Part 3 (1/2)
From Silkeborg we start to see the Himmelbjerget, the mountain of this flat country. It rises to a height of five hundred feet, being the highest point in Denmark.
'Tis the joy and pride of the Danes, who select this mountain and lake district before all others for their honeymoons!
A curious paddle-boat, worked by hand, or a small motor-boat will take us over the lake to the foot of Himmelbjerget. Our motor-boat, with fussy throb, carries us away down the narrow river which opens into the lake. The life on the banks of the river is very interesting. As we sail past the pretty villas, with background of cool, green beech-woods, we notice that a Danish garden must always have a summer-house to make it complete. In these garden-rooms the Danes take all their meals in summer-time. The drooping branches of the beech-trees dip, swish, and bend to the swirl of water created by our boat, which makes miniature waves leap and run along the bank in a playful way. How delightfully peaceful the surrounding landscape is as we skim over the silvery lake and then land! The climbing of this mountain does not take long. There is a splendid view from the top of Himmelbjerget, for the country lies spread out like a map before us. This lake district is very beautiful, and when the ling is in full bloom, the heather and forest-clad hills encircling the lakes blaze with colour.
At Silkeborg the River Gudenaa flows through the lakes Kundso and Julso, becoming navigable, but it is only used by small boats and barges for transporting wood from the forests. The termination ”So” means lake, while ”Aa” means stream. Steen Steensen Blicher, the poet of Jutland, has described this scenery, which he loved so much, quite charmingly in some of his lyrical poems. He sings:
”The Danes have their homes where the fair beeches grow, By sh.o.r.es where forget-me-nots cl.u.s.ter.”
This poet did much to encourage the home industries of the moor-dwellers, being in sympathy with them, as well as with their lonely moorlands.
The old-time moor-dwellers' habitations have become an interesting museum in Herning. This little mid-Jutland town is in the centre of the moors, so its museum contains a unique collection from the homes of these st.u.r.dy peasants. The amount of delicate needlework these lonely, thrifty folks accomplished in the long winter days is surprising. This ”Hedebo” needlework is the finest st.i.tchery you can well imagine, wrought on home-spun linen with flaxen thread. Such marvellous patterns and intricate designs! Little wonder that the best examples are treasured by the nation. The men of the family wore a white linen smock for weddings and great occasions. So thickly are these overwrought with needlework that they will stand alone, and seem to have a woman's lifetime spent upon them. Needless to say, these family garments were handed down as heirlooms from father to son.
Knitting, weaving, the making of Jyde pottery and wooden shoes (which all wear), are among the other industries of these people.
As we journey through Skjern and down the west coast to Esbjerg, the end of our journey, we notice the picturesque attire of the field-workers.
An old shepherd, with vivid blue s.h.i.+rt and sleeveless brown coat, with white straggling locks streaming over his shoulders, tends his few sheep. This clever old man is doing three things at once--minding his sheep, smoking his pipe, and knitting a stocking. The Danes are great knitters, men and women being equally good at it. Many girls are working in the fields, their various coloured garments making bright specks on the landscape. Occasionally a bullock-cart slowly drags its way across the field-road, laden with clattering milk-cans. We pa.s.s flouris.h.i.+ng farmsteads, with storks' nests on the roofs. The father-stork, standing on one leg, keeping guard over his young, looks pensively out over the moors, thinking, no doubt, that soon it will not be worth his while to come all the way from Egypt to find frogs in the marshes! For the indefatigable Dalgas has roused the dilatory Danes to such good purpose that soon the marshes and waste lands of Jutland will be no more.
CHAPTER IX
THE PEOPLE'S AMUs.e.m.e.nTS
”Have you been in Tivoli?” is the first question a Copenhagener would ask you on your arrival in the gay capital. If not, your Danish friend will carry you off to see these beautiful pleasure-gardens. Tivoli is for all cla.s.ses, and is the most popular place of amus.e.m.e.nt in Denmark.
