What's Danish for holy moly?

A fellow in the small northern Danish city of Rebild was digging around in his backyard, making way for a terrace he's planning on putting in. After a couple of hours of "hard gardening work," his spade hit something and he heard a strange noise.

The backyard gardener (who wishes to remain anonymous, for reasons soon to become obvious) figured it was a piece of old fencing, or a pottery shard. He started rooting around with his hands and began pulling out some pretty magnificent buried treasure - 700 pieces (over 40 pounds worth) of Viking Era silver objects.  

Among the pieces were a small Thor's hammer, bracelets, many silver bars, cut-up objects and 47 coins, some whole and some fragmented, the [Nordjyske Museermuseum] group said in a statement. (Source: WCVB)

Wow! What's Danish for holey moley?

I haven't done much gardening, but before my green thumb neighbor took over our building's front garden, I used to plant crocuses, daffodils, and tulips every fall so we'd have a colorful spring in our little front "yard." But all I ever unearthed when I was troweling away were earth worms. Oh, and once I found that a box turtle had taken up residence. 

But no spectacular finds. Nothing from the 1860's, the vintage of our building, let alone something from the before times. 

As for the Danish discovery, it's estimated that the treasure trove has been there since the 10th century. Now that's a while back.

And since some of the coins were of Anglo-Saxon and Arabic origin, it's pretty safe to say that those Vikings got around. Which we knew, of course, given that Leif Erikson was the first European to step toe in North America, hundreds of years before "we" were "discovered" by Christopher Columbus, whose day we will be celebrating shortly. Or not. 

And anyone who's been in Dublin with their eyes open for more than a day are aware that Vikings founded that city way in the wayback. 

This year has apparently been a banner on for the discovery of Viking hoards in the Scandinavian countries. 

Last month, Kalle Lappinen was buzzing around southern Finland with his metal detector and he detected 10 pounds of Viking Era coins and jewelry. Norway also posted quite a find when last April their country's biggest hoard ever - nearly 3,000 silver coins - was unearthed.

However, none of the record-setting finds of 2026—the 10 pounds of Viking silver from Finland, the thousands of Viking Age silver coins in Norway, nor the 40-pound Viking hoard in Denmark—can claim to be the largest Viking hoard ever discovered in Scandinavia or the world. The largest Viking treasure ever found remains a 150-pound hoard discovered on the Swedish island of Gotland. Known as the Spillings Hoard, the 1999 discovery featured more than 14,000 silver coins. In that find, most of the coins came from Islamic countries or other European sources, which allowed archaeologists and historians to reconstruct trade routes and learn the sources of Viking Age wealth. (Source: Popular Mechanics)

One interesting aspect of the finds is how contemporary the designs of the Viking objects are. When you look at items individually, they aren't that far off from the modern Scandinavian aesthetic. A look that has always appealed to me. (I'd be quite happy to live in a mid-century modern house furnished entirely in "Danish Modern.")

By the way, holy moly in Danish is hold da helt op, which translates back as "wow."

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 Image Source: Nordjyske Museer via Archaeology Magazine