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Amateur archaeologist unearths hundreds of silver artifacts from the reign of Viking ruler Harald Bluetooth, including 1,000-year-old coins, rings, and a Thor's hammerClick Here

WOW what an amazing find and nice to know where the name 'Bluetooth' came from

Thanks for posting...

dig-it-pete wrote:nice to know where the name 'Bluetooth' came from

Found this for you Pete...

"The first documented appearance of Harald's nickname "Bluetooth" (as blatan; Old Norse*blátǫnn) is in the Chronicon Roskildense (written ca. 1140), alongside the alternative nickname Clac Harald. Clac Harald appears to be a confusion of Harald Bluetooth with the legendary or semi-legendary Harald Klak, son of Halfdan. The byname is given as Blachtent and explicitly glossed as "bluish or black tooth" (dens lividus vel niger) in a chronicle of the late 12th century, Wilhelmi abbatis regum Danorum genealogia.The traditional explanation is that Harald must have had a conspicuous bad tooth that appeared "blue" (i.e. "black", as blár "blue" meant "blue-black", or "dark-coloured"). Another explanation, proposed by Scocozza (1997) is that he was called "blue thane" (or "dark thane") in England (with Anglo-Saxon thegn corrupted to tan when the name came back into Old Norse)."

lee greagsbey wrote:Thanks for posting...

dig-it-pete wrote:nice to know where the name 'Bluetooth' came from

Found this for you Pete...

"The first documented appearance of Harald's nickname "Bluetooth" (as blatan; Old Norse*blátǫnn) is in the Chronicon Roskildense (written ca. 1140), alongside the alternative nickname Clac Harald. Clac Harald appears to be a confusion of Harald Bluetooth with the legendary or semi-legendary Harald Klak, son of Halfdan. The byname is given as Blachtent and explicitly glossed as "bluish or black tooth" (dens lividus vel niger) in a chronicle of the late 12th century, Wilhelmi abbatis regum Danorum genealogia.The traditional explanation is that Harald must have had a conspicuous bad tooth that appeared "blue" (i.e. "black", as blár "blue" meant "blue-black", or "dark-coloured"). Another explanation, proposed by Scocozza (1997) is that he was called "blue thane" (or "dark thane") in England (with Anglo-Saxon thegn corrupted to tan when the name came back into Old Norse)."

Thanks Lee - there was also a bit about the hoard find on the BBC world news early this morning, which also explained about his blue teeth!

Thanks for posting, must be a fabulous feeling to unearth and save these wonderful historical objects. ....(one day maybe)

Here is a link to the BBC article on the topic..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-43786129