Old Bluetooth Is Back

I have time to look things up now, and I'm not limited to the World Book Encyclopedia! (By the way, the rumor has it that Yogi Berra was asked whether he planned to get his young son an encyclopedia, and according to legend, Yogi said, "No! Let him walk to school, like I did.")

World Book aside, I have the world of Google to look things up. I have always wondered what the deal is with Bluetooth. I mean, it connects two things that are not connected, so there must be magic or wizardry or sorcery involved, so that I can get annoying telephone calls right on the dashboard while I'm driving to Aldi. And wireless headphones! Hurray! And it's all done by low-power radio waves on a frequency between 2.400 GHz and 2.483.5.

SO! That's how it works! And what's with the name? It's not from some currently-living inventor named Leon Bluetooth, but rather, for an old European king! 

Harald Gormsson was the king of Denmark from about 958 to about 986. No, I didn't skip the "1" in 1958. He was on the throne a long, long time ago. He was "Gormsson" because he was the son of King Gorm The Old and his missus, Thrya Dannebod. It was Harald, a Viking, who converted to Christianity and founded some of the first churches in Denmark.

Because of a tooth that was probably dead, owing to a paucity of mall dental clinics at the time, he was lovingly called "Bluetooth" by his subjects, as modern people here sometimes called their president "Orangehead" due to imprudent use of tanning beds. 

There is a debate raging in Europe now as the whether old Harald was actually buried in Wiejkowo, an area of northwestern Poland, or in Roskilde, in Denmark. The coin seen below is central to the discussion. It came to the attention of historians in 2014, when an 11-year-old girl presented to a museum this small, soiled coin that had been in her family’s possession for decades. It was shown to date from the 10th century.  The Latin words on it say “Harald Gormsson (Curmsun in Latin) king of Danes, Scania, Jomsborg, town Aldinburg.”

The girl's family obtained it in 1945, after World War II, when the region became part of Poland. It had been found and archived in 1841 when a new chapel replaced the old in Wiejkowo.

The debate about where Harald is buried will probably continue. If you go to Europe anytime soon, you can report back to us using your Bluetooth connection. 

And why did they name the system for Harald? Because, just as Bluetooth technology connects your phone to your earbuds, old Harald connected much of Scandinavia during his lifetime. 

The Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, inventors of the technology, named their wireless link system to honor the king. And the logo you see everywhere Bluetooth is came from from the Scandinavian runic letters for the king’s initials, HB.