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He was the son of Gorm the Old, the first significant figure in a new royal line centred at Jelling (North Jutland). Harald completed the country’s unification begun by his father, converted the Danes to Christianity, and conquered Norway. After Harald’s Baptism (c. 960) his father’s pagan tomb was transformed into a Christian place of worship with a church between two great mounds; and the newly appointed Jutland bishops, under the Archbishop of Hamburg, organized the country’s conversion. The Trelleborg type of fortifications date from his reign. The expansion begun by Harald in Norway was continued by his son Sweyn I, whose war with his father marked Harald’s last years. After Sweyn conquered England in 1013, his son Canute ruled over a great Anglo-Scandinavian kingdom that included parts of Sweden.
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Denmark: The Viking eraGorm’s son and successor, Harald I (Bluetooth), claimed to have unified Denmark, conquered Norway, and Christianized the Danes. His accomplishments are inscribed in runic on a huge gravestone at Jelling, one of the so-called Jelling stones. Harald’s conquest of Norway was short-lived, however, and his son Sweyn I (Forkbeard)…
Sweyn I…son of the Danish king Harald Bluetooth (Blåtand), Sweyn rebelled in 987 against his father, who fled to Wendland (in Germany). Sweyn began feuding with Olaf I after the latter’s accession to the Norwegian throne in 995, and he allied with the Swedish king Olaf Skötkonung and with the Norwegian…
Haakon Sigurdsson…995), Norwegian noble who defeated Harald II Graycloak, becoming the chief ruler (
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