How did a modern wireless short-range communications technology standard come to be named after
a Viking king who lived over a thousand years ago? It’s quite a story.
Sometime in the AD 950’s on a warm and sunny day, a party of Danes anchored their boats
and went swimming at a bay in Northumbria which is now Northern England and south-east
Scotland. For years, the Danes had been raiding up and down the coast. King Adelbrecht of
Northumbria had responded to the Viking invasion by raising an enormous army of locals. After
many bloody clashes where thousands of warriors fell, the two armies met near the town of
Scarborough. This time, the Danes were victorious and defeated King Adelbrecht’s army. The
Vikings spent the next several months subduing small rebellions and imposing their authority
on the locals.
On their way to York, a group of Viking warriors took a rare holiday to relax, trusting that
they were safe and Norse rule has been accepted. However, they were completely wrong--resent
burned hot in the hearts of the locals. While the warriors were frolicking in the water,
nearby villagers mounted a surprise archery attack from the beach and several Vikings
were killed, including the leader, Prince Canute, favored eldest of King Gorm the old.
Prince Harald, the younger son managed to survive the onslaught of arrows. Invigorated
by Canute’s death, King Adelbrecht returned and rallied his subjects, ultimately forcing
the Danes to leave the area and return to Denmark.
As a result, King Gorm’s younger son Harald Gormsson became the heir apparent and ascended
to the throne after his father’s death. Actually modern historians are not exactly
certain how Canute died; the blitz at the beach is one of the more commonly told legends
memorialized in the Olav Tryggvason saga, a heroic series of tales which detailing the
exploits of Óláfr Tryggvason, a 10th century Norwegian king. Anyway, it’s the death of
Harald’s older brother that paves the way for Harald to become king. Perhaps witnessing
his brother’s death affected how he viewed the world and why he sometimes tried diplomacy
before military might and converted to Christianity, making him an influential figure of modern
Denmark.
Harald was born around 920 to King Gorm and Thyra Dannebod, a noblewoman. King Gorm who
ruled approximately 22 years from 936 to his death around 958 strongly exerted his authority
over nearby provinces and set up a new seat of power in Jelling, northern Jutland. Gorm
began to unify Denmark into a single kingdom and Harald continued this work.
Harald was also known as ‘Harald Bluetooth’ or simply ‘Bluetooth’, an old Norse term
for ‘dark colored’ for possibly having a prominent discoloured tooth. He became king
around 958 and ruled for about 28 years until 986. When Harald took to the throne, Denmark
was a land split into multiple “clans” and territories, each owing allegiance to
local rulers. While Gorm had united most of Jutland, the outer coastal regions and islands
were still under their own rule.
Harald was an ambitious ruler who immediately set about subjugating the smaller clans and
islands through both diplomatic and military campaigns to form a unified Denmark. At the
same time, Harald fought off the Germans under Otto I who threatened Denmark from the south.
Harald’s sister, Gunnhild was married to King Erik Bloodaxe of Norway. She fled to
Harald with her five sons when her husband was killed in a battle for the throne with
his half-brother King Hakon in 954. Harald strategically supported his nephews and helped
them reclaim territories in Norway from King Hakon around 961. Unfortunately, his nephews
were authoritarian, heavy handed rulers causing resentment and unrest in the country. Within
a few years, King Harald Greycloak, the eldest nephew ended up being assassinated and Harald
Bluetooth came to rule Norway.
Sometime in the early 960’s Harald converted to Christianity. He may have been exposed
to this foreign religion as a child through Thyra his mother. Legend has it that a skeptical
Harald became convinced that Christ was the strongest god when a cleric named Poppo performed
a miracle by carrying a red-hot massive iron weight in his hands without getting burned.
Others claim Otto 1 defeated Harald in battle and forcibly converted him by the edge of
a sword. However, most likely Harald’s conversion to Christianity was a skillful political decision;
if he was now a Christian and encouraging his subjects to also turn from their pagan
ways and convert, it made it hard for the Germans to meddle in Danish affairs.
