We will now follow our little friend and her grandfather to Frederiksborg Castle. The castle, with its many towers and pinnacles reflected in still waters, stands in the middle of a lake. This handsome Dutch Renaissance building is now used as an historical museum. Many of the Danish Kings have been crowned in its magnificent chapel. Wandering through the splendid rooms of the castle, Ingeborg could read the history of her country in a very pleasant and interesting manner. The collection being confined to one period for each room made instruction an easy affair for the grandfather. Beginning with King Gorm the Old and Canute the Great, it comprises all periods up to the last century.
The autumn residence of the Royal Family, Fredensborg Castle, was the next place of interest visited. This Castle of Peace was built to commemorate the end of the war between Denmark and Sweden. "Fred" means "peace" in Danish, and, indeed, this place proves a home of peace to tired Royalty. Its park is considered the most beautiful in Denmark. The magnificent avenues of lime-trees are lined by marble statues of peasants in national costumes, Faroese, Icelandic and Norwegian, as well as those of Denmark.
The Open-Air Museum at Lyngby, with its ancient farm and peasant buildings, the interiors of which are fitted up just as they used to be, gave Ingeborg a peep into the past and old-time Denmark. Here she saw a curious rolling-pin hanging in the ingle-nook of the farmhouse from the village of Ostenfeld. This wooden pin, so her grandfather told her, was a Clogg Almanac or Runic Calendar. It had four sides, each marking three months, large notches denoting Sundays, small ones showing week-days. Saints' days were marked by the symbol of each saint. He had seen some of these old calendars in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, when he had been in England, which were relics of Danish government there. These quaint and curious Clogg Almanacs were used throughout Scandinavia, small ones made of horn or bone being for the pocket.
But here we must say good-bye to Ingeborg and her grandfather, as after seeing Kronborg Castle and Elsinore they will return by the beautiful coast-line to Copenhagen, there to enjoy many of the sights we have seen in "dear little Denmark."
[FOOTNOTES:]
[1] Thank you for the food.
[2] May it agree with you.
[3] Spoon-food.
[4] Luncheon.