Harald Bluetooth was the son of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod.
19 Facts About Harald Bluetooth
2.
Harald Bluetooth constructed the oldest known bridge in southern Scandinavia, the 5-metre wide and 760-metre long Ravning Bridge at Ravning meadows.
3.
Harald Bluetooth 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.
4.
Harald Bluetooth was forced twice to submit to the renegade Swedish prince Styrbjorn the Strong of the Jomsvikings- first by giving Styrbjorn a fleet and his daughter Thyra, the second time by giving up himself as hostage, along with yet another fleet.
5.
When Styrbjorn brought this fleet to Uppsala to claim the throne of Sweden, Harald Bluetooth broke his oath and fled with his Danes to avoid facing the Swedish army at the Battle of Fyrisvellir.
6.
Harald Bluetooth regained some of the seized territory in 983 when Otto II was defeated by the Saracens.
7.
Harald Bluetooth is believed to have died in 986, although several accounts claim 985 as his year of death.
8.
Harald Bluetooth's body was brought back to the Trinity Church in Roskilde where he was buried.
9.
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.
10.
Harald Bluetooth himself converted to Catholicism after a peace agreement with the Holy Roman Emperor.
11.
Some 250 years after the event, the Heimskringla relates that Harald Bluetooth was converted with Earl Haakon, by Otto II.
12.
The story of this otherwise unknown Poppo or Poppa's miracle and baptism of Harald Bluetooth is depicted on the gilded altar piece in the Church of Tamdrup in Denmark.
13.
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.
14.
Harald Bluetooth had the Jelling stones erected to honour his parents.
15.
The biography of Harald Bluetooth is summed up by this runic inscription from the Jelling stones:.
16.
King Harald Bluetooth bade these memorials to be made after Gorm, his father, and Thyra, his mother.
17.
The Harald Bluetooth who won the whole of Denmark and Norway and turned the Danes to Christianity.
18.
Harald Bluetooth undoubtedly professed Christianity at that time and contributed to its growth, but with limited success in Denmark and Norway.
19.
The Bluetooth wireless specification design was named after the king in 1997, based on an analogy that the technology would unite devices the way Harald Bluetooth united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom.