Christian Vikings Older Than Thought

Teresa Neumann : Aug 9, 2012
Staff – Medieval Histories

King Harold Bluetooth, himself, claimed on the large Jelling-Stone in a Runic inscription that he was "that Harold who won all Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians."

(Denmark)—Reports are in from Denmark about a "sensational" find of ancient graves of Christians dated around 850 A.D., more than a century before Denmark was thought to be officially Christianized according to the famous runestone of Harold Bluetooth. (Photo: Carving of Harold Bluetooth being baptized/Wikipedia)

As longtime BCN readers may recall, an article we published in 2010 dealt with Harold Bluetooth, who was a Viking King called the "Charlemagne of Scandinavia" for introducing Christianity to Scandinavia. His name is also the moniker for today's wireless interface "Bluetooth."

Archaeologists who found the graves around the old Cathedral in Ribe —the earliest city in Denmark—say it has been a long-time dream to find the church in order to validate the ancient story of the Vitae of St. Ansgar negotiating with Danish King Horik II in 864 A.D. for a piece of land in Ribe in which to build a church.

An article in Medieval Histories notes that the 10th century German historian Widukind wrote about the baptism of Harold Bluetooth in 963 A.D. and claims that Danes were Christians "since ancient times."