created through the merger of two settlements, one founded by Brun(o), a Saxon count who died in 880, on one side of the River Oker - the legend gives the year 861 for the foundation - and the other the settlement of a legendary Count Dankward, after whom Dankwarderode Castle (the "Castle of Dankward's clearing"), which was reconstructed in the 19th century, is named.

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