There are disputes as to who was the first king of Denmark. According to tradition and legends, it was Gorm the Old or his father Harthacnut (Canute I). Little is known about both of these rulers, as almost no written sources from the period of their lives have survived. If we were to count the history of the Danish monarchy from Canute, it would last from the second half of the 9th century. Gorm the Old ruled from the first half of the 10th century. A safe and certain date is the year 958, when Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson, son of Gorm the Old, took the Danish throne.
