It has taken me five years to get to this book–I bought it at a thrift store in Branson in 2021–and although I commented that it might be a good football game browser, it did not turn out that way. I stopped watching football games, and it’s not a browseable book. But I did get through it during the lesser tribulation of fireplace replacement that’s about to start its sixth week with perhaps gaping holes in the windward side of my house just as the temperature drops. Ah, but enough about that.
When I bought it, I said:
Where is Frederiksborg? Ask me during or after football season if I even watch any this year.
It kinda looks Germanish if you don’t think about it too much. But, if you are more than half aware of Northern Europe, you’ll recognize that it is in Denmark. It’s not in Frederiksberg, gentle reader, although it’s not far; it’s on one of the eastern big islands of Denmark, just across from Sweden, a couple waterways east of Sundby, Mors (as you might remember, when I bought the book The Treasure Chest, a Christmas card whose return address was in Denmark–and, coincidentally, I’ve picked up The Treasure Chest as a light read during this difficult time). It was a summer castle built probably by a Frederik, but maybe a Christian who named it after his father Frederik. Basically, all the Danish kings are named Frederik or Christian, it seems, although there might be a Frederik Christian or a Christian Frederik in there to mix it up a bit.
With a lot of museum guides like this, you end up with a bit of a memento which is heavy on the images and a little light on the text. This one, however, is designed to use for a self-guided tour of the museum. Which means the text is heavy describing things not depicted in photos in the book. The book has some color photos in it, but most are black and white, and they’re far smaller than the originals, so one really cannot depict the details in the captions. Which made it far longer of a reading than in most museum souvenirs.
Also, it relies on a familiarity with Danish history that I lack. You know, understanding the history of southwestern Europe–France, England, even Spain, is playing the game on easy mode. They were unified monarchies pretty early. Northern kingdoms, especially Germany, were smaller, there were more of them, and they warred with each other a bunch. It’s been 13 years (!) since I read Swedish History in Outline, and all I remember is one of the leaders was considered in his time great, but that when I tweeted about it then-contemporaneously (that is, circa 2013), a Swedish woman who followed me came down on me because sensibilities had shifted. Shifting sensibilities is why I left Twitter not long thereafter.
At any rate, it kinda makes me want to review northern European history, but not enough to make me order a book or go to the library. If something falls into my lap or if I find something in the Nogglestead library, I’ll pick it up. But probably not until December, when I might be able to make a fire.
Oh, and I did get a quip for Facebook from it:
Uh uh. I know what you’re thinking. “Did Denmark have ten King Christians or only nine?” Well to tell you the truth in all this history, I kinda lost track myself.
Coming ten years from now to a Recycler Tour post near you.
