TheDannebrog (Danish:Dannebrog,pronounced[ˈtænəˌpʁoˀ])[4] is the flag ofDenmark. The flag is red with a whiteNordic cross, which means that the cross extends to the edges of theflag and that the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side.
A banner with a white-on-red cross is attested as having been used by thekings of Denmark since the 14th century.[5] An origin legend with considerable impact on Danish national historiography connects the introduction of the flag to theBattle of Lindanise of 1219.[6]
The elongated Nordic cross, which representsChristianity, reflects its use as a maritime flag in the 18th century.[7] The flag became popular as anational flag in the early 16th century. Its private use was outlawed in 1834 but again permitted by a regulation of 1854. The flag holds theGuinness world record of being the oldest continuously used national flag, that is since 1625.[3]
A 1748 regulation, which is still in force, defines the flag as constructed of two squares of4⁄4, with a white cross1⁄7 the height of the flag and the two rectangular fields as6⁄4.[1] Multiplying the proportions by three to get whole numbers gives the proportions in the construction sheet below (28 divided by 4 being 7 for the white cross).
No official definition of "Dannebrog rød" exists. The private companyDansk Standard, regulation number 359 (2005), defines the red colour of the flag asPantone 186c.
A tradition recorded in the 16th century traces the origin of the flag to the campaigns ofValdemar II of Denmark (r. 1202–1241). The oldest of them is inChristiern Pedersen'sDanske Krønike, which is a sequel toSaxo Grammaticus'sGesta Danorum, which was written in 1520 to 1523. Here, the flag falls from the sky during one of Valdemar's military campaigns overseas. Pedersen also states that the very same flag was taken into exile byEric of Pomerania in 1440.
The second source is the writing of theFranciscan friarPetrus Olai (Peder Olsen) ofRoskilde (diedc. 1570). This record describes a battle in 1208 nearFellin during theEstonia campaign of KingValdemar II. The Danes were all but defeated when a lamb-skin banner depicting a white cross fell from the sky and miraculously led to a Danish victory. In a third account, also by Petrus Olai,[dubious –discuss] inDanmarks Tolv Herligheder ("Twelve Splendours of Denmark"), in splendour number nine, the same story is retold almost verbatim, with a paragraph inserted correcting the year to 1219.[citation needed] Now, the flag is falling from the sky in theBattle of Lindanise, also known as the Battle of Valdemar (Danish:Volmerslaget), nearLindanise (Tallinn) inEstonia, of 15 June 1219.
It is this third account that has been the most influential, and some historians[who?] have treated it as the primary account taken from a (lost) source dating to the first half of the 15th century.
In Olai's account, the battle was going badly, and defeat seemed imminent. However the Danish bishop,Anders Sunesen, was on top of a hill overlooking the battle and prayed to God with his arms raised. The Danes moved closer to victory as prayed. When he raised his arms, the Danes surged forward, but when his arms grew tired, and he let them fall, the Estonians turned the Danes back. Attendants rushed forward to raise his arms once again, and the Danes again surged forward, but for a second time he grew so tired that he dropped his arms, and the Danes again lost the advantage and became closer to defeat. He needed two soldiers to keep his hands up (a story almost identical to the battle described in Exodus 17:11-12). When the Danes were about to lose, theDannebrog miraculously fell from the sky. The King took it and showed it to the troops, their hearts were filled with courage, and the Danes won the battle.
The possible historical nucleus behind this origin legend was extensively discussed by Danish historians in the 19th to 20th centuries. One such example isAdolf Ditlev Jørgensen, who argued thatBishop Theoderich was the original instigator of the 1218 inquiry from BishopAlbert of Buxhoeveden to KingValdemar II which led to the Danish participation in the Baltic crusades. Jørgensen speculates that Bishop Theoderich might have carried the Knight Hospitaller's banner in the 1219 battle and that "the enemy thought this was the King's symbol and mistakenly stormed Bishop Theoderich tent. He claims that the origin of the legend of the falling flag comes from this confusion in the battle".[8]
The Danish church-historian L. P. Fabricius (1934)[9] ascribes the origin to the 1208 Battle of Fellin, not theBattle of Lindanise in 1219, based on the earliest source available about the story. Fabricius speculated that it might have been ArchbishopAndreas Sunesøn's personal ecclesiastical banner or perhaps even the flag of ArchbishopAbsalon under whose initiative and supervision several smaller crusades had already been conducted in Estonia. The banner would then already be known in Estonia. Fabricius repeats Jørgensen's idea about the flag being planted in front of Bishop Theodorik's tent, which the enemy mistakenly attacked believing it to be the tent of the King.
