Evening star., 1935-11-03

Church in Copenhagen STANDS
~ one of the citys most famous
fountains. that of Geflon ploWing.
-Four great oxen strain at the ploW
and, according to an old Morse saga,
the furrow Gef1on is cutting is moth
ing less than the sound which divides
Denmark from Sweden.
Farther down the Langelinie, Cop
enhagen's beautiful promenade. is the
statue Of the Little Mermaid, from
Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales.
The Little Mermaid rests on a rock
at the waters edge, and the statue Is
so lifelike that one half expects to
see her slip back into the water at
any moment.
These two monuments typlfy Den
mark, the one symbolizing the great
viking tradition from which the nation
stems, the other the charm of this tiny
land beside the sea. Denmark is made
up OF a great peninsula. Jutland, and
over 500 islands. 1t has no noun
tains, no waterfalls, and its longest
river is only 80 miles; but it has at
fractions that rival theSe-itS mag
nificent beech forests. its moOrS COW
cred with purple heather and Its
coastline of white sands and high
dunes, which visiting artists love to
paint. In addition, the whole country
is so well kept up and cared for that
1t is a Joy to travel in it.
COPENHAGEN is a city of cyclists,
~ over a third of a million of its
people owning bicycles. On week days
members of Parliament cycle to their
sessions, stenographers ride along
gayly to work. clerks and employers
alike wheel to their offices. When
traffic is halted, each person steadles
himself on his bicycle by placing his
hand on the shoulder of the cycllst
near him. On Sundays the entire
population takes to the road, gay
crowds going to the nearby deer park
and to beaches.
Copenhagen's most popular drive is
the Standvej, which runs along the
shore to Elsinore and Kronberg Castle.
On the ramparts of the castle Hamlet
saw mis- fathers ghost, and in its
dungeon the legendary giant, Holger
Danske, has slept Tor generations.
According to an old Danish belief,
he will awake and come to his coun-
trys aid whenever it needs him.
The mainland and backbone OF
Denmark is Jutland. 1t is region OF
cultivated fields, moors covered with
heather. lakes and rolling hills: land
dotted with thousands of high mounds,
in which the Vikings buried their dead
Once the white sands of the dunes
fringing the coast blew over fields
some times covering entire crops, but
today this waste land has been refer-
ested and much of it fertilized and
- turned into productive farmland.
TELLING, mere village, is famed
because of it's two great runic
stones, inscribed in the early Norsf
alphabet. Once they marked the
grave mounds of King CORN and nj:
Queen, two hills which overshadoW the
small church between them. On one
side Of the larger stone is an inscrlp-
ton, on the second a figure of Christ
and a decorative design, and ON the
third a legendary beast, half unicorn
and half dragon. round which ser.
pent is coiled. In 1861 the tomb oi
the Queen was opened, the excavatori
expecting to discover treasures o1
Viking days To their disappointment
they found that the burial chamber
had been looted.
From Copenhagen to Skagen, at the
very tip of Jutland. are Denmark's
Summer resorts, which Europeans and
Americans as well as Danes are seek
ing out Skagen itself is fishing
village that artists discovered and
made famous. Now the King has g
Summer home there and the town has
become a fashionable resort.