Hundreds of Denmark

In the period preceding the Municipal Reform of 1970, Denmark was divided into around 170 hundreds (Danish: herred, plural: herreder).

It has been hypothesised - since an extremely large amount of Denmark's herreder have access to the sea - that the division may have originated in the Viking era, for either offensive or defensive purposes.

The subdivision applies to almost all parts of medieval Denmark (see below), including Southern Schleswig, Scania, Halland and Blekinge, but not Rügen.

The area between the Danevirke fortifications and the river Eider (originally very sparsely populated) was exceptional in being included into the syssel divisions (as part of Istedsyssel) but was not subdivided into herreder.

When Denmark in the 1660s abolished the former division into fiefs (Len), their replacement, the counties (amt, plural: amter) were similarly based on the herreder which in turn remained subdivided into parishes.