Born ‎± 910 at Denmark, died ‎ Nov 1, 988 at Murdered In Jumne, Denmark‎, approximately 78 years
Name Suffix: King Of Denmark
Harald I, byname HARALD BLUETOOTH, Danish HARALD BLÅTAND (b. c. 910--d. c. 985, Jumne, Den.), king of Denmark from c. 940 to c. 985, credited with the first unification of the country.
He was the son of Gorm the Old, the first significant figure in a new royal line centred at Jelling (North Jutland). Harald completed the country's unification begun by his father, converted the Danes to Christianity, and conquered Norway. After Harald's Baptism (c. 960) his father's pagan tomb was transformed into a Christian place of worship with a church between two great mounds; and the newly appointed Jutland bishops, under the Archbishop of Hamburg, organized the country's conversion. The expansion begun by Harald in Norway was continued by his son Sweyn I, who conquered England in 1013. Under Sweyn's son Canute there grew up a great Anglo-Scandinavian kingdom that included parts of Sweden. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97, HARALD I BLÅTAND]
----------
Jelling stones, two 10th-century royal gravestones found in Jutland, best known of all Danish runic inscriptions. The earlier stone, a memorial honouring Queen Thyre, was commissioned by her husband, King Gorm the Old, last pagan king of Denmark. The other, erected in memory of his parents by Harald Bluetooth, son of Gorm and Thyre, ruler of Denmark and Norway, and Christianizer of Denmark, is a three-sided pyramid, two sides bearing pictures and the third, an inscription. Its carvings depict ornamental animal forms, sophisticated interlacing linear patterns, and a Christian theme (the Crucifixion). [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97, JELLING]