Portal:Denmark/Selected article/Week 50, 2006



The Golden horns of Gallehus were two golden horns, one shorter than the other, discovered in Southern Jutland, Denmark. The horns were believed to date to the fifth century (Germanic Iron Age).

The horns were made of solid gold and constructed from rings, each covered with figures soldered onto the rings, with yet more figures carved into the rings between the larger figures. These figures probably depict some actual events or Norse saga which is now unknown to us. The most probable theory is that the illustrations come from Celtic mythology rather than Norse: the horns portray a man with horns and a necklace, very similar in appearance to the Celtic god Cernunnos (especially compared to the Cernunnos portrait on the Gundestrup cauldron, also found in Denmark), and several iconographic elements such as a he-goat, snakes and deer, commonly associated with Cernunnos. Several other archaeological findings from southern Scandinavia also show influence from Celtic religion. However, the connection between the Cernunnos name (from a find in Paris) with the Danish/Anglian horns and the Thracian cauldron is entirely speculative.

The horns are believed to originate with the Angles, but several theories of their origins exist. The horns have probably been used for ritual drinking and subsequently sacrificed in the earth or buried as a treasure, though this is also uncertain. Similar horns of wood, glass, bone and bronze have been found in the same area, some obviously used for blowing signals rather than drinking.

Both horns had been the same length, but the narrow end of the second (short) horn was plowed up and recovered prior to 1639, and the gold was melted down and lost.

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