Gorm the Old
Gorm learns of the death of his son Canute, painting by August Carl Vilhelm Thomsen
King of Denmark
Reignc. 936 – 958/963/964
PredecessorHarthacnut (Canute I) (semi-legendary)
or Gnupa
SuccessorHarald I
Bornbefore 900
Died958/963/964
SpouseThyra
Issue
Detail
HouseHouse of Gorm
FatherHarthacnut I of Denmark (semi-legendary)
MotherUnknown
ReligionNorse paganism

Gorm the Old (Danish: Gorm den Gamle; Old Norse: Gormr gamli; Latin: Gormus Senex[1][2]), also called Gorm the Languid (Danish: Gorm Løge, Gorm den Dvaske), was ruler of Denmark, reigning from c. 936 to his death c. 958[3] or a few years later.[4][5] He ruled from Jelling, and made the oldest of the Jelling stones in honour of his wife Thyra. Gorm was born before 900 and died perhaps around 958[3] or possibly 963[4] or 964.[5]

Ancestry and reign

Gorm is the reported son of semi-legendary Danish king Harthacnut. Chronicler Adam of Bremen says that Harthacnut came from Northmannia to Denmark and seized power in the early 10th century.[6] He deposed the young king Sigtrygg Gnupasson, reigning over Western Denmark.[3] When Harthacnut died, Gorm ascended the throne.

Heimskringla reports Gorm taking at least part of the kingdom by force from Gnupa, and Adam himself suggests that the kingdom had been divided prior to Gorm's time. Gorm is first mentioned as the host of Archbishop Unni of Hamburg and Bremen in 936.[6] According to the Jelling Stones, Gorm's son, Harald Bluetooth, "won all of Denmark", so it is speculated that Gorm only ruled Jutland from his seat in Jelling.[6]

Marriage to Thyra

Gorm married Thyra, who is given conflicting and chronologically dubious parentage by late sources, but no contemporary indication of her parentage survives. Gorm raised one of the great burial mounds at Jelling as well as the oldest of the Jelling Stones for her, calling her tanmarkar but ("Denmark's Salvation" or "Denmark's Adornment"). Gorm was the father of three sons, Toke, Knut and Harald, later King Harald Bluetooth.[7]

His wife, Thyra, is credited with the completion of the Danevirke, a wall between Denmark's southern border and its unfriendly Saxon neighbors to the south. The wall was not new, but it was expanded with a ditch and earthen foundation topped by a timber stockade above it. The Danevirke ran between the Schlei and the Treene river, across what is now Schleswig.[8]

Death, burial and reburial

One theory is that Gorm died in the winter of 958–959,[7] this is based on dendrochronology that shows that the burial chamber in the northern burial mound in Jelling was made from wood felled in 958.[9] Arild Huitfeldt relates one legend of his death in Danmarks Riges Krønike:[8]

Runic stone for Thyra, front side

The three sons were Vikings in the truest sense, departing Denmark each summer to raid and pillage. Harald came back to the royal enclosure at Jelling with the news that his brother Canute had been killed in an attempt to capture Dublin, Ireland. Canute was shot with a coward's arrow while watching some games at night. No one would tell the king in view of the oath the king had made. Queen Thyra ordered the royal hall hung with black cloth and that no one was to say a single word. When Gorm entered the hall, he was astonished and asked what the mourning colors meant. Queen Thyra spoke up: "Lord King, you had two falcons, one white and the other gray. The white one flew far afield and was set upon by other birds which tore off its beautiful feathers and is now useless to you. Meanwhile, the gray falcon continues to catch fowl for the king's table." Gorm understood immediately the Queen's metaphor and cried out, "My son is surely dead, since all of Denmark mourns!" "You have said it, your majesty," Thyra announced, "Not I, but what you have said is true." According to the story Gorm was so grieved by Canute's death that he died the following day.

This account would contradict information on the Jelling Stones which point to Queen Thyra dying before Gorm. Some archaeologists and historians have suggested that Gorm was buried first in Queen Thyra's grave mound at Jelling, and later moved by his son, Harald Bluetooth, into the original wooden church in Jelling.[3] According to this theory it is believed that the skeleton found at the site of the first Christian church of Jelling is in fact Gorm the Old, though the theory is still much debated. During the reign of Gorm, most Danes still worshipped the Norse gods, but during the reign of Gorm's son, Harald Bluetooth, Denmark officially converted to Christianity. Harald, accordingly, left the hill where Gorm had originally been interred as a memorial.

Legacy

Gorm was "old" in the sense that he was considered the traditional ancestral "head" of the Danish monarchy. Saxo Grammaticus in the Gesta Danorum asserts that Gorm was older than other monarchs and, having lived so long, was blind by the time his son Canute was killed.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Zoega, G. (1797). De origine et usu obeliscorum (in Latin). Typis Lazzarinii Typographi Cameralis. p. 338. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  2. ↑ Torfaeus, T. (1711). Thormodi Torfæi ... Historia rerum Noruegicarum in quatuor tomos diuisa. In qua, præter Noruegiæ descriptionem, primordia gentis, instituta, mores, incrementa; ... & inprimis heroum ac regum, tam ante qvàm post monarchiam institutam, successiones, eorumque domi juxta ac foris gesta, cumque vicinis gentibus commercia; genealogia item, chronologia, & qvæcunque ad regni Norvegici illustrationem spectant, singula ex archivis regiis, & optimis, qvæ haberi potuerunt, membranis, aliisque fide dignissimis authoribus, eruta, luci publicæ exponuntur. Cum prolegomenis & indicibus necessariis: Thormodi Torfæi Historiae rerum Noruegicarum pars tertia, continens ea quæ à tempore introductæ in Noruegiam christianæ religionis ad initium usque regni Suerreris acta sunt (in Latin). ex typographeo Joachimi Schmitgenii. p. 557. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "The Royal Lineage". The Danish Monarchy. 6 July 2015. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  4. 1 2 Lund, N. (2020), p. 147
  5. 1 2 Pilemedia: "Om slaget vid Fyrisvallarna" (in Swedish), 25 October 2020
  6. 1 2 3 "Gorm den Gamle – Gyldendal". Den Store Danske (in Danish). Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  7. 1 2 "Gorm den Gamle og Dronning Thyra". Danmarks Konger (in Danish). Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  8. 1 2 Huitfeldt, A. (1977). Danmarks Riges Krønike: Fra Erik Menved til Valdemar Atterdag. Chronologia 2 (in Danish). Rosenkilde og Bagger. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  9. ↑ Sawyer, B.; Sawyer, P.H. (1993). Medieval Scandinavia: From Conversion to Reformation, Circa 800–1500. The Nordic series. University of Minnesota Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-8166-1739-5. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  10. ↑ Grammaticus, S.; Grundtvig, N.F.S. (1855). Danmarks Krønike af Saxe Runemester (in Danish). Iversen. p. 419. Retrieved 6 July 2018.

Further reading

  • Birkebæk, Frank (2003). Vikingetiden i Danmark. Viborg: Sesam. ISBN 87-11-13718-5
  • Hybel, Nils (2003). Danmark i Europa: 750–1300. København: Museum Tusculanums forlag. ISBN 87-7289-882-8
  • Johannessen, Kåre (2001). Politikens bog om Danmarks vikingetid. Politikens håndbøger. København: Politikens forlag. ISBN 87-567-6456-1
  • Lund, Niels (2020). Jellingkongerne og deres forgængere, Gylling: Vikingeskibsmuseet i Roskilde. ISBN 978-87-85180-75-9
  • Sawyer, P. H. (1999). The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285365-1
  • Thiedecke, Arendse, and Thiedecke, Johnny (2003). De danske vikinger: samfund, kongemagt og togter ca. 700–1050. Valby: Pantheon. ISBN 87-90108-21-3
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