The Jelling Stones – Denmark’s Birth Certificate

Carved in stone over 1,000 years ago, a king proclaims the unification and baptism of Denmark – the same king whose name is in every smartphone today.

In the Danish town of Jelling stand two rune stones that are among the most important monuments of the Viking Age. The larger of the two, raised around 965 by King Harald Bluetooth, is regarded as Denmark’s birth certificate.

The Inscription

In runes the stone proclaims that Harald ‘won all of Denmark and Norway for himself and made the Danes Christian’. On one side it bears the oldest image of Christ in Scandinavia, on the other a great beast fighting a serpent – paganism and Christianity side by side, an image of transition.

A King Between Worlds

Harald united a fragmented land and introduced Christianity. The mighty burial mounds, the stone ship setting and the church of Jelling bear witness to this turning point. In 1994 the site became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Name That Remained

Harald’s byname lives on today where you would least expect it: the wireless technology Bluetooth is named after him, and its logo is the bind-rune of his initials. We tell the whole story in our post on Bluetooth and Harald Bluetooth.

The small stone: Gorm for Thyra

Beside the great stone stands a smaller one that King Gorm the Old had set for his wife Thyra. Its inscription calls her "Denmark's adornment" – and contains one of the oldest certain mentions of the name "Denmark" at all.

The mounds and the ship setting

Between the stones rise two vast burial mounds. Excavations showed that a stone ship setting almost 360 metres long and a huge palisade once surrounded the site – a monumental expression of power by the young royal dynasty.

The oldest depiction of Christ in the north

On one side the great Jelling stone bears the oldest known depiction of Christ in Scandinavia, entwined by bands rather than nailed to a cross. Originally the stone was brightly painted – an image that proclaimed the new faith in the visual language of the old art.

UNESCO World Heritage

Because of its unique importance Jelling has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. It is the place where Denmark's transition from paganism to Christianity and the birth of a kingdom were chiselled in stone.

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