess their role in this particular area. There are no written sources available. A village very close to Grynderup is still called Simested. This for sure means “The place of the Cimbrians”. So it is very likely that they also lived in Grynderup until they emigrated to southern Europe in 120 BC.  One of their known fortresses Borremose is only 5 km to the west of Grynderup.  In there you can still see where their houses were, and how the protecting, surrounding walls were built. Some of the roads are also still there.

The very impressive Gundestrup Pot from around year 1 AC – in the middle of the Iron Age – was found in a moor very near Borremose in 1891. It is one of the most valuable treasures ever found in Denmark. It shows that the Cimbrians were having trade with the area in present day south-east Europe and with the Middle East.  That’s where this Pot came from.  It has probably been put in this moor as a sacrifice for a great person. And then forgotten afterwards.  It was found by a man who was digging out peat in this old moor.

It is for sure that also the Vikings lived in the village about 1000 years after the Cimbrians. The famous Viking fortress Fyrkat is placed near Hobro – about 15 km from Grynderup. At that time there were many more water streams than today. And the Vikings were in particular moving around in ships (unlike the Cimbrians, who walked). There are likely to have taken trees in the forests for their longboats. And many were also staying permanently in settlements. In the Iron Age from 500 BC to 500 AC many people were settling down. They now had good tools to cultivate the soil, to fell the trees and to kill or catch the animals.  They could survive without moving around all the time.

Towards the end of the Viking age Christianity came to Denmark. Also to Grynderup. Through an impressive effort hundreds of churches were built all over the country in the 12^th century.  Where did people get the necessary resources from? Scientists believe that better weather conditions and better organization helped a lot. It was probably the same surplus of resources which made it possible to run all the Viking expeditions all over Europe.

The small church without a steeple in Grynderup is from that period – the middle of 1100. It was built with big granite stones in Romanesque style. Some parts of today’s church are still from the very first church built 900 years ago. The Lutheran altar piece is from the 16^th century. The pulpit is also from the 16^th century, and it is standing on the remains of a Catholic side altar from the medieval ages. The plate for baptism is of Dutch origin and from around 1600. The altar candles are from 1642 and the Communion cup is from 1685.

The cemetery has from the very beginning surrounded the church and everybody from the parish has been buried here for 900 years.  My own ancestors are here since they arrived to Grynderup in the late 19^th century.

Niels Jørgen Thøgersen

August 2013

kimbrer@gmail.com

HIMMERLAND

The land of the Cimbrians

A short and schematic historical overview

Niels Jørgen Thøgersen

1. 1.     The ERTEBOLLE CULTURE in the stone age ( 3-4000 BC)

The kitchen midden period

Sources:  Huge kitchen middens in the west of Himmerland

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70-80 generations  ( 1 generation = 30 years )

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1. 2.     The CIMBRIANS ( in the iron and bronze age )

* Sources:  lots of Greek and Roman historians shortly after the birth of Christ

* Home area: Cimbrian Land = Himmerland. Local names like: Simested

* Symbol: The BULL  (memorized by the Cimbrian bull in Aalborg)

* The fortress of Borremose (in use until about 125 AC).  Longhouses, clothes, shoes and weapons found

* The Gundestrup Pot (proof of trade with the Romans and others)

* Emigrate to a very large extent towards the south around 120 BC. Reason? Floods? Famine? Overpopulated?  Meet up with other Germanic tribes on the way – not least the Teutons

* Beat the Roman legions in many battles on the way, esp. the battle near the Mont de Victoire in the South of France on 103 BC. The Romans loose 112.000 soldiers

* Are defeated and also exterminated by the Romans in 101 BC in Vercillae west of Milan

* A few thousand Cimbrians excape to the north-east into valleys in the Dolomites north of Verona

* Today 7 Cimbrian municipalities still exist in this area, not least Ljetzan (Giazza in Italian). They speak Zimbrisch. And have blue eyes. We visited them in 2004

* The Museum Centre in Aars in the west of Himmerland is the main centre for exhibits about the Cimbrians. The building resembles the hammer of the Cimbrian god Thor and is made by Per Kirkeby

* Other Scandinavian tribes also emigrate in the same period, such as Gothic people from the west of Sweden, the Burgunds from the island of Bornholm, the Vandals from Vendsyssel in the very north of Jutland, etc.  This was the time of the great migrations

* In these migrations people moved because of  dangers and peril to areas with a more developed civilization at the time

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25-30 generations

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1. 3.    The VIKINGS:

* Known fortresses:  Fyrkat in Hobro, Aggersborg in Hanherred, etc.

* Symbol:  a red flag with the Nordic god Odin’s two ravens Huginn and Muginn  in silhouette

* Moved abroad at sea – not by foot like their ancestors the Cimbrians

* The Himmerland fjords Limfjorden and Mariager Fjord were excellent bases for the Viking fleets

* Theywent overseas because they as a tribe had a reserve of strength to build large longboats, make superior weapons and were very well organized

* And the Vikings normally came to areas which were less developed than their homeland (often due to the lawlessness following the fall of the Roman empire during the centuries before)

* The Vikings from Himmerland normally returned to Himmerland after their expeditions – unlike the Cimbrians, who never returned

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30-35 generations

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TODAY….