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01-06-2009, 12:04 PM
The Danish History Books I-IX
The Danish History, Books I-IX
Introduction
Part I
SAXO'S POSITION.
Saxo Grammaticus, or "The Lettered", one of the notable historians of the Middle
Ages, may fairly be called not only the earliest chronicler of Denmark, but her
earliest writer. In the latter half of the twelfth century, when Iceland was in the
flush of literary production, Denmark lingered behind. No literature in her
vernacular, save a few Runic inscriptions, has survived. Monkish annals, devotional
works, and lives were written in Latin; but the chronicle of Roskild, the necrology
of Lund, the register of gifts to the cloister of Sora, are not literature. Neither
are the half-mythological genealogies of kings; and besides, the mass of these,
though doubtless based on older verses that are lost, are not proved to be, as they
stand, prior to Saxo. One man only, Saxo's elder contemporary, Sueno Aggonis, or
Sweyn (Svend) Aageson, who wrote about 1185, shares or anticipates the credit of
attempting a connected record. His brief draft of annals is written in rough
mediocre Latin. It names but a few of the kings recorded by Saxo, and tells little
that Saxo does not. Yet there is a certain link between the two writers. Sweyn
speaks of Saxo with respect; he not obscurely leaves him the task of filling up his
omissions. Both writers, servants of the brilliant Bishop Absalon, and probably set
by him upon their task, proceed, like Geoffrey of Monmouth, by gathering and editing
mythical matter. This they more or less embroider, and arrive in due course
insensibly at actual history. Both, again, thread their stories upon a genealogy of
kings in part legendary. Both write at the spur of patriotism, both to let Denmark
linger in the race for light and learning, and desirous to save her glories, as
other nations have saved theirs, by a record.
The Danish History, Books I-IX
Introduction
Part I
SAXO'S POSITION.
Saxo Grammaticus, or "The Lettered", one of the notable historians of the Middle
Ages, may fairly be called not only the earliest chronicler of Denmark, but her
earliest writer. In the latter half of the twelfth century, when Iceland was in the
flush of literary production, Denmark lingered behind. No literature in her
vernacular, save a few Runic inscriptions, has survived. Monkish annals, devotional
works, and lives were written in Latin; but the chronicle of Roskild, the necrology
of Lund, the register of gifts to the cloister of Sora, are not literature. Neither
are the half-mythological genealogies of kings; and besides, the mass of these,
though doubtless based on older verses that are lost, are not proved to be, as they
stand, prior to Saxo. One man only, Saxo's elder contemporary, Sueno Aggonis, or
Sweyn (Svend) Aageson, who wrote about 1185, shares or anticipates the credit of
attempting a connected record. His brief draft of annals is written in rough
mediocre Latin. It names but a few of the kings recorded by Saxo, and tells little
that Saxo does not. Yet there is a certain link between the two writers. Sweyn
speaks of Saxo with respect; he not obscurely leaves him the task of filling up his
omissions. Both writers, servants of the brilliant Bishop Absalon, and probably set
by him upon their task, proceed, like Geoffrey of Monmouth, by gathering and editing
mythical matter. This they more or less embroider, and arrive in due course
insensibly at actual history. Both, again, thread their stories upon a genealogy of
kings in part legendary. Both write at the spur of patriotism, both to let Denmark
linger in the race for light and learning, and desirous to save her glories, as
other nations have saved theirs, by a record.