Did you know?
Margrethe II
(Danish: Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, born 16 April 1940) is a member of the Danish royal family who reigned as Queen of Denmark from 1972 until her abdication in 2024. Having reigned for exactly 52 years, she was the second-longest reigning monarch after Christian IV and longest-reigning female monarch in Danish history.
Born into the House of Glücksburg, a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg during the reign of her grandfather Christian X, Margrethe is the eldest child of King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid. She became heir presumptive to her father in 1953, when a constitutional amendment allowed women to inherit the throne. In 1967, she married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, with whom she had two sons: Frederik and Joachim. Margrethe succeeded her father upon his death on 14 January 1972.
                                                      From wikipedia
King Frederik X
King Frederik X, was proclaimed King of Denmark from the palace balcony in a spectacle that, while traditional, is not called a coronation ceremony, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen proclaimed the new monarch’s ascension. January 2024.
King Frederik’s wife, Mary Donaldson, becomes Queen Consort with his ascension. Princess Mary was her previous title. Their son, Crown Prince Christian, is next in the monarchy’s line of succession and the current heir to the Danish throne.
                                                                     From the BBC
The “Jelling Stone” of Denmark
Around the year 965 King Harald Bluetooth erected the large rune stone in Jelling. The stone was raised in memory of King Harald’s parents, Gorm and Thyra. The inscription on the stone also gives an account of Harald’s achievements. He unified Denmark, On one side of the stone Christ can be seen and on the other an animal with a snake coiled around it.
The large rune stone at Jelling is often called “Denmark’s birth certificateâ€,
because Denmark is named in the inscription. King Harald ordered these kumbls made in memory of Gorm, his father, and in memory of Thyra, his mother.
Harald won for himself all of Denmark and Norway.
Interestingly, the Bluetooth logo is inspired by the runic alphabet, used by Germans and Scandinavians between the end of antiquity and the Middle Ages. By combining the initials of Harald Blåtand, they came up with the current logo.
Danish History
Did you know? Scandinavians, including Danes, are the world’s highest per-capital consumers of coffee, with Danes (who drink an average of four cups a day) coming in third after Sweden and Finland.
Did you know? Danish inventor Jens Olsen spent 27 years building the World Clock in Copenhagen. It began keeping time in 1955 and will supposedly be able to accurately keep time for the next 570,000 years.
Tranquebar, Denmark’s forgotten outpost in India
It all started when 23-year-old naval commander Ove Gedde set out from Lisbon in November 1618 under the flag of the Danish East India Company, with the blessings (and financing) of King Christian IV. His mission was to aid the Emperor of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka), who was under siege by the Portuguese, and in exchange secure trading rights for Denmark.
But by the time Gedde arrived in early 1620, after an eventful journey around the Cape of Good Hope, during which he lost two-thirds of his 300 soldiers in battle with pirates or disease, the Portuguese were in full control. Disappointed that his mission had failed, Gedde and his small fleet of three schooners and two frigates drifted up the Coromandel Coast until they dropped anchor at Tharangambadi. Read More
https://www.aol.com/news/runestones-denmark-praising-viking-queen-224731364.html This links to an article about a name etched into the “Rune Stone”, Thyra: a Viking queen of considerable power.
| COUNTRY INFORMATION |
| Land Area: 42,394 sq km Population: 5,468,120 (July 2007 est.) Capital City: Copenhagen Language: Danish, Faroese, Greenlandic (an Inuit dialect), German (small minority) note: English is the predominant second language Religion: Evangelical Lutheran 95%, other Christian (includes Protestant and Roman Catholic) 3%, Muslim 2% Form of Government: Constitutional monarchy Economy:The Danish economy has in recent years undergone strong expansion fueled primarily by private consumption growth, but also supported by exports and investments. This thoroughly modern market economy features high-tech agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry, extensive government welfare measures, comfortable living standards, a stable currency, and high dependence on foreign trade. Export: machinery and instruments, meat and meat products, dairy products, fish, pharmaceuticals, furniture, windmills and of course “Hygge” a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture). “why not follow the Danish example and bring more hygge into your daily life?” |