Harald Blotand Ruler, created the Kingdom of Denmark Country: Denmark

Biography of Harald Bluetooth

Harald Bluetooth was a ruler who established the Danish Kingdom. His unifying abilities earned him the honor of being immortalized in the world of high technology. On February 3, 1014, the King of Denmark and at that time the King of England, Sven Forkbeard, also known as Sven the Bearded, passed away. It is said that his beard was divided into two parts, which is how he got his nickname. The Danes of that time, or rather the Vikings, had a habit of giving people nicknames that characterized their appearance or certain personality traits. For example, our Sven's father was nicknamed Harald Bluetooth, which literally translates to "Black Tooth" in Russian. This remarkable character is the subject of our discussion today. The problem is that after him, there is no information about the exact date of his death or, let alone, his birth, and his personality was so colorful that we have to resort to a fictional account and talk about Harald on the occasion of his son's death. We have very little information about the details of Harald Bluetooth's rule. In fact, all these details fit on two stones inscribed with runes and erected in the Danish town of Jelling. One of them literally says: "Harald, the king, established these burial monuments in memory of Gorm, his father, and Thyra, his mother. This is the same Harald who conquered all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians." As you can see, it's not much. However, we do have certain information about how Harald, in particular, converted the Danes and his other subjects (since he effectively ruled over half of present-day Scandinavia) to followers of Christ. Folklore has passed down to us a legend on this subject. It happened after a foreigner named Poppo appeared in Danish lands. He actively promoted the new faith, which caught the attention of the king, who asked him in a rather rude manner, "Will you pass the test of hot iron for your faith?" Poppo, being a true Christian, was ready to endure any suffering, so he had no problem taking the hot metal with bare hands and holding it. After the spectators saw that the preacher had no burns on his hands, they all wanted to become Christians. So it is unclear whose credit it is – the baptism of Denmark, King Harald, or this unknown man named Poppo. But what we absolutely cannot deny Harald is his contribution to giving his name to one of the modern technologies in the field of communications. But first, let's talk about his nickname. If everything is clear with Sven the Bearded – a beard with forks, there you have the image, with the black tooth it gets more complicated. Some believe that one of this citizen's teeth darkened due to various misfortunes that befell him. Others say that he had a chipped tooth, and from a distance, it seemed like one tooth was black. There is also a version that "Bluetooth" has nothing to do with teeth in general. Harald was simply dark-haired, which was completely uncharacteristic for the Vikings, and his contemporaries decided to capture this external characteristic in his nickname. How teeth fit into all of this is not very clear. In any case, Harald indeed created the Danish Kingdom, which subsequently became one of the most prominent states in Europe. To achieve this, the Black Tooth had to unite the rebellious descendants of the ancient Vikings, who lived not only in Denmark but also in present-day Norway, with an iron fist. It is for his unifying abilities that he was honored to be immortalized in the world of high technology. The rapidly developing format of wireless data transmission, Bluetooth, was named in honor of Harald by Swedish developers. Since Bluetooth is the same as Blåtand in Danish.