Gudinden Henthas udtog fra Lejre Skov i Herthadalen i Sjælland 1767 - 1824

Curator: I'm drawn to the way the light filters through the trees. It creates such a reverent hush, like a sacred space. Editor: It definitely feels hushed. This engraving, dating from between 1767 and 1824, by Andreas Flint, titled “Gudinden Henthas udtog fra Lejre Skov i Herthadalen i Sjælland”, depicts, as the name says, the goddess Hertha being led from Lejre Forest in Herthadalen. There’s an almost staged quality to the landscape that's striking. Curator: "Staged" is a great word! It makes me think of a ritual. There’s something intensely performative about the way those figures are arranged – almost like they're extras in a historical drama. What symbols leap out for you? Editor: Well, water is central; Hertha was a primordial Germanic earth goddess connected with water, fertility, and nature. The forest is alive and teeming; even in this monochrome rendering, it feels powerfully verdant, and, given it's a landscape, you know it will bear an entire narrative weight. Note how Flint chose to place Hertha as both integral and separate from this thriving biome. Curator: Yes! And consider those oxen. They’re almost too perfectly white, a stark contrast to the earthiness around them. That contrast just intensifies the sacred vibe for me. Almost theatrical? Like, ta-da, a goddess is emerging! Editor: Flint is undeniably playing with idealized pastoral motifs. Look at the serenity of the distant sheep. It’s an intriguing blend of observation and symbolism that wants us to contemplate Denmark’s ancient history but probably its future as well. Curator: That blend makes it feel simultaneously ancient and surprisingly modern, or at least proto-modern. I love how Flint seems to be acknowledging both the mythic past and a more… rational present. It’s a very delicate balance, and the print just *vibrates* with the tension of it all. Editor: An earthy godddess pulled through water between oxen; Flint reminds us our current realities sit on symbolic footings laid long before we existed. Curator: Thank you!