Harald Bluetooth and the Conversion of Denmark

What happened

Around 960 the Danish king Harald Bluetooth was baptized and set out to make his people Christian. On a great runestone at Jelling he proclaimed that he had 'won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian' — a monument later called Denmark's 'birth certificate.'

Why it matters

Harald's conversion drew Scandinavia into Christian Europe, part of a religious transformation that would gradually help bring the Viking Age to a close.

Sources

• World History Encyclopedia. Harald Bluetooth & the Conversion of Denmark · Reputable source