Monday, January 1, 2024

It is the 1st of January 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A very happy new year to you. The year is only one day old, but I want to know if we will get a better story than the one we have today, which comes to us from a question sent in by Ken from Pueblo, Colorado.

Pueblo, Colorado is a fascinating town- I’ve never been- but I read that it has more recipients of the Medal per capita than any other city in the United States and was the home of the legendary Bat Masterson- an Irishman in the Old West known as a buffalo hunter, gambler and sportswriter. Also, Dutch Clark- “the flying Dutchman” who was voted into the inaugural class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Ok- Ken writes, “I recently heard a story about King Harald of Denmark which seemed too weird to be true. In reading that story, I saw that he was an important figure in Christian history as well- I thought he might make a good character for the mailbag.”

Ken, my friend, you are lobbing me a softball here and a wonderful story to start the new year.

So- Denmark was a tricky place in the early Middle Ages. It is in a curious position of being connected by land to Germany on the Jutland peninsula and considered Scandinavian with its territory in the North Sea bordering Sweden. So, it has been a fertile fighting ground between Vikings and Germanic tribes. And, with the Christianization of Europe, it would become a target for missionaries.

King Harald, living in the 900s, is famous for uniting the various Danish regions into a unified country, and being baptized himself compelled everyone to be baptized and accept the Christian faith. There had been missionaries prior to the 10th century but with no wholesale conversion- largely because to do so would subjugate the Danish king to his powerful southern neighbors.

So- like much in the so-called “Dark Ages,” we have various unconfirmed stories, but I like this one about King Harald- he is sitting around with his council trying to decide which God to follow. They had Thor and Odin and the regular cast, but recently, there had been talk of the Hvíta Kristr- the “white Christ” (likely “white” on account of purity, not ethnically). So, the new king, Harald, asks a foreign Christian priest, Poppo, to explain this Hvíta Kristr. After doing so, Poppo is said to have grabbed an iron out of the fire, held it in his hand, and after doing so, showed his hand, unscathed, to the king. This was enough for Harald, who declared the Hvíta Kristr the true God, who was baptized and compelled the rest of the country likewise to accept Christ and be baptized. Sure, to us moderns, this always sounds a little strange and perhaps insincere on the part of the populace, but the fruit would be centuries of faithful Christians- including two of my personal favorites: N.F.S. Gruntdvig and Soren Kierkegaard.

But we have told this story without using Harald’s nickname. Either he had a dead tooth, or he was fond of blueberries such that he was called “Bluetooth.” One of the inventors of the personal area network that connects devices had heard of King Harald Bluetooth from a friend and used the term as a placeholder for the technology. Bluetooth had unified Denmark just as this would bring together various devices. Intel used Bluetooth as a placeholder, but a full trademark search could not be completed by the time the product launched, and so Bluetooth stuck. If you look at the symbol for your Bluetooth device, you will notice it looks like a “B” with wings. That is the combination of the two runes for Harald’s initials- an H and a B for Harald Bluetooth, the man who united Denmark and was central in its Christianization.

Thanks for the question, Ken- that’s a hard story to beat, and we are only one day into the new year. You can send me your questions about Christianity, Medieval Vikings, and modern technology- or, you know, anything else to danv@1517.org.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary. For some, today is the festival of the “Holy Name of Jesus,” and the reading is from Luke 2:

2:15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us."

2:16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.

2:17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child;

2:18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

2:19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

2:20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

2:21 After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 1st of January 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. 

The show is produced by a man with questions about the Scandinavia Christian origins of wi-fi and airdrop. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man now craving a blueberry Danish; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.