A Trebuchet! ...and Some Other Stuff

Well, I'm back from Jutland. I'll tell you about that later.
 Last weekend I went on two trips: one to Frederiksborg Castle and one to Esrum Abbey. I went to Frederiksborg Castle on Saturday. It was unusually cold and windy, and for some reason there were a ton of people on this particular trip. This meant that we were split up into groups, and my group got to enter the castle last, so that we got some quality time out in the cold. It gave me plenty of time to take pictures of the outside of the castle, though.

This was after the tour. Of course, the sun waited until we were about to leave to make an appearance.












 While Kronborg Castle's primary use was as a fortress and a place from which the channel tax could be collected, Frederiksborg Castle was build exclusively to be a shiny, impressive house for the Danish royal family. Most of it was constructed during the reign of Christian IV, who was responsible for most of the major building projects in Denmark. He liked extravagant architecture that displayed the wealth and power of the Danish monarchy, though by funding all of these building projects, as well as getting involved in (and losing) a large number of wars, Christian IV effectively destroyed the wealth of the Danish monarchy. He is, for some reason, one of the most well-loved Danish kings.
  By the way, if you are ever in doubt about the name of a Danish king, if you guess either "Christian" or "Frederick" you will have a 50% chance of being right. Apparently, the Danish royal family is hereditarily bad at thinking up names for their children.

This is the main dining hall in the castle.

A section of the ceiling in the dining hall. Mmmm, deer.

The ridiculously ornate chapel.

The walls of the chapel are covered with the coat-of-arms of all of the people who have received royal orders from the Danish monarch. Most of these people are Danes.

...But not all of them. As you can see, President Eisenhower got a royal order from the Danish king in the year MCMXLV.

The audience chamber, where the king would meet with the peons.

...Complete with an elevator chair that rises out of the floor. Apparently it still works. Our tour guide told us that the current queen tried it once.

The great hall.

And finally, my favorite painting from inside the castle. That kid's going to shoot his eye out.












The next day I went to Esrum Abbey, which dates from sometime during the Middle Ages. 1100s, maybe? Anyway, it's quite old, and not much of the original abbey remains.

What does remain seems to have shrunk over the years.

A bit of the original wall painting.

 But the really exciting thing about the abbey was that we got to compete in various Middle Ages-related competitions, and learn a bit about medieval weapons and warfare. It was awesome.

Battering ram!

I was a huge fan of this particular game because I have always loved whacking people in the head with sticks.

That's not me, by the way. If that was me, that guy would be curled up in a ball on the ground.

This, however, is me. In chain mail. I was really tempted to steal it, because chain mail is awesome, and not nearly as heavy as I had imagined. It's a bugger to get on and off, though.

Archery! This guy is dressed in the uniform of a medieval British archer. He showed us bows and arrows from several different time periods. It was interesting to see how the shape of arrowheads changed over the years, in order to adapt to advancements in armor design. He told us that during the Middle Ages, the average poundage for a bow was around 180 lbs. For comparison, modern top-level recurve shooters usually have bows that are between 40 and 50 lbs. We are such weaklings these days.

We all got to try shooting longbows and, as I had anticipated, I did miserably. Not only did I not have a sight, but you have to angle the bow to keep the arrow from sliding off. I also opted for the 45 pound bow, the heaviest one he had, so that probably didn't help. Only one of my three arrows hit the target, but what the heck. It was still fun.

You should all know what this is. This is called a trebuchet, and it's one of my all-time favorite siege weapons. I was extremely psyched that we got to actually use one (as in, practically jumping up and down). Here's how it works.

A trebuchet's most important components are a long arm with a fabric pouch on the end, which is attached to a huge counterweight, which you can see to your left.

You pull the long arm down (thereby raising the counterweight) and secure it by sliding a metal bar across and looping a rope around the arm. Then you put your projectile of choice - in this case a cabbage- into the fabric pouch.

Finally, you yank the metal bar back, which releases the long arm, which swings up as the counterweight comes down and launches the projectile up and out of the pouch and toward your enemy in a very dramatic and awe-inspiring fashion. If you ever get the chance to see a trebuchet in action, you will understand my enthusiasm. It is truly awesome.

And finally, jousting. The object of the game was to sit on the wooden horse, holding a big stick, and be pushed down the track. You had to try to hit the target with the stick.

The target was this hanging guy's shield. I don't want to know what he did to deserve that.










   After we finished all of the activities we were given some snacks and then got on the bus and returned to Copenhagen. On the bus I talked to two people who I found that I have a lot in common with. It might be possible that I've found some friends, which is pretty cool for me.
  I think I should end this post now. I'll tell you about everything else I've been up to... soon.

 Hej hej!