The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Hamborggårdsten

Oath Stone

Fieldnotes

Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 164.

Access: Right on the road. See my fieldnote on Klæbek Høje.

Visited 1 April 2006
A monster! In TME, Julian calls the stone 'legendary' and says it was used by Vikings for swearing oaths. However, as it appears as an add-on under Klæbek Høje, he doesn't say any more. There is an info board, but of course, it's in Danish....

I'd wondered if the stone was an erratic (not that that would've meant it wasn't significant) but the pictures on the info board do include a drawing of people moving the stone into place. Whether the text asserts that it was deliberately placed I don't know, as I can't read (or speak) Danish!

The board does also show what seems to be an excavation, so perhaps there was evidence found at that time that it had been placed. Interestingly though, the stone seems to be far below (modern) ground-level - whereas now, it seems to be simply sitting on the ground....

Edit: Charlotte Thomsen saw my note and kindly provided this translation:

Hamborggårdstenen was moved by the ice during the latest ice age from Finland to its present location in Jutland, Denmark about 15,000 years ago.

The stone is approximately one billion years old (1,000,000,000), weighs about 50 tons and is made of granite. Originally the stone was embedded in the ground 20 meters further west but in January 1990 it was moved to its present location.

The stone is connected to old folklore and this is what the picture relates to: King Harold Bluetooth (10th Century) was moving the stone to his mother's grave in Jelling but when he heard that his son Sweyn Forkbeard was rebelling against him, he left the stone.


Thank you Charlotte!!!
Moth Posted by Moth
30th July 2007ce
Edited 5th March 2008ce

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