A different theory is briefly discussed by Fabricius and elaborated more by Helge Bruhn (1949). Bruhn interprets the story in the context of the widespread tradition of the miraculous appearance of crosses in the sky in Christian legend, specifically comparing such an event attributed to a battle of 10 September 1217 nearAlcazar in which it is said that a golden cross on white appeared in the sky and brought victory to the Christians.[10]
In Swedish national historiography of the 18th century, there is a tale paralleling the Danish legend, in which a golden cross appears in the blue sky during a Swedish battle in Finland in 1157.[11]
The royal banner of the kings of Denmark based on the royal coat of arms
Seal ofEric of Pomerania as king of theKalmar union, 1398. A small Dannebrog banner is depicted as held by the three Danish lions in the top-left corner.
The reason that the kings of Denmark in the 14th century began displaying the cross banner in their coats of arms is unknown. Caspar Paludan-Müller (1873) suggested that it may reflect a banner sent by the pope to support the king during theLivonian Crusade.[13]Adolf Ditlev Jørgensen (1875) identifies the banner as that of theKnights Hospitaller, an order that had a presence in Denmark from the later 12th century.[8]
Several coins, seals and images exist, both foreign and domestic, from the 13th to the 15th centuries and even earlier and show similar heraldic designs similar, alongside theroyal coat of arms (three blue lions on a golden shield.)
There is a record suggesting that the Danish Army had a "chief banner" (hoffuitbanner) in the early 16th century. Such a banner is mentioned in 1570 by Niels Hemmingsøn in the context of a 1520 battle between Danes and Swedes nearUppsala as nearly captured by the Swedes but saved by the heroic actions of the banner-carrierMogens Gyldenstierne andPeder Skram. The legend attributing themiraculous origin of the flag to the campaigns ofValdemar II of Denmark (r. 1202-1241) was recorded byChristiern Pedersen andPetrus Olai in the 1520s.
Hans Svaning'sHistory of King Hans from 1558 to 1559 andJohan Rantzau'sHistory about the LastDithmarschen War, from 1569, record the further fate of the Danishhoffuitbanner: According to the tradition, the original flag from the Battle of Lindanise was used in the small campaign of 1500, whenKing Hans tried to conquerDithmarschen (in westernHolstein in northernGermany). The flag was lost in a devastating defeat at theBattle of Hemmingstedt, on 17 February 1500. In 1559, KingFrederik II recaptured it during his ownDithmarschen campaign.
In 1576, the son of Johan Rantzau,Henrik Rantzau, also writes about the war and the fate of the flag, noting that the flag was in a poor condition when returned. He records that the flag after its return to Denmark was placed in the cathedral inSlesvig. Slesvig historianUlrik Petersen (1656–1735) confirms the presence of such a banner in the cathedral in the early 17th century and records that it had crumbled away by about 1660.
Contemporary records describing the battle of Hemmingstedt make no reference to the loss of the original Dannebrog, although the capitulation state that all Danish banners lost in 1500 was to be returned. In a letter dated 22 February 1500 toOluf Stigsøn, King John describes the battle but does not mention the loss of an important flag. In fact, the entire letter gives the impression that the lost battle was of limited importance. In 1598,Neocorus wrote that the banner captured in 1500 was brought to the church inWöhrden and hung there for the next 59 years until it was returned to the Danes as part of the peace settlement in 1559.
