Christianization of Scandinavia of making the Danes Christian. King Gorm the Old (Danish: "den Gamle"), who was known in his lifetime as Gorm the Sleepy, was the first king of all of Denmark. Until his day, Danish kings were presumably local kings without influence over all the Danes. Denmark consisted of Jutland and Schleswig and Holstein all the way down to the Eider River, the main islands of Zealand, Funen, Langeland, the nearby lesser islands, and Skåneland. Gorm was said to be "hard and heathen", but Queen Thyra's influence permitted Christians to live more or less without trouble. Gorm and Queen Thyra's son,
Förden and East Jutland Fjorde valleys). Alternatively they have been interpreted as 'beheaded' river channels preserved beside a tideless sea. The present day firths of this region includes: Förden and East Jutland Fjorde The eastern coast of the Jutland Peninsula, consisting of Danish Jutland and German Schleswig-Holstein features a type of narrow bay called Förde (plural: "Förden") in German and fjord (plural "fjorde") in Danish. These bays are of glacial origin, but the glacial mechanics were different from those of Norwegian Fjords and also from those of Swedish and Finnish Fjards. The words "Förde", "fjord" and "fjard" are of the same origin as the English