Gorm the Old

The first king of all Denmark?

Gorm the Old was a Danish king who ruled from his seat in Jelling from c.936 until his death c.958. He was the father of Harald Bluetooth, who is considered by most to have been the first king who ruled all of Denmark.

Gorm raised a runestone at Jelling to commemorate his wife, Queen Thyra. It describes her as “Denmark’s adornment”. He is himself commemorated on a later stone raised by Bluetooth.

It is thought that Gorm was first buried in a chamber inside Jelling’s north mound, one of two mounds at the site, eventually being reinterred by his son in the first church to be built on the site. A skeleton found by archaeologists at the site in 1978 is believed to be his.

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