We are Hid­Den­mark

Our name is a con­tra­ction of “Hid­den Den­mark”, and our goal is to offer an in-dep­th gui­de to the mul­ti­tu­de of myste­rious and for­got­ten pla­ces found all over the Danish landsca­pe. Here you can read more about us, our pur­po­se and our back­gro­und.

Den­mark of legends

Den­mark has one of the wor­ld’s lar­gest col­lections of folk memo­ri­es, legends and fairy tales – sto­ri­es that are often lin­ked to spe­ci­fic pla­ces. Buri­al mounds, giant rocks and cast­le ruins are loca­tions that often play a role in the legends.

Fan­ta­stic and often spooky tales that dif­fer from fairy tales and myt­hs by being tied to a pla­ce and some­ti­mes lin­ked to a histo­ri­cal per­son. It was not “in a distant cast­le, once upon a time”, it was on that farm that that far­mer expe­ri­en­ced somet­hing incre­dib­le.

The legends are, in addi­tion to the super­na­tu­ral ele­ments, often con­tra­di­ctory, or almost iden­ti­cal to a legend in the neig­h­bor­ing parish. But, whet­her it real­ly was tee­m­ing with gobl­ins and trolls or not, the sto­ri­es have been told time and time again. And they have been told of pla­ces that exist. And they have been rea­li­ty for tho­se who belie­ved in them.

The Rag Oak “Klu­de­e­gen”, Faxe

Expl­or­ing the landsca­pe

A lar­ge part of our com­mu­ni­ca­tion of pla­ces takes pla­ce through the soci­al media Ins­ta­gram and Face­book, whe­re we wri­te posts and show pic­tu­res from pla­ces we have visi­ted or sto­ri­es we have found through our research.

Howe­ver, it has long been a dream for us to be able to offer a uni­fied way for others to find the pla­ces we descri­be. We there­fo­re cre­a­ted the inte­r­a­cti­ve map, whe­re we con­ti­nuous­ly plot loca­tions as we pho­to­graph and descri­be them.

With the map, you can get an over­view of Den­mark’s legen­dary tre­es, holy springs, haun­ted hou­ses and much more, all taken from a wide selection of writ­ten and oral sour­ces. We also give you tips on how to plan your own adven­tu­res to the­se ama­zing pla­ces and the opportu­ni­ty to del­ve dee­per into the sto­ri­es behind them.

St. Olai holy well, Øster Eges­borg

The asso­ci­a­tion Hid­Den­mark

Hid­Den­mark was for­mal­ly foun­ded as an asso­ci­a­tion in 2022, with the aim of illu­mi­nat­ing hid­den and for­got­ten pla­ces and sto­ri­es from aro­und Den­mark. The asso­ci­a­tion main­ly wor­ks from a cul­tu­ral dis­se­mi­na­tion and con­ser­va­tion per­specti­ve, and has a spe­ci­al eye for whe­re somet­hing is in dan­ger of being lost to poste­ri­ty.

The for­mal asso­ci­a­tion was pre­ce­ded by a more loo­se­ly defi­ned work and research com­mu­ni­ty that ori­gi­na­ted in an idea by Tho­mas Bris­son Jør­gen­sen and Simon Hes­sela­ger Johan­sen. Later, Las­se Sand Gluud joi­ned, who had inde­pen­dent­ly wor­ked on a similar pro­ject limi­ted to les­ser-known histo­ri­cal loca­tions in South Zealand. All three cur­rent­ly sit on Hid­Den­mark’s board.

You can also beco­me part of the Hid­den­mark team! Help us in our mis­sion to uncover Den­mark’s fan­ta­stic sto­ri­es and loca­tions, so that we can give eve­ry­o­ne the best pos­sib­le and most com­ple­te expe­ri­en­ce on their trips aro­und the coun­try. Wri­te to us at contact@hiddenmark.dk or use the con­ta­ct form at the bot­tom of the page.

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We uncover Den­mark’s hid­den legends

We search for for­got­ten and over­loo­k­ed sto­ri­es in folkl­o­re col­lections, histo­ri­cal year­books, old news­pa­pers and many other pla­ces. Often­ti­mes a good legend or per­so­nal acco­unt has never been pro­per­ly docu­men­ted and con­vey­ed to the public, which we seek to chan­ge.

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We cate­go­rize and map our fin­dings

We col­lect, cate­go­rize and wri­te about many the sto­ri­es and legends we come across, so eve­ry­o­ne can bene­fit from them. In many instan­ces the­re is a par­ti­cu­lar loca­tion con­nected to a story, in which case we visit it and map it.

We show you how to find the loca­tions

Our map makes it pos­sib­le for you to discover legen­dary pla­ces in your local area, or whe­re­ver you may be at a given moment. You can brow­se by dif­fe­rent cate­go­ri­es, and along with GPS coor­di­na­tes you can easily find your way to each loca­tion.

Con­ta­ct us

 

Hid­Den­mark
CVR: 43540629

E‑mail: contact@hiddenmark.dk

Tho­mas Bris­son Jør­gen­sen
Chair­man
thomas@hiddenmark.dk

Las­se Sand Gluud
Deputy chair­man
lasse@hiddenmark.dk