During the German occupation of Denmark, the island was purchased by a group of Copenhagen schoolteachers in 1944 for use as a summer camp.[2][3][4] They proclaimed the island's tongue-in-cheek "independence" as a Kingdom as a gentle parody of the government structure and royal traditions of Denmark. The teachers claim that the kingdom's ancestry can be traced to a "monastic society of Irish monks who arrived in the middle of the 10th century".[1][5]
Prior to 1944, the island was known mainly as the location at which the controversial film Løvejagten was shot in 1907.
Numerous traditions peculiar to the kingdom have evolved over the subsequent decades, including a ban on the novel Robinson Crusoe, and the use of "Elleore Standard Time", which is 12 minutes behind Danish time. Many of the place names on the island, the kingdom's "government" and the titles assumed by its "nobility" are parodies of Danish equivalents.
The kingdom has issued several stamps and coins.[2]
The island has been estimated to be approximately 15,000 square metres (3.7 acres) in size.[2] Elleore is unoccupied save for a week-long annual gathering attended by dozens of its "citizens" and known as the "Elleuge" (meaning "Elle week").[3] The ceremonial enthronement of the reigning monarch takes place at this time.
The purported capital is the tented town of Maglelille, erected only during the week of habitation.
