Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VII - Ringsted
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
104
RINGSTED.
Chap. VII.
dynasty: so we enter and look around us ; but there is
little to see and admire; for though twenty kings, queens,
and princes here sleep in peace, they all died,
unfortunately, before monuments came into vogue, were
bricked up somewhere in the vaults below, and, except
for the flat stone slabs which record their memory, might
just as well be anywhere else. Let me except, however,
the splendid sepulchral brass of King Erik Menved and
his queen Ingeborg,* the sole remaining specimen of the
engraver’s art now extant in Denmark, and this is
supposed to be of Flemish workmanship. By a whimsical
fancy, the faces of the monarch and his queen are, or
rather were—for that of the king is wanting—formed
of white marble, overlaid with plates of silver ; on
the whole, these brasses are in good condition,
minus some pieces broken off, as curiosities, by the
English soldiers during their occupation of the abbey.
This Erik Menved, as he was called from his constant
reply of “ Certainly ”—like the “ Est-il possible ? ” of
our Prince George, his descendant—was an unlucky
sovereign, though not a bad one as times went. His
wife was a princess of Sweden; and great was the joy
at their marriage, bearing peace, as the people imagined,
to the tormented country:—
“ They blessed God—both queans and men,
Many times—that Ingeborg had come to this land ! ”
But hers was a life of sorrow, as I shall later relate.
I have already told you how the relics of St. Erik were
carried from Slesvig to Ringsted, and how the English
soldiers destroyed his coffin and scattered the bones ; but
* Erik and Ingeborg both died in the year 1319.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
