Cool random things I learn.

[xiphias]

So, sometimes, I just get randomly curious about things. And sometimes, when I find out the answer, it's totally freakin' cool.

I got curious about why Bluetooth is called Bluetooth. I mean, it's kinda a weird name for a communications protocol, isn't it? Blue tooth. Who has blue teeth?

So Lis and I looked it up. Well, Lis looked it up, because I was driving, and she had her phone out. Living in the future is really neat.

Turns out that "Bluetooth" is a literal translation of the Scandinavian "Blåtann". Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, or "Haraldr blátǫnn Gormsson" in Old Norse, and "Harald Blåtand Gormsen" in Danish, was the king of Denmark from 958 to 985. The developers of the Bluetooth protocol were such fans of King Harald I that they decided to name their protocol after him.

And that Bluetooth symbol? This thing:


It's the long-branch Younger Futhark version of the rune "haglaz" -- ᚼ if your browser can display that, or here's an image of it:

laid over the rune "berkanan" -- ᛒ,

Because "Haglaz" for "Harald" and "Berkanan" for "Blåtand". My phone talks to various other devices using something named after a 10th century Danish king.

See, now that's the sort of thing where the answer is just way, way cooler than I ever expected it to be.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

And the reason the protocol is named after him is because he could talk to anybody. Or at least so the story says.

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I never knew that.

Did you know the cloverleaf on the key beside your spacebar (assuming you're not an uncircumcised Philistine, of course) is the Swedish map symbol for "interesting campground feature"? Apple's bitmap artist, Susan Kare, used it for the :"Command" key because Steve Jobs thought that the apple symbol was overused.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Wow. I assumed it was named for Harald Bluetooth, but I didn't know about the specific runes: I just took it for a runy-looking design. Þanx!

[papersky.livejournal.com]

That's absolutely wonderful.

Thank you so much for letting me know.

[tendyl.livejournal.com]

You're right - that is just a randomly cool thing to know and wicked fun.

and why

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

and why was King Harald called "Bluetooth"? Because he was totally addicted to blue-berries, to the point of literally having blue teeth. Didn't know that about the runes though. Nice touch.