Ananova:

The Danish royal family has attended a ceremony marking the reburial of Viking ancestor Gorm the Old, who is considered the first king of Denmark.

Gorm the Old died in 959 and is the oldest ruler the Danish Royal House can be traced back to. His son, Harald Blue Tooth, allegedly buried him in Jelling, a small town 140 miles west of Copenhagen.

Queen Margrethe visited the Lutheran church in Jelling where a metal chest with the bones believed to belong to the Viking king have been buried in the church floor.

The slab with the inscription "King Gorm Laid to rest 959 and later entombed here" is a few yards from where the remains believed to be Gorm's were found in 1979. The privately financed reburial cost more than £1 million.

Bishop Niels Henrik Arendt from the local Haderslev diocese led the 45-minute ceremony, which was also attended by Prince Henrik, Margrethe's husband, and their sons, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim.

Margrethe, who does not share lineage with Gorm, also viewed the so-called Jelling stones that stand outside the church and are on the UN list of world heritage sites.

The two stones, which carry inscriptions in runic letters - the Viking alphabet - and an image of Jesus being crucified, are said to be Scandinavia's oldest. The tallest of the rocks - about 6.6ft - was raised by Harald Blue Tooth in memory of his parents.