Where Does the Bluetooth Symbol Come From?

Where does the "Bluetooth" symbol come from?
Bluetooth wireless is named for Herald Bluetooth, the tenth-century king of Denmark and parts of Norway. Herald Bluetooth was a famous unifier, bringing the Danes under a single king. He inspired Jim Kardach, who happened to be reading Frans Gunnar Bengtsson’s novel, The Long Ships, about the Vikings and King Herald Bluetooth when he invented a system uniting mobile communications. The logo is a modern form of a Viking “bind rune" combining the Hagall and Bjarkan runes from the Younger Futhark.

A Futhark is, of course a Runic script named after spelling the first few runes in that script F-U-Þ (English Th sound)-A-R-K, just like Alphabet is derived from the first two letter in Ancient Greek in that script, Alpha and Beta. The Younger Futhark was the more common form of runic writing during the Viking Period across Scandinavia. Bind runes were a common way of drawing on and combining the magical properties of two different runes.

Herald/Harald Bluetooth (Old Norse: Haraldr 'blátǫnn' Gormsson ) was born c. 935. He reigned in Denmark c. 958 – c. 986 and in Norway c. 970 – c. 975/986. He died in c. 986 or 987. Some see him as a liberator and unifier, building kingdoms that would become nations, others see him as a ruthless tyrant who converted to Christianity and began ruthlessly imposing the new faith on his peoples, securing wealth and alliances at home and from Christian Europe.

Types of Viking Axes and Swords

Here are Petersen's well known  typologies (and chronologies) of Viking Age axe and sword types.


Axes:

And Swords:

Thor's Hammer with Runes on it.

Of the over 1000 finds of Mjölnir/Mjølnir 'Thor's Hammer' amulets, only 1, the most recently found one in fact, from Lolland in Denmark has been found with runes on it! This historic find is also the first actual proof of the long held and educated but nonetheless assumed idea that these symbols represent Thor's Hammer from Norse mythology.

The runic inscription reads "Hmar x is" translated into English as "This is a hammer." The x is used as a word divider here, however I would suggest that in addition to this function in relation to the phonetic use of runes, the x could also represent the rune gebo "gift" symbolising that "This hammer is a gift." Just a possibility. Old Norse literature is full of riddles, kennings and multiple layers of meaning. Even the word rune derives from an Indo-European root for hidden or mystery. Given the cultic and ritual nature of these amulets for divine protection and the multifaceted and magical associations of the runes, it is possible that the x which is exactly the shape of the gift rune was chosen deliberately, especially when runestones usually use a vertical stroke or : to indicate word or line dividers (although this varied).


The amulet is bronze with silver and gold coating on different parts of it.  It was found my a metal detectorist as well as some scraps of metal and pins indicating that this may be from a domestic or household context.

See some pictures of this beautiful find here:
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/06/2014/the-hammer-of-thor