A common question Danes ask us Americans when they hear that we are studying in Copenhagen is, "Why Denmark?" All of us just stare blankly and wonder the same thing. Why Denmark, of all the places we could study? None of us really know. We could give you small reasons that would add up reasonably, but I don't think any of us really knew a firm reason until we left the country for two weeks. We had study break, and all of my friends and I jumped at the chance to explore Europe. But coming home, well, we all just realized why exactly we love this place. My friend Charlie explained it really well: "When you fly into Copenhagen, the plane swings around and all you see at first are these marshlands that look dreary and grey. But all I could think of was how much I love this place. I love Denmark" (paraphrased). No matter how rainy, windy, cold, expensive, ghetto, and strange it is, we just cant help it. And I guarantee that if you ever lived here for longer than a few weeks, you would love it too.
To make my semester abroad that much stranger, I decided to take a Nordic Mythology class. When in Denmark...
And who would have guessed that it would be the coolest class ever? One of my teachers is what I would call a modern-day viking. He towers over all of us students, has a scruffy grey beard, a deep voice that you can get lost in, and when he speaks Old Norse, you feel like you are listening to Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. Its great.
A couple weeks ago we had an all-day study tour around Zealand. We saw and went into a burial mound that as 5000 years old. It was spooky and awesome standing in there with candles listening to its history and how the bodies were buried until a bat decided to fly into my face. I freaked out a bit, trying to cover my face without burining off all my hair with the lit candle. Needless to say, I provided a bit of entertainment for everyone else on the trip!
We also went to the Viking Museum in Roskilde, where we saw 5 real viking ships the Danes had found in this one harbor. So cool.
Then we trekked to the setting of Beowulf. Who knew that it was actually based off of a feasting hall and king in Denmark?? There's not much left there now, just a grassy field, but you can see the stones in the shape of a ship marking a mass grave and the remnants of a foundation ish thing of a huge feasting hall. What did it for me was listening to my modern-day Viking teacher read the first few lines of Beowulf in Old Norse in his deep voice, dressed in a suit (he had to come from a formal event), standing in a field with grass up to our calves, with cows mooing in the background. Priceless.
Lastly, we went to this fortress build by Harald Bluetooth, a Viking king. He made the walls from earth, so they are covered by dirt, but still incredible to see!
And that's what it's like to be in a Nordic Mythology class taught by one of the leading experts in the world on the subject. Don't you wish you were in the class too?
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