Saxo was writing at Lund in 1200 under Absalon, who died in March 1201, and his last books are an insider's history of Valdemar I and Knud VI to 1185: the Wendish wars, the taking of Rügen, the submission of Pomerania in 1185, the Danish fleet, Absalon's power and the Danish quarrel with the Empire. It stops fifteen years before 1200 but it is the mind of the Danish court on the eve of the Holstein war, and it is openly a work of praise for Absalon and the Valdemars.
About this source
- Title
- Gesta Danorum
- Author
- Saxo Grammaticus
- Author's dates
- about 1150 to about 1220; clerk of Archbishop Absalon of Lund
- Written
- about 1185 to 1208
- Language
- Latin
- Covers
- legendary origins to 1185
- Kind
- History
The historical books 10 to 16, the ones that matter for 1200, have no free English translation. The Latin text on Wikisource and the Royal Library's online Saxo could not be verified in this task.
Where to read it
Editions
- A. Holder (ed.), Saxonis Grammatici Gesta Danorum (Strasbourg 1886)
- K. Friis-Jensen (ed.) and P. Zeeberg (trans.), Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum: Danmarkshistorien, 2 vols (Copenhagen 2005), Latin with Danish; not free (not freely online)
- Excerpts in MGH Scriptores 29 (Hanover 1892), Ex rerum Danicarum scriptoribus saec. XII et XIII
Translations
- O. Elton (trans.), The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus (London 1894), English; books 1 to 9 only, the legendary part
- E. Christiansen (trans.), Saxo Grammaticus, Danorum regum heroumque historia, books 10 to 16, 3 vols (Oxford 1980 to 1981), English; under copyright (not freely online)
- K. Friis-Jensen (ed.) and P. Fisher (trans.), Gesta Danorum, 2 vols (Oxford 2015), English; under copyright (not freely online)