Bluetooth 6.0?

No, this blog refers to Harald Blåtand, aka Harald den Gode (910-987), King of Denmark, who sported a discolored tooth and united the Danish territories by Christianizing his kingdom.

Harald Blåtand on a fresco in Roskilde cathedral, Denmark (©NDR)

Harald is regarded as a master of communication; therefore, the well-known Bluetooth protocol for data transfer over short distances bears his name.

Logo med runerne (runes) for ᚷ = H og (and) ᛒ = B, Harald Blåtands initialer ©Wikipedia

I will not annoy you with my mixed Bluetooth experience, starting with ᚷ ᛒ 1.0, which never worked for me. I rather like to inform you about a silver treasure that, according to archeologists, could have belonged to King Harald. More than 600 silver coins, necklaces, pearls, brooches, bracelets, and rings were recently dug out on the island of Rügen. The oldest coin, a Damascus dirham, dates to 714; the newest is a penny from 983.

It was a 13-year-old student who started it all in January, finding a piece of metal that looked to him like a piece of aluminum. He showed his find to an accompanying hobby archeologist who cleaned the piece and was thunderstruck.

Digging on 400 square meters on the island of Rügen (©NDR)

Three months later, it was clear that the piece of silver was part of a treasure that could have come from King Harald. Harald Blåtand, who, in his thrive to unite the Danes, asked for help from the Church, had his subjects baptized, places of worship built, and coins imprinted with Christian symbols. However, his son, Sweyn Forkbeard (965-1014), remained stuck in the Norse mythology of the Vikings. Soon the father-son conflict about faith and succession developed into a war. After Bluetooth had lost a battle in 986 against his son in the Baltic, he fled to Pomerania, where he died a year later. He possibly buried the treasure on his run.

A small part of the Rügen treasure (©NDR)

Hobby archeologist Schön said, "That was the find of my life."

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