Used as a maritime flag since the 16th century, the Dannebrog was introduced as a regimental flag in the Danish army in 1785, and for the militia (landeværn) in 1801. From 1842, it was used as the flag of the entire army.[14]
During the first half of the 19th century, in parallel to the development ofRomantic nationalism in other European countries, the military flag increasingly came to be seen as representing the nation itself. Poems of the period invoking theDannebrog were written by B.S. Ingemann, N.F.S. Grundtvig, Oehlenschläger, Chr. Winther and H.C. Andersen.[14] By the 1830s, the military flag had become popular as an unofficial national flag, and its use by private citizens was outlawed in a circular enacted on 7 January 1834.
In the national enthusiasm sparked by theFirst Schleswig War from 1848 to 1850, the flag was still very widely displayed, and the prohibition of private use was repealed in a regulation of 7 July 1854 that for the first time allowed Danish citizens to display the Dannebrog (but not the swallow-tailedSplitflag variant.[15] Special permission to use theSplitflag was given to individual institutions and private companies, especially after 1870.[citation needed] In 1886, the war ministry introduced a regulation indicating that the flag should be flown from military buildings on thirteen specified days, including royal birthdays, the date of the signing of the Constitution of 5 June 1849 and days of remembrance for military battles. In 1913, the naval ministry issued its own list of flag days. On 10 April 1915, the hoisting of any other flag on Danish soil was prohibited.[16] The prohibition was lifted on 24 June 2023, after a Supreme Court ruling.[17] From 1939 to 2012, the yearbookHvem-Hvad-Hvor included a list of flag days. As of 2019, flag days can be viewed at the"Ministry of Justice (Justitsministeriet)" as well as"The Denmark Society (Danmarks-Samfundet)".
The Rigets flag/Splitflag raised at the opening of the DSR rowing club
Rigets flag – the Danish state flag Also known as theSplitflag. Proportions: 56:107[2]
TheOrlogsflag – the Danish naval flag. Proportions: 7:17[2]
The size and shape of thecivil ensign (Koffardiflaget) for merchant ships is given in the regulation of 11 June 1748, which says: "A red flag with a white cross with no split end. The white cross must be1⁄7 of the flag's height. The two first fields must be square in form and the two outer fields must be6⁄4 lengths of those". The proportions are thus: 3:1:3 vertically and 3:1:4.5 horizontally. This definition are the absolute proportions for the Danish national flag to this day, for both the civil version of the flag (Stutflaget), as well as the merchant flag (Handelsflaget). The civil flag and the merchant flag are identical in colour and design.
According to the regulation of 11 June 1748, the colour was simply red, which is common known today as "Dannebrog rød" ("Dannebrog red"). The only red fabric dye then available was made ofmadder root, which can be processed to produce a brilliant red dye and was used historically for British and Danish and soldiers' jackets. A regulation of 4 May 1927 once again stated that Danish merchant ships had to fly flags according to the regulation of 1748.
The first regulation regarding theSplitflag dates from 27 March 1630, in which KingChristian IV ordered that NorwegianDefensionskibe (armed merchants ships) were allowed to use only theSplitflag if they were in Danish war service. In 1685, an order was distributed to a number of cities inSlesvig and stated that all ships had to carry the Danish flag, and in 1690, all merchant ships were forbidden to use theSplitflag except for ships sailing in theEast Indies, theWest Indies or along the coast ofAfrica. In 1741, it was confirmed that the regulation of 1690 was still very much in effect that merchant ships were not allowed to use theSplitflag. At the same time, theDanish East India Company was allowed to fly theSplitflag past theequator.
Some confusion must have existed regarding theSplitflag. In 1696 the Admiralty, presented the King with a proposal for a standard regulating both size and shape of theSplitflag. In the same year, a royal resolution defined the proportions of theSplitflag, which was calledKongeflaget (the King's flag), as follows: "The cross must be1⁄7 of the flags height. The two first fields must be square in form with the sides three times the cross width. The two outer fields are rectangular and1+1⁄2 the length of the square fields. The tails are the length of the flag".
Those numbers are still the base for theSplitflag and theOrlogsflag though the numbers have been slightly altered. The termOrlogsflag dates from 1806 and denotes its use in the Danish Navy.
From about 1750 to the early 19th century, a number of ships and companies in which the government has interests received approval to use theSplitflag.
In the royal resolution of 25 October 1939 for the Danish Navy, it was stated that theOrlogsflag is aSplitflag with a deep red (dybrød) or madder red (kraprød) colour. As for the national flag, no shade was given, but it is now stated as 195U. Furthermore, the size and the shape were corrected in the new resolution: "The cross must be1⁄7 of the flag's height. The two first fields must be square in form with the height of3⁄7 of the flag's height. The two outer fields are rectangular and5⁄4 the length of the square fields. The tails are6⁄4 the length of the rectangular fields". Thus, if compared to the standard of 1696, both the rectangular fields and the tails have decreased in size.
TheSplitflag andOrlogsflag have similar shapes but different sizes and shades of red. Legally, they are two different flags. TheSplitflag is a Danish flag ending in a swallow-tail, it isDannebrog red and is used on land. TheOrlogsflag is an elongatedSplitflag with a deeper red colour and is used only at sea.
TheOrlogsflag with no markings may be used only by theRoyal Danish Navy, but there are a few exceptions. A few institutions have been allowed to fly the cleanOrlogsflag. The same flag with markings has been approved for a few dozen companies and institutions over the years.
Furthermore, theOrlogsflag is described as such only if it has no additional markings. Any swallow-tail flag, no matter the colour, is called aSplitflag provided it bears additional markings.
The current version of theroyal standard was introduced on 1 January 2025.[18] after KingFrederik X adopted a new version of his personal coat of arms on 20 December 2024.[19] The royal standard is the flag of Denmark with a swallow-tail and charged with themonarch's coat of arms set in a white squared panel. The centre panel is 32 parts in a flag with the ratio 56:107.
Some areas in Denmark have unofficial flags. While they have no legal recognition or regulation, they can be used freely.
The regional flags of Bornholm and Ærø are occasionally used by locals of those islands and in tourist-related businesses.
The proposal for a flag of Jutland has hardly found any actual use, maybe in part because of its peculiar design.[21]
The flag of Vendsyssel (Vendelbrog) is seen infrequently, but locals recognise it. According to an article in the newspaperNordjyske, the flag had been used in the former insignia of FlightEskadrille 723 ofAalborg Air Base, in the 1980s.
Nearly square banner of horizontal yellow, green, and red stripes repeated three times. A historically incorrect version similar to theflag of Lithuania was used until 2015
Nordic Cross Flag in red and green. Also known in a version with a white fimbriation of the green cross in a style similar to design of theNorwegian flag
^The wordDannebrog is recorded since the 19th century, and in the opinion of A. D. Jørgensen ("Om Danebroges Oprindelse",Historiske Afhandlinger 2, 1899), the word may be of medieval coinage. Old Danishbrog continues Old Norsebrók "piece of cloth; breeches, trousers"; the word is not now current in Danish outside of composition, and theOrdbog over det danske Sprog (1920 edition) listed it as "dated or poetic" (foræld. og poet.) for "trousers".
^Andrew Evans (2008).Iceland. Bradt.ISBN9781841622156. Retrieved2007-12-31.Legend states that a red cloth with the white cross simply fell from the sky in the middle of the 13th-century Battle of Valdemar, after which the Danes were victorious. As a badge of divine right, Denmark flew its cross in the other Scandinavian countries it ruled and as each nation gained independence, they incorporated the Christian symbol.Inge Adriansen,Nationale symboler, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2003, p. 129: "Fra begyndelsen af 1400-tallet kan Dannebrog med sikkerhed dokumenteres som rigsflag, det vil sige statsmagtens og kongens flag" (English: "Dannebrog can with certainty be documented as flag of therealm, that is the flag of the authority of state and of the king, from the beginning of the 1400s")
Ackrén, Maria (November 2017)."Greenland". Autonomy Arrangements in the World. Archived fromthe original on 2019-08-30. Retrieved2019-08-30.Faroese and Greenlandic are seen as official regional languages in the self-governing territories belonging to Denmark.
"Greenland".International Cooperation and Development.European Commission. 2013-06-03. Retrieved2019-08-27.Greenland [...] is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark
"Facts about the Faroe Islands". Nordic cooperation. Archived fromthe original on 23 April 2018. Retrieved1 July 2015.The Faroe Islands [...] is one of three autonomous territories in the Nordic Region
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