Denmark: Siltanews – News Desk
How did the Viking king who unified Scandinavia find his name on electronic devices more than a millennium later? Jeremy Taylor takes a road trip across Denmark to trace the connection from past to present.
Just under 4,000 hardy souls live in Jelling, a little town in lowland Denmark, where in early January the wind chill factor has dragged thermometers down to -11 degrees Celsius. I’m wrapped in thermal layers, but the breeze from the Baltic is still biting to the bone.
Unlikely as it seems, Jelling was once a huge, fortified settlement and the center of the Viking universe. Two mighty burial mounds dominate the landscape, but otherwise there are few places to shelter from the icy blast.
The Vikings who once hunted, farmed and fought on these lands wore heavyweight tunics fashioned from wool, linen and leather to beat the chill, with seal skins adding a waterproof layer, and the crackle of a longhouse hearth to warm chilled bones.
Over a thousand years later, these dwellings have turned to dust. But what remains are two giant rune stones, which contain vastly important information about Viking culture and the transition from paganism to Christianity. One bears the first inscription of Denmark as a nation and is regarded as the ‘birth certificate’ of the country. Today, Jelling is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, welcoming more than 150,000 tourists every year. But the ancient settlement also has a link to more recent history.
Bluetooth, the short-range wireless technology invented at the turn of the century, freed us from the tether of wired tech. From headphones to in-car hands-free, it changed the way we communicated and connected. It’s a tool we often take for granted and we’re used to seeing its little symbol everywhere – but what was it doing etched into an ancient Viking tablet? I’d come to find out, via a winding, scenic tour of Denmark.