The Time Traveler's Grave

Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen is best known as the final resting place of notable Danes, including storyteller Hans Christian Andersen and physicist Niels Bohr. But tucked among traditional graves—blending seamlessly with its surroundings—is a much stranger marker that might easily go unnoticed at first glance.

Upon closer inspection, the weathered white marble plaque reveals an enigmatic inscription: “Andreas Morgenrødt, Tidsrejsende (Time Traveller), 1996–2064.”

Since time travel to the future—and back—has yet to be achieved, what’s the story? A typo? A dark joke?

The key lies in the name: "Andreas Morgenrødt," an anagram for Danish poet Morten Søndergaard, who is very much alive in 2025.

In 2015, Søndergaard inaugurated the memorial in broad daylight as part of a guerrilla art project to distance himself from his first name, Morten, which, to his annoyance, resembles la morte, meaning "death" in Italian.

Technically, fake gravestones aren’t allowed in the cemetery, but the city council has let this one stay, calling it a "small poetic story" that doesn’t take up much space or cost to maintain.

If similar markers appear in the future, the city says it will review each case individually. This flexibility in cemetery usage extends to other aspects of the burial site's environment, including its status as a popular urban picnic spot where topless sunbathing sometimes occurs.