First published: 23/04/25.

Zoë Sheng 1.5

Jelling

Jelling (Inscribed)

Jelling by Els Slots

I visited this site back in September ‎2017 (compare the picture Frederik Dawson posted and mine you'll see it's exactly the same as five years before. I think it will always look like this although the glass covers might change). In 2017 the museum was new, I think, and it's DEFINITELY worth a visit for more than just the Jelling stones but overall Viking info. You can even go into Valhalla - I mean, literally? Jelling is a must visit but why the low score from me and from most visitors? Well, it's important - but not worth seeing the stones themselves. In fact the picture of a stone would probably be enough anyway. You have to stand in front of it and think "oh, wow, so this was planted here and that's why there are Christians in Denmark afterwards". Are you going to do that? Well, unlikely. I have stood in front of "The Birth of Venus" in Florence for over thirty minutes too - and I could have done that in front of a fake picture, in front of my tablet - but it didn't feel the same. Same goes for maybe Jelling but I definitely didn't stand here for thirty minutes.

You get to the see the rocks, the church, and several ship burials. Whereas you cannot do much apart from climbing the hill that contains the ship (I wonder if it was ever unearthed or not touched out of respect) you definitely want to spend time walking around as it's one of the taller hills in Denmark you'll get!! Again as you imaging ships buried here and it may make you think a bit more about it. There are other ship burial sites around Scandinavia and some took the ships out although it's still quiet cool to visit nonetheless.

So the rocks are maybe five minutes max, thirty if you want to contemplate the meaning a bit, the church is another half an hour should it be open, the hills are maybe thirty and the museum is maybe 2 hours if you check out everything. That means that half a day is gone for a "small" site. I recommend this too even if the site isn't the best world heritage site. The site is in the middle of Jutland meaning you'll do it in a pass-through.

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