About us
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.
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.
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
Thomas Brisson Jørgensen
Chairman
thomas@hiddenmark.dk
Lasse Sand Gluud
Deputy chairman
lasse@hiddenmark.dk
