Husembro

Husum (North Frisian: Hüsem), capital of the Kreis (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. [Birthplace of Jan Franz Van Husem and Home to families named Van Huss, Van Hoesen, and others].

The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey city by the sea". It is also the home of the annual international piano festival Raritäten der Klaviermusik (Rarities of Piano Music) founded in 1986. - variously used on multiple sites

Husum was first mentioned as Husembro in 1252

Abel, son of Valdemar (1218 – 29 June 1252), Duke of Schleswig, 1232 to 1252, and King of Denmark, 1250 until 1252. Died on the bridge at Husem (Husembro).

In 1250, Abel killed his brother Eric and was made king. In 1252, Abel was told that the Frisians who lived along the North Sea coastline refused to pay taxes. Raising an army, King Abel marched to the sea where he met an opposing force of Frisians organized by Sicko Sjaerdema, who gave allegiance to William of Holland.  King Abel's army was defeated at the bridge to Husem (Husembro) and it is reported that he was killed by a wheelwright named Henner.

In 1539, Husem again enters recorded history when it is mapped (inaccurately, as it is placed next to a large lake at the bottom of the Jutland Peninsula and towards the center) for the first time on the Carta Marina in the Frisian (Latin) form of Husem. Swedish map maker Olaus Magnus, initially published in 1539.

 

In 1634 a Great Flood struck the western coast of the Jutland Peninsula causing tens of thousands of deaths and making Husem a port city. This fact is revealed by mapmaker Georg Braun (1541 – 1622) who included a birds-eye view of Husem in his Civitates orbis terrarum (cities of the world).

Husem 1593, mapmaker Braun

Today the river that divides Husum is more of a tidal estuary. The port is removed a mile to the west. The city center is a tourist destination with restaurants lining the river bank watching the tide come and go.

The old bridge around which Husem grew is still there. One can sit and have a glass of wine or beer and think about the battle that took place on this old bridge more than 800 years ago.

From Husum to Helsinore

Jacob Knijff - National Maritime Museum, London (c.1670), image Wikipedia

 

 

Husum to Helsinore

Today, the trip from Husum Germany to Helsinore Denmark takes 4 hours by car, longer if one goes by boat since one must travel north along the Jutland peninsula, past Fredrikshaven and on to the northern point of the island of Zealand. Here is Hamlet's imposing castle overlooking the sea where Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia are separated by a channel of water called Öresund (the Sound) which is no more than two and a half miles.

Hamlet

The closeness sets the political stage for Shakespeare’s play Hamlet in which the underlying fear of a Norwegian invasion is the backdrop for Hamlet’s conflict with his uncle, the new King of Denmark and the king’s wife, Hamlet’s mother.

I mention this purely because Shakespeare’s play may give us insight into the life and times of the Danish people, and, our progenitor, Jan Franz Van Husum (Husum then Danish and the people a mixture of Danes, Dutch, and Frisians). Too disturbing you say, too psychological, too royal for a common sailor like our Jan and his father Franz. Perhaps.

Still, it demonstrates that our ancestors were like us, subject to human passions, to anger, to love, to jealousy and revenge. And life does not always turn out well.

Varengezel 

The marriage certificate of Jan and Volkje
in which he describes himself as a "varengezel"

 

A “varensgezel,” as Jan would later describe himself, is a sailor, a shipmate, a wayfaring journeyman. Such a sailor makes a brier appearance addressing Hamlet’s best friend Horatio:

“Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did: I am to do a good turn for them.”

Scholars of Shakespeare have determined that Hamlet was written sometime between 1599 and 1602. This would be a few years before Jan’s birth in 1608 and at time when Jan’s father Franz was of a similar age to Hamlet himself.

Shakespeare speaks

We are all familiar with Hamlet’s soliloquy, “To be or not to be…” It dominates our understanding of the play, but there is much, much more that reveals the everyday thinking of the late 16th century and early 17th century Dane. I will give you two and suggest that you read the play.

“Brevity is the soul of wit.” And, “Listen to many, speak to a few.”

And close with, “Good-night, sweet prince; and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”