The Jelling Stone — Harald Bluetooth's Claim to Have Made Denmark
Harald Bluetooth raised a runestone at Jelling in Jutland around 965, on which he claimed to have won all Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian. It is the founding document of the Danish state. The larger of the two Jelling stones carries the earliest use of the name Danmark in Denmark itself, an image of Christ entangled in interlace, and an inscription commemorating his parents Gorm and Thyra — which is why it is sometimes called Denmark's birth certificate. His father Gorm had been a pagan, and the smaller stone is his memorial to Thyra. The conversion was a political act as much as a religious one. Christian missions from the Frankish and later German church had been working in Denmark for over a century, and the Holy Roman Empire treated pagan neighbours as legitimate targets. Accepting baptism from a German priest — the chronicler Widukind tells a story of the cleric Poppo carrying red-hot iron unburned to convince him — removed the pretext for invasion and brought the machinery of literate administration with it. Harald built the ring fortresses at Trelleborg, Fyrkat, Aggersborg and Nonnebakken, precisely geometric and identically laid out, which required a state capable of taxing and organising labour on a large scale. The Jelling complex included two enormous burial mounds, a church and a stone ship setting. He was overthrown by his son Sweyn Forkbeard around 986. The Bluetooth wireless standard is named after him. The stones have stood in the open for over a thousand years and were given glass cases in 2011. His son conquered England, and his grandson Cnut ruled it.
- Year: 965 CE
- Category: Political
