Skjalm Hvide (before 1045 – c. 1113), was the Earl of Zealand in Denmark in the end of the Viking Age (793–1066) and up to his death. Skjalm's father was Toke Trylle, whose father was Slag (or Slau, or he may have been called by both names), based on Absalon, a medieval account scanned, translated and published by Google.Absalon, at Historic Books Project by Google.
Skjalm Hvide was very rich. He was one of the most influential and powerful chiefs in Denmark in the Middle Ages, and the most powerful chief of his era, i.e. the late Viking Age, late 11th century and early 12th century. He is regarded as the founder of the Hvide Clan, the name Hvide signifying the color white. During the transition ending the Viking Age and a few centuries ahead, the Hvide clan was a dominant factor in the Danish power politics.Roskildehistorie.dk: Skjalm "påtog sig at opdrage kongesønnen Knud (Lavard). (Skjalm brought up Canute, the king's son.)
In 1062, on August 9, Skjalm Hvide together with the King Sweyn II of Denmark (c. 1019 – 28 April 1076; reigned in 1047–1076)Svend 2. Estridsen | Gyldendal – Den Store Danske ("The Great Dane"). fought in the Battle of Niså, a naval battle off the coast of Halland, in what today is southwestern Sweden. The enemy were the forces of the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada, who had claimed the Danish throne since 1047, and had launched raids into Denmark ever since then.
With his invasion of Danish territory in 1062, Harald wanted to decisively defeat the Danes, and thus finally be able to conquer Denmark.Bricka, Carl Frederik, Dansk Biografisk Lexikon, vol. XVII [Svend Tveskjæg – Tøxen], 1903, p. 3–5.http://mcllibrary.org/Heimskringla/hardrade2.html, p. 61.http://mcllibrary.org/Heimskringla/hardrade2.html, p. 63.http://mcllibrary.org/Heimskringla/hardrade2.html, p. 65.http://www.jomsborg.eu/Saxobog11.pdf. Skjalm Hvide was captured by Harald's forces, but he later managed to escape. Harald relinquished his claims to Denmark in 1064, in exchange for Sweyn's recognition of Harald as the King Harald III of Norway.Louise Kæmpe Henriksen, Historiske Personer – Svend Estridsen – konge af Danmark ("King of Denmark"), 1047–74., vikingeskibsmuseet.dk Harald then sailed off to England, to claim the crown of England, but – instead – was killed there.
In c. 1085, Skjalm Hvide founded and erected the Jørlunde Church (Jørlunde Kirke), located on the island of Zealand, in Jørlunde, North Zealand. It is one of the earliest and oldest still existing churches in Denmark. The church is richly decorated inside with frescos dating back to the mid-12th century, created by the so-called Jørlunde workshop. The original appearance of the church was first changed by a conversion in c. 1350. Like his father Toke Trylle who was baptized in Christian tradition,Gavebogen ("Gift Book"): Liber donatorium monasterii sorensis, translation by Svend Ranvig in: Sorøkrøniken ("Sorø Chronicle"), Volume 2; Absalon og hans slægtninges genealogi ("Absalon and His Family Genealogy"), Copenhagen, 1986, p. 49. Skjalm Hvide was one of the earliest Nordic leaders known to have accepted Christianity as their faith. Thereafter, the Hvide clansmen regularly rose to the highest positions in the Christian clergy, including several as Roman Catholic Archbishops of Lund.Skjalm Hvide
In c. 1100, after his brother had been murdered, Skjalm Hvide with his warriors sailed for a revenge to Rügen, the largest island by area in what today is Germany. Rügen at the time had been used by Wendish pirates as their base. It was perhaps in connection to this expedition of his when Skjalm Hvide made the people of Rügen taxpayers for the Danish crown, of which Saxo Grammaticus has written. After this event, Skjalm Hvide was appointed the bailiff of Rügen by the King Eric I of Denmark. According to Saxo, Skjalm Hvide established peace between the Danes and Wends, and he at one point also ruled the Wends. Based on Saxo's account, Skjalm Hvide was also the bailiff of Zealand, and commanded the King of Denmark's armed forces.
In c. 1102, Skjalm Hvide undertook the task of providing home and care to King of Denmark's eldest and only legitimate son, Canute Lavard, starting from when Canute's parents, the King Eric I of Denmark (Eric I, Eric the Good; Danish: Erik Ejegod, a son of King Sweyn II) and Queen Boedil Thurgotsdatter (both Eric I and Boedil were descendants of King Sweyn I of Denmark) embarked for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, during which both Eric I and Boedil became ill and died in 1103. Skjalm Hvide hereafter took the responsibility of bringing up Canute Lavard, a mission in which Skjalm's brother Aude provided assistance. Canute's son Valdemar, who became the King Valdemar I of Denmark ("Valdemar the Great"), – in turn – was brought up by Skjalm Hvide's son Asser Rig.
Skjalm Hvide's stronghold in Zealand
During Skjalm Hvide's lifetime and for a long time thereafter, the Hvide Clan was most active and influential on the Danish island of Zealand (Danish: Sjælland), and some of the surrounding areas, including e.g. other Danish islands and Skåne, also known as Scania, in what today is the southernmost province of Sweden.
The Hvide Clan had an important stronghold in and around Jørlunde, North Zealand,Arkæologiske udgravninger i Danmark (kulturarv.dk 1993). where in. c. 1085 Skjalm Hvide erected the Jørlunde Church (Jørlunde Kirke). Today, Jørlunde is a village in the Frederikssund municipality, about 26 km northwest of central Copenhagen, in the Capital Region of Denmark, with a population of 305 as of 1 January 2019."BEF44: Population 1st January, by urban areas", 2019 database from Statistics Denmark. The earliest known written mention of the place-name Jørlunde is in a document from 1085.Bent Jørgensen: Danske stednavne ("Danish place-names"), 3rd ed., Gyldendal, 2008.
In addition to North Zealand, Skåne (Scania) and some other areas, Skjalm Hvide also held large land possessions in and around what nearly five decades after his death, in 1161, was founded as the town of Sorø by Skjalm's grandson Absalon, a son of Asser Rig, in the south-central part of Zealand.
In Sorø, Skjalm Hvide's sons Ebbe Skjalmsen Hvide and Asser Rig (Hvide) in 1140 founded and in 1142 consecrated the Sorø Abbey. It was the preeminent and wealthiest monastic house in all of Denmark during the Middle Ages, which acquired property all over Denmark, with an income larger than that of the royal family. Near Sorø, Ebbe also erected the Bjernede Church, and Asser established a Benedictine House, just a few years before his death in 1151. Asser lived as a monk for the last years of his life.Dansk Biografiske Lexicon.
In 1161–1201, Asser's son Absalon erected at the Sorø Abbey grounds Sorø Abbey Church, a burial site for four Danish rulers. Around the time he started that work, he also founded what today is the city of Copenhagen.Skaarup; Jensen (2002), pages 14–15. Traditionally, Copenhagen's founding has been dated to Bishop Absalon's erection of the Absalon's Castle on the little island of Slotsholmen in 1167, at the site of the later Copenhagen Castle and where the Christiansborg Palace – the home of the Danish Parliament (Danish: Folketing) – stands today.
The construction of the Absalon's Castle was done in response to the attacks by Wendish pirates who plagued the Danish coastline during the 12th century. Defensive ramparts and moats were also built for the castle, and at the latest by 1177 also the St. Clemens Church had been completed on the same site.
The earliest written mention of Copenhagen, located on the island of Zealand, was in the 12th century when Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum referred to it as Portus Mercatorum, meaning Merchants' Harbor or – in the Danish of the time – Købmannahavn. In 1186, a letter from Pope Urban III states that the castle of Hafn (Copenhagen) and its surrounding lands, including the town of Hafn, were given to Absalon by King Valdemar I.
Archaeological excavations done in 2018 point to there possibly having been also another church in Copenhagen at the time of the erection of the Absalon's Castle in the 1160s, and – accordingly – Copenhagen possibly having been a bigger town in Absalon's lifetime than previously has been thought.Archaeologists think they have found Copenhagen’s oldest church Science Nordic, April 28, 2018. Additionally, around 1200, the Church of Our Lady was constructed on a higher ground of Copenhagen, to the northeast of the town. The town began to further develop around that church.
At 7,031 km2, Zealand is the largest and most populous island not only in today's Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger), but also in the entire Baltic Sea region. Zealand's official population on 1 January 2018 was 2,302,074.Population, 1 January 2018 per Island, Statistics Denmark. Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, is located partly on the eastern shore of Zealand and partly on the island of Amager. Other cities in Zealand include Roskilde, Hillerød, Næstved and Helsingør.
Especially in the Viking Age (793–1066), but also before it and after, Zealand has often played a critical role in history. This is due to its strategically important location in the center of the narrow waterways known as the Danish Straits, which connect – and provide the only maritime gateway between – the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. To be in control of this gateway in the Middle Ages was both a guarantee and sign of enormous power.
Adam of Bremen on Skjalm Hvide's turf
Adam of Bremen (before 1050 – 12 October 1081/1085) was a German monk and chronicler, most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Medieval Latin for "Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church"), a historical treatise written in 1073–1076, to which Adam made additions (scholia) until his death. It is one of the most important sources of the medieval history of Northern Europe, and the oldest textual source reporting the discovery of coastal North America. It covers the entire period known as the Viking Age, from the foundation of the bishopric under Saint Willehad (a.k.a. Willihad (); c. 745 – 8 November 789; a Christian missionary and the Bishop of Bremen from 787) in 788 until the rule of the Prince-Bishop Adalbert (c. 1000 – 16 March 1072), who served as the Archbishop of Hamburg and Bishop of Bremen in 1043–1072.Chambers Biographical Dictionary, , p. 7.
In 1066 or 1067 Adam was invited by Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg (a.k.a. Adalbert of Bremen; also Adelbert, Albert; c. 1000 – 16 March 1072) to join the Archdiocese of Bremen. He was accepted among the capitulars of Bremen, and by 1069 appeared as the director of the cathedral's school. Soon thereafter he began to write the history of Bremen, Hamburg and the northern lands in his aforementioned study, nicknamed as Gesta.
Adam's position and the missionary activity of the church of Bremen allowed him to gather information on the history and geography of Northern Germany and some of the surrounding areas. On this mission, Adam at some point in 1073–1076 spent time at the royal court of King Sweyn II of Denmark (c. 1019 – 28 April 1076; reigned in 1047–1076), a.k.a. Sweyn II Estridsson.His first name is also spelled as Swen, Svein and Sven and his last name as Estridson, Estridsson or Estridsøn. presumably including in Slangerup – a part of which is Jørlunde –, based on the fact that King Sweyn II primarily used as his home the royal estate there and its equivalent in Dalby, near Lund.