The excursions of the 15^th International Saga Conference on Wednesday the 8^th of August 2012 will take the conference participants to some of the most prominent places of viking and medieval Scandinavia in Denmark.

Hedeby, Schleswig and Füsing (Whole-day excursion)

Guide: Andres S. Dobat, Assistant Professor, Department of Culture and Society, Section of Prehistoric Archaeology, Aarhus University.

This excursion will take us to the south of Jutland, also called the gate to Scandinavia.

We begin in the early town of Hedeby, the destination of traders and artisans, missionaries and kings, which around 800 AD had developed into the major centre of communication between the Continent and Scandinavia. In Hedeby, we will visit the reconstructed town and Wikinger Museum Haithabu. Read more about Hedeby here.

A packed lunch will be served approximately 13.00 in Hedeby.

After lunch, the excursion continues to Schleswig where we shall see the medieval cathedral, St Peter. From Schleswig the excursion takes us to an interesting archaeological site, Füsing, a Viking Age settlement. Here new discoveries suggest that a chiefly manor flourished from the early 8^th till the late 10^th century.

Hedeby is located in present day Germany, so remember to bring your passport.

The excursion begins at 9.00 and ends at c. 19.30.

Fyrkat and Lindholm Høje (Whole-day excursion)

Guides:Else Roesdahl, Professor, Department of Culture and Society, Section for Medieval and Renaissance Archaeology, Aarhus University and Sarah Croix, Ph.D., Department of Culture and Society, Section for Medieval and Renaissance Archaeology. 

First, we will go to the Viking fortress of Fyrkat, one of Harald Bluetooth’s famous ‘ringborge’ of which there were probably four in Denmark towards the end of the Viking Age. At Fyrkat, we shall visit the fortress itself, as well as a reconstructed Viking farm about one kilometer from the fortress it self. Read more about Fyrkat here.

From Fyrkat, we will go further North in Jutland to the large burial site Lindholm Høje, beautifully situated on the Northern bank of the Limfjord and near the modern town Aalborg. Here we will have lunch approximately 13.00 in the café at the Lindholm Høje Museum.

After lunch we will be guided through the museum and the Lindholm Høje burial site. The site has more than 600 burials, most of them cremation graves, covering a time span from around 500 to around 900. Read more about Lindholm Høje here.

The excursion begins at 9.00 and ends at c. 18.00.

Runic Monuments and Medieval Churches in Eastern Jutland (Whole-day Excursion)

Guide: Michael Lerche Nielsen, Associate Professor, Department of Scandinavian Research, University of Copenhagen.

This excursion will take us through a beautiful part of Jutland. During the day we will make a number of stops to experience runic and other monuments, both originally sited in the countryside and in medieval churches. The first stop will be Poskær Stenhus, the largest Neolithic cairn in Denmark, followed by stops at Hyllested Church, with medieval frescos, and Rimsø Church, housing both a rune-stone with a poetic text and a medieval stone sculpture.

Lunch will be served approximately 13.30 in the Manor Gammel Estrup, dating back to the 14^th century.

After lunch, we continue the tour by visiting the rune stone in Virring Church with a Þórr hallow-inscription, followed by visits to the churches in Ålum and Skjern, housing e.g. rune-stones and a mask depiction.

The excursion begins 9.00 and ends c. 18.30.

Birgittine Abbey of Mariager (Half-day excursion)

Guide: Hans Krongaard Kristensen, Associate Professor, Department of Culture and Society, Section for Medieval and Renaissance Archaeology.

On the way to Mariager, we will stop in the village of Råsted. Preserved in the romanesque church, built of carefully dressed limestone, is a long sequence of frescoes from the first half of the 12th century.

In Mariager, we will see the church which, together with a single building, is all that remains from the great Birgittine monastery established here in 1446. The Birgittine Order was founded by the Swedish noble woman, St Birgitta. Her ideas with both sexes in one monastery were quite controversial and the order as a whole was not formally recognized until 1378.

Lunch will be served approximately 12.00 in a restaurant in the beautiful small town of Mariager, with its many old half-timbered houses.

On our way home, we will stop at the village church in Hald. This interesting romanesque church, built of granite ashlar, contains a large altar retable from 1500. It was originally created for the church of the Order of the Holy Spirit in Randers. In 1765, it was regarded as unmodern by the town’s congregation and sold to the village church in Hald.

The excursion begins 9.00 and ends c. 15.30.