Ancient Denmark, The Ancient World of the Vikings
Viking Chess Piece, Danish or Norwegian 12th Century,
Found on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland
Denmark is one of the oldest kingdoms in the world and dates back to the first Danish monarch, King "Gorm the Old" who established his reign in the 10th century. He was succeeded by his son King "Harald Bluetooth" , who erected a runic stone in year 965 over his parents burial plot at Jelling in Jutland. The stone has an inscription that praises himself for making all Danes Christians. "The Harald who won the whole of Denmark and Norway and turned the Danes to Christianity." The runic stones at Jelling are considered as the birth certificate of the Danish kingdom. Although Denmark is a small nation their impact on European history is very profound. Being at once the ancestral home of the Vikings, and at one time controlling much of Sweden and Norway as well, the Danish managed to settle lands that were barely known of in ancient times. Today one forgets that the largest isalnd in North America, Greenland, is still a Danish possession, and many inhabitants from Ireland to Thule can claim to have descent from early Danish colonists.