 For hundreds of years Denmark as we know it today consisted of several tribes small kingdoms and chieftains It was not until the very first Christian King Harold Bluetooth united the country that we could talk about the kingdom of Denmark as we have it today Who was this man? Well, that's a very good question First off I can say that you probably have heard of his name even though you don't know who he is on your phones I have one in my pocket right here One of these they have something called Bluetooth technology and it's actually named after the one of the first Kings here in Denmark Harold Bluetooth and he's the guy who made this stone right here This is the biggest room stone in the world and he's part of this dynasty that we call the yelling dynasty It starts off with the first official King of Denmark His name is Gorm the old and he made a smaller room stone there Which is right on the other side of this bigger one. You can't see it now. It's very very cool It's mentions a King in Denmark for the very first time and it also mentions the name of the country for the first time That's Gorm the old the first official King of Denmark And then after that his son comes along and he then becomes new King changes everything And that's actually what he writes about on this stone right here So before Harold Bluetooth Denmark was a small unimportant country in the outskirts of Europe It was heathen was filled with barbarians But then Harold Bluetooth came along and he sort of changed all that Made a civilized you could say by Christianizing the Danish country That would make it more civilized in the eyes of Europe at least and that's what he says on this room stone So it's got three sides sort of symbolize this new religion that the Holy Trinity is is very much in the symbolism of this Room stone, which is quite unique everything for the old Vikings was in nines That was a holy number for the old Vikings, but now everything is in threes because now we have to become Christian So this stone has three sides So he is actually mixing up old symbolism from the old Viking Nordic traditions and he's mixing it up with the European civilized Symbolism you could say and that's what he shows on this stone for instance You can see that it's still written with old-fashioned rooms But now instead of writing from the bottom and upwards or around in circles as you would see otherwise on this stone It's all in horizontal lines exactly like the Bible So what we have here is actually the birth of the civilized nation of Denmark That's what he's writing about right here This is called the baptification or the birthstone the birth certificate of Denmark because this is where we officially become Christian as a country Climbing the great heathen burial mounds at Yelling illustrates how strong at the King Harold Blusoff was So why did the strong heathen king as him decide to convert himself and the country to Christianity? Well, the reason for the conversion looks like we would have to find those reasons The pragmatic relationships with the rest of the international community down in Europe There is a growing pressure from Europe, especially from the German Roman Empire Actually, Christian eyes us There is a emperor called the Otto the great He is now he's also called Otto the savior because he's known for Saving the outskirts of Europe from themselves by forcefully Christianizing for instance Hungary 955 And he also wants to come and save the Danes, which means an invasion So by Christianizing the Danish people as he says on his stone He actually avoids an invasion by the German Roman Empire and Otto the great or the Otto the savior at least it can't be endorsed by the Pope anymore Secondly, we can see that trade with the rest of Europe becomes much easier Christians will not they don't want to trade with heathens and we are heathens up here by Christianizing the country officially trade gets much easier and third Harold can now introduce the church as an organizing factor Into the country and he is centralizing power. He is widening the borders of the Danish country Considerably at this point. So he needs someone to make sure that everybody pays what they what they owe to the king and The Nordic Viking culture is an oral culture. There is no no written records other than runestones But the church has the written word which means that by introducing the church He gets much better organized now the church can help him not only organize the country But also make sure to know who owes what to the king So better organization avoidance of war or invasion and better trade That's what we see he gets out of it when he Christianizes the country in 965 After more than a thousand years the Danish monarch still claims to be the heir of Harold Bluetooth But is it really true that she is a direct descendant of these old Viking kings Harold and Gorm? Yes, and no not a direct descendant the dynasty sort of change but Overall, we would say there is a lineage a lineage from Gorm the old who is the first official king of Denmark And all the way up to the current Queen you have today So it's more or less the same family that's been the kings of Queens of Denmark for a thousand years Which makes it one of the if not the oldest royal house in all of the world that still exists But it's not a direct lineage once in a while. They have to like borrow a grand or Third cousin removed something from Germany to make it all go in the direction they want So it's not a direct lineage. There are different dynasties that are kings and queens But more or less it's the same family or the same lineage of Families that has been the kings and queens of Denmark from Gorm the old till today Even though the royal family nowadays primarily live in Copenhagen. They also have a residence right here in Orhus Here we are at my series for palace. This palace is the royal family's residence whenever they visit Orhus The palace was given to the king of Denmark The king christened the temple as a gift from the people of Orhus and Eastern Scotland This was the first residence of the royal family in Scotland in many years And the palace grounds are a must-see for anyone who comes to visit Orhus They are open to the public when the Queen is not in residence if she is home However, it is still worth a visit in order to watch the change of the royal guards at 12 p.m When the Queen went to Orhus University for her studies Despite having this lavish residence at her disposal She lived at one of the on-campus student dormitories on the same terms as a regular student She went to study political science, but she ended up switching to archaeology Her son the crown prince also went to Orhus to study political science and the crown prince Frederick Institute for Public Leadership Has been named after him While the role of the royal family has changed throughout 1,000 years of royalty They still act as a connecting threat on the history of the kingdom of Denmark