What are the places in Djurland that inspired Isengard, Helms Deep, and Esgaroth called?
Comment on Anon is unimpressed
Nangijala@feddit.dk 3 days ago
I mean… I don’t find my country super impressive either, but Tolkien based middle earth on Djursland and both Aragorn and Eowyn are based on the same character from an old Danish myth about Hervør, the shield maiden who dressed like a man to gather an army. Isengard, Helms Deep and Esgaroth are real places in the area.
Hamlet is also based on the myth about Amleth and his grave can be visited in Denmark if people can be fucked to find it.
In fact, we have so many viking graves all over the countryside, that tourists don’t even realize what they are until they are told. My Ukrainian friend was thrilled to get to stand on one and he started talking about the riders of Rohan and their graves and all that. He was almost about to keel over when we told him we weren’t that far away from the part of Denmark that Tolkien based Middle Earth on.
Ps: I haven’t seen the pyramids irl, but I think they are amazing. Still insane how they were created without modern technology. I can’t hate on them even if I wanted to.
fdnomad@programming.dev 3 days ago
Nangijala@feddit.dk 3 days ago
Isgård = Isengard
Helms Deep = Hjelms Dyb which is a strait between Djursland and the island of Hjelm.
Esgaroth = Eskerod
For bonus, apparently, and I didn’t know this, Tolkien also named a river in Middle earth Aros, which is the ancient name of the second largest city of Denmark, Aarhus or Århus depending on how you prefer to spell it. It does make sense since Aros means something like the mouth of the river.
As for the saga that inspired Aragorn and Eowyn’s characters, that story plays out on the island of Samsø and here’s a short summary of the story
I’m pretty sure there are more places. There’s a hill called Ellemandsbjerg = Mountain of the elfman which is part of folklore, where the elfking lives with his daughters underground, under a hill. Supposedly, Tolkien took inspiration from that hill too and based his elfkings on that hill. Granted, Tolkien elves and folklore elves are two very different things, but most people think about Tolkien elves when they think about elves. In reality, Danish elves are more nature than they are human. They dance in the morning mists and are delikate, beautiful creatures. Their backs are hollow like a tree trunk and if you become ensnared by them they will either take you underground to the halls of the elfking where you will die or they will drown you in the lake.
Some kind soul made a map of Tolkien inspirations in Djursland, that you can check out, but it’s all in Danish.
Bonus fun fact: our longest reigning regent, Queen Margrethe II was a big fan of Tolkien and had similar interests in folklore and language as he did and she illustrated Lord of the Rings under the pseudonym Ingahild Grathmer. Tolkien himself said that he liked her interpretations of his world the best out of all the illustrations he had seen.
atro_city@fedia.io 3 days ago
Danes have to be proud of fantastic stories written by somebody who never even set foot in their country because they don't have any impressive architecture to have survived thousands of years.
Nangijala@feddit.dk 3 days ago
I don’t really understand your need to shit on my country like that. Just wanted to share some fun facts.
atro_city@fedia.io 2 days ago
Countries are just made up and this /c/Greentext . Nothing is to be taken seriously here