Now _This_ Is an Armorial Memorial Board

Further into the Cathedral in Roskilde, Denmark, we came across this very large, detailed, carved and painted armorial memorial, dated 1666.

Rather than switch out my camera's lens to get the whole thing in one photograph, I took two; one of the height:

I think I've fallen in love with the skull and crossbones carved at the bottom; I don't recall many (or even any) instances of the crossed femurs being held in the skull's mouth, and the eyes are so deeply carved that, along with the way the upper part of the skull is carved, it looks like it is wearing dark sunglasses. Is it the epitome of "cool"? Well,, maybe. Anyway, I find it fascinating.

And the other of the width:

There are sixteen families memorialized here with their coats of arms and crests, carved in deep relief and painted. Going from left to right and from top to bottom by row, we see the arms of the following families:

Krage and Høg/Hoegh (both of whom we saw in our last post, as the first and third quarters of the first shield we looked at, along with Rosenkrantz and Gyldenstjerne in the second and fourth quarters);

Juling/Juel and Wlstand (or should it be Wlstan?);

Stampe, Biller (which we have seen before in Frederiksborg Castle), and Lunge;

Lange, Kall, and Krompen/Krumpen;

Flemming, Podebusk/Putbus, and Stifeld;

and finally, Wlstand (again), Fris/Friis (this family also makes up the second and third of the four quarters of Rosenkrantz), and Rosenkrantz.

(I swear, I'm starting to think that "Rosenkrantz" in Denmark is like "Smith" or "Jones" in America. We keep seeing the name over and over again!)

What a great memorial, a real tribute to the woodcarver's art, as well as to the sixteen family names here.