500 BCE – 1066
Iron Age and Viking Age
- Jutes
- Angles
- Danes
Germanic-speaking communities of farmers and seafarers; some of the Jutes and Angles moved to Britain in the fifth century.
EuropeCapital: Copenhagen
Denmark
Denmark consists of the Jutland peninsula and hundreds of islands between the North Sea and the Baltic. In the Viking Age Danish ships sailed to England and Normandy; later the kingdom controlled Baltic trade through the Sound and for centuries also ruled Norway. Today's Denmark is a constitutional monarchy; Greenland and the Faroe Islands belong to the kingdom as self-governing territories.
- Languages
- Danish (official), Faroese and Greenlandic (in the self-governing territories), German (recognised minority language in South Jutland)
- Religions & worldviews
- Evangelical Lutheran national church, Muslim communities, Roman Catholic and Jewish communities, Non-religious population
Historical timeline
12500 BCE
Hunters after the Ice Age
After the ice sheet retreats, reindeer hunters move into the area; later, coastal communities arise that live on fishing and shellfish.
793 – 1066
Viking Age
Danish seafarers raid, trade and settle around the North Sea; in England the Danelaw takes shape.
965
Christianisation under Harald Bluetooth
King Harald has it recorded on the Jelling rune stone that he made the Danes Christian and united the realm.
1397 – 1523
Kalmar Union
Denmark, Norway and Sweden come under one crown; Sweden breaks away in 1523, Norway remains attached until 1814.
1849
Constitution
Absolute monarchy gives way to a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament.
1864
Loss of Schleswig and Holstein
After defeat by Prussia and Austria, Denmark loses about a third of its territory.
1940 – 1945
German occupation
Germany occupies the country; in October 1943 citizens help most Danish Jews escape across the Sound to Sweden.
Historical context
Its position at the entrance to the Baltic shaped Danish politics for centuries. From 1429 the crown levied a toll at Helsingør on every ship passing through the Sound; that income made the king independent of the nobility and paid for fleet and palaces, until the toll was abolished in 1857 under international pressure.
The defeat of 1864 led to a deliberate turn inwards: 'what was lost outwardly must be won inwardly'. Farmers joined together in cooperatives for dairy and meat, the heathland of Jutland was reclaimed, and out of that movement an extensive welfare state grew in the twentieth century.
Peoples & cultural heritage through the ages
1066
Kingdom and modern society
- Danish population
- German-speaking minority in South Jutland
- Greenlandic Inuit
- Faroese
- Migrant communities
For a long time the realm included Norwegian, Icelandic and German territories; since the twentieth century migrants from Europe, Turkey and the Middle East have also formed part of the population.
Religion, worldview & philosophy
The Norse world of gods is known mainly from later Icelandic texts and from finds such as the Jelling rune stones. The Reformation of 1536 made the Lutheran church the state church; it is still called the 'people's church' and counts the majority of the population as members, even though attendance is low.
In the nineteenth century two thinkers gave religious life a direction of its own. N.F.S. Grundtvig linked Christianity with popular education and community spirit, while Søren Kierkegaard stressed the personal, uncertain nature of faith and so became a founder of existentialism.
Art movements
🎨 Danish Golden Agec. 1800–1850
Painters such as C.W. Eckersberg and Christen Købke captured everyday life and the clear Danish light in small, precise canvases.
🎨 Skagen Paintersc. 1870–1900
In the fishing village of Skagen, P.S. Krøyer and Anna and Michael Ancher painted the beach, the fishermen and the long summer evenings in the open air.
🎨 Danish modernism and designtwentieth century
Designers such as Arne Jacobsen and Hans Wegner made restrained furniture of wood and steel that shaped the worldwide image of Scandinavian design.
Traditions & customs
Sankt HansFestival23 June
On Midsummer's Eve bonfires are lit along the coast and in parks, with communal singing.
FastelavnFestivalFebruary
Carnival festival in which children in costume smash a barrel and eat sweet buns.
HyggeCustom
Deliberately seeking cosiness in a small circle, with candlelight and simple food; a fixed notion in the Danish self-image.
Folk high schoolsCustom
Since the nineteenth century adults have attended the 'højskole' for education without exams, an idea of the pastor N.F.S. Grundtvig.
Cuisine & culinary history
Danish cooking rests on rye, pork, dairy and fish from two seas. Preserving by smoking, salting and pickling long defined the flavour; since 2004 the 'New Nordic cuisine' has focused on local and wild ingredients.
Culinary history
Until well into the nineteenth century the countryside ate mainly porridge, rye bread, salted meat and dried or smoked fish; fresh produce was seasonal. From 1880 the cooperative dairies and slaughterhouses turned butter and bacon into export products, above all for the British market.
The open rye sandwich grew from a workers' lunch into a restaurant dish with fixed rules for order and combinations. In 2004 chefs drew up a manifesto for a 'New Nordic cuisine' based on seasonal produce, wild plants and old preservation techniques such as fermenting.
- Fishing in the North Sea and the Baltic
- Rye and dairy farming
- German and French court cuisine
- Cooperative dairy and meat industry since the nineteenth century
- New Nordic cuisine
SmørrebrødMain course
Thinly sliced rye bread, richly topped with herring, meat, egg or cheese.
Origin: Nineteenth century, workers' lunch and later a restaurant dish.
Stegt flæskMain course
Crisply fried pork belly with potatoes and parsley sauce.
Origin: Rural cooking; voted the national dish in 2014.
WienerbrødDessert
Layered butter pastry, known abroad as 'Danish pastry'.
Origin: Developed in Copenhagen around 1850 by bakers from Vienna.
Wonders & heritage
No wonders in the database yet.
Historical figures
No linked people yet.
Events
No linked events yet.
All events →Conflicts & fossils
Sources: Denmark — Encyclopaedia Britannica · UNESCO World Heritage: Jelling Mounds, Runic Stones and Church