It turned out there were several places called Gundestrup on the way to Aalborg, and it taxed all of Cern's newfound skill in understanding directions offered by local people to finally zero in on the location of the actual peat bog where the cauldron had been found. 

 And it didn't feel right.

"This area certainly has the feel of ancient occupation," Dema said, hopefully.

"Yes, I can almost feel the presence of the old king who buried the cauldron. But I'm certain I've never been here before."

"No," she sighed, "This is not our place. The lay of the land is wrong, and the spirit of it is not quite familiar."

Cern stood quietly for a while, his chin in his hand. Presently he said, "One of the locals I spoke to when we were trying to find this spot got the idea I wanted to learn more of the history of the place. He mentioned an historian, a scholar at Aalborg University, who used to come down here to conduct some sort of research. Maybe we should pay him a visit."

So they back-tracked a bit and then drove on north to Aalborg. At the University they were told the man they wanted to see was Ole Jensen, and they would find his office at the history museum that was part of the campus.

The Aalborg History Museum had some of the same feel as the museum at Copenhagen, but was clearly more dedicated to study than to display. This impression was more than substantiated by the condition of Ole Jensen's office, piled floor to ceiling with scholarly tracts.

Jensen himself was a slight, blond, middle-aged man who greeted them with a welcoming smile. When he learned that they were interested in the history of the cauldron, he beamed more brightly and ushered them to a lounge, where he offered them tea. Even before they were quite settled he began regaling them with more details than they would have imagined.

"At the time the cauldron was made, this whole area was part of ancient Gaul," he told them. "At least that is how the Romans referred to it. Even then our land was known as Jutland, after the Jutes who came from here. But the Jutes were only one of many groups of Germanic people, isolated tribes were scattered across the whole of Europe. 

"An artifact such as the cauldron would have changed hands many times over the centuries. It was only our good fortune, if you will, that it ended up being buried here, and not melted down for its silver during one of the many wars, large and small, that have plagued our continent."

"Then where would it originally have come from?" Dema asked.

"The oldest finds, potsherds and such of a type not so likely to have been traded about, are made more to the south and west of here, in the northwest regions of Germany. In fact, if you have time to visit the museum at Bremen, they have quite an extensive collection of relics from the earliest period."

Dema looked at Cern. "That could turn out to be very good advice. Thank you, Ole."

"The pleasure is all mine!" he exclaimed, and launched into further accounts of the rise and fall of the various bands of Celts, Gauls, Saxons and others. All of this Cern and Dema found fascinating, and they willingly listened to Ole Jensen's stories for more than an hour, until they all finally realized that the tea had long gone cold, and everyone had other things to attend to. Ole ushered them out the door with a final friendly wave.

They found a pleasant little hotel just outside of Aalborg and settled in for the evening. Dema dropped into a chair and sighed. "Bremen. I hope it isn't another wild goose chase."

"Maybe there's a way we can avoid that."

"How so?"

"Remember your marijuana map, how you linked with your Wisconsin forest dream to pinpoint the plot locations? Maybe we can do the same with our oak grove."

"Good idea. Let's go get dinner and find ourselves a map."

They had seen a dining room off of the lobby as they signed in at the hotel, and decided to have dinner right there. Cern stopped in the lobby to look for a map as Dema went in to get a table for them. He came in a minute later waving his find.

"Does it look like a good one?" Dema asked.

"We'll see," he said.

While they waited for their meal to arrive Cern opened the map and showed Dema that it covered all of Denmark and a good portion of northwestern Germany, including the Bremen area. Dema held it for a while, studying the coastline and river systems, trying to get a sense of the territory the map was meant to convey. 

The map had convenient little symbols designating forested areas, farmland, industrial areas and such, in addition to the roads and waterways. She thought these symbols would be helpful. She wondered if any of the little tree symbols were for oak groves. 

Dinner arrived, so she handed the map to Cern and he refolded it and laid it beside his plate.

Back in their room after dinner, Cern started unfolding the map and said, "All right, how do we do this?"

Dema took the map and laid it out on a table. "Look at the map, but see the land it represents. Go into the dream, and let your hand be drawn to a region on the map that corresponds to your oak forest."

Cern did that. He stood looking at the map for a few minutes, allowing his shaman awareness to awaken in him a sense of the actual land it corresponded to. Then he laid his hand on the map, and closed his eyes. Dema went into the dream with him, helping him focus on the ancient oak grove where they had dreamed together before. He let his hand move until it felt like it was in the right place.

When he opened his eyes, he said, "Ole's advice was pretty good." His hand was right in the middle of the Bremen region.

Dema agreed, she had felt it with him. But when she looked at the map she said, "According to the little symbols, that's all farmland."

"That's a pretty broad area, plenty of room for a bit of forest in there. I think I'll be able to pin it down better when we get closer. And if we need to we can get another map there that shows it in more detail."

Dema nodded, and they made plans to head south in the morning.