page_title: Gorm the Old
section_title: Marriage to Thyra
hierarchical_section_title: Gorm the Old / Marriage to Thyra
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Runenstein Gorm für Thyre (Rückseite) an der Kirche in Jelling
context_page_description: Gorm the Old, also called Gorm the Languid, was ruler of Denmark, reigning from c. 936 to his death c. 958. He ruled from Jelling, and made the oldest of the Jelling Stones in honour of his wife Thyra. Gorm was born before 900 and died c. 958.
context_section_description: Gorm married Thyra, who is given conflicting and chronologically dubious parentage by late sources, but no contemporary indication of her parentage survives. Gorm raised one of the great burial mounds at Jelling as well as the oldest of the Jelling Stones for her, calling her tanmarkar but ("Denmark's Salvation" or "Denmark's Adornment"). Gorm was the father of three sons, Toke, Knut and Harald, later King Harald Bluetooth.
  His wife, Thyra, is credited with the completion of the Danevirke, a wall between Denmark's southern border and its unfriendly Saxon neighbors to the south. The wall was not new, but it was expanded with a ditch and earthen foundation topped by a timber stockade above it. The Danevirke ran between the Schlei and the Treene river, across what is now Schleswig.
caption: Runic stone for Thyra, back side
exif: {}