Christmas Relatives and Bluetooth

 

Christmas Book Scenes!  During December I like to post entries which are more Christmas in Books than Clothes in Books, and kind readers say it puts them in a seasonal mood.

The last post looked at the difficulties of a Victorian family Christmas. Today's setting couldn't be more different, but still there's a thread of difficult relations....

 

The Long Ships: A Saga of the Viking Age  by Frans G Bentsson

published 1941 and 1945

translated from the Swedish by Michael Myers

Sven Forkbeard

[excerpt] The principal guest was King Harald’s son, King Sven Forkbeard, who had arrived from Hedeby with a large following. Like all King Harald’s sons, he was the child of one of his father’s concubines; and there was little love lost between him and his father, so that in general they avoided each other as much as possible. Every Yule, though, King Sven made the journey to Jellinge, and everybody knew why. For it often happened at Yule, when the food was richer and the drink stronger than at any other time in the year, that old men suddenly died, either in bed or on the drinking-bench. This had been the case with old King Gorm, who had lain unconscious for two days after a surfeit of Yuletide pork, and had then died! and King Sven wanted to be near the royal coffers when his father passed over. For many Yules now he had made the journey in vain, and each year his impatience increased.

Harald

comments: This seemed like a splendid Christmas description, and maybe a bit crass but I thought it would make anyone laugh if they were contemplating their own family Christmas. This is King Harald Bluetooth and his son being grumpy.

The book is a classic of Swedish literature, and great fun: a historical novel set at the end of the 10th century, following the very adventurous life of a fictitious Viking called Orm. It features many real-life characters and events, and seems to be very well-researched. It is very funny at times, with some great dialogue. Descriptions of fighting, battles and hacking at people with weapons don’t particularly do it for me, so I tended to skim those parts, then land on the more interesting (to me) bits involving relationships, and also the move to Christianity. There is great excitement when the year 1000 is approaching, as people think it will be the end of the world.

Baptism of King Harald

The book has excellent footnotes – above they explain that Sven Forkbeard is the father of King Canute.

Another one explains a game played by the battle veterans round the fire:

A sort of invitation to break one’s neck, played by strong, drunken men after a feast. One (the weaker) sits on the ground, while the other (the stronger) kneels on his hands and knees. The latter is the man who risks his neck. The weaker man sits with his knees drawn up and wide apart, puts his arms outside his thighs and locks his hands under his knees. The strong man then puts his head forward between the other man’s knees and into his locked hands, and tries to rise to a standing position, while the victim does his worst by pressing his knees and his locked hands round the strong man’s neck. It was (says the author, in a letter to the translator), ‘a frightful game, only played by drunk men.’

Photograph of a ‘viking’ is from the Swedish National Heritage Board.

And now – Bluetooth? Yes, exactly. The technology is named after this historical figure, and this book played a role in that. You can read the story here; but briefly – different companies and people were working on short-range radio links, and decided there should be an industry standard, they should unite. And someone at Ericsson had been reading this book (other books are mentioned also) and said Harald Bluetooth had unified all the tribes to make a kingdom of Denmark.

“Bluetooth” was originally meant to be just a code name for the technology. It ultimately ended up sticking though and became the official name of the standard.

Who knows, those relatives who are so annoying now may one day be tied to a technology they couldn’t have imagined…

Happy Christmas! Be nice to your family…