| rdfs:comment | - The Danevirke stretches for 30 km, from the marshes in the west of the peninsula to the town of Schleswig, which lies beside the Schlei (Danish: Slien) on the Baltic Sea coast, near the former Viking trade centre of Hedeby. Another wall, between the Schlei and the town of Eckernförde, defended the Schwansen peninsula. Carbon-14 dating however dates the initial construction to be in the second half of the 7th century, and Dendrochronology suggests that construction began not very long after 737 (a few decades before the reign of Gudfred).
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| abstract | - The Danevirke stretches for 30 km, from the marshes in the west of the peninsula to the town of Schleswig, which lies beside the Schlei (Danish: Slien) on the Baltic Sea coast, near the former Viking trade centre of Hedeby. Another wall, between the Schlei and the town of Eckernförde, 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. Carbon-14 dating however dates the initial construction to be in the second half of the 7th century, and Dendrochronology suggests that construction began not very long after 737 (a few decades before the reign of Gudfred). New Carbon-14 dating in 2013 has revealed that the second stage started in the years around 500 AD, and the oldest fortification are even older than that.
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