Snorra Edda and Skjo ̨ ldunga saga’s epitome. Amlethus,
the prototype of Hamlet, whose career appears in Books
3 and 4, was imported from an undiscovered source,
and served as a type of cunning hero dogged by the
unkindness of fate and human corruption, a pattern for
both kings and tyrannicides. The rest of Book IV tells
of the patriotic duelist Uffo, already celebrated by Sven
Aggesen as vindicator of the Danish frontier, and known
in Anglo-Saxon sources (e.g., Widsith, Beowulf, and the
Mercian genealogy). The heathen gods, introduced in
Book 1 as malign but fallible illusionists, enslave men’s
minds and lust for their daughters (Baldr and Nanna,
Óðinn and Rinda, Book 3).
King Frotho III, an imaginary Danish Caesar contem-
porary with Christ, takes up Book 5. Helped by his witty
companion Erik the Eloquent, he builds an empire over
the northern world and civilizes it by enforcing two law
codes. His story is enlivened by romance, adventure, and
horror, but illustrates the power of words over weapons.
In Book 6, this power is taken to excess, when the Danes
elect the rustic poet Hiarno to rule them. This same
power becomes benefi cial and invigorating in the case
of the degenerate Ingellus (see Ingjaldr of Skjo ̨ ldunga
saga) and his dauntless and poetic champion Starcath-
erus, whose satire shamed the king into doing his duty
and destroying his enemies. Stories of love, magic,
and murder occupy the reign of Halfdanus in Book 7,
which ends with the revival of the Danish empire under
Haraldus Hyldetan, who is taught the secret of military
success by Óðinn. The great fi ght of Bråvalla, in which
Óðinn betrays Haraldus to his enemies, begins Book 8;
and later on, Starkatherus contrives his own death after
a poetic outburst on the duty of vengeance. Jarmericus
(Ermanaric the Goth) then appears, as the victim of
another treacherous counselor, and in the reign of Snio,
famine drives the Lombards to emigrate from Denmark.
In two voyages to the underworld, Danish adventurers
witness the malign and morbid condition of the old gods
and giants. The mighty King Gøtricus is prevented from
overthrowing Charlemagne by assassination and Saxo’s
“Old Testament” ends with Viking heroism betrayed by
the heathen gods, powerless against fate.
In Book 9, the supreme Viking Regnerus (Ragnarr
loðbrók [“hairy-breeches”]) achieves empire over the
whole North, including the British Isles, only to die in
Ella’s snake pit as a punishment for persecuting the new
faith accepted by his less successful rival Haraldus. His
avenging sons fail to preserve his empire, and efforts to
hold England by a succession of alternately Christian
and pagan kings culminate with Gormo’s marrying
the English heiress Thyra. The English throne falls to
their sons by inheritance, but Gormo dies of grief at
the death of the elder. More tribulations affl ict his suc-
cessors Haraldus and Sveno in Book 10 (echoes here
of Adam of Bremen and the Roskilde Chronicle), until
both king and people accept the true faith, and Sveno’s
son Kanutus wins a Christian empire over the whole
northern world, including England. He leaves a vigor-
ous Church and a military law code to posterity, and
after his son’s death the Danes show their probity by
accepting the Norwegian Magnús as king in observance
of a sworn pact.
In these two books, written sources are distorted
and augmented by Nordic legend: tales of Ragnarr,
Ívarr, Gorm, the Jómsvikingar, and Palnatoki. From 11
onward, more Latin sources were available, and in 11 to
13 the reigns of Sven II and his fi ve sons (1047–1134)
are presented with an eye to earlier accounts, modifi ed
or rejected at will. Each ruler serves as an example of
good or bad kingship according to his effectiveness
against the Slavs and the unruly nobility and people of
Denmark. Kings purge their own guilt by spectacular
penances, and the people incur death and destruction
for the slaying of King Knud (Cnut) the Saint (1086)
and Knud (Cnut) Lavard (1131). Book 14 (four times
as long as any other) covers the period of civil wars,
conspiracy, and dissension among king, bishops, and
nobles from 1134 to 1178, when Valdemar I and Absalon
succeeded in conquering the Rugian Slavs and restor-
ing unity to the kingdom. Book 15 covers Absalon’s
fi rst years as archbishop of Lund (1178–1182) and the
rebellion of the Scanians against his authority. Book
16 relates how his political mission was fulfi lled in
the early years against Knud (Cnut) VI (1182–1187)
by the declaration of Danish independence against the
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and by the subjugation
of the Pomeranian Slavs.
In the last three books, a copious narrative is enliv-
ened by reported speech and digressions on Norwegian,
German, and Slavic affairs. The main source may have
been Absalon’s own words, but Saxo and the compiler of
Knýtlinga saga (ca. 1260) perhaps used an earlier writ-
ten source now lost. Books 9–16 are usually supposed
to have been written fi rst, before 1201; and the earlier
books in the time of Valdemar II. Much of the text must
relate to contemporary issues and personalities, but it is
diffi cult to fi nd Saxo advocating any offi cial policy. His
patrons were the most powerful men in the kingdom,
but he was an idiosyncratic critic of the times, hoping
to inspire his fellow countrymen to political unity and
civic virtue by the example of former days, as well as
to impress learned foreigners. Simplifi ed and excerpted
versions of his work were current in Denmark in the
later Middle Ages, but it was only after 1514 and the
appearance of Anders Sørensen Vedel’s Danish transla-
tion in 1575 that his view of the Nordic past was widely
received both at home and abroad.See also Cnut; Sunesen, Anders; Sven Haraldsson
(Forkbeard)SAXO GRAMMATICUS