Graveyard typography

Posted on August 10, 2008  | Permalink
Filed under Æsthetics & Design

While on a mountainbike trip on the Danish side of the Flensburg Fjord I noticed two rocks on the shore. They were not looking like all the other rocks, in fact that’s the reason why I noticed them. No house or road nearby and just the singletrail I was following made two almost perfectly square rocks in the water stand out like a circus coming to Mordor.

So I jumped of the bike, slipped off me shoes and got into the water. Now closer a typical gravestone inscription revealed itself. I can’t recall the name, but the person died in 1943. Pretty odd to find this gravestone so far away from any house — not even a dirtroad led there, just a narrow singletrail (which used to be used by the old borderpatrol by feet only). How and why did those stones get there?

This was weird enough already to take a snapshot. When I tried to bring the gravestone in position for the pic I accidently threw it over and another curiocity revealed itself to the little Goonie I am. The backside of the gravestone was covered with letters all scrambled up, probably used as blotter by a young stonemason to practise. “Goonies never day die”, but that’s a tricky one this time.

I used clay which I found nearby to make the letters stand out a little bit more. Published with the iPhone Wordpress app.