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Birth:          ABT  910 
Death:          1 Nov  988 
Cause of Death: murdered

Notes
founder of the Jomsborg Viking colony
established Christianity in Denmark
called "the Old" because of the 58-year length of his reign
wife who is mother of Thyra of Denmark could be Gunhilda, also daughter of Olaf, 
King of Sweden (so she is sister of Gyrith... or could be same person)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Bluetooth
Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson (Old Norse: Haraldr Gormsson,[2] Danish: Harald 
Blåtand Gormsen, c. 935–985/6) was a king of Denmark and Norway. He was the son 
of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod. His father had been the first ruler of the 
Danish kingdom and founder of the Jelling Dynasty. Harald ruled as King of Denmark 
from c. 958. Harald introduced Christianity to Denmark and consolidated his rule over 
most of Jutland and Zealand. Harald's rule as King of Norway following the 
assassination of King Harald Greycloak of Norway was more tenuous, most likely 
lasting for no more than a few years in the 970s. Some sources say his son Sweyn 
Forkbeard forcibly deposed him from his Danish throne before his death.
Name[edit]

Harald's name is written as runic haraltr : kunuk? (??????? ? ??????) in the Jelling 
stone inscription. In normalized Old Norse, this would correspond to Haraldr konungr, 
i.e. "Harald king". The latinized name as given in the medieval Danish chronicles is 
Haraldus Gormonis filius. The given name Haraldr (also Haralldr) is the equivalent of 
Old English Hereweald, Old High German Heriwald, from hari "army" and wald- "rule".
[3] Harald's name is also inscribed on the so-called Curmsun disc, discovered in 2014 
(but part of a Viking hoard discovered already 1840 in the crypt of the Wiejkowo 
village church in Pomerania, close to the Viking Age stronghold of Jomsborg, now part 
of Gmina Wolin, Poland), as +ARALD CVRMSVN + REX AD TANER + SCON + JVMN + 
CIV ALDIN, i.e. "Harald Gormson, king of Danes, Scania, Jumne, Oldenburg".[4]

The first documented appearance of Harald's nickname "Bluetooth" (as blatan; Old 
Norse *blátonn) is in the Chronicon Roskildense (written ca. 1140), alongside the 
alternative nickname Clac Harald.[5] Clac Harald appears to be a confusion of Harald 
Bluetooth with the legendary or semi-legendary Harald Klak, son of Halfdan. The 
byname is given as Blachtent and explicitly glossed as "bluish or black tooth" (dens 
lividus vel niger) in a chronicle of the late 12th century, Wilhelmi abbatis regum 
Danorum genealogia.[6] The traditional explanation is that Harald must have had a 
conspicuous bad tooth that appeared "blue" (i.e. "black", as blár "blue" meant 
"blue-black", or "dark-coloured"). Another explanation, proposed by Scocozza (1997) 
is that he was called "blue thane" (or "dark thane") in England (with Anglo-Saxon 
thegn corrupted to tan when the name came back into Old Norse). [7] The Bluetooth 
wireless specification design was named after the king in 1997, [8] and the Bluetooth 
logo consists of a Younger futhark bindrune for his initials, H (?) and B (?).[9]

Biography[edit]

Denmark's conversion to Christianity[edit]

King Harald Bluetooth's conversion to Christianity is a contested bit of history, not 
least because medieval writers such as Widukind of Corvey and Adam of Bremen give 
conflicting accounts of how it came about.

Widukind of Corvey, writing during the lives of King Harald and Otto I, claims that 
Harald was converted by a "cleric by the name of Poppa" who, when asked by Harald 
to prove his faith in Christ, carried a "great weight" of iron heated by a fire without 
being burned.[10]

Adam of Bremen, writing 100 years after King Harald's death in "History of the 
Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen", finished in 1076, describes Harald being forcibly 
converted by Otto I, after a defeat in battle.[11] However, Widukind does not mention 
such an event in his contemporary Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres or 
Deeds of the Saxons. Some two hundred and fifty years later, the Heimskringla relates 
that Harald was converted with Earl Haakon, by Otto II.[12]

A cleric named Poppa, perhaps the same one, also appears in Adam of Bremen's 
history, but in connection with Eric of Sweden, who had supposedly conquered 
Denmark (there is no evidence anywhere else that this happened).[13] The story of 
this otherwise unknown Poppo or Poppa's miracle and baptism of Harald is also 
depicted on the gilded altar piece in the Church of Tamdrup in Denmark (see image at 
top of this article). The altar itself dates to about 1200.[14] Adam of Bremen's claim 
regarding Otto I and Harald appears to have been inspired by an attempt to 
manufacture a historical reason for the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen to claim 
jurisdiction over Denmark (and thus the rest of Scandinavia); in the 1070s, the Danish 
King was in Rome asking for Denmark to have its own arch-bishop, and Adam's 
account of Harald's supposed conversion (and baptism of both him and his "little son" 
Sweyn, with Otto serving as Sweyn's godfather) is followed by the unambiguous claim 
that "At that time Denmark on this side of the sea, which is called Jutland by the 
inhabitants, was divided into three dioceses and subjected to the bishopric of 
Hamburg."[11]

