Gorm The Old - Legacy

Legacy

Gorm was "old" in the sense that he has always been considered the traditional ancestral "head" of the Danish monarchy. The custom at the time was to give nicknames to individuals since surnames were not formalized until the mid-19th century in Denmark. Nicknames fell into several categories: names based on an event, names based on a physical characteristic, names based on a pun, and names listing a characteristic that was the opposite of the character of the person given that name, in essence, a joke nickname. For example, Gorm the Sleepy was not at all sleepy; he was watchful. Gorm the Old did not live an especially long life, but his rule of 40 years, from c. 900 to c. 940, is the longest of any Danish Viking monarch. Saxo Grammaticus in the Gesta Danorum asserts that Gorm was older than other monarchs and having lived so long was blind by the time his son Canute was killed. Records of earlier kings either were not available or discounted by royal historians. Gorm's name appears on the Jelling Stones and that was the definitive proof historians of the past needed.