Green Viking, walk. Red Viking, stop.

As of Monday, August 26th, 17 of the traffic lights in Aarhus, Denmark, are using red and green Vikings to signal to pedestrians when it’s safe to cross the street.

The second-largest city in Denmark today, the fortified settlement of Aros was founded by Vikings in the 8th century. It was located at the mouth of the Aarhus river, a natural harbour of a fjord on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula and by the 10th century, it was a major center of trade, the seat of bishopric and defended by a powerful earth rampart that encircled the city.

There are a couple of Danish cities that may have older pedigrees than Aarhus’, but Ribe and Hedeby (founded in the early 8th century) and other early Viking-settled towns can no longer boast their original layouts. The historic center of Aarhus today maps onto the medieval settlement. The structures have changed and ground level may have risen, but many of the streets in central Aarhus are exactly where they were in the 10th century. (Click on the arrows and drag left and right to compare the 10th century map to the center of modern Aarhus.) The 17 traffic lights encircle the Viking center.

“Many people do not know about Aarhus’ special importance for the Viking period, and I want to change that. We want to tell the forgotten stories and rebrand Aarhus as the Viking city we are,” Aarhus Technology and Environment Councilor Bünyamin Simsek] said.

“On a modest budget, we can change selected pedestrian crossings and create value for both tourists and Aarhusianers,” he continued.

It is a cheap and cheerful way to mark a Viking Aarhus walking route. Each light costs 1,000 Danish kroner, less than 150 dollars, and they are just ridiculously charming. The old-school stick figures stand no more of a chance against the brutally cute invaders than the monks of Lindisfarne did.

9 thoughts on “Green Viking, walk. Red Viking, stop.

  1. Twas bryllyg, ænd þe slythy tøves
    Did gyre ænd gymble in þe wåbe:
    All mimsy were þe borøgoves;
    And þe møme råths outgråbe.

    🐰 ⚔️ 💀

  2. I see from the link that the street name ‘graven’ translates as ‘ditch’, which is interesting that burials by the Anglo-Saxons and others was often in the ditch of former burial mounds. So they were graves ‘graved’ (=’dug’ in early English) in graves 😆

  3. Moesgaard Museum director Lars Krants: “It’s no coincidence we have streets named Graven (The Ditch) and Volden (The Fortification)”.

    It is indeed the ‘germanic’ root(s),…

    i.e. there is the fortifying ‘ditch’ around a town. Then, as the town grows in size, the corresponding street name –now within the city– is ‘-Graben’ (or ‘-Graven’ in Denmark).

    ‘Vold’, however, is nothing that I was aware of in Danish, but there is the corrsponding ‘Gewalt’ in German.

    A burial is a ‘Grab’ (german), ‘Graf’ (dutch) or ‘ Grav’ (danish), and if the town grows a lot, they too might end up within, but usually any roads nearby are different ones.

    Contrastingly, there is ‘byrig’ (anglish-saxon ): A city; urbs, civitas, but ‘be-byrigednes’: A burying.

    :hattip:

    ————-
    PS: Their Museum director’s last name sounds remarkably familiar, and he might have ‘germanic’ roots himself (…there is e.g. Albert Krantz who died in 1517, or Minorite Claws Cranc in Prussia, who in the 13th century clumsily translated bits of the Old Testament into German).

  4. Somewhere In this there is racism and identity politics. These Vikings are not gender neutral and they are racist too.

  5. ^^^ I think “vold” there is cognate with English “fold” as in enclosure, rather than violence/Gewalt.

  6. Enclosure is what he meant. It was only me, who found –for the Danish vold— (singular definite volden, not used in plural form):

    violence
    force
    assault and battery

    :no: The essential part that I was missing in a hurry is this one:

    bank
    embankment
    rampart, earthwork

    Indeed, a better cognate in German would certainly be something slightly outdated like e.g. ‘Wallstatt’, ‘Ringwall’ or just ‘Wall’ (not to be confused with ‘Wand’).

    Earthwork, however, would be ‘Erdwerk’ and ‘Wald’ is a forest.

    :hattip:

    Thanks for making it more clear, and sorry for my confusion!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.