Jelling stone (the large stone)
Raised by Harald Bluetooth for his parents, recording his rule over Denmark and Norway and his conversion of the Danes. Often called Denmark’s birth certificate.
At a glance
- Alphabet
- Younger Futhark
- Date
- c. AD 965
- Found at
- Jelling, Denmark
- Now
- In situ at Jelling, under a protective glass case
- Signature
- DR 42
The text
Transliteration in the conventional runological form. Translations on this site are our own and deliberately literal.
haraltr : kunukʀ : baþ : kaurua kubl : þausi : aft : kurm faþur sin auk aft : þąurui : muþur : sina : sa haraltr (:) ias : sąʀ · uan · tanmaurk ala · auk · nuruiak · auk · t(a)ni (· karþi ·) kristną
King Harald ordered this monument made for Gorm his father and Thyra his mother; that Harald who won all Denmark for himself, and Norway, and made the Danes Christian.
Discovery
It has never been lost. The stone stands where it was raised, between the two great mounds at Jelling, beside the smaller stone Gorm the Old raised for Thyra. Both are now enclosed in glass against weathering, and the monument complex is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Why it matters
It is a political document rather than an ordinary memorial: a king announcing territorial conquest and a religious change in the same breath. It also carries a large carved figure of Christ, which makes it a monument on which runic writing and Christian iconography appear together and undercuts the idea that runes were a pagan script suppressed by the Church.
Common misconceptions
Claims about this object that circulate widely and do not hold up.
"Denmark's birth certificate" is a nickname about this stone's content (a king naming his realm and his religion), and it is often taken to mean the name Denmark first appears here. It does not. The smaller Jelling stone (DR 41), which Gorm raised a decade or so earlier, already carries it, and the name is older still outside the country: the Old English Orosius has Denemearce roughly sixty years before Gorm.
Runes attested here (3)
Every dictionary entry that cites this object, with the reason it gives.
- FéYounger
Raised by Harald Bluetooth, recording his conquest of Denmark and Norway and the conversion of the Danes. Often called Denmark’s birth certificate.
- KaunYounger
Harald Bluetooth’s monument, whose text uses the reduced alphabet throughout.
- SólYounger
Long-branch forms throughout, characteristic of Danish monumental carving.
Sources
Full references on the sources page.