Harald Bluetooth, The Builder King

Harald Bluetooth the Builder King

(Harald Gormsson) was born around the year 910 and ruled Denmark in the mid-10th century. His greatest ambition was to unite the separate kingdoms and regions of Denmark into a single realm. For this reason, he is remembered as the Builder King.

Harald believed that unity required more than force; it required shared structures, boundaries, and symbols. During his reign, he oversaw the construction of monumental works that physically and culturally connected his kingdom. These included stone ship settings, circular ring forts, sections of the great defensive wall known as the Dannevirke, and rune stones carved with messages meant to endure.

The rune stones were especially important. They recorded names, achievements, and beliefs in stone, allowing messages to travel across time and distance. One famous rune stone raised by Harald declares that he united Denmark and Norway and brought Christianity to his people.

Because Harald Bluetooth used building and communication to unite different groups, modern engineers chose his name for Bluetooth technology, a system that allows different devices to communicate wirelessly. Just as Harald connected kingdoms, Bluetooth connects phones, computers, and other devices so they can work together.

This book explores how leadership, communication, and construction helped shape early medieval Scandinavia, and how ideas from the past continue to influence the modern world.

I researched this story after I discovered that Harald Gormsson may appear in my own family’s historical record many generations back.

I include this lineage (click on book pages below) not as a claim of ownership, of course, but as an invitation to inquiry (and as entertainment for my own grandchildren). When records thin and certainty disappears, stories often survive in altered forms through poetry, legend, and imagination. This book, plants a seed for a child’s future learning “connections.”