Description: At Barup east of the road between Hellested and Karise there is a Bronze Age mound with a fantastic view over the valley at the river of Tryggevælde. The mound is known all over the contry as the Hill of the Elves, Elverhøj - the dwelling of the King of the Elves. The white haw-thorn on the hillis, according to an old legend a gift of the chief of Stevns. The Elver People obviously protected their gift eagerly. Other legends even tel about people, whose horses died, after having eaten the twigs of the haw-thorn.
The King of the Elves ruled over the district of Stevns and he didn´t tolerate any other king in his kingdom. In the most famous Danish play "The hill of the Elves", the very nationalistic Danish king, Christian IV dared to cross the river of Tryggevælde, and put his feet on the soil of Stevns quoting these famous words, "Certainly this is not Rubicon and certainly I am not Ceasar", but still I say, "Jacta est alea"! before he rushed back to his royal palace to unravel old wiles and join the two young lovers pronouncing the well know words, "And now let´s head for Højerup".
Elverhøj is also a comedy by Johan Ludvig Heiberg, with music by Friedrich Kuhlau, which is considered the first Danish national play.
Elverhøj was written in 1828 for the wedding of Frederik Carl Christian (later Frederik VII) and Vilhelmine Marie, and premiered 5 days later. Since the premiere, the play has been performed more than 1,000 times at the Royal Danish Theatre.
The play utilizes a combination of the folklore of the Elven king of Stevns and a story of swapped children; King Christian IV is cast as a sort of detective, who unravels the mystery.
In the movie Olsen Gang (Olsen-banden ser rødt), the Olsen gang bombs, drills, and hammers its way through the opera house's basement in synchronicity with the music of the Elverhøj Ouverture ending with the Royal Danish Anthem, Kongesangen: Kong Kristian stod ved højen mast.
The Olsen Gang scene with Elverhoj:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sLO8bWTfGs
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