Jelling Stones, Part II

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‘Gormr kunungr gærði kumbl þausi aft Þórví, konu sína, Danmarkar bót.’
‘King Gorm made these monuments after Thórví, his wife, Denmark’s salvation.’

The elder Jelling Stone (DR 41) was raised by King Gorm, the father of King Harald Blue-tooth. Here he lovingly calls his late wife ‘Danmarkar bót.’ ‘Bót’ means ‘betterment, cure, remedy,’ here understandable as ‘salvation.’ It is clear that this was not just his opinion, for her popularity was so great that even Saxo Grammaticus, writing some three hundred years later, spoke her praises.

Photos: Jelling kl Stein 2 and Jelling kl Stein 1 by Wikimedia User:Casiopeia, CC BY-SA 2.0 DE / Link, Link