Zealand
From Freepedia
- This article is about the Danish island. For the Dutch province, see Zeeland; for the Pacific island country named after that province, see New Zealand.
Zealand (Danish: Sjælland) is the largest island of Denmark. It is separated from Funen by the Great Belt and from Scania in Sweden by the Oresund.
Zealand is connected to Funen by the Great Belt Bridge and to Sweden by the Oresund Bridge.
The nation of New Zealand gets the spelling of its name from this island. When the Pacific Ocean island was discovered by Groninger explorer Abel Tasman, it was named after the Dutch province of Zeeland. However, the English mistakenly thought it had been named after Zealand, and spelled it "New Zealand".
The capital of Denmark, Copenhagen (Danish: København) is partly located on the eastern shore of Zealand and partly on Amager. Other cities on the island are Roskilde and Elsinore (Danish: Helsingør).
Cities
- Copenhagen (København)
- Elsinore (Helsingør)
- Frederiksberg
- Hillerød
- Holbæk
- Kalundborg
- Kongens Lyngby
- Køge
- Næstved
- Roskilde
- Slagelse
- Slangerup
- Sorø
- Tisvilde
- Vordingborg
- Vallensbæk
Etymology
The name originates from the huge seal populations on the shores of Zealand, making the original name Seal-land (Sæl-land). In ancient Danish seal (sæl) and "soul" (sjæl) are very closely related words, as seals were thought to be souls of lost seamen.