At great cost, Harald undertook several public works and defense projects. Some of these
projects may have been a shrewd and calculating way for Harald to gain influence with locals
he was bringing under his rule. The projects also allowed him to consolidate economic and
military control of the kingdom. Harald built a massive burial mound for his father, which
mirrored the mound his father had constructed for Thyra upon her death. Around the 960’s
to thwart the Germans tribes attacking from the south, Harald expanded and strengthened
the “Dannevirke”, a defensive earthwork and wood “wall” around the main trading
town of Hedeby along the southern border of his kingdom. He also safeguarded the harbor
with a boundary of stakes.
Around 965, Harald ordered the creation of a Jelling stone, the first stone being erected
by his father. The runic inscriptions on the monument honor Harald’s parents and celebrate
his conquest of Denmark and Norway, and his conversion of the Danes to Christianity. Not
only was this runestone a public symbol of the unification of Denmark, and it was a cunning
proclamation to everyone, especially to German King Otto I who had by now been crowned Holy
Roman emperor, and the archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen that the Danes were Christians. He also moved
his parents from their pagan resting mounds and reburied them under a Christian church
he built.
In 979 he fortified the fortress of Aros which was situated in a central position in his
kingdom. Soon after that he had Trelleborg ring fortresses built in five strategic locations
on conquered land with Aarhus perfectly in the middle. The forts were used for military
purposes, but it has also been suggested that the forts may have served as administrative
centers as well as royal lodging for when Harald traveled around Denmark. Harald also
constructed a defensive dyke in the south called Kovirke in the 980s. Medieval historians
credit Harald with founding the town of Roskilde also around this time and building an elaborate
church there.
Throughout his rule Harald Bluetooth continued his various military campaigns and over a
decade retained considerable clout. When Otto's successor and son Otto II was busy fighting
in Italy, Harald took advantage of the distraction by sending his son, Svein Forkbeard to raid
Otto's fortress in Slesvig. In 974, Harald’s army lost to the Germans at the Danevirke,
and Germans began moving back into the border area between Scandinavia and Germany. They
were driven out of Denmark again in 983 by an alliance of troops loyal to Harald. However
over time Harald’s hold on the borderlands and also Norway became tenuous.
To make matters worse, Sweyn was power hungry and followed the Norse pagan religion, not
Christianity, and began clashing with his father over military plans. Around 986, Sweyn
Forkbeard denounced his father, condemning him to death and started a rebellion to fight
him for the kingdom of Denmark. There are many conflicting tales of how Harald
Bluetooth exactly died, the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason says that he was struck down in a battle that
took place at Ise fjord. Another saga says that Harald Bluetooth fell at Bornholm and
yet a third saga says that it was near Mols. Ultimately, Harald suffered a violent, bloody
death and was allegedly buried under a church in either Roskilde or Jomsborg.
While some medieval historians saw Harald in a negative light, thinking him brutal,
greedy and sly, for modern Denmark he’s considered a more heroic and nuanced figure.
Through military might and skillful negotiations he unified Denmark and also brought Christanity
and a distinct Danish identity to his people. In the late 1990’s Intel, Ericsson, and
Nokia held several meetings to figure out standards for short-range radio technology
to support connectivity and collaboration between different devices and industries.
An Intel mobile computing engineer named Jim Kardach was reading a book about Vikings and
suggested that ‘Bluetooth’ be used as a code name. To quote Jim ‘King Harald was
famous for uniting Scandinavia just as we intended to unite the PC and cellular industries
with a short-range wireless link.’
Later, the companies wanted to use either RadioWire or PAN [Personal Area Networking]
as the technology’s official name. However, the media had latched on to the code name,
and it had already spread throughout the internet. So Bluetooth stuck and the symbol for Bluetooth
technology is made up of a Younger futhark bindrune for King’s initials, H [ᚼ] and
B [ᛒ].
Do you have a better name for Bluetooth? Tell us what you think it should have been called
in the comments! Now go watch “How Dangerous is 5G?” Thanks for watching, and, as always,
don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe. See you next time!