Ancient Web

Under founding of denmark the picture of a statue is not gorm the old, but holger danske/ ogier the dane.
Holger Danske is normally regarded as a Danish national symbol. He is first mentioned in literature as one of the French king Charlemagne’s warriors in La Chanson de Roland from around 1060. In this Chanson he is called Oger le Danois, his name being the only link to Denmark. In the later epos La Chevalerie d’Ogier de Danemarche (1200-1215) he is portrayed as the main character and is described as a son of the Danish king Gudfred (d. 810), an enemy of Charlemagne.

His first appearance in Nordic literature is in the saga Karlemagnússaga from the latter part of the 1200s, which in the main consists of passages translated from French texts. His name here is given as Oddgeir danski. This saga was translated into Danish during the 1400s and thereafter Holger Danske became part of Danish folklore with several accounts in the Danish Chronicle first published around 1509.

The Danish national writer Hans Christian Andersen in 1845 wrote the fairytale Holger Danske, where he is described as sitting fast asleep in the casemates of the Castle of Kronborg, with his beard having grown into the table in front of him and his sword in his lap, prepared to wake up to action in case of Denmark being threatened from outside forces. Today his statue can be seen in the casemates of Kronborg as described by Hans Christian Andersen.

During the German occupation of Denmark in 1940-45 one of the principal partisan organizations was named after Holger Danske.

A nice article full of facts about the Netherlands, but not very usefull as a realistic representation of the history of this area. Moreover, a disproportionate share of this article is about the history of the ancient Frisians (who are different from the modern Frisians) and the more internationaly political, military and religious developments and not particulary about the Netherlands (Holland is just a part of the Netherlands, just like Friesland). There is so much more to tell about the ancient history of the Netherlands! I hope you will find this feedback usefull, and if you need/like to have any help, you can contact me.

p.s.: Pier Gerlofs Donia is not a national hero of the Dutch, but a regional hero to some Frisians. He’s also not someone who could count as an ‘ancient’ hero, as he was born in 1480…

hello, i’d just like to add the fact that these polynesians belong to the austronesian race. They share similar cultures and languages (Madagascar, Cham from Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc)

i like most of the infos though. Very informative.

nice article and posts!! My only comment is, why is the Philippines in the Oceana continent and not with its southeast asian neighbors?

You used to have a fantastic interactive map of Mesoamerica. Where’s it gone? The site is not the same without it.

This is a fascinating subject. I’ve been interested in Native American civilization for years. I’ve read an account of one tribe of people who came to America about 600 BC from the Israel area and set up a civilization under the Law of Moses. It’s called the Book of Mormon and gives some background into the formation of the Native American tribes, ancient military history on the continent, and some of the ruins found in MesoAmeria. It’s quite interesting.

What a shame! You used to have a fantastic interactive map of Mesoamerica. Where’s it gone? The site is not the same without it.

Sadly,

R. Nathan (Teacher at Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara, CA)