This delightful summer resort is the place of all others in which to study the jovial side of the Danish character. Even the King and his royal visitors occasionally pay visits, incognito, to these fascinating gardens, taking their ”sixpenn'orth of fun” with the people, whose good manners would never allow them to take the slightest notice of their monarch when he is enjoying himself in this way. To children Tivoli is the ideal Sunday treat. Every taste is catered for at Tivoli, and the Sat.u.r.day cla.s.sical concerts have become famous, for one of the Danes'
chief pleasures is good music. Tivoli becomes fairyland when illuminated with its myriad lights outlining the buildings and gleaming through the trees. The light-hearted gaiety of the Dane is very infectious, and the stranger is irresistibly caught by it. The atmosphere of unalloyed merriment which pervades when tables are spread under the trees for the alfresco supper is distinctly exhilarating. These gardens have amus.e.m.e.nts for the frivolous also, such as switchbacks, pantomimes of the ”Punch and Judy” kind, and frequently firework displays, which last entertainment generally concludes the evening.
The Royal Theatre in Copenhagen is a national school of patriotism, and the healthy spirit of its plays has an enn.o.bling effect on the people.
Everything is Danish here, and Denmark is the only small nation in Europe which has successfully founded a national dramatic art. The ”Moliere of the North,” Ludwig Holberg, was the father of the Danish drama, and the first to make the people realize the beauty of their own language. This gifted Dane was a great comedy-writer, and had the faculty of making his fellows see the comic side of their follies.
The ”Royal Ballet” played at this theatre is quite distinctive.
Bournonville, its creator, was a poet who expressed himself in motion instead of words, and these ”dumb poems” appeal strongly to the Scandinavian character. This poet aimed at something more than spectacular effects upon the people: his art consisted in presenting instructive tableaux, which, while holding the attention of his audience, taught them their traditional history. The delicate daintiness of the Danish ballet everyone must appreciate. The exquisite and intricate dances, together with the magnificent tableaux, are accompanied by wild and magical music of Danish composition.
Bournonville ballets represent scenes from cla.s.sical mythology, as well as from ancient Scandinavian history, and the Danish people are much attached to this Northern composer of ballet. ”Ei blot til Lyst”--Not only for pleasure--is the motto over this National Theatre door, and it is in the Ballet School here that the young Danes begin their training.
These young folk take great pleasure in learning the beautiful dances, as well as in the operatic and dramatic work which they have to study, for they must serve a certain period in this, as in any other profession.
Another place of amus.e.m.e.nt which gives pleasure to many of the poorer people is the Working Men's Theatre. Actors, musicians, as well as the entire management, are all of the working cla.s.ses, who are trained in the evenings by professionals. The result is quite wonderful, and proves the pleasure and interest these working people take in their tuition, and how their artistic abilities are developed by it. On Sundays, and occasionally in the week, a performance is given, when the working cla.s.ses crowd into the theatre to see their fellows perform. This entertainment only costs sixpence for good seats, drama and farce being the representations most appreciated. Notwithstanding that smoking is prohibited during the performances--a rule which you would think no Dane could tolerate, being seldom seen without pipe or cigarette--it is a great success, and denotes that their love of the play is greater than their pleasure in the weed.
CHAPTER X
FARM LIFE--b.u.t.tER-MAKING--”HEDESELSKABET”
Farming in Denmark is the most important industry of the kingdom, and gives employment to half the nation. The peasant is very enlightened and advanced in his methods; agricultural and farm products form the princ.i.p.al exports of the country. England takes the greater part of this produce. Three or four times a week the s.h.i.+ps leave Esbjerg--this port being the only Danish one not blocked by ice during some part of the winter--for the English ports, laden with b.u.t.ter, bacon and eggs for the London market. Now, why can the Danish farmer, whose land is poorer and his climate more severe than ours, produce so much? Education, co-operation and the help given by the State to small farmers lay the foundation, so the Danes will tell you, of the farmer's prosperity. The thrift and industry of the peasant farmer is quite astonis.h.i.+ng. He is able to bring up a large, well-educated family and live comfortably on seven or eight acres of land; whereas in England we are told that three acres will not keep a cow! The Danish farmer makes six acres keep two cows, many chickens, some pigs, himself, wife and family, and there is never any evidence of poverty on these small farms--quite the reverse.
The farmer is strong and wiry, his wife fine and buxom, and his children st.u.r.dy, well-cared-for little urchins. All, however, must work--and work very hard--both with head and hands to produce this splendid result. The Danish farmer grows a rapid rotation of crops for his animals, manuring heavily after each crop, and never allowing his land to lie fallow as we do. On these small farms there is practically no gra.s.s-land; hedges and fences are unnecessary as the animals are always tethered when grazing.