Dejbjerg wagon

The two wagons belong to a larger phenomenon of intentional placement of objects in bogs, generally interpreted as sacrifices to gods.

Folklorist Terry Gunnell highlights that this account is not unique, and that comparable legends can be found associated with certain bogs and lakes in southern Sweden.

More importantly, it suggests that the gold wagon legends in general would seem to have some basis in ancient truth and shared social memory."

Gunnell compares this complex of legends the sword found underwater by Beowulf (in Beowulf), and comments that "these accounts appear to have roots in faint memories of the ritual depositions of objects in water which took place during the Bronze and Iron Ages, activities for which the later storytellers had no evidence and no personal memory, but which have since been given substance by archaeological evidence.

This is why modern archaeologists tend to collect local legends relating to sites that they are investigating: there is always a possibility that they may contain a kernel of truth.