History buffs will revel in visiting one of the most important Viking Age sites, a ring fortress dating back to AD 980. Before heading across the meadows to the fortress and reconstructed Viking-era buildings, visit the small but informative museum, which explains how the fort was built, occupied and abandoned. Displays contain weapons belonging to soldiers at the fort (spearheads, axes, arrowheads and shield bosses), as well as everyday items (pottery, bronze jewellery, locks and keys, combs and loom weights). There are also two skeletons from the graveyard.
The Fortress
Trelleborg was constructed as a circular fortress, built to a precise mathematical plan and home to a garrison of around 500 soldiers, plus craftsmen and some women and children. Huge earthen banks, 17m wide and 6m high, formed a protective wall around the fort. Inside, two streets divided the circle into quarters, each containing four longhouses set around a courtyard. Two nearby streams gave the inhabitants boat access inland and out to the sea.
Trelleborg’s impressive scale and strategic position, and the similarly designed forts at Fyrkat, Nonnebakken and Aggersborg, indicate a powerful 10th-century force at work, with immense manpower to command. Dendrochronology has shown that the trees for the palisade (which added an extra defensive layer to the earth banks) were cut down in AD 980, during the reign of Harald Bluetooth. One theory is that the forts were built by Harald after an uprising led by his son, Svein Forkbeard.
Hints of big trouble are littered across Trelleborg. The fort was occupied for a very short space of time, before being abandoned around 990. There are signs of a large fire, and a Viking graveyard lying within the fort’s outer defences contains two mass graves, both containing the bodies of men in their 20s and 30s.
Despite the passing of a millennium since its construction, the circular earthen mound is perfectly intact. Naturally, the wooden structures that once stood inside it have long since decayed, but the post holes and gable ends of the buildings have been filled with cement to show the outlines of the house foundations. You can walk up onto the grassy circular rampart and readily grasp the strikingly precise geometric design of the fortress. Grazing sheep imbue the scene with a timeless aura.
Reconstructions
Several Viking-era buildings have been reconstructed at the site, using authentic materials and methods. The most impressive is the replica longhouse, built in 1941 in Viking stave style. Sit quietly on one of the sleeping benches that line the walls, watching the swallows dart through the doorways and the smoke hole, and you half expect one of the fortress’s former inhabitants to wander in.
Since it was built, archaeologists have changed their opinion on the external appearance of the longhouse. They now think that there was no outer gallery and that the roof was much lower – still, 10 out of 10 for effort.
A few reconstructed houses are clustered together to form ‘Trelletorp’, a tiny Viking village, with besmocked interpreters doing chores of the period such as sharpening axes, chopping wood and baking bread. From June to August there are often activities for children, such as archery demonstrations and pottery workshops.
