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Chap. V. SEPULCHRAL STONES.
71
decorations which trail over the surface, and you will
then distinguish among its coils a rude figure of a man
surmounted by a glory or nimbus (the points of the
cross are plainly visible)—an uncouth and the earliest
representation of the figure of our Lord extant in
the North of Europe. The inscription may be
translated thus: — “ King Harald caused these høis to be
made to his father Gorm and his mother Thyre, the
same Harald who acquired all Denmark and Norway,
Christianity as well ” (that is, caused his people to be
baptized).
The smaller stone was erected by King Gorm himself
to the memory of Queen Thyre. It is of granite, five
feet high and three broad,
and somewhat flat. The
inscription runs as follows:—
" King Gorm constructed
this høi to his wife Thyre
Danmarksbod.” This is
peculiar, as Thyre is generally
supposed to have survived
her husband. Either
historians are at fault, or Gorm,
as was often the case in later
ages, may have prepared the
barrow and caused the stone
to be sculptured during his wife’s life-time. Old Saxo
expresses his opinion that this inscription was never put
up by King Gorm, because, he charitably remarks, “ he
was of too jealous a disposition to term his wife ‘ Pride
of the Danes.’ ” But Saxo was a monk, and could be
no judge of a married man’s sentiments, particularly
those of an old one towards his yotmg wife.
Sepulchral Stone of Queen Thyre.
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