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:''For other uses of this and similar names, see Dannevirke (disambiguation).'' The Danevirke (modern Danish spelling: Dannevirke; in Old Norse; ''Danavirki'', in German; ''Danewerk'') is a system of Danish fortifications in Schleswig-Holstein. This important linear defensive earthwork across the neck of the Cimbrian peninsula, was initiated by the Danes in the Nordic Iron Age at some point before 500 AD. It was later expanded multiple times during Denmark's Viking Age. The Danevirke was last used for military purposes in 1864 during the Second War of Schleswig. The Danevirke stretches for 30 km, from the former Viking trade centre of Hedeby near Schleswig on the Baltic Sea coast in the east to the extensive marshlands in the west of the peninsula. Another wall named ''Østvolden'', between the Schlei and Eckernförde inlets, defended the Schwansen peninsula. According to written sources, work on the Danevirke was started by the Danish King Gudfred in 808. Fearing an invasion by the Franks, who had conquered heathen Frisia over the previous 100 years and Old Saxony in 772 to 804, Godfred began work on an enormous structure to defend his realm, separating the Jutland peninsula from the northern extent of the Frankish empire. The Danes however, were also in conflict with the Saxons south of Hedeby during the Nordic Iron Age and recent archaeological excavations have revealed that the Danevirke was initiated much earlier than King Gudfred's reign, around 500 AD and probably well before that even. ==Symbolism== Legend has it that it was the mythical queen Thyra who ordered the Danevirke to be built. She is thought to have lived in the 900s. With the emergence of national states in Europe during the 1800s, the Danevirke became a powerful symbol for Denmark and for the idea of a unique Danish people and Danish culture. Throughout the nineteenth century, Denmark and Germany struggled politically and militarily for possession of the territory variously known as ''Sønderjylland'' or ''Slesvig'' by the Danes and ''Schleswig'' by the Germans. Two wars were fought, the First Schleswig War (1848-1851) and the Second Schleswig War (1864), eventually resulting in a Danish defeat and subsequent German annexation. In this hostile context, the Danevirke played an important role, at first as a mental cultural barrier against Germany, but soon also as a concrete military fortification, when it was strengthened with cannon emplacements and entrenchments in 1850 and again in 1861.〔 In the early 1800s ''Dannevirke'' was adopted as the title of several Danish nationalist journals dealing specifically with the question of Danish autonomy vis-à-vis Germany, the most notable of these being published by N. F. S. Grundtvig in 1816–19. In earlier times, the Danevirke had indeed defined a cultural and linguistic border between Danish and German fiefdoms, but the cultural and linguistic frontiers had gradually moved northwards, so that by the 19th century territory as far north as Flensburg was predominantly German-speaking, even though the area itself remained part of Denmark.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Danevirke」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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