The story behind the Tree of Life/the Klim stone
In 1880, professor C. Engelhardt discovered a grave stone, the Klim stone, on a cemetery near the church of Klim during an investigation tour for the Danish National Museum. Only the upper edge was visible above ground. At the excavation, the stone turned out to be a large arched coffin-shaped granite stone depicting some puzzling figures carved in relief.
The stone was the actual tombstone; the stone covering the grave of a great man, possibly the builder of the church of Klim. The stone is approx. 1½ metres long, approx. ½ m wide and approx. ½ m tall and dates back to between 1100 and 1250.

Following the excavation, the stone was brought to the Danish National Museum where it was on display along with other stone works from the middle ages. The parochial church council of the church at Klim, however, wished to bring the stone home and have the sepulchral monument re-erected. In 1986, the Danish National Museum decided to release the stone “if an appropriate location could be assigned”. It was therefore decided to build an entirely new porch for the church of Klim. After 108 years, the stone returned home in 1988 and can now be found in the porch.

The Tree of life
The motif, the Tree of Life, originates from a headstone in the church of Klim in North Jutland. A similar motif from the Bronze Age can be found on the baptismal font in the church of Bråby near Ringsted.

The pattern representing a face or a man in the tree top is already known from the rock engravings where it is assumed to illustrate the shaman of the world-tree. The tree reaches from the roots of the underworld and up to the upper part of the sky.

The tree symbolises a cross with shoots and was known in church art in Caucasus, Greece, Italy and England among others.

In Denmark, it became the dream of the life-giving tree sucking water with its roots and from the top pouring it over human beings; an image of the baptism and an ancient world picture that people were familiar with.

A large number of stone church images in Denmark also describe dreams of enemies in wolf skin, women with snakes at their bosom and a tree that grows and covers the entire country. The dream has played a significant role as dreams were the only place to experience things beyond life on earth. The oldest Danish runic poem starts off with the words: “I dreamt a dream last night...”.

The book about animals from the middle age tells of an Indian tree where pigeons live of the fruits from the tree. If they leave the tree, they are eaten by a dragon. The pigeons symbolise human beings living of the Trinity Tree where Satan cannot reach them.

The Klim stone portrays scenery around a cross tree. The face at the top is interpreted as Christ while the other two faces symbolise God and the Holy Spirit. A Trinity symbol can be seen below the face at the bottom – a parallel to the tree in the book about animals. The animals of the Klim stone have now become religious symbols.

The Tree of Life reaches from the ground and into the sky and has as such had the same symbolism in the shamanism as later on in Christianity.

Literature: Søren Nancke-Krogh, Stenbilleder i danske kirker, 1995.
Literature: Fjerritslev Avis, 1988. Aalborg Stiftstidende, 1988.

The large stone:
Height: 56 cm
1000 numbered copies

The small stone:
Height: 33 cm
Has not been numbered