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50
THORSAGER.
Chap. XXXII.
days a temple of Thor on this site—later Christianised,
as was often the casethe round part cannot be of Bishop
Peter’s day, he may have added the rounded apse, the
gabled tower, and the porch ; but architecture in Jutland
was behind that of other countries. This church is of
an earlier date than the twelfth century; the original
building is circular, the round-vaulted roof supported
by massive columns; an interior circular tower leads
to the belfry above: and from the strength of the
supporting columns, it may be inferred a tower far
more imposing than the small existing extinguishers
had formerly risen from their bases. Hanging to the
church walls were white and silver garlands, placed
according to ancient usage to commemorate the death
of some youthful maiden—a custom which existed in
England formerly. Thirteen storks’ nests on the
village house-tops, all teeming with young, did we
count from the churchyard of Thorsager.
It is curious to witness, when travelling, the gradual
transition from the Pagan worship to that of the
Christian faith. In Brittany you see the crucifix
planted above the menhir, sanctifying the Pagan
monument. “ Let the idea soak in,” thought the
priests,—il the old man may still in his heart adhere
to his early worship, but the child will bow to the cross
later,”—and a fine jumble of Romanism and Paganism
still exists there to the present day. Here Thor
formed a stumbling-block to proselytising monks in the
tenth century. Before the porch and doorway of
Thorsager church lie two simple grave-stones of very early
date, inscribed with Runic characters, hardly legible
even to those who understand them : on one is a single
cross ; on the earlier stone a cross also, but a cross so
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