Blue in the tooth…

Recent surveys in Europe have shown that people with time to think and research, which usually means older, retired people, are likely to live longer and more happily, or so CHRIS BENNETT found out.

MY sister-in-law, a Dane, can claim descent from Harald Bluetooth, or Harald Blåtand, as she would spell it. My brother, rather shamelessly I thought, pointed out that it was this Harald who raped and pillaged our native village of Grimsby, at the mouth of the River Humber on the east coast of England (the land of the Angles) about 1100 years ago. My brother has a long memory.

Harald was actually a rather nice man, as men went in those days. He was baptised by the monk Popo in around 950 (that was the year, not the time of the morning), and proceeded to unite all Danes into one nation. That nation he converted to Christianity.

Until then there had been lots of little nations, each with its own king and each with its own axe to grind - usually a two-handed battle axe, which one did not question - and each with its own ideas about how things should be done and who should marry whom and so on and so forth. Not much has changed, has it?

Harald was effectively the first King (the Danish is Kong, I am told) of Denmark, hence King Harald I. Although the bond was brief, he united all the Danes, Norwegians and Swedes under one king, himself naturally, for a time.

I have to assume that he had a blue tooth, for his more formal name was Harald Gormson, his father being the great leader Gorm; a name to toy with if ever I saw one.

But of course to Danes today, or at least to many of them, he was a super-hero. And in case you are wondering why I should be telling you all this, read on, McDuff.

Harald’s name would have been written, though probably not by the lad himself, in what, as I am sure you know, are called ‘runes’, which were essentially letters which could be easily carved into trees, rocks and people you didn’t like much.

Harald’s initials, H and B, are drawn in the runes used in Old Norse. Bound, or written together, the two runes for H and B form the symbol at the top of this blog.

It is probably familiar to you. You will find it in glowing blue at the right bottom corner of your computer, laptop, smartphone or similar device.

It is, of course, the international logo for the data transfer system we call Bluetooth, which is used to unite, seamlessly and cordlessly, different devices such as smartphones, iPods, laptops and so on, as Harald did with those squabbling Vikings all those years ago.

Aren’t we nice?

I hope I haven’t runed your day.