As noted above, Harald's father, Gorm the Old, had died in 958, and had been buried 
in a mound with many goods, after the pagan practice. The mound itself was from c. 
500 BCE, but Harald had it built higher over his father's grave, and added a second 
mound to the south. Mound-building was a newly revived custom in the 10th century, 
perceivably as an "appeal to old traditions in the face of Christian customs spreading 
from Denmark's southern neighbors, the Germans."[15]

After his conversion, around the 960s, Harald had his father's body reburied in the 
church next to the now empty mound. He had the Jelling stones erected to honour his 
parents.[16] The Encyclopædia Britannica considers the runic inscriptions as the 
best-known in Denmark.[17] The biography of Harald Bluetooth is summed up by this 
runic inscription from the Jelling stones:

"King Harald bade these memorials to be made after Gorm, his father, and Thyra, his 
mother. The Harald who won the whole of Denmark and Norway and turned the Danes 
to Christianity."

Harald undoubtedly professed Christianity at that time and contributed to its growth, 
but with limited success in Denmark and Norway.[18]

Reign[edit]

During his reign, Harald oversaw the reconstruction of the Jelling runic stones, and 
numerous other public works. The most famous is fortifying the fortress of Aros 
(nowadays Aarhus, capital of Jutland) which was situated in a central position in his 
kingdom in the year 979. Some believe these projects were a way for him to 
consolidate economic and military control of his country and the main city. Ring forts 
were built in five strategic locations with Aarhus perfectly in the middle: Trelleborg on 
Zealand, Borrering in eastern Zealand (the inner construction of this fort is still yet to 
be established), Nonnebakken on Funen, Fyrkat in Himmerland (northern Jutland) and 
Aggersborg near Limfjord. All five fortresses had similar designs: "perfectly circular 
with gates opening to the four corners of the earth, and a courtyard divided into four 
areas which held large houses set in a square pattern."[19] A sixth Trelleborg of 
similar design, located at Borgeby, in Scania, has been dated to about 1000 and may 
also have been built by King Harald and a second fort named Trelleborg is located 
near the modern town of Trelleborg in Scania in present-day Sweden, but is of older 
date and thus pre-dates the reign of Harald Bluetooth.

He constructed the oldest known bridge in southern Scandinavia, the 5 meters wide, 
760 meters long Ravning Bridge at Ravning meadows.

While quiet prevailed throughout the interior, he turned his energies to foreign 
enterprises. He came to the help of Richard the Fearless of Normandy in 945 and 963, 
while his son conquered Samland, and after the assassination of King Harald 
Greycloak of Norway, managed to force the people of that country into temporary 
subjugation to himself.

The Norse sagas present Harald in a rather negative light. He was forced twice to 
submit to the renegade Swedish prince Styrbjörn the Strong of the Jomsvikings- first 
by giving Styrbjörn a fleet and his daughter Thyra, the second time by giving up 
himself as hostage, along with yet another fleet. When Styrbjörn brought this fleet to 
Uppsala to claim the throne of Sweden, Harald broke his oath and fled with his Danes 
to avoid facing the Swedish army at the Battle of Fýrisvellir.

As a consequence of Harald's army having lost to the Germans at the Danevirke in 
974, he no longer had control of Norway, and Germans settled back into the border 
area between Scandinavia and Germany. They were driven out of Denmark in 983 by 
an alliance of Obodrite soldiers and troops loyal to Harald, but soon after, Harald was 
killed fighting off a rebellion led by his son Swein. He is believed to have died in 986, 
although several accounts claim 985 as his year of death.

From 1835 to 1977, it was wrongly believed that Harald ordered the death of the 
Haraldskær Woman, a bog body previously thought to be Gunnhild, Mother of Kings 
until radiocarbon dating proved otherwise.[20]

Marriages and children[edit]
1.Gyrid Olafsdottir, probably by 950. Thyra Haraldsdatter, married Styrbjörn the Strong
Sweyn Forkbeard. Born about 960. Usually given as the son of Harald and Gyrid, 
though it is said in some of the older sagas that he was an illegitimate son.
Haakon. Born in 961.
Gunhilde. She married Pallig, Jarl and Ealdorman of Devonshire. It is thought that they 
both died in the St. Brice's Day massacre in November 1002.

2.Thora (Tova) the daughter of Mistivir in 970. She raised the Sønder Vissing 
Runestone after her mother.

Parents
KNUDSSON Gorm "the Old" (ABT  870 - AFT  950)
DANEBOD Thyre (ABT  875 - ABT  935)

Siblings
____ Gunhild (ABT  900 - )
____ Harold III "Blaatand" ("Blue Tooth") (ABT  910 - 1 Nov  988)
____ Sigfried ("the Dane") (ABT  922 -  965)

Marriage To ____ Som-Asa (ABT  930 - )
    m.  

Notes


Children by ____ Som-Asa ABT  930 - 
____ Sven (Sweyn) ("Forkbeard") (ABT  948 - 3 Feb 1013)

Marriage To OLAFSDOTTIR Gyrithe (ABT  925 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
BJORNSSON Olaf (ABT  900 - ABT  975)
THRANDSDOTTIR Ingeberg (ABT  886 - )

Children by OLAFSDOTTIR Gyrithe ABT  925 - 
HARALDSDOTTIR OF DENMARK Thyra (ABT  947 - 18 Sep 1